We have taken the opportunity with our 2021 editions of the OFFICIAL HISTORY OF THE GREAT WAR – FRANCE AND BELGIUM series to redesign the covers and print on 140g silk paper. This official history was the grandest ever produced in Britain, and its purpose was to provide “within reasonable compass an authoritative account, suitable for general readers and for students at military schools”. Due to the number of full-colour maps bound in each volume, previous attempts to reprint this valuable reference either floundered, or were produced with the maps in monochrome. At last, the acclaimed work of the official cartographers who had 90,000 maps at their command can be examined as they intended – in full colour.
France and Belgium 1918. Vol V. 26th September – 11th November. The Advance to Victory. OFFICIAL HISTORY OF THE GREAT WAR.
This volume covers the final phase of the war on the Western Front. The British Army operations can be divided into three main parts: Fourth and Third Armies and the right wing of the First in the south – Canal du Nord, Selle, Sambre; Second Army’s separate offensive in Flanders; and the advance of Fifth Army and the left of First which formed the connecting link between the other two, co-operating from time to time in the battles of its neighbours. To complete the picture the activities of the American, Belgian and French Armies are described briefly in notes at the end of various chapters.