The Hindenburg Line 1918

Haig’s forgotten triumph

The Hindenburg Line 1918 cover

Description

A highly illustrated study of the pivotal campaign that saw the Allied armies led by Field Marshal Haig break through the German Hindenburg Line in 1918, published in its centenary year.

From 26 September until 8 October 1918, the Allied armies in France launched their largest ever combined offensive on the Western Front of World War I. The British, French, American and Belgian armies launched four attacks in rapid succession across a 250km front between the Argonne and Flanders. At the centre of this huge assault the British, First, Third and Fourth Armies, led by Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, breached the formidable Hindenburg Line defences and drove the Kaiser's Army from its last fully prepared defensive position west of the German border.

Alistair McCluskey explores the impact of this defeat and its shattering effect on the Germans, with their army admitting for the first time that an armistice was required to save it from annihilation. Although these decisive results were to a large extent consequences of the battle of the Hindenburg Line, the subsequent controversies over the conduct of the war meant that it went unheralded and has remained Haig's forgotten triumph.

Table of Contents

The strategic situation

Chronology
Opposing commanders
Opposing forces
Opposing plans
The campaign
Aftermath
The battlefield today

Further reading
Index

Product details

Published Oct 19 2017
Format Ebook (PDF)
Edition 1st
Extent 96
ISBN 9781472820310
Imprint Osprey Publishing
Illustrations 170 b/w; 45 col
Series Campaign
Short code CAM 315
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

Alistair McCluskey

Alistair McCluskey is a serving officer in the Bri…

Illustrator

Peter Dennis

Peter Dennis was inspired by contemporary magazine…

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