The Generals' War: Operational Level Command on the Western Front in 1918 (Twentieth-Century Battles) - Hardcover

Zabecki, David T.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0253037018 ISBN 13: 9780253037015

Publisher: Indiana University Press, 2018

Synopsis

Known as the War to End all Wars and the Great War, World War I introduced new forms of mass destruction and modern technological warfare. When the Bolsheviks pulled Russia out of the war in late 1917, the Germans turned their offensive efforts to the Western Front in an attempt to win the war in 1918. But as fresh American troops entered Europe, the strategic scales tipped against Germany.

Much of how World War I played out turned on the plans and decisions of the senior-most German and Allied commanders. The Generals' War explores the military strategies of those generals during the last year of the Great War. These six very different men included Germany's Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg and General Erich Ludendorff; France's Marshals Ferdinand Foch and Philippe Pétain; Great Britain's Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig; and the United States' General John Pershing. Although history remembers none of them as great captains, these six officers determined for better or worse how World War I was fought on the battlefields of the Western Front between November 1917 and November 1918.

The Generals' War is a landmark exploration of the generalship that shaped the very framework of modern warfare as we know it today and provides a comprehensive and detailed analysis on the senior commanders of the Great War.

About this title

About the Author

David T. Zabecki (Lt. Gen. Ret) is author or editor of nine military history books, including The German 1918 Offensives: A Case Study in the Operational Level of War, and the assistant editor of several military history encyclopedias. He is editor of Vietnam Magazine, the Senior Historian of the Weider History Group, the world's largest publisher of history magazines, and author of numerous articles, book reviews, and encyclopedia entries, all dealing with military topics.

Review

"

Thoroughly researched and well written, The Generals' War is without question the finest study of the operational aspects of the five German tactical actions that constituted the 1918 Ludendorff Offensive on the Western Front. Zabecki lays out the strategic decisions that produced the outcome and details the fighting itself, but his chief contribution is in his analysis of the decisions that determined the outcome and turned the tide of the war.

"

(Spencer C. Tucker, author of World War I: The Essential Reference Guide)

"David Zabecki offers keen insights into the operational art of the forces, technology, logistics, and military culture of the armies that the six Allied and German generals headed."

(Holger Herwig, author of Long Night of the Tankers)

Edition details

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 0253037018
• ISBN 13: 9780253037015
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 440