These three Battleground Europe books on Ypres 1914 mark the centenary
of the final major battle of the 1914 campaign on the Western Front.
Although fought over a relatively small area and short time span, the
fighting was even more than usually chaotic and the stakes were
extremely high. Authors Nigel Cave and Jack Sheldon combine their
respective expertise to tell the story of the men - British, French,
Indian and German - who fought over the unremarkable undulating ground
that was to become firmly placed in British national conscience ever
afterwards.
At the end of October 1914 an increasingly desperate Falkenhayn, aware
that his offensive in Flanders had stalled, decided to make one final
effort to break through the Allied lines south of Ypres. Pulling
together a large strike force, the so-called Army Group Fabeck, he
launched a violent offensive designed to capture the Messines Ridge and
to use this dominating terrain as a springboard for a further advance.
Inadequately resourced, assembled in a rush, this thrust was soon in
trouble. Confused fighting in the wooded areas to the south of the Menin
Road slowed the advance and initial attempts to gain a foothold on the
ridge failed. A supreme effort by the men of the 26th Infantry Division
ultimately brought about the capture of the town of Messines and similar
heroics by the Bavarian 6th Reserve Division led to the fall of
Wytschaete, but it was all in vain. Yet again a valiant Allied defense
had buckled, but not broken.
