Customer Reviews

Liaison 1914

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An easy, short review to write. Simply the best personal account of the opening campaign of the war. The author, who also had a key liaison position in the French-British fiasco in May-June 1940, pulls no punches in this account of the near fiasco of August-September 1914.

I have read that Spears is considered one of only two men (the other being Churchill) to have written essential, classic first person accounts of both World Wars, this book being one of them and the other being his book on the French-British reaction (or lack thereof) to the German blitzkrieg of 1940.

Besides the descriptions of the military actions, this book also presents exceptional profiles of many of the key figures in both the French and British forces. Spears was, as a liaison between the two armies, in a unique position to oberve the men on both sides. He writes, naturally, from the British viepoint and is not always kind to his French allies. He is particularly scathing on General Lanrezac, who he considered to have been an honorable man driven to venality and deceit through panic and loss of nerve.

I have the original British edition of this book. It was published with a set of elaborate fold-out maps. I haven't seen this reprint, so I don't know what maps are provided here. The maps are very useful, since much of the book contains the author's observations of small actions, and the maps are specifically keyed to these descriptions. But with or without the maps, this book is esential reading on the opening campaign of the war and I am glad to see it is available in a recent edition.