The battle for Ypres in October and November 1914 represented the last opportunity for open, mobile warfare on the Western Front. In the first study of First Ypres for almost 40 years, Ian Beckett draws on a wide range of sources never previously used to reappraise the conduct of the battle, its significance and its legacy.
'Thorough and scholarly'
Professor Sir Michael Howard in Times Literary Supplement
A first rate work by one of the leading specialists on the First World War'
Professor Jeremy Black in History
'Should become the standard scholarly account of First Ypres'
Dr Nik Gardner in Journal of Military History
'A valuable addition to the growing library of scholarly studies of the British Army's experience on the Western Front'
Professor Peter Simkins in English Historical Review
'The scholarship of the work is massively apparent on every page'
Society of Friends of the National Army Museum Newsletter
'Gripping, pulse-quickening detail'
Worcester Evening News
Professor Ian F W Beckett is an internationally known and widely published specialist on the British army and the First World War who has taught at both British and American universities.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Maps
Illustrations
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. The Belgian option and the race to the sea
2. Four armies in Flanders Fields
3. Advance to contact
4. Kindermord
5. The South
6. Army Group Fabeck
7. Nonnebosschen
Conclusion: The immortal salient
Appendix: Orders of battle
Bibliography
Index