
The Last Battle
Victory, Defeat, and the End of World War I
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
3 months free
Buy for $21.49
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Julian Elfer
-
By:
-
Peter Hart
Author of The Great War, as well as celebrated accounts of the battles of the Somme, Passchendaele, Jutland, and Gallipoli, historian Peter Hart now turns to World War One's final months.
Much has been made of - and written about - August 1914. There has been comparatively little focus on August 1918 and the lead-up to November. Because of the fixation on the Great War's opening moves and the great battles that followed over the course of the next four years, the endgame seems to come as a stunning anticlimax. At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the guns simply fell silent.
The Last Battle definitively corrects this misperception. As Hart shows, a number of factors precipitated the Armistice.
After four years of bloodshed, Germany was nearly bankrupt, and there was a growing rift between the military High Command and political leadership. But it also remained a determined combatant, and France and Great Britain had equally been stretched to their limits; Russia had abandoned the conflict in the late winter of 1918.
However complex the causes of Germany's ultimate defeat, Allied success on the Western Front, as Hart reveals, tipped the scales - the triumphs at the Fifth Battle of Ypres, the Sambre, the Selle, and the Meuse-Argonne, where American forces made arguably their greatest contribution. The offensives cracked the Hindenburg Line and wore down the German resistance, precipitating collapse.
Final victory came at great human cost and involved the combined efforts of millions of men. Using the testimony of a range of participants, from the Doughboys, Tommies, German infantrymen, and French poilus who did the fighting, to those in command during those last days and weeks, Hart brings intimacy and sweep to the events that led to November 11, 1918.
©2018 Peter Hart (P)2018 TantorListeners also enjoyed...




















Critic reviews
"Well written, with an exceptional collection of personal narratives, this book provides a fascinating look at the last four months of World War I." (New York Journal of Books)
People who viewed this also viewed...




Peter Hart was a Canadian oral historian as well as an author of many books on WW1, and this book is his tribute to the BEF and all the soldiers who contributed to the final success in a Europe that was devastated from over four years of trench fighting. This was his latest book as he had worked since 1981 at the Imperial War Museum. I would ask you to listen carefully to his final words as Peter Hart passed in 2010. The reader Julian Elfer a British born NYC actor has over 50 titles to his credit. His natural British accent fits perfectly into this tribute. I have listened to the audiobook several times and each time I seem to come away with a new perspective, I would say a better perspective and appreciation for the entire narrative. Well done Gentlemen, well done!
Is it over yet?
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Julian Elfer's narration is spectacular. He couldn't be better, and he's perfect for this work.
Excellent Summation of the End of WWI
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.