Overview

General Fritz von Lossberg (1868--1942) directed virtually all the major German defensive battles on the Western Front during the First World War. Hailed as ""the Lion of the Defensive,"" he was an extremely influential military tactician and, unlike many other operations officers of his era, was quick to grasp the changes wrought by technology. Now available for the first time in English, Lossberg's memoir explains how he developed, tested, and implemented his central principles -- flexibility, decentralized control, and counterattack -- which were based on a need to adapt to shifting conditions on the battlefield. Lossberg first put his theory of elastic defense combined with defense-in-depth into practice during the Battle of Arras (April--May 1917), where it succeeded. At the Battle of Passchendaele (June--November 1917), his achievements on the field proved the feasibility of his strategy of employing a thinly manned front line that minimized the number of soldiers exposed to artillery fire. Lossberg's tactical modernizations have become essential components of army doctrine, and Lossberg's War: The World War I Memoirs of A German Chief of Staff will take readers inside the mind of one of the most significant military innovators of the twentieth century.

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9780813169804

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Reviews

This memoir is arguably the best of its genre: objectively presented, seeking explanations as opposed to assigning blame, eschewing the backbiting and recriminations that increasingly permeated the German high command as defeat loomed ever larger. - Michael Neiberg, author of Dance of the Furies: Europe and the Outbreak of World War I David Zabecki brings a lifetime of real military experience as well as deep understandings of Germany, command, staff work, and World War I, among other themes contained herein. He has worked in the archives at Freiburg more often than probably any other non-German and can therefore put Lossberg into his widest historical context. - Dennis Showalter, author of Instrument of War: The German Army 1914 - 18

Author Information

Maj. Gen. David T. Zabecki, editor of Vietnam magazine and author of several military history books, served as an infantry rifleman in Vietnam. After earning his commission, he was an operations officer, intelligence officer, and a chief of staff. In 2003 he was the senior security adviser on the U.S. co-ordinating and Monitoring Mission in Israel. He lives in Germany.

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