The Great Retreat of 1914
From Mons to the Marne
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Narrated by:
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Philip Franks
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By:
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Spencer Jones
About this listen
August 1914: In the sweltering heat, the fate of Europe hangs in the balance. Germany is hurling her forces into a carefully planned invasion of Belgium and France. Bound by an 1839 treaty to protect Belgium from any invader, Britain came to its defence.
With the British Expeditionary Force numbering just 120,000 men, and dwarfed by the vast manpower of Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm II remains unfazed by this ‘contemptible little army'. But the BEF was, man for man, the best trained army in Europe. It was led by tough and experienced officers who had learned their brutal trade in fierce colonial warfare. Their combat performance in 1914 would cement their place in history. Within days of the BEF’s deployment, the full weight of the German invasion crashed into the thin British line. Faced with overwhelming enemy numbers, and battling alongside unreliable French allies, the BEF was forced into The Great Retreat. The Great Retreat is the story of this desperate battle for survival. While Germany was attempting to crush France in one fell swoop, the Allies desperately sought time and space so that they could mount a counterattack to stem the tide.
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On July 5, 1943, the greatest land battle in history began when Nazi and Red Army forces clashed near the town of Kursk, on the western border of the Soviet Union. Code named Operation Citadel, the German offensive would cut through the bulge in the eastern front that had been created following Germany's retreat at the battle of Stalingrad. But the Soviets, well informed about Germany's plans through their network of spies, had months to prepare.
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Good enough
- By Val Shebeko on 05-28-15
By: Lloyd Clark
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Three Armies on the Somme
- The First Battle of the Twentieth Century
- By: William Philpott
- Narrated by: James Adams
- Length: 26 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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On July 1, 1916, British and French forces launched the first attack on the German armies lined up along the Somme in what was to become the defining battle of World War I. To this day, July 1 is often remembered for being the bloodiest day in British military history. Indeed, the British suffered some 62,000 casualties in that one day of fighting alone. As gruesome as that statistic is, it's just one of the many dark legacies left by the Somme Offensive.
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An insightful and exhaustive analysis of the Somme
- By Anthony on 06-07-12
By: William Philpott
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1918
- A Very British Victory
- By: Peter Hart
- Narrated by: Clive Mantle, Peter Hart
- Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
- Abridged
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This epic account of the events of 1918 is the first major reappraisal of the end of the war for more than 20 years, and describes what is in some respects a forgotten chapter in history. The soldiers who returned to Britain in November 1918 were not the martyrs or victims of popular memory - they were a victorious army and were greeted as heroes.
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1918: a one sided twisting of history
- By Maarten Demont on 02-03-19
By: Peter Hart
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Bloody Spring
- Forty Days That Sealed the Confederacy's Fate
- By: Joseph Wheelan
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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In the spring of 1864, Robert E. Lee faced a new adversary: Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant. Named commander of all Union armies in March, Grant quickly went on the offensive against Lee in Virginia. On May 4th, Grant's army struck hard across the Rapidan River into north central Virginia, with Lee's army contesting every mile. They fought for 40 days until, finally, the Union army crossed the James River and began the siege of Petersburg. The campaign cost 90,000 men - the largest loss the war had seen.
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Skip this! Get Catton's Stillness at Appomattox
- By BVerité on 10-19-14
By: Joseph Wheelan
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The Civil War: A Narrative, Volume I, Fort Sumter to Perryville
- By: Shelby Foote
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 42 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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The Civil War: A Narrative, Volume 1 begins one of the most remarkable works of history ever fashioned. All the great battles are here, of course, from Bull Run through Shiloh, the Seven Days Battles, and Antietam, but so are the smaller ones: Ball's Bluff, Fort Donelson, Pea Ridge, Island Ten, New Orleans, and Monitor versus Merrimac.
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OUTSTANDING! I'M PROUD TO BE A BLACK AMERICAN!!
- By The Louligan on 08-22-13
By: Shelby Foote
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Waterloo
- The History of Four Days, Three Armies, and Three Battles
- By: Bernard Cornwell
- Narrated by: Bernard Cornwell, Dugald Bruce Lockhart
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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From the New York Times best-selling author comes the definitive history of one of the greatest battles ever fought - a riveting nonfiction chronicle published to commemorate the two-hundredth anniversary of Napoleon's last stand.
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Not a close run thing!
- By carl801 on 05-13-15
By: Bernard Cornwell
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On to Petersburg
- Grant and Lee, June 4-15, 1864
- By: Gordon C. Rhea
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 16 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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On to Petersburg follows the Union army's movement to the James River, the military response from the Confederates, and the initial assault on Petersburg, which Rhea suggests marked the true end of the Overland Campaign. Beginning his account in the immediate aftermath of Grant's three-day attack on Confederate troops at Cold Harbor, Rhea argues that the Union general's primary goal was not - as often supposed - to take Richmond, but rather to destroy Lee's army by closing off its retreat routes and disrupting its supply chain.
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Important to understanding the Overland Campaign
- By Jimbo on 12-29-19
By: Gordon C. Rhea
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Lee and His Men at Gettysburg
- The Death of a Nation
- By: Clifford Dowdey
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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In this sweeping account Clifford Dowdey recreates one of the most important battles in U.S. history. With vivid and breathtaking detail, Lee and His Men at Gettysburg is both a historical work and an honorary ode to the almost 50,000 soldiers who died at the fields of Pennsylvania. Written with an emphasis on the Confederate forces, the book captures the brilliance and frustration of a general forced to contend with overwhelming odds and in-competent subordinates.
