A Comprehensive Overview of WWI on the Western Front: 1914-1918

B. D. Walley: This is a significant reference book with a wealth of information on WW1 and the Western Front.
It would be invaluable to a serious historian but, for me, very much an amateur it is heavy reading.
Both grandfathers were at the Western Front during WW1 and I’ve been researching this dreadful period in their lives. This book has helped considerably to further my knowledge but it is written in a factual, unexciting style reminiscent of school history books of my youth - at that time my least favourite subject.

United Kingdom on Mar 29, 2024

Brian Halma: In my view, a flat out excellent book. In a book with such a broad scope, there are a number of challenges, in particular - finding the balance between detail and overview; trying to find the optimal number of areas to cover (not too many, not too few); and organizing the sheer amount of information into a coherent narrative. In my view, Lloyd manages all three of these challenges well, and the result is an excellent narrative history of the Western Front of WW1/The First World War. Lloyd touches on events on other fronts that impacted the Western Front situation, but also thankfully has a note that 2 additional books are on the way covering the Eastern Front (set for release in Spring of 2024) and other theaters.
This book was perfect for me as someone who has some but not extensive knowledge of WW1/FWW.

United States on Dec 27, 2023

JR_jr: This is a very detailed book about combat. The discussion is almost exclusively about the generals, the cities and towns where combat occurred, troop maneuvers, and battle. There's nearly no discussion about politics or diplomacy, or the prelude to the war. So be sure this content is what you want.

United States on Jul 23, 2023

Sir Benedict Godfrey : This is a great insight into WW1. I grew up only looking at the British perspective of history, but this tells the whole story of the Western Front. We need to consider that much of the damage (Western Front) was done on French land, so we it's important to understand their perspective. We also get to hear the German perspective. Most of this is through the eyes of senior leaders, military and political. But we also get snippets of the lower ranks. All in all it was a horrendous piece of history. Technology and weaponry advanced during this time and manifested into what we now see as modern warfare, with tanks, planes, machine guns and so on. The death toll and future implications were also unspeakable. But going forward, when I wear my poppy in November and attend my local remembrance service, this book will help me contemplate all those deaths and sacrifices by the many and not just the British.

One final thing, Field Marshall Robertson is my relative, so it meant a lot to me to hear about his involvement (whether he made right decisions or not)!

Thank you to the author and I look forward to the next book which will focus on another area of WW1. ...

United Kingdom on Oct 22, 2022

PM: The author has provided an excellent operational level discussion of the premier front of WW1. I was pleased that he has overcome some of the propensities displayed in prior works rationalizing the at times stubborn behavior of British leadership. Pretty much calls things as they were. Highly recommend this book. Was disappointed in the weak presentation of both the development of the Schliffen Plan and Plan 17. The author dives right onto August of 1914 assuming the reader is familiar with the controversies surrounding those plans which are always worth review. Highly recommend. Had to reread it son after I had finished. Great book.

United States on Jul 29, 2022

Cliente Amazon: this book presents mainly the human side of the main and very much critizised generals of the WWI. We can understand their fears and limited information that made them send thousands of soldiers to a certain death in useless offensives. In this sense it is kind of exculpatory, which makes the book both interesting and limited. The book does not explain, for example, why for years the main allied offensives in the western front were always so predictible and restricted to a narrow area around Flanders, of both difficult terrain and strong enemy defences

Spain on May 30, 2022

JJW: A very good telling of the collapse of Nazi Germany

Canada on Oct 18, 2021

Marc Robertson: Remarkable work of in-depth research culminating in a true magnum opus and definitive history of virtually every move made in the battles through Belgium and for control of France, and revelations on the machinations of governments in Germany, France and Great Britain in executing policies on the Western Front between 1914 and 1918. This book is not an easy light read and definitely not picked up for entertainment. This is a deeply intelligent and finely crafted history that moves as slowly and often as painfully as the campaigns themselves. Caveat emptor: If you’re not a student of 20th century history, and if you aren’t familiar with the bigger picture or even the geography and cultures of western Europe, this book is probably too much for you. But if you have a general understanding of WW1 and want to know how it evolved, who was involved, and how each maneuvre played out, i highly recommend this magnificent and genuinely superior piece of work.

United States on Jul 21, 2021

Ronald H. Clark: I am not a big military history reader, except for the American Civil War. But I found this expansive (514 pages of text and 75 of notes) study of the Western Front during the first war to be excellent. This is the first volume in the author's trilogy of studies covering all fronts. One of the author's techniques is to quote from postwar memoirs and books written by some of the participants. This allows for them to state what they hoped to accomplish by their strategy, what actually happened and why. The author's research is extensive, and his writing so realistic that the reader actually feels like he is in the trenches with the troops. All the major battles are covered, including Champagne, Verdun, Ypes, the Marne and Flanders.

The author introduces the concept of three-dimensional battles. That is, infantry, artillery, and the brand new air power. As always, he focuses upon careful analysis of each side's strategies--every one guaranteed to produce victory, except they didn't for three years of fighting. The key actors are present: Joffre, von Hindenburg, Moltke, Kitchener, Falkenhayn, and for the first time the American Pershing. New weapons are...

United States on May 01, 2021

markyt: There is a certain type of military history book exemplified by Max Hastings and Anthony Beevor in which the author selects a subject with high “brand awareness” such as Stalingrad, the Vietnam War, D-Day etc and creates a “soup to nuts” overview of the subject. The Western Front is certainly well within this particular canon – as it were. Although the canvas is usually large – you will never find a volume on rifle grenades of the British Army 1914-18 by this type of author, by confining it to one albeit large volume, of necessity the reader won’t find much by the way of granular detail. The issue is not so much what goes in but what is left out. Thus Nick Lloyd will spend forty or so pages on the 1918 German Offensives; generally the narrative is at Army level with occasional refences to small actions so the overall effect is that the book acts as a very good primer if the reader was coming to the subject without knowing too much. There are some curious omissions such as the 1915 Shell Scandal and only a passing reference to Jutland surely a major influence on the course of the Western Front given that it allowed a ruinous naval blockade of...

United Kingdom on Mar 26, 2021