Fatal Avenue: Traveller's History of the Battlefields of Northern France and Flanders, 1346-1945

Fatal Avenue: Traveller's History of the Battlefields of Northern France and Flanders, 1346-1945

by RichardHolmes (Author)

Synopsis

Charles de Gaulle called it "fatal avenue". He was referring to that broad sweep of low-lying country stretching from the Channel coast of Normandy in the west to the valley of the Moselle on the eastern flank, and from Paris northwards to Flanders. Over the centuries invading armies have swept back and forth over this bloody terrain, and the names of the bitter battles fought here read like a dictionary of military history: Agincourt and Arras, Bethune and Bapaume, Calais and Crecy - through to Verdun, Vimy and Ypres. Evidence of a martial past is never far away. It is a landscape speckled with military architecture from every epoch: medieval walls, Vauban's forts, ravelins and lunettes, to the concrete and cupolas of the 20th century. This book is not only a military history of Northern France and Flanders from 1337 and 1945, but also a guide to the battles and campaigns, the geography of the terrain that was fought over, the tactics that were employed by the respective armies, and the weaponry they used. The author also wrote "The World Atlas of Warfare", "Firing Line" and "Nuclear Warriors".

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 376
Edition: New edition
Publisher: Pimlico
Published: 07 Oct 1993

ISBN 10: 0712658351
ISBN 13: 9780712658355

Media Reviews
Enthralling information on everything from archery to fortification, and from strategy to ecology . . . Holmes presents each battle plan, its weapons, its fighting techniques, its architecture in the shape of forts, redoubts, trenches, its management, its results, and then takes the reader through the terrain as it exists today.
-Ronald Blythe
Exceedingly well written . . . Richard Holmes is equally sure-footed when dealing with the human element, writing with equal conviction about Joan of Arc, Marlborough, Napoleon, Haig, Foch, Ludendorff, Montgomery, Eisenhower and many others.
-Martin Fagge