Description
The Last Battle definitively corrects this misperception. As Hart shows, a number of factors precipitated the Armistice. After four years of bloodshed, Germany was nearly bankrupt and there was a growing rift between the military High Command and political leadership. But it also remained a determined combatant, and France and Great Britain had equally been stretched to their limits; Russia had abandoned the conflict in the late winter of 1918. However complex the causes of Germany's ultimate defeat, Allied success on the Western Front, as Hart reveals, tipped the scales-the triumphs at the Fifth Battle of Ypres, the Sambre, the Selle, and the Meuse-Argonne, where American forces made arguably their greatest contribution. The offensives cracked the Hindenburg Line and wore down the German resistance, precipitating collapse.
Final victory came at great human cost and involved the combined efforts of millions of men. Using the testimony of a range of participants, from the Doughboys, Tommies, German infantrymen, and French poilus who did the fighting, to those in command during those last days and weeks, Hart brings intimacy and sweep to the events that led to November 11, 1918.
Product Details
| Publisher | Oxford University Press |
| Publish Date | March 01, 2018 |
| Pages | 464 |
| Language | English |
| Type |  Hardback |
| EAN/UPC | 9780190872984 |
| Dimensions | 9.3 X 6.5 X 1.6 inches | 1.7 pounds |
About the Author
Reviews
"A timely and compelling account of 'The Hundred Days Offensive.'" --Centenary News
"Hart enlivens his lucid account of this final battle with quotes from memoirs, letters, and diaries. He shows how increased professionalism and better tactics allowed British and French troops, fortified by the arrival of the U.S. Army, to push back the German forces. He also opens a window into the minds of individual soldiers, relating how they accepted the possibility of death and their relief at the eventual armistice."--Foreign Affairs"An eminent oral historian taps the voices of those who fought in the pivotal battles of 1918 for this sweeping account of how the Allied forces achieved total domination over the German army on the Western Front."--MHQ Magazine"What sets Hart's history apart is that it is not the typical narrative description which includes the movements of major ground forces and the strategy behind those movements. While he does provide a well-structured chronological account of what happened in each of the final battles, he also tells that story through the words of hundreds of the men who were there and were lucky enough to survive." -- C. Douglas Kroll, The Northern Mariner
Earn by promoting books
