The Germans at Thiepval

Jack Sheldon

Sep 2006 · Casemate Publishers

About this ebook

Ninety years after the Battle of the Somme was fought, visitors continue to flock in very large numbers to the massive Memorial to the Missing at Thiepval, site of a bitter three-month struggle during the summer of 1916. This book explains in detail how, from the autumn of 1914 onwards, the German defenders turned this key feature into a virtually impregnable position, from which they were able for weeks on end to repulse every attempt to capture it. Drawing on original maps, photographs and personal accounts of the German defenders, the reader is taken stage by stage through the battles for the German front line between Ovillers and Saint Pierre Divion, during the two years from September 1914 to September 1916. It explains why the British attacks of 1st July 1916 failed so catastrophically, and culminates with an account of its eventual loss at the end of September 1916.

About the author

Educated at Inverness Royal Academy, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and the Universities of Lancaster and Westminster, Jack Sheldon completed a thirty-five year career as a member of the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment.

In 1982 he graduated from the German General Staff course at the Führungsakademie, Hamburg and went on to fill international staff appointments and to command an infantry training battalion. His final post before retirement in 2003 was as Military Attaché Berlin.

He now lives in France and has rapidly established himself as an expert in German First World War history. He was an honorary researcher for the Thiepval Visitor Centre Project, is a member of the British Commission for Military History and is the author of the highly acclaimed The German Army on the Somme 1914 – 1916, The German Army at Passchendaele and a number of Battleground Europe titles.