Passchendaele: The Lost Victory of World War I

The definitive account of Passchendaele, the months-long battle that epitomizes the immense tragedy of the First World War
Passchendaele. The name of a small, seemingly insignificant Flemish village echoes across the twentieth century as the ultimate expression of meaningless, industrialized slaughter. In the summer of 1917, upwards of 500,000 men were killed or wounded, maimed, gassed, drowned, or buried in this small corner of Belgium.
On the centennial of the battle, military historian Nick Lloyd brings to vivid life this epic encounter along the Western Front. Drawing on both British and German sources, he is the first historian to reveal the astonishing fact that, for the British, Passchendaele was an eminently winnable battle. Yet the advance of British troops was undermined by their own high command, which, blinded by hubris, clung to failed tactics. The result was a familiar one: stalemate. Lloyd forces us to consider that trench warfare was not necessarily a futile endeavor, and that had the British won at Passchendaele, they might have ended the war early, saving hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of lives. A captivating narrative of heroism and folly, Passchendaele is an essential addition to the literature on the Great War.

• The Last Battle: Victory, Defeat, and the End of World War I
• Vimy: The Battle and the Legend
• Never in Finer Company: The Men of the Great War's Lost Battalion
• The Splintered Empires: The Eastern Front 1917–21
• The Price of Glory: Verdun 1916
• The Somme: The Darkest Hour on the Western Front
• Sons of Freedom: The Forgotten American Soldiers Who Defeated Germany in World War I
• The Wehrmacht's Last Stand: The German Campaigns of 1944-1945 (Modern War Studies)
• Pandora’s Box: A History of the First World War
• Implacable Foes: War in the Pacific, 1944-1945