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Solid book
- By Scooter Reviews on 12-08-17
By: Clifford Dowdey
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The Battle of Leipzig: The History and Legacy of the Biggest Battle of the Napoleonic Wars
- By: Charles River Editors
- Narrated by: Phillip J. Mather
- Length: 1 hr and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Two military setbacks, on a scale unprecedented in history, were required before the high tide of Napoleon's success began to ebb towards the final denouement of the Hundred Days and the famous Battle of Waterloo. The failed Russian invasion set the stage for the second defeat at Leipzig, which essentially sealed the fate of Napoleon's empire. The four-day Battle of Leipzig in October 1813, dubbed the "Battle of the Nations", essentially determined the course the Napoleonic Wars took from that moment forward.
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Kennesaw Mountain
- Sherman, Johnston, and the Atlanta Campaign
- By: Earl J. Hess
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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While fighting his way toward Atlanta, William T. Sherman encountered his biggest roadblock at Kennesaw Mountain, where Joseph E. Johnston’s Army of Tennessee held a heavily fortified position. The opposing armies confronted each other from June 19 to July 3, 1864, and Sherman initially tried to outflank the Confederates. His men endured heavy rains, artillery duels, sniping, and a fierce battle at Kolb’s Farm before Sherman decided to attack Johnston’s position directly on June 27.
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Thorough and detailed.
- By MAC24211 on 09-06-20
By: Earl J. Hess
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To the Gates of Richmond
- The Peninsula Campaign
- By: Stephen Sears
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
- Length: 17 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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It was the largest campaign ever attempted in the Civil War: the Peninsula campaign of 1862. General George McClellan planned to advance from Yorktown up the Virginia Peninsula and destroy the Rebel army in its own capital. But with Robert E. Lee delivering blows to the Union army, McClellan’s plan fell through at the gates of Richmond.
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Magnificent chronicle of mismanagement
- By Triceracop on 10-08-13
By: Stephen Sears
What listeners say about The Great Retreat of 1914
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- Rory
- 01-26-23
Good summary of early war BEF actions
Good summary including small actions that are usually overlooked in most histories. Good reader. Recommended.
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- Phebe
- 10-23-16
History as National Celebration
This short history is about a crucial period at the beginning of World War I when the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), sent over to help the French repel the German invasions of France, was grossly outnumbered and overwhelmed and retreated for many miles, with the aim of taking ship and returning to England. It is beautifully read by Philip Frank, who is wonderful with British class accents, and entertains himself and us with stagey German and French accents on a few occasions. He does an unctuous and jingoistic delivery, which this book richly deserves.
I keep thinking the title is The Long Retreat of 1914, because there is surely nothing "great" about a retreat, especially this one, which verged on a rout (a rout is when the soldiers throw away their gear and run for it: these soldiers mostly kept their rifles, but threw away less essential equipment). I have the West Point maps and when I was studying the pre-Marne battlefields, I spent a memorable long time looking for the BEF and couldn't find them, couldn't find them anywhere in the area of concern north and east of Paris. Finally by accident my eye lit on a small circle many tens of miles south of Paris, all alone -- and there they were! What were they doing way down there?? Reading informed me that they were heading home on the hop: Field Marshall French was bugging out and had already notified the ports to have ships ready to bring the BEF back to England and out of this hopeless war. Kitchener met with him in Paris and turned him around perforce: it was not British government policy to leave the fighting in France after having promised to join in. No one knows what Kitchener said to French: everyone badly wishes we did know. It was bound to have been juicy.
Spencer Jones has the conventional prejudices: all the higher-up officers were incompetent and idiotic, except of course Smith-Dorian, everyone's hero, who stood and fought at Le Cateau, protecting the retreat, when French ordered him to cut and run. French never forgave Smith-Dorian for being right and brave, just as Joffre never forgave the French counterpart, General Lanrezac, who retreated about the same time as the BEF from overwhelming German pressure, after repeatedly for days telling the unbelieving Joffre that the Germans were coming in from the north, through Belgium, not from the west where the Kaiser was showily parading around on a white horse. It is annoying when other people are right and we are wrong, but history does not forget the people who punish the ones who were right.
For the rest, the author justifies everything that happened. All the mutinies, all the refusals, the surrenders, the pell-mell retreat, in one case 35 miles in a day. Jones argues that this was all really well done and was for the best, seen properly. Also, Jones says, because of being afraid of the BEF (retreating), von Bulow asked von Kluck to narrow the gap between their armies, and therefore von Kluck did not make the encirclement of Paris, catching Paris in a sack as the Schlieffen Plan called for. Hmmmmmm....I never heard THAT one, and while it is an interesting idea, I had understood that the failure to follow the plan was because of their outrunning the German supply lines. Also, Jones says that when the BEF finally made it back up to the Marne more or less in time for the crucial battle, see, it was really because of the British that the battle of the Marne was won, see. No Frenchman has ever believed that, and nowadays in history forums the French tend to say the British were superfluous at the Marne and could have been dispensed with entirely. Of course, they would say that, but still ----- this work is history as national celebration. I thought historians weren't supposed to be doing that anymore.
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