Published by Pen & Sword, June 2009

I was approached by e-mail by Chris Summerville, a commissioning editor working for Pen and Sword on their ‘Campaign Chronicles’ series. This is a useful series covering famous campaigns and battles in a sort of sequential timeline, with factual modules and solid appendices to give a god basic understanding of the strategy and tactics involved. Chris himself had written a very good study of Napoleon’s campaign in Poland 1806-07. I can only assume that they had got the message that I was am specialist in the fighting on the Western Front and we entered into a discussion on whether I could do something on the Ypres Salient.

The series had already covered Third Ypres 1917, and Ian Beckett had but recently published a study of First Ypres 1914. This left an obvious gap – Second Ypres 1915, made famous by the Germans introducing poison gas into the joys of modern warfare. There had been some general studies of gas warfare but nothing specifically on this series of battles for some time. I duly signed the contract and had about a year to produce a 60,000 word text.

It was a fascinating topic. I was broadly familiar with the basic outline of the campaign, was deeply immersed in the regimental and battalion histories of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and, coincidentally, had but recently sat through two lectures on different aspects of gas warfare. It helped that I have conducted several battlefield tours for Holts Tours in the Ypres Salient and knew the ground well.

After introductory chapters on the origins of the Ypres salient and the German decision to use poison gas, I wrote the chapters on the battle as it unfolded through April and May 1916. I was pleased to make sue that the contribution of the French and Belgian forces involved got proper attention and also tried, space permitting, to see it al from the German point of view. But mainly I built up a picture of this desperate fighting from the perspective of the British, Canadian and Indian battalions thrown piecemeal into the fight. There were colourful images, tragic and heroic by turns, that made it a great experience to write up.

I rounded off by discussing the morality of gas warfare, its relative effectiveness in the Great War, and the tactics of this battle and subsequent battles on the Western Front. The generalship of the day was discussed, and I came down very hard on Ferdinand Foch and Sir John French for their propensity for relentless, and truly pointless, counter-attacks that caused so much of the Allied losses. I don’t usually, and never lightly, point the finger of blame at generals making decisions in the heat of battle, but these two could have handled things very much better at the time.

So, greatly assisted by the excellent copy editing skills of Pamela Covey, I think I produced a useful contribution to our understanding of an interesting battle and a significant development of the way the Great War was fought on the Western Front. Reviews have been noticeable by their absence!! I have only received notice of one so far, by a Greek writer in their journal, Military History, which understood the point of the book very well indeed, covering all the salient points (forgive the pun). It concludes: “Lee has written a very well documented book that follows the battle at the operational and battalion level. His book should be of interest to military career officers and history buffs alike”.

In the first talks with Chris Summerville I had pointed out the most neglected aspects of Ypres were the two battles fought in 1918. I have since been commissioned to write a full history of al the fighting in the Ypres Salient from 1914 to 1918, in a similar style to this book. It will materialise in 2012.