Strategy and Command

The Anglo-French Coalition on the Western Front, 1915

Roy A. Prete

• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9780228006640
• eBook ISBN:
  9780228007708
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: History

Falling between the "War of Movement" in 1914 and the major attrition battles of 1916, 1915 was a critical year in the First World War. As France failed in ever-larger offensives to break through the German trenches, Britain shifted its strategy from defence of empire to total commitment to the continental war.

In the second of three planned volumes, Roy Prete analyzes the political and military policies and strategies of Britain and France and their joint command relationship on the Western Front in 1915. The opposing strategies of the two governments proved to be the main determinant in the sometimes ragged relations between the French commander-in-chief, Joseph Joffre, and his British counterpart, Sir John French, as they sought to drive the German army out of France and to aid their hard-pressed Russian ally. With an impressive marshalling of evidence, Strategy and Command demonstrates that the increased British commitment to the continental war, manifested in sending Kitchener's New Armies to France in 1915, was largely due to the disastrous situation of the Russian army on the Eastern Front and the perceived weakness of the French government.

Based on extensive research in French and British political and military archives, this new in-depth study of Anglo-French military relations on the Western Front in 1915 fills a major gap in the unfolding drama of the First World War.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Illustrations
• Maps
• Abbreviations
• Preface
• 1 Setting the Stage: The Political and Military Background
• 2 Trench Warfare: Strategic Re-Evaluation and the Zeebrugge-Ostend Coastal Plan, December 1914–13 January 1915
• 3 Conflicting Strategies: The 29th Division and Neuve Chapelle, 14 January–13 March 1915
• 4 Planning the Spring Offensive and the Command Issue, 14 March–21 April 1915
• 5 Second Ypres and Joint Planning for the Artois Offensive, 22 April–8 May 1915
• 6 Operations: The Artois Offensive, 9 May–25 June 1915
• 7 Catalyst for Change: Impact of the Artois Offensive
• 8 Strategic Conflict: The Calais and Chantilly Conferences, July 1915
• 9 Objections to Loos and British Strategic Reversal, July–August 1915
• 10 Operations: The Loos and Artois-Champagne Offensive, September–October 1915
• 11 Salonika, Egypt, and the Western Front, September–December 1915
• 12 Preparation for 1916: Leadership Changes and Strategic Coordination
• 13 Reflections and Conclusions
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index