PASSCHENDAELE: THE HOLLOW VICTORY

"Passchendaele is one of the most evocative names associated with the Great War. For over 80 years, the battle has been regarded as the epitome of pointless slaughter on an unimaginable scale. The statistics -- half a million British, French and German casualties between July and November 1917 -- appear to speak for themselves. Ever since, the image of hapless soldiers struggling through the mud and the shellfire has been promoted as a demonstration of the futility of war on the Western Front and of the incompetence of the commanders. Yet, as Martin Marix Evans demonstrates in this ... reassessment, these common assumptions about the course of the battle and the ways in which it was fought are mistaken and should be looked at again ... [Evans examines] the planning of the British offensive ... and the thinking behind it, visits the terrain over which the battle was fought and describes the weather that affected it so profoundly"--Jacket.