Command On The Western Front: The Military Career Of Sir Henry Rawlinson 1914-1918 (Pen & Sword Military Classics)

Rating:
Summary: Biased book with serious flaws
Review: This is a book that is quite a let down. Rawlinson, one of the least endowed generals in the Western front, is portrayed as one who came up with a formula for decisive breakthroughs, ie masses of artillery punching gaps in trenchlines for the tanks and infantry to smash through. He is credited with creeping barrages and more,apparently the authors are ignorant of Colonel Bruchmüller of the Imperial German Army, arguably the best artillery brain in the 2 world wars. Without any references to German sources, the book is essentially a biased and flawed revisionist attempt to portray the British Army as the sole factor in the collapse of the German Army, despite all the evidence that the British Army was a spent force in 1918 and that the so called caollapse of the Germans was essentially a well planned retreat. Rawlinson's bite and hold tactics (in essence attrition a la Verdun) is glorified as the secret formula to success in the battlefield, and the British are said to be experts in a war of technology whereas the Germans still cling to human wave assaults in 1918!

All in all, not a book to seek out historical truths, rather a lame attempt to glorify the British with being the innovators and masters in the art of war.