Product Description

The true and amazing story of Birdsong has never been fully told - until now! This highly illustrated, definitive, important book is the first full account of the British and German mine warfare of the Ypres Salient combining personal testimonies of the tunnellers themselves with details of the workings, giving the reader a new insight into this most secret of all Great War battles and incorporating a host of previously unpublished archive photographs. The underground war had many hazards to overcome - bad, waterlogged ground; camouflets; gas; and the enemy themselves, in hand-to-hand conflict. Overcoming these horrendous difficulties became an obsession in a complex war of silence, tension, claustrophobia and engineering ingenuity. Theirs was a secret, private and deadly war of blindfold cat and mouse, a round-the-clock kill or be killed nightmare. For the first time, this extraordinary hidden world is explored, explained and revealed in full colour.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #107875 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Synopsis
The true and amazing story of Birdsong has never been fully told - until now! This highly illustrated, definitive, important book is the first full account of the British and German mine warfare of the Ypres Salient combining personal testimonies of the tunnellers themselves with details of the workings, giving the reader a new insight into this most secret of all Great War battles and incorporating a host of previously unpublished archive photographs. The underground war had many hazards to overcome - bad, waterlogged ground; camouflets; gas; and the enemy themselves, in hand-to-hand conflict. Overcoming these horrendous difficulties became an obsession in a complex war of silence, tension, claustrophobia and engineering ingenuity. Theirs was a secret, private and deadly war of blindfold cat and mouse, a round-the-clock kill or be killed nightmare. For the first time, this extraordinary hidden world is explored, explained and revealed in full colour.

About the Author
Peter Barton is a filmmaker and military historian specialising in the underground war. Peter Doyle is a geologist and expert on the role of terrain in World War I. Johan Vandewalle is an archaeologist, photographer and the foremost explorer of the forgotten tunnels of Flanders.

Customer Reviews

A fantastic book!
Quite simply one of the best books on the Great War I have ever read. Beautifully written and with a wealth of photos and diagrams it transports you back to the dark days of the Salient.
Buy it.

Terrific book!
As other reviwers have said, this is superbly researched and put together. The mix of original photos and plans with modern photos of the tunnels and dugouts as they appear now, plus the combination of eyewitness comments and authors' commentary make this a superb production. Having visited mine craters and a few dugouts and the tunnel system at Vimy, this book made me appreciate more fully the scale and organisation of this activity on both sides. Highly recommended.

A must for Great War enthusiasts!
There is no doubt, that many excellent books have been written and published on the wide ranging and different aspects of the Great War, these include both general as well as specialist publications which are aimed at either the general reader or expert or often both. I have personally read many books on this tragic conflict, some I find fascinating, others are rather run of the mill and are possibly recycled from previous publications. This splendid title is however one that shines out and I am sure, it will be of tremendous interest to a wide audience of both amateur and professional military historians, researchers and general readers alike.

The war beneath the "killing fields" of the Western Front has in my opinion until now been overshadowed and often neglected by authors and publishers by what took place above the ground. This truly magnificent book will, without a doubt do much to draw attention to the skilful , yet unseen game of "cat and mouse" that was taking place in the damp and dirty tunnels underground.

I can honestly say that this volume made interesting reading and succeeded in stimulating my own interest in carrying out further research into this fascinating aspect of the Great War. The authors (all tunnelling experts), have in fact been inundated with enquiries on this subject since the publication of Sebastian Faulke's "Birdsong" and have as a result carried out over twenty five years painstaking research, excavations and investigation to be able to produce this brilliant title.

The book is packed with a tremendous amount of gripping information and is backed up with a host of colourful maps, in excess of 450 colour as well as black and white photographs and many highly detailed and professional diagrams. Many of the photographs are unique and will keep the reader engrossed like I was for many hours.

If there is one book to buy on this intriguing subject, this is it - I am sure you will not be disappointed!