Product Description

This is an account of the first few months of the Great War, from the build-up of the fighting to the first Battle of Ypres, written by the author of "Somme", "They called it Passchendaele" and "The Roses of No Man's Land".

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #771712 in Books
• Published on: 1989-03-30
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

From Library Journal
Macdonald recounts the experiences of the British Expeditionary Force in World War I. This brief period saw the destruction of Britain's prewar army, which suffered casualties in excess of 90 percent. The text is interspersed with accounts by survivors. These, coupled with a vivid narrative style, are the book's strengths. The attention paid to the civilian's plight is also commendable. The causes of the war and broader issues of strategy have been covered in much greater depth elsewhere. The author focuses on the common soldier's point of view. A good account for the general reader.
- Bruce Hulse, Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

A terrific account of the first year of the World War
This book (along with all of her other works) was an excellent telling of the first days of the war in 1914. She details the British rush to go to France and bayonet the "Hun" and save Belgian babies.
Told with a historian's eye for detail and with the priceless words from the men that fought in the terrible war fill the pages with amazing courage, endurance and hardship.
Plenty of great maps allow the reader to follow the advance, then retreat of the British forces and their harrowing withdrawl under savage German pursuit.
This book is available from AmazonUK.com and well worth reading if you are interested in this period.
Enjoy

voices from a century ago tell you what they saw
McDonald's books are excellent. It is sometimes hard to follow the big picture of a battle from how she writes, so these books are not for people looking to start learning about the war. But if you already know the basics of what happened in places like Mons, Ypres, Somme then her books are wonderful. All too often people think of WW1 and imaging only men sitting in muddy trenches and dying under mahcine guns and gas while Red Triplanes fly over head. McDonald goes in very close to the story having interviewed veterans while they were still with us and her books recount the adventures of men on guard duty, or in transit, in the dreaded 'glass house' or moving forward with the line.
Reading her books you won't get the grand view of the battle field. You will get the memories of men who saw their little piece of it and tells you what they went through.

The ordinary mans war.
Lyn Macdonald has captured the sadness and realization of a British generation that is losing it's image of war being glorious, for God and King, for the empire; to awaken the nightmare and hardship of war for survival.

The innocence and naive courage of the professional and voluntary British soldier is brilliantly relayed to the reader. The futility of war and the snuffing out of lives filled with hope and a yearning for adventure is aptly captured by the author through the biographies of the soldiers involved. The slow, painful sinking into total war, and the final realization of what war is all about shakes the readers emotions and causes one to wonder how the world can ever continue to fall into war so easily and glibly.