It must be a peace without victory…. Victory would mean peace forced upon the losers, a victor’s terms imposed upon the vanquish ed. It would be accepted in humiliation, under duress, at an intolerable sacrifice, and would leave a sting, a resentment, a bitter memory upon which the terms of peace would rest, not permanently, but only as upon quicksand… Woodrow Wilson

The sheer and utter lunacy of Wilson’s statement has infected American strategic thinking for over a century now and has seen countless American lives lost in its bargain with cowardice. Our “allies” have been only too happy to let us do the heavy lifting and our enemies have calculated and then rejoiced at policies based on an idea that would have been considered treasonable in an earlier age. Rather than showing pictures of the British victory parades we allow the more somber pictures of the World War I American cemeteries in Europe to accompany this description.

1918 : a very British victory London : Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2008      Peter Hart World War, 1914-1918  Campaigns Hardcover. 1st. ed., later printing. [vii], 552 p., [16] p. of plates : ill., maps, ports. ; 24 cm.  Includes bibliographical references and index.  Clean, tight and strong binding with clean dust jacket. No highlighting, underlining or marginalia in text. VG/VG   

BROOKWOOD AMERICAN CEMETERY AND MEMORIAL

In the spring of 1918 the German army launched a series of devastating offensives against the French and British lines on the Western Front. This vivid account captures the desperation of ordinary British soldiers fighting with their backs to the wall as they clung on to their fragile lines.

SURESNES AMERICAN CEMETERY AND MEMORIAL

Warfare of an epic scale was fought on the Western Front, where ordinary soldiers faced the final test of their training, tactics and determination. That they withstood the storm and, with the infusion of American blood – literally – began an astonishing counterattack, is proof that by 1918, the British army, though barely able to save itself was able to claim the ultimate victory at a devastating cost.

Drawing on the dramatic personal accounts of men who were there – both commanders and ordinary soldiers – the narrative brings to life the sheer suspense of waiting for the German attack, the desperate turmoil of the retreat, and the nail-biting turning of the tide that brought an end to the war. As a chronicle of the vast offensives of 1918, this history is so much of an exercise in self adulation by the British and so lacking in recording the American contribution that it is not difficult to see why it found a British publisher or why it didn’t find an American one.