The killing season The autumn of 1914, Ypres, and the afternoon that cost Germany a war

Robert Cowley

Book - 2025

"The Marne did not spell eventual defeat for Germany. Ypres did. The First Battle of Ypres, waged in the fall of 1914, changed how wars are fought. This decisive battle denied Germany a quick victory as they failed to capture the Channel ports, ensuring World War I would carry on for years. It not only extended the war but defined it, and in novelistic prose Robert Cowley delves into the human experience of this weeks-long pitched battle that gave birth to "no man's land," that spectral space of shattered trees and pockmarked earth: battleground where thousands of men fought to gain thirty feet of territory--only to lose it again the next day. As battle lines became entrenched, Cowley reveals a crucial, overlooked "...What if?" of history: the afternoon when the Germans hesitated to attack the depleted British forces and lost their best chance of winning the Western Front. Weaving together a wide array of source materials and with rich descriptions of the landscape and sharp portrayals of both leaders and everyday soldiers, Robert Cowley explores dismal failures by commanding officers of both sides, many of whom had only studied war in a classroom. A few stood out for recognizing the nature of this new war, like Sir John French, the compulsive womanizer who led Britain's forces, and Albert of Belgium, who may have been history's last warrior king. From generals, down to the young officers, like Adolf Hitler and Winston Churchill, and rank-and-file soldiers, Cowley shows the reality of Ypres as the first truly decisive battle of the war"-- more