The Battle of the Frontiers: Ardennes 1914

This book presents a major new history of one of the first battles of World War I, fought between the French and German armies in August 1914. Military historians have assumed that the French lost the first battles of the First World War because they launched suicidal bayonet charges against German machine guns. Therefore, for nearly a century, these battles have been considered uninteresting. In reality, these were some of the most important, hard-fought, and instructive battles in the war. Based on groundbreaking research conducted at French and German army archives, this history of one of the war’s first battles makes use of neglected French and German books and articles as well as German regimental histories, and includes personal accounts by participants such as Manfred von Richthofen and the young Erwin Rommel.