World War I stands as a watershed in the evolution of modern warfare, with the development of sophisticated trench systems forming a battlefield over 400 miles long, innovations in weaponry and equipment and the introduction of tanks in battle. Without the ordinary soldier, however, there could have been no war: the Great War was very much a conflict of infantrymen – the largely forgotten masses of Tommies, Fritzes, Poilus and Doughboys. With a foreword by renowned World War I historian Gary Sheffield, War on the Western Front examines the day-to-day lives of these men as they fought and died in the trenches, from their recruitment and training to combat experience, vividly recounting the shock of life on ‘the front’. It also provides an extensive re-assessment of trench warfare, a revolutionary tactic that challenged the very idea of war, and details developments in weaponry and armoured vehicles, including terrifying innovations in the use of poison gas, flamethrowers and tanks.

Gary Sheffield is Professor of War Studies at the University of Birmingham. He has published widely on military history, especially the First World War. His books include Douglas Haig: War Diaries and Letters 1914-18, co-edited with John Bourne (2005); the bestselling Forgotten Victory: The First World War - Myths and Realities (2001); and Leadership in the Trenches (2000). Previously he was Professor of Modern History at King's College London, a post held concurrently with that of Land Warfare Historian on the Higher Command and Staff Course at the UK's Joint Services Command and Staff College. A Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Gary Sheffield is currently writing two books: Douglas Haig and the British Army, and Citizen Army, an examination of the experience of the ordinary British and Commonwealth soldier in the Second World War. He frequently broadcasts on television and radio, and writes for a variety of newspapers, journals and magazines.