The German Army on the Western Front 1915

by Jack Sheldon

Jack Sheldon examines the German mindset at the close of 1914 when it became apparent that a quick victory was no longer a possibility. Both sides were temporarily exhausted in static positions from the Channel to the Swiss Border. In a reversal of roles, the French launched major offensives in Champagne and Artois, while the British Army, adapting to the demands of large scale continental warfare, went on the offensive in support at Neuve Chapelle, Aubers Ridge and Loos.

Such was the Allied pressure that the only German offensive in 1915 was at Ypres in April using gas on a large scale for the first time.

1915 was a transitional year on the Western Front with lessons being learned the hard way by both sides prior to the massive attritional battles of 1916 and 1917.

Using his skill at archival research, Sheldon describes how the 1915 experience shaped the German approach to the cataclysmic battles that lay ahead, leading to the ultimate, previously unthinkable defeat of the Kaisers Germany.

Genres: World War I

336 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2012

About the author

Educated at Inverness Royal Academy, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and the Universities of Lancaster and Westminster, Jack Sheldon completed a thirty-five year career as a member of the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment.

In 1982 he graduated from the German General Staff course at the Führungsakademie, Hamburg and went on to fill international staff appointments and to command an infantry training battalion. His final post before retirement in 2003 was as Military Attaché Berlin.

Reviews

[Robin Braysher · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very elegant book, I like the font which has an appropriately Germanic feel (but not the illegibility of old German print). The book is well illustrated with contemporary photographs and very neat, hand-drawn maps. One interesting feature of the maps is the marking of the locations of some of the individuals whose personal testimonies appear in the text. My reason for not giving this book a higher rating is that it is not quite the book I expected - admittedly that's more a reflection on me than it! Thoroughly researched, it gives the German side of key engagements on the Western Front in 1915, with many eye-witness accounts and detail down to company and battery level. Given my interest in Second Ypres and Loos, it is an ideal adjunct to my British accounts; the French engagements are new to me, but it's good to have a wider view of the action in 1915. What I was expecting and didn't get was a description of the German Army on the Western Front, nor was there any summing up of or analysis of its performance and learning during that first full year of trench warfare. The message that comes out for me throughout, though, is that the German Army was still learning and didn't always have an easier time than the BEF! What a grim year 1915 was.