`A Moonlight Massacre' - the Night Operation on the Passchendaele Ridge, 2 December 1917: The Forgotten Last Act of the Third B

Description

The Third Battle of Ypres was officially terminated by Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig with the opening of the Battle of Cambrai on 20 November 1917. Nevertheless, a comparatively unknown set-piece attack - the only large-scale night operation carried out on the Flanders front during the campaign - was launched twelve days later on 2 December. This volume is a necessary corrective to previously published campaign narratives of what has become popularly known as `Passchendaele'. It examines the course of events from the mid-November decision to sanction further offensive activity in the vicinity of Passchendaele village to the barren operational outcome that forced British GHQ to halt the attack within ten hours of Zero. A litany of unfortunate decisions and circumstances contributed to the profitless result. At the tactical level, a novel hybrid set-piece attack scheme was undermined by a fatal combination of snow-covered terrain and bright moonlight. At the operational level, the highly unsatisfactory local situation in the immediate aftermath of Third Ypres' post-strategic phase (26 October-10 November) appeared to offer no other alternative to attacking from the confines of an extremely vulnerable salient. Perhaps the most tragic aspect of the affair occurred at the political and strategic level, where Haig's earnest advocacy for resumption of the Flanders offensive in spring 1918 was maintained despite obvious signs that the initiative had now passed to the enemy and the crisis of the war was fast approaching. "A Moonlight Massacre" provides an important contribution and re-interpretation of the discussion surrounding Passchendaele, based firmly on an extensive array of sources, many unpublished, and supported by illustrations and maps.

In this work Michael LoCicero reveals the tragic story of the long forgotten night action that was the final act of the Third Battle of Ypres, 1917. Combining meticulous research with vivid prose, LoCicero explores operations at the highest level without ever losing sight of how this affected the officers and men in the front line. Gripping, thought-provoking and admirably measured, this superb book is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the British Army of the First World War. * University of Wolverhampton 01/11/2014 * In this fine book, Michael LoCicero has painstakingly reconstructed a hitherto forgotten episode of First World War history. Thanks to him, we are able to look at the Passchendaele campaign through new eyes. * University of Wolverhampton 01/11/2014 * A scholarly and highly detailed new operational study of a little-known action which was a postscript to the Third Battle of Ypres. With this book, Michael LoCicero has shed much fresh light on the BEF's command, planning and tactics in late 1917. * University of Wolverhampton 01/11/2014 * ... a mightily impressive book. It sets a standard for anyone wishing to describe and analyse a military operation ... * Long Long Trail 16/03/2015 * This meticulously researched account of the last, forgotten, phase of the Third Battle of Ypres, utilising German as well as British sources, provides a detailed insight into why First World War battles were launched, how they were organised at every level and why they so often disappointed the hopes of their planners. * Western Front Association 01/11/2014 *