[.uk] To the Last Man: Spring 1918 (ISBN 0786707976)

To the Last Man: Spring 1918 - Lyn MacDonald:
The book had a rather slow and indirect beginning. It didn't really grab me until perhaps toward the end of the first chapter. By then, the author provides more poignant first hand accounts of the German offensive of Spring 1918. Not all of the material before this point seems relevant. This is admittedly an account from the British perspective with some added interviews and journal entries from German soldiers. An occasional account from the French, Australian or even American perspective is added for good measure. The detailed descriptions of the battle are fleshed out well by the abundant soldier's accounts. I'm sure more use of non-British sources would have created a broader picture of the campaign. However, the book works well within its limits. It is not highly analytical. Instead, it recounts the fortnight's events from the soldier's view. Lyn Macdonald adds clear details of troop movements and maneuvers. To the common man's perspective, she adds some history of the politics of statesmen and generals. The most unfortunate player in this field is General Gough who, because of Lloyd George, took the fall for the Allies shortcomings. By Ludendorff's admission, his strategy was sound and helped to slow the German advance. Good show for making this point. The book ends rather abruptly, turning on a brief discussion of the treatment of wounded prisoners. Only a little analysis is offered in the short concluding remarks. The heart of this book is good, but I think as a whole, it could have been better. This piece works best as a supplement to other, more weighty works.

Dead Men Tell no Tales - The Eloquence of Survival:
Lyn MacDonald's growing collection of books about World War I are unique in many respects and all are well worth a read - for both the student of the war and for readers only casually interested in the period. From the point of view of a military historian, the war in 1918 was itself unique with its return to mobile warfare that had otherwise only existed at the outset of the war, with the arrival of U.S. forces on the fronts, and with the incorporation of new weapons technologies and tactical approaches on the battlefield. It was also unique as the year in which many felt the war might be won by the Germans but in which, ultimately, the conflict ended with German defeat. MacDonald's view is not that of a military historian, her book captures few of these elements. But it nevertheless casts a powerfully refracted light on the nature of the war in 1918 by the approach she takes. Hers is a "ground-level" view, seen through the many eyes of the soldiers who fought through that chaotic springtime of war. As in many of her previous titles, MacDonald builds her history upon the actual words of combatants. These are the voices of the soldiers who fought. The book is more than an anthology of narratives, though. MacDonald does an excellent job of weaving the individual views into a well-told story. Although big-picture views are rare, she does a nice job of depicting individual experiences and local battles from many different points of view. It is rare to find the military history "microscope" focused at this particular scale. Unlike prior books of hers that I have read, "...1918" is not limited to the perspectives of the British combatants. MacDonald has made a clear effort to incorporate the archived words of German soldiers by way of a small collection of such documents which were provided to her in translation. Nevertheless, her anglophile leanings are still quite evident and detract from the sense that the book is a balanced view. U.S., French and German soldiers are only a small part of this story. Interestingly I found that this book offers much more of one element that you might expect the military historians to excel at - maps! There are more maps-per-page in this book than the best of John Keegan. Local details, right down to the farmhouses and roadways, abound, and add to your appreciation of the battle situations described by the combatants. In addition to the small critique above that the book is Brit-focused, I have to note one other element of bias that might seem almost tautological in a book like this: most of the stories are those of survivors. Just as history written by the victors is often skewed history, war as viewed by the survivors seems inevitably tempered by the reality of having "gotten through it." MacDonald does sprinkle her story with contemporaneous writings of soldiers who did survive (and some who did not), but many of the accounts are from a retrospective viewpoint that is clearly colored by time. Just as rich men often only recall their own hard work, and pontificate about generic success deriving from hard work alone, survivors of warfare can, in the process of healing physical and emotional scars, of going on with life, gloss over their own or their buddies' weaker moments. There is also an inevitable "selection" factor that an approach like MacDonald's can't overcome. Those who came back from the war unwilling or unable to talk about what they experienced cannot contribute their silence to a book like this. In his book "Back to the Front", Stephen O'Shea can only indirectly discover the experience of his own stubbornly silent grandfathers, and his developing sense of the horror of that experience contrasts sharply with the overall tone of MacDonald's work. If one can adapt to these limitations of approach, "To The Last Man: Spring 1918" is a fine book, excellently written and illustrated, which brings to life the desperate final months of the war that gave birth to the modern era and so many of the geopolitical ills of this new millennium.

To The Last Man is good to the last page:
Springtime in a Europe ravaged by war. On the Western Front the German army launches a massive offensive in the Amiens region of Northern France against the British Army. Lynn MacDonald continues in this tome her oral history of the Great War. The eyewitness accounts of German, French and German participants in the horrific hell of Spring 1918 make this book a valuable addition to the history of the war. MacDonald has done a beautiful job of reporting on the hellacious sights, smells and utter Dantesque horror of trench warfare. This book would be an excellent addition to anyone's library who is interested in World War I from the perspective of both the common soldier and the generals at GHQ. This is my first exposure to Macdonald and she has whetted my interest to read more of her work. Americans are not as familiar with the great battles of World War I as they should be. Macdonald is a good start to begin. After reading the last paragraph I concur with William Sherman who opined that "War is Hell." As the tragedy of war is unfolded on the pages of this book the reader is drawn into the vortex of the horror that is modern warfare. Lynn Macdonald is a superb researcher, writer and historian. I recommend this book very highly. PS-The maps are well drawn and helpful!

Very Engrossing Book:
This book retells it like it was for the men in the trenches back in 1918. The firsthand accounts provide the common soldier's view not commonly found in most history books. Many memorable moments like the counter-attack made by the London-Scottish, and a Colonel Lowry's escape from the Germans during a rainy night. It is a very readable book and shows the futility of the tactics of the time. One of the best history books I've ever purchased.

Timeless:
The first person accounts and the poignant memories of those who served in 1918 ring from these pages. It is easy to forget that this conflict took place almost a century ago and the long view through the Cold War and World War II sometimes make the first world war seem almost irrelevent. However, this book brings home the reality of the modern nature of this war, the rifles, the machineguns, the artillery, aircraft and through it all, the timeless, brave faces of the soldiers on the front line. Ms. MacDonald's book does a service to the veterans of the First World War as it puts a face and a human perspective on the horrendous experience of trench warfare. Although the spring of 1918 was more fluid and mobile than many other periods of the war, it still came down to men marching against other men dug into trenches. Positions and yards of front taken in a frightful cost of men's lives. This book has a timeless feel to it and the letters and interviews may gloss over some of the horrors which I think is partially the spirit of the generation and partially the difficulty of dwelling or reporting the horrors to others who were not there, but they do resound with the action, the confusion, the fear and the suffering that is commonplace in all war. This is a great text to read in that it does capture the human aspect of the fight and does not get too deep into units and army group movement. The big picture is laid out as a backdrop that the author then sets the individual soldier's stories against. A tremendous read and phenomenal book.