[8GW]≡ Libro Gratis Passchendaele The Anatomy of a Tragedy Andrew Macdonald 9781775540304 Books

Passchendaele The Anatomy of a Tragedy Andrew Macdonald 9781775540304 Books

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Passchendaele The Anatomy of a Tragedy Andrew Macdonald 9781775540304 Books

I had great difficulty finding my way around the structure of this book in its Kindle version. In fact I gave up when it seemed that the author was going over material again that he'd already covered, and it was so difficult to work out what the work's structure was intended to be, and whether it made sense.

Rather than say any more I'll just make one vital point about the book's scope.
The Third Battle of Ypres lasted through August-September-October and half of November 1917; thus it was a campaign of three and a half months in a small area to the east of Ypres.
Passchendaele was one village where fighting took place towards the end of that campaign.
But the term Passchendaele is often used as a synonym for the whole campaign.
This book is not about that whole three-and-a-half-month campaign. It is exclusively about the fighting in October 1917, some of which was in the village of Passchendaele and some was not.
There is nothing wrong with that necessarily, but you need to know before buying the book.


Tags : Passchendaele: The Anatomy of a Tragedy [Andrew Macdonald] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. A fresh look at the battles of Passchendaele that reveals, for the first time, where responsibility for the tragedy really lies. this extensively researched book tells the story of one of the darkest hours of Australia and New Zealand's First World War military. With the forensic use of decades-old documents and soldier accounts,Andrew Macdonald,Passchendaele: The Anatomy of a Tragedy,HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand),1775540308,Belgium,World War, 1914-1918,World War, 1914-1918 - Campaigns - Western Front,20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000,ANF: Warfare and Defence,Battles & campaigns,European history,First World War,Military History,POLITICAL SCIENCE General,Warfare & defence,c 1914 to c 1918 (including WW1)

Passchendaele The Anatomy of a Tragedy Andrew Macdonald 9781775540304 Books Reviews

Hard to follow, often repetitive. Found to be a labored read. Often felt I had lost my place and was rereading chapters previously covered. That said - good technical information on the personality dynamics of the battle. As adverted in this regard.
This is a very valuable book because it lays the blame for the excessive losses and the pointlessness of the Passchendaele battle where it rightly belongs - at the door of general Godley who is repeatedly shown to be incompetent and to be more concerned with meeting the wishes of his superiors in order to further his career aspirations. He does not come out of it at all well when compared with the Canadian commander who captured the village of Passchendaele in a later action through detailed planning of his attack and through resisting pressure from Haig to attack when conditions were not suitable to gain a favourable outcome.

The New Zealand commander Russell comes out of the book well through his efforts to have the attack postponed until the rain eased and until the roads could be repaired so that the artillery could be brought into position to support the infantry attack.
The author does let Haig off more lightly than I would have liked as it was his insistence on refusing to postpone attacks that lay behind so much of the wasteful loss of life.

A point of much interest to me was the account of how the battle files tactics had been refined to allow the British/Australian/Canadian/New Zealand infantry to deal with machine gun nests and strong points. This a feature of the book and covers information I had not read elsewhere.

One small brickbat - the author repeatedly tells readers on just about every second page in the early chapters of Godley's incompetence. This repetition did strike me a unnecessary as the information given made it abundantly clear over and over of why Godley should not have been in charge of his forces.
I had great difficulty finding my way around the structure of this book in its version. In fact I gave up when it seemed that the author was going over material again that he'd already covered, and it was so difficult to work out what the work's structure was intended to be, and whether it made sense.

Rather than say any more I'll just make one vital point about the book's scope.
The Third Battle of Ypres lasted through August-September-October and half of November 1917; thus it was a campaign of three and a half months in a small area to the east of Ypres.
Passchendaele was one village where fighting took place towards the end of that campaign.
But the term Passchendaele is often used as a synonym for the whole campaign.
This book is not about that whole three-and-a-half-month campaign. It is exclusively about the fighting in October 1917, some of which was in the village of Passchendaele and some was not.
There is nothing wrong with that necessarily, but you need to know before buying the book.