Book Description

This book discusses in detail the experience of German warfare in the first World War, focusing specifically on the battle of the Somme. The Somme, together with other regions of northern France, had also lain under German domination. Its inhabitants had been rigorously suppressed and their possessions carted off as booty. Finally, during their 1917 withdrawal, the Germans had subjected the whole region to Operation Alberich, a retreat involving unparalleled brutality which left the population in occupation of a wilderness wrought by war (the "scorched earth policy"). A well-known, and well researched account, the authors have combined their research skills to produce a book which includes private testimonies. Amongst these are many unknown or previously unpublished letters and diaries as well as numerous photographs. AUTHOR: Gerhard Hirschfeld is Director of the Library of Contemporary History and Professor of Modern History at the University of Stuttgart; Gerd Krumeich is Professor of Modern History at the Heinrich-Heine- University of Duesseldorf; Irina Renz is chief curator of the archival collections of the Library of Contemporary History in Stuttgart. Gerd Krumeich and Gerhard Hirschfeld are closely involved with the Historial de la Grande Guerre in Péronne/France. Together with Irina Renz they have written and edited the first German Encyclopedia of the First World War. SELLING POINTS: * The battle of the Somme has been coined by The English philosopher and pacifist Bertrand Russell as "maximum slaughter at minimum expense" * The "scorched earth policy" first practised on the Somme is an oft forgotten, or easily denied, aspect of a World War. Probably the reason why for the Germans - contrary to the British - it never developed into a region of national remembrance. * The losses on both sides were correspondingly high: more than 1.1 million men, twice the number at Verdun, were either killed, wounded or taken prisoner. ILLUSTRATIONS: 166 b/w plates