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The battle of Verdun lasted ten months. It was a battle in which at least 700,000 men fell, along a front of fifteen miles; whose aim was less to defeat the enemy than bleed him to death; a battleground whose once fertile terrain even now resembles a haunted wilderness. Alistair Horne's classic work, continuously in print for nearly forty years, is a profoundly moving, sympathetic study of the battle and the men who fought there. It shows that Verdun is a key to understanding the First World War - the minds of those who waged it, the traditions that bound them and the world that gave them the opportunity.… (mere)
Horne's writing is delicate, elaborate, and sweeping. He lavishly paints a picture of the events leading up to Verdun and the battle itself, highlighting the major players in command and tracking the nightmare on the front lines. I always knew Verdun as a "meat grinder" and while that's true, there are distinct beats to this 10 month long battle and I came away with a more nuanced understanding of them.
The author depicts the flow of battle with expertise, and illustrates the effects it had on both sides. He dives into the nightmare of the new weaponry introduced at Verdun, like flamethrowers or phosgene gas - and you can almost feel the panic as your own heart starts racing imagining what it must have been like to confront these terrors.
I have only two criticisms of the book. Horne will sometimes reference a "well known" figure without giving any context. If you don't happen to know what person or their backstory, it's up to you to figure it out. He will also regularly cite quotes in French (less often German) without any translation, so you'll need to have at least a basic understanding of the language if you want to understand these, or run them through a translator.
Regardless, this stands as one of the best books I've read on WWI and I highly recommend it. ( )
Very readable account of battles to take key city of Verdun in WW 1. Madness of war is clear. French vs. Germans in 1916. Horrible details given of stalemated campaign which pretty well destroyed the French morale. It could never be a world power after this. ( )
History that reads like a novel. Alistair Horne from the first pages hooks the reader through the battle and battles of Verdun in 1916. A pivotal battle for both Germany and France in many ways. ( )
Perhaps Horne's best book and it is a very good campaign book. A full cast of well drawn portraits, and reasonable maps. The paperback format is a bit too small for the illustrations but the text fully informs the reader of the horror that still resonated through France in 1940. A very good read. ( )
La famosa batalla de Verdun, de como de una derrota se saca una conclusión equivocada que genera una carnicería de la que luego se saca otra lección equivocada pese a haberla ganado?. La batalla por un lugar que no valía un centavo pero por el que los vanos generales hicieron morir a cientos de miles. Otro ejemplo de lo que Barbara Tuchman define como la marcha a la locura ( )
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This Western-front business couldn't be done again, not for a long time. The young men think they could do it again but they couldn't. They could fight the first Marne again but not this, this took religion and years of plenty and tremendous sureties and the exact relation that existed between the classes. The Russians and Italians weren't any good on this front. You had to have a whole-souled sentimental equipment going back further than you could remember. You had to remember Christmas, and postcards of the Crown Prince and his fiancee, and little cafes in Valence and beer gardens in Unter den Linden and weddings at the Mairie, and going to the Derby, and your grandfather's whiskers....This was a love battle-there was a century of middle-class love spent here....All my beautiful lovely safe world blew itself up here with a great gust of high explosive love.... - F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tender is the Night
Tilegnelse
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To Francis and Jacqueline
Første ord
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Three and a half years elapsed between the First Battle of the Marne, when the Kaiser's armies reached the gates of Paris, and Ludendorff's last-gasp offensive that so nearly succeeded in the Spring of 1918.
Citater
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Throughout the line the first day of battle had been for the French one of minor disasters alternating with countless, unrecorded small Thermopylaes.
Sidste ord
Oplysninger fra den engelske Almen VidenRedigér teksten, så den bliver dansk.
Or will France have to wait until the eery forests on the Mort Homme mature and are hewn down, and farms and happy villages once again populate its dead slopes?
The battle of Verdun lasted ten months. It was a battle in which at least 700,000 men fell, along a front of fifteen miles; whose aim was less to defeat the enemy than bleed him to death; a battleground whose once fertile terrain even now resembles a haunted wilderness. Alistair Horne's classic work, continuously in print for nearly forty years, is a profoundly moving, sympathetic study of the battle and the men who fought there. It shows that Verdun is a key to understanding the First World War - the minds of those who waged it, the traditions that bound them and the world that gave them the opportunity.
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5
The author depicts the flow of battle with expertise, and illustrates the effects it had on both sides. He dives into the nightmare of the new weaponry introduced at Verdun, like flamethrowers or phosgene gas - and you can almost feel the panic as your own heart starts racing imagining what it must have been like to confront these terrors.
I have only two criticisms of the book. Horne will sometimes reference a "well known" figure without giving any context. If you don't happen to know what person or their backstory, it's up to you to figure it out. He will also regularly cite quotes in French (less often German) without any translation, so you'll need to have at least a basic understanding of the language if you want to understand these, or run them through a translator.
Regardless, this stands as one of the best books I've read on WWI and I highly recommend it. (