Product Description

A campaign history of the Kaiser's 1918 Western front offensives - attacks that very nearly won the first world war for imperial Germany

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #393103 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-01
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 283 pages

ew Strachan, Chichele Professor of The History of War at Oxford University, and author of The First World War: Volume 1: To Arms.
‘Here at last is the first full account of the March 1918 offensives.’

Malcolm Brown, BBC History Magazine
‘[The] powerfully driven narrative makes clear why a return match became inevitable'

History Today
‘provides an account of this campaign during which the Germans seemed close to victory and yet were soon to face a humiliating defeat’

Customer Reviews

Well worth reading
This is the best book on the subject I have read. Martin Kitchen's account is accessible and, above all, balanced. It is well-known that the 1918 offensive failed through the dispersion of effort into multiple and divergent thrusts; what this author does is trace the reasons behind that failure, with the biggest factor being the erratic performance of Ludendorff. It is the best explanation I have found of Germany's sudden shift from almost victor to certain loser; vividly tracing the desperation of the High Command as their last reserves dwindled to nothing.

The account is nicely balanced between German and Allied perspectives, as well as demonstrating the relative roles of the British, French and American armies. In particular, the contribution made by the French army gets much more treatment than is usual in English. This book is worth buying for that reason alone.

Some conclusions that could have benefited from Martin Kitchen's thorough analysis are not answered though. Could a less diffused offensive have worked, or was it beyond Germany's logistics to be able to sustain a single "push"? Would the French have been a better target than the British?

More maps closer to the text would have helped enormously, as the careful navigation of Germany's indecision is hard to track when the maps are inadequate and at the back. Also, whilst not a big issue, the author is poorly served by his publishers: this text was not proof-read at all - I have never read a book so full of typos in my life!

The best account yet in english of the German offensives
This book is a very interesting and informative account of the attacks that the german army carried out on the Western front between March and August 1918,in a last-ditch attempt to win the First World War.The offensives came closer to sucess than anyone else had up to that point in the West.The offensives finally petered out through a combination of German manpower shortages,exhaustion,operational mistakes,indecision,and stiffening Allied resistance.This led to a series of Allied attacks that forced the Germans back,fighting a defensive battle all along the way.This book sheds new light on the German offensives in that it seems to show how much Ludendorf was to blame for their final defeat,as well as how revolutionary tactics were responsible for their initial sucess.In many ways this book demonstrates that Lundendorf was as much to blame for Germany's defeat in 1918,as Hitler was responsible for their defeat in 1945,though it is not explicitly stated in the book,and is not a precise analogy.Nevertheless,his indecision over operational objectives and priorities was a major factor in the final defeat of Germany.I would have liked more discussion on the new artillery and infantry tactics developed by the Germans over the years and put to such good use here in spring and summer/early autumn 1918,but this book sticks to a more general account,which is no bad thing.This is overall an excellent book,though I have two things to hold against it,both reasonably minor.One is the poor typesetting leading to a larger than usual amount of misspelled words,though I was'nt too worried about that,the other is the very inadequate number of maps-the few which are given are very poor in quality indeed,and in the hardback edition I have are tucked away right at the back where it is hard to use them.On the whole,this is an informative and readable book,which I thoroughly enjoyed and heartily recommend.