ORIGINAL: cpdeyoung
Catastrophe - I enjoyed this book. I liked the transition from diplomacy to the opening battles of the war.
Warspite1 - There does seem to be a big change in opinion of the British Army, in both world wars, from the books I read in my youth to today. I remember reading about the Normandy campaign after the landings, with some significant beating up of the British forces by the author. I don't remember the book just off hand.
Chuck
warspite1
Its a real shame because I find Max Hastings to be an excellent story teller. To be clear I do not have a problem with any pointing out of the truth, its the way it is being presented. He finally said something positive about the British performance in the latter stages of the Battle of the Marne, but essentially it boils down to this:
German and, particularly the French fought like lions but their leaders were rubbish,
The British hardly fought at all, and when they did, they were incompetent at all levels.
The German and French fighting is largely at army / corps level, while the tales of the British are at division, regiment or even smaller level - hence the comment earlier about having time to trash the merits of one soldier's Victoria Cross...
