Customer Reviews

The Killing Ground: The British Army, the Western Front and the Emergence of Modern Warfare ........

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Tim Travers attempts to explain why the British Army in the First World War suffered such horrendous casualties. Travers is unusual in his use of social and intellectual tools to explain a military phenomenon. For anyone who dislikes simple operational military history, this is for you. Travers essentially argues that the intellectual and social environment of the British army before 1914 made the switch from the 19th century model of warfare most of the commanders knew to the 20th century actuality of the western front dificult. Sir Douglas Haig and others simply could not accept that the fighting spirit of their soldiers was no longer the dominant force on the battlefield. The emergence of a technological battlefield, where machine-like weapons made operations difficult, did not fit the paradigm that the Generals learned, and they neither thought out the change, nor had any desire to change. The British Army HQ comes off rather poorly and the Germans come out well, because they adapted sooner to changing conditions. Although his idea is good and his argument solid, at times the book becomes slow and the parade of names confusing. Travers' book is definitely not for the first time student of the Western Front; familarity with the basic narrative is necessary to get the full effect from the book.