Exploring the Great War Through the Ypres Salient: A Storm in Flanders 1914-1918

Tim Brown: Gritty, gruesome and the ugly business of war

United States on Nov 18, 2023

Gehrig Schultz: Well written and insightful.

United Kingdom on Mar 26, 2023

ychuck46: If you want to read a book that will bring home the sheer horror of the Ypres battles that lasted throughout the WWI years, this is it. And the sheer futility in many respects, although postwar history has said otherwise. A tremendous work by Mr Groom.

United States on Jan 03, 2023

GKN: Not of a history buff, but never seriously got into WWI. The time, effort, money and mostly the manpower wasted in the war was incredible. It was the turning point of the Middle and or Dark Ages and modern warfare. It absolutely should have been enough to shatter any myths and desire for war. Throw all this in with the flu pandemic that followed and it's jawdropping that there were enough people to form armies, let alone willing soldiers for another war. The only sticking point was they didn't want to specifically refight the last one. It's been said that history is made up of brief bursts of peace between wars, this book tells of the dark time before more wars. I have read histories of Europe, the Americas, colonial empires, ocean warfare for domination and most of the 20th century conflicts, but not this one, I assumed incorrectly it was just a preparation for the next. The horror, yes another quote.11th hour

United States on Nov 14, 2020

July Japer: This book is extremely readable and doesn't get bogged down with minute details. As the book was written primarily for an American audience it isn't biased when describing the fighting between the British, German, French and Belgian forces. If you're travelling to Flanders to see the Great War battlefields and only have time to read one book before you go make sure this is it.

United Kingdom on Aug 13, 2015

Benjamin Andrew: Bought this for 99p, an absolute bargain, I would have paid five times the price. An excellent read, surely a must for anyone interested in the first world war.

United Kingdom on May 13, 2015

BethanyTaylor: Winston Groom’s reasons for writing the book and studying the history are outlined at the beginning, and make this an all the more personal and touching depiction of events, battles, and aftermath.

A Storm in Flanders gives a clear overview of how events led up to the war itself, the battles, conditions and logistics throughout, and the aftermath. He gives a mix of factual information, including a very useful table of unit size and names , and personal accounts, citing letters from soldiers fighting, contributing to an overall perception of what happened. This isn’t just a historical overview; A Storm in Flanders confronts and highlights the human reality of the impact. Groom points out that this was not an American victory, but a shocking and awful loss of millions of men, regardless of nationality or rank.

I would recommend this to anyone who has an interest in improving their understanding of how WW1 came about, and want to do so from a clear, insightful and respectful narrator.

United Kingdom on Apr 15, 2015

SpartySAM: I decided to buy this book after reading the author's Vicksburg. Let me begin by making two points. First, even though I have lived for a long time in the USA, I am originally from Canada, where campaigns like Ypres, have a real presence. Consequently, for many Americans, Ypres is a historic footnote. Groom does a great job of making it readable and real for his target audience - the American reader. Second, Groom appears to be taking on the mantle of being the historic writer whose works are highly readable. He seems to be in the mold of Bruce Catton (the author who has become the benchmark for readable history, thanks to his work on the American Civil War - e.g., Terrible Swift Sword) and Pierre Burton (the Canadian author who made Canadian history real and exciting for many Canadians - for example, read his book on Vimy Ridge). That is, his work is well grounded on research but his ability to make war and battle highly readable and interesting is noteworthy.

Overall, this is a very good book. It gives you a sense of the horror of this campaign and of the quality of the men who commanded the forces. It is an easy book to read but also one that frustrates and angers the...

United States on Jan 14, 2015

Doris. F.: Not only does Winston Groom's book give us a short but convincing an precise explanation of the background of the First World War, it also illustrates this particularly macabre part of of the war in an impressive way by following the fates of several persons involved. His sources often are the letters these people sent home, a means by which the author succeeds in holding the reader's interest straight to the end. I read this when on holiday in Brugges and when to Ypres and walked across the battlefields and the cemetaries, the book made this a moving experience.

Germany on Oct 06, 2013

Rodney J. Szasz: This patch of earth in Flanders has the distinction of having more blood spilt over it that any other place on the face of the earth. That is a frightful fact and one that Groom admirably chronicles.

For anyone raised in Britain or the British Commonwealth the term Passchendale has become synonomous with a slow, oozing death and futility on a grand scale. As a Canadian (same for Australians and Brits) we were raised with a sense of terrific awe of the horrific suffering popularly believed to be inflicted by the sclerotic mind set of the High Command on the hapless soldiers living in the waning years of the Victorian era -- when truth, science, servitude and sacrifice to tradition were all smashed to pieces in the minds of men luckless enough to endure this hell. My grandfather endured it for 4 yrs. In the British Commonwealth fully 1/2 of all militarily eligible males volunteered for this war. 1/2 of these were either killed or maimed in body or mind. For the western Anglo-Saxon world, there never has been anything approaching it. Despite Americas contributions two world wars, people seldom know that their neighbour to the North, Canada sacrificed 60,000 soldiers in WWI...

United States on May 31, 2005