Germany Ascendant: The Eastern Front 1915

Germany Ascendant: The Eastern Front 1915

by Prit Buttar

Overview

While millions of men died in France and Belgium in 1915, battles equally as large and bloody were being fought on the Eastern Front, as Imperial Germany, Hapsburg Austria-Hungary, and Tsarist Russia clashed on a scale greater than anything seen on the Western Front. These massive offensives were shocking in their scale and intensity, and hugely important. Yet they are largely ignored in the West. Now, with the work of internationally renowned Eastern Front expert Prit Buttar, this story of the unknown side of World War I is finally being told.

In Germany Ascendant, Buttar examines the critical year of 1915, when Germany launched the great Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive, lead by Field Marshal Mackensen. The move, which started as a minor German operation to relieve their Austro-Hungarian allies, ultimately resulted in the utter collapse of Russian forces from all of Poland and Gallacia, and came tantalizingly close to knocking Russia out of the war altogether. Next the Germans led the invasion of Serbia, leading Britain and France to intervene with ground troops, an operation that ultimately failed.

Yet despite this unbroken string of successes, Germany was still hamstrung by a two-front war. Her every attempt to knock Russia out of the war—military and diplomatic—has failed. The stage was then set for the next phase of the war when Russia launched its own counter-offensive that nearly brought the Central Powers to their knees.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781472807953
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Publication date: 08/18/2015
Series: General Military Series
Pages: 464
Sales rank: 599,252
Product dimensions: 6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Prit Buttar studied medicine in Oxford and London before joining the British Army as a doctor. After leaving the army, he has worked as a GP (General Practitioner), first near Bristol and now in Abingdon, Oxfordshire. He is extensively involved in medical politics, both at the local and national level, and serves on the GP's Committee of the British Medical Association. He appears from time to time on local and national TV and radio, speaking on a variety of medical issues. He contributes regularly to the medical press. An expert on the Eastern Front during both world wars, he is the author the critically acclaimed Battleground Prussia: The Assault on Germany's Eastern Front 1944-45 and Collision of Empires. The author lives in Oxford, England. The author lives in Oxford, England.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations 7

List of Maps 9

Authors Note 10

Dramatis Personae 11

Introduction 16

Chapter 1 The Combatants 27

Chapter 2 The First Carpathian Campaign 57

Chapter 3 Winter in Masuria 78

Chapter 4 Springtime: Slaughter and Disappointment 118

Chapter 5 Mackensen's Breakthrough 157

Chapter 6 The Exploitation 201

Chapter 7 Lemberg 236

Chapter 8 Decisions and Departures 265

Chapter 9 The Great Retreat 293

Chapter 10 Volhynia: The End of the Leash 329

Chapter 11 The Fall of Serbia 361

Chapter 12 The Burden of War 389

Notes 407

Bibliography 427

Index 433

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