Western Front [Hardcover]

Richard Holmes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2000

Richard Holmes, author of the popular books War Walks and War Walks II, turns his attention to the Western Front, the trench line stretching from the Swiss Frontier to the North Sea. Of the nine million British and Dominion soldiers who enlisted during the First World War, the majority served here. Of the 947,000 soldiers who were killed in action, most also died here. Major themes in the book include: Making The Front (the early days of the war and how the front was created), Feeding The Front (the expansion of the British Army and the difficult supply of men and munitions), Holding The Front (the French army and its defining battle, Verdun), Commanding The Front (the Somme), Enduring The Front (how the men coped with living and fighting on the front), Breaking The Front (attempts to break the trench). Richly detailed and authoritative, the book clarifies the complexities of the Western Front and Its context within the most bitter and bloody of wars.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This book invites dismissal as a nonbook, since it is the accompanying volume to a television documentary on WWI for the History Channel, hosted by the author. It focuses only on the Western front, although several of the war's other theatersDRussia, Mesopotamia, PalestineDare discussed in an appendix. The British perspective is emphasized: Holmes (Acts of War, etc.) is a professor of military and security studies at England's Cranfield University and Royal Military College of Sciences, and writes for that country's audience; German and French experience receive correspondingly limited coverage. Yet among many recent outstanding works on the war, such as John Keegan's The Great War and Niall Ferguson's The Pity of War, this book, a U.K. bestseller, comes closest to depicting the conflict's essential nature in a limited compass. Holmes blends a clear familiarity with the subject and its literature with a sense of the English language that reflects years of careful writing. He is sympathetic to the problems of command in a war where the defense eclipsed the offense, and firepower overshadowed both mobility and protection. He pulls no punches in describing the consequences in the early battles of 1914 and 1915, where men were mowed down by machines guns, blown to pieces by high explosives and hung on barbed wire by the tens of thousands. Four years later, despite improvements in tactics and communications, despite the introduction of new weapons like tanks and aircraft and despite the arrival of the Americans, the Western front was never broken by either the Germans or the Allies. The ultimate reason, Holmes shows, was the everyday heroism of the men who held the line on both sides. Holmes reconstructs the daily routines of the trenches and the often raffish life out of the lines. He takes readers into the big offensives, the Somme and Passchendaele, where whole battalions disappeared in minutes, and on the raids and patrols that generated the everyday "wastage" of lives and bodies. World War I was the last war primarily fought by soldiers, but Holmes never forgets that the soldiers were civilians in uniform. They endured because they believed in their country's cause, or they held on from pride and for comradeship, from habit or from lack of alternatives. In the end, Holmes calls on readers to respect their sacrifice. His book helps us understand it.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Distinguished military historian Holmes' brief introduction to the prime slaughterhouse of World War I is a good thing in a small package. Intended for the intelligent lay reader, the book packs into some 250 pages a summary of the major events on the western front; the various controversies about tactics, technology, generalship, etc.; a worthy selection of illustrations; and a bibliography sufficient to carry readers considerably further in their studies. Holmes seems a sworn foe of mythmaking and scapegoating, and he explains the horrendous difficulties faced by all parties without justifying their horrendous context. Since the western front was arguably the fundamental political-military experience for a generation of French, British, and German men, it is hard to underestimate the value of so accessible a study of it to both military and general history collections. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: TV Books; First edition (July 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1575001470
• ISBN-13: 978-1575001470
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,137,005 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you read only one book on World War I, make it this one., August 2, 2000

By 

Jussi Bjorling - See all my reviews

This review is from: Western Front (Hardcover)

Richard Holmes has written a no-nonsense concise guide to both World War I and the controversial historiography that has dogged the conflict ever since. He summarizes the events of the Western Front (only--other theaters are mentioned only as they impact Germany's decisions about force allocation) quickly, perhaps too quickly for my taste. He slows down a little bit when reviewing the major controversies from the war over tactics, strategy, and war guilt, where he examines the different schools of thought with an even hand. Sometimes his hand is too even: on some topics, particularly when discussing the question of why trench warfare degenerated into such bloody, futile slaughter, I wanted Holmes to be bolder in naming names.

But these are petty disagreements with what is a very successful attempt to summarize the events on the Western Front. I hope Holmes will someday give other theaters similar treatment.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WORTHWHILE WWI STUDY, April 23, 2005

By 

Kay's Husband (Virginia, U.S.A.) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Western Front (Hardcover)

I checked this book out from our local library a few years back not expecting much from it. With 'TV Books' I though it would come up short concerning its coverage of WWI.

But to my great surprise this book was an interesting read. The maps and photographs blend with Holmes' narrative to give the reader a very comprehensive offering of WWI. Nothing superficial here! I liked it so much that later when in a larger area bookstore, purchased a copy for myself.

While I have no real, serious critique to offer concerning this book, I do feel the photographs illustrate more the British and Austrailian efforts in the Great War. But rather than be set back by this I am pleased because most WWI books I own or have read concentrate mostly on the 'doughboys.'

Not an expert on this, did minor in history in college. However, it is just beyond me how any reasonable reader could not enjoy this fairly comprehensive book on WWI.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Western Front, April 27, 2004

By 

David Murphy (Boca Raton, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Western Front (Hardcover)

This book deals with the war from the Allied and German side as it was fought on the Western Front. I found it very interesting and full of details on the weapons, tactics and SANFUS that each side comitted. It expalined how the Germans were able to over come the stagnation of trench warfare with new infiltration tactics while the Allies continued with bloody wave attacks that gained no ground. Eventually the British blockade of Germany, the US entery into the war and the tank lead to the defeat of the Central Powers. If you are interested in a fast paced descriptive view of tactics as practiced on the Western Front then read this book.