Ypres: The First Battle 1914
08 Jun 05

The first battle of Ypres in 1914 was the opening of the horrors of the World War One. It was an end of innocence, marking the transition between war as it had been and war as it would become. A devastating battle for the British and a turning point for all four of the major armies involved, it was the last opportunity for open, mobile warfare on the Western Front.

Regarded as the end of the old army, it was the first battle to associate the British army with the ‘immortal salient'. The mythologising of the British struggle has obscured the major role of the French and Belgians in defending Flanders. It has also been mythologised from the German perspective, the so called kindermord (slaughter of the innocents) providing a useable myth for the Nazis through the participation of the young Adolf Hitler.

In the first study for 40 years, Ian Beckett's new book Ypres: The First Battle 1914 draws on a wide range of British, French, German and Belgian sources in order to reconstruct the battle from all sides. Many of these personal papers and public accounts have never before been published.

Through a shrewd analysis of the most recent secondary works as well as archival materials, Ian F. W. Beckett appraises the significance of First Ypres as a key moment in the Great War.

	Ypres: The First Battle 1914
	Author	Ian F W Beckett
	Pub Date	13 October 2004
	Price	£19.99
	Publisher	Longman
	ISBN	0582 50612 3
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