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Blade of a Sword

Ernst Jünger and the 73rd Fusilier Regiment on the Western Front, 1914–18

Blade of a Sword cover

Blade of a Sword

Ernst Jünger and the 73rd Fusilier Regiment on the Western Front, 1914–18

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Pre-order. Available Jun 10 2027
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Description

The enthralling story of the German 73rd Fusilier Regiment as it fought through the major campaigns of World War I's Western Front.

Combining traditional military history with a trench-­level soldier's view of the Great War, Dr Matthias Strohn tracks the experiences of an elite German regiment throughout the conflict, following the men who fought and died in the service of what would ultimately prove to be a futile cause.

The German 73rd Fusilier Regiment spent the whole of World War I on the Western Front and was one of the Imperial German Army's most elite units. Starting with the occupation of Liège, it took part in nearly every major campaign in the West, including the Champagne offensives, the Somme, Vimy Ridge, Passchendaele and the Operation Michael offensives.

Using the personal accounts of the soldiers themselves, including Ernst Jünger, author of Storm of Steel, this engrossing story of a regiment at war presents the horror of trench warfare on a human scale, through the eyes of ordinary men-at-arms, as they fought for honour and survival in military history's most brutal theatre of combat.

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  • Page list to go to pages from the print source version
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  • All or substantially all textual matter is arranged in a single logical reading order

Table of Contents

(Subject to confirmation)
1. A normal unit in a normal garrison city?
2. Mobilisation and the first year of the war
3. The 'Lions of L'Esparges': The battles of 1915
4. A new form of warfare: The battle of the Somme
5. Hammer and anvil 1917: Arras, Third Ypres and Cambrai
6. The final push? The German offensives of 1918
7. 'Determined, but without hope': the final months of the war and the battle at Copse 125
8: The end and aftermath of the war
Bibliography
Index

Product details

Published Jun 10 2027
Format Ebook (PDF)
Edition 1st
Pages 240
ISBN 9781472835888
Imprint Osprey Publishing
Illustrations A 16-page black and white plate section.
Series General Military
Short code GNM
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

Matthias Strohn

Dr Matthias Strohn has published widely on 20th-ce…

Resources

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