Review: The Guns of August

The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This excellent history of the first act of WWI takes from the overlapping, triggering treaties and the last gasps of monarchial imperialism in a Europe that found itself inexorably propelled toward The Battle of the Marne fought in September 1914. It resulted in an Allied victory against the German Army. The battle was the culmination of the German advance into France and pursuit of the Allied armies which followed the Battle of the Frontiers in August and had reached the eastern outskirts of Paris. A counter-attack by six French field armies and the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) along the Marne River, forced the Imperial German Army to retreat north-west. All of this resulted from unexpected encounters of mass forces due to some commander eagerness and some orders arriving earlier than expected. This set the stage for four years of trench warfare stalemate on the Western Front, and the book concludes prior to that grim disposition of forces.

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