One of the best WW1 books I've read.

[wodin]

The Western Front Companion: The Complete Guide to How the Armies Fought for Four Devastating Years, 1914-1918 by Mark Adkin.

I can't stress enough how good this book is. IF you want just one book on WW1Western Front then this is the one. It's on offer at Amazon at the moment reduced fro £60 to £37.20 so whilst it's on offer and your looking for a WW1 West front book then get it. I have a extensive WW1 library and I'd say for an overall picture of the War this is the one to buy.

LINK

"TO COMPREHEND AND CHRONICLE the sheer scale of the conflict on the Western Front demands a book of similar scope. Now, published for the centenary of the start of World War I in August 2014, here is that book.

Written by the author of the three previous bestselling Companions on Waterloo, Trafalgar and Gettysburg – now acclaimed as the definitive work of reference on each battle – The Western Front Companion is not a mere chronological account of the fighting. Rather, it is an astonishingly comprehensive and forensic anatomy of how and why the armies fought, of their weapons, equipment and tactics, for over four long and bloody years on a battlefield that stretched from the Belgian coast to the Swiss frontier – a distance of 450 miles. Alongside the British Army, full coverage is given to Britain’s allies – France, Belgium, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, India and the United States – as well as the Germans.

The 350,000 words of text range over everything from the railways on the front to the medical corps and the chaplains. An introduction explaining why the world went to war is followed by a year-by-year enumeration of the critical events and battles and then sections examining all branches of the armies, including commanders, staff, infantry, artillery, cavalry, engineers, supply and transport, veterinary, tanks and aviation, followed by one on trench warfare and another on the pivitol Battle of Cambrai with its massed use of tanks. Information boxes throughout cover further aspects, from valiant winners of the VC to the unique squalor of front-line trench life. An epilogue on the Armistice and the cost of the war tells how the Unknown Warrior was selected and buried in Westminster Abbey.

Like previous Companions, this book is equally distinguished by its magnificent visual resources, and above all its plethora of original and intricate maps and diagrams, all in full colour, illustrating particular offensives, battles, raids or tactics, the configurations of trench formations or the trajectory of mortar bombardments. But this conflict was also the first to be chronicled from the start by photography, and The Western Front Companion does it full justice, with over 200 resonant and remarkable archive images from the time, many rarely seen. These are complemented with modern colour photographs showing how historic battlefields look nowadays, and paying tribute to the magnificent and poignant cemeteries, monuments and ossuaries that mark the fallen for today’s battlefield visitor.

Every reader, no matter how well informed already on the history of World War I, will learn something new from this extraordinary and exhaustive volume. No one interested in the true story and sheer sweep of the Great War on the Western Front can afford to be without it."

[wosung]

Got it myself. Like it. It's VERY detailed, going down to the tactical level, having good maps, plus then and now photos.
But - as the title says - it's Western Front only, focussed on UK and CW troops. Thus, not a candidate for giving an overall picture of the war.

Also recommendable:

David Stevenson, With Our Backs to the Wall: Victory and Defeat in 1918, HUP 2013.
http://www.amazon.com/With-Our-Backs-Wa ... o+the+wall
I like the unusual end game focus. Broader perspective, but detailed nevertheless.


Brill's Encyclopedia of the First World War Hardcover by Gerhard Hirschfeld (Editor), Gerd Krumeich (Editor), Irina Renz (Editor), & 2 more
http://www.amazon.com/Brills-Encycloped ... d+Krumeich
My candidate for broader WW1 perspective in one volume. Thematical and alphabethical pts., authors from nearly all main war participants, thus different national perspectives.


Plus, there's a brand new multi-volume Cambridge History of WW1. Quite expensive.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss? ... orld%20War

[Rodwonder]

Sounds good, I'll check this out... Thanks for the review!

[wodin]

@wosung..do you own Jack Sheldons German Army series? I expect you do..great series of books. Also Ralph Whiteheads Otherside of the wire Vol 1 and Vol 2 are must buys (managed to get them both in limited edition hardcover and signed) for the German army point of view. They are another set of books where the detail and research is amazing, some of the best I've come across.

[wosung]

Nope, didn't know those. So thank you for those recommondations.

[Llyranor]

Thanks for the recommendation, just ordered this one