To Win a War

This book is a classic narrative history of the last year of the First World War. Author John Terraine was associate producer and chief screenwriter of the 1963‒64 BBC TV documentary The Great War. He was the founder and President of the Western Front Association, a member of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

For the weary Allies, 1918 was truly a year of victories ‒ and at last, the final triumph. First came the defensive victories of the British and the French against the last desperate offensive launched by the Germans in the spring. Then came the turning point of Foch’s counter-offensive on the Marne followed by Haig’s great attack on 8 August, the black day of the German Army, the breaking of the Hindenburg Line and the pursuit of the defeated German Army across the wasteland of war.

This challenging and perceptive book gives honour where it is due: to a victorious British Army in 1918.