11th Month 11th Day 11th Hour : Armistice Day, 1918 World War I and Its Violent Climax Persico, Joseph E.
327527 Random House Inc Westminster, Maryland, U.S.A. 2004 First Edition Dust Jacket New Hard Cover New 456 pages index biblio notes b/w photos - November 11, 1918. The final hours pulsate with tension as every man in the trenches hopes to escape the melancholy distinction of being the last to die in World War I. The Allied generals knew the fighting would end precisely at 11:00 A.M., yet in the final hours they flung men against an already beaten Germany. The result? Eleven thousand casualties suffered - more than during the D-Day invasion of Normandy. Why? Allied commanders wanted to punish the enemy to the very last moment and career officers saw a fast-fading chance for glory and promotion. The pointless fighting on the last day of the war is the perfect metaphor for the four years that preceded it, years of senseless slaughter for hollow purposes. This book is sure to become the definitive history of the end of a conflict Winston Churchill called "the hardest, cruelest, and least-rewarded of all the wars that have been fought." ISBN: 0375508252 $50.00AUD Click here to order or message the dealer
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