Lost Opportunity
Subtitle: The Battle of the Ardennes 22 August 1914
Publisher: Helion & Company, Limited
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 252
ISBN-13: 9781911096429
Subjects: World war, 1939-1945, campaigns, france
Description: On 22 August 1914 - on a battlefield 100 kilometres wide stretching from Luxembourg to the River Meuse - two French and two German armies clashed in a series of encounters known collectively as the Battle of the Ardennes. On that day, 27,000 young French soldiers died - the bloodiest day in the military history of France (most of them in the Ardennes) - and yet it is almost unknown to English-speaking readers. There has never been an operational study of the Battle of the Ardennes in any language: at best, a single chapter in a history of greater scope; at least a monograph of an individual tactical encounter within the overall battle. This book fills a glaring gap in the study of the opening phase of the First World War - the Battles of the Frontiers - and provides fresh insight into both French and German plans for the prosecution of what was supposed to be a short war.