This book was first published in French by Editions Tallandier in 2004. It was translated by Andrew Uffindell.
The book is one of the most thoughtful, stimulating and original studies of the war to have appeared in recent years. It is a major contribution towards a deeper understanding of the impact of the struggle on the Western Front on theory and practice in the French Army.
In 1914 the French Army went to war with a flawed doctrine, brightly coloured uniforms and a dire shortage of modern heavy artillery.
How, then, over four years of relentless attritional warfare, did it become the great industrialized army that emerged victorious in 1918?
The book has a Foreword by Professor Sir Hew Strachan.