Haigs Enemy, Jonathan Boff
Haigs Enemy, Jonathan Boff
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Haig's Enemy
Crown Prince Rupprecht and Germany's War on the Western Front

Author: Jonathan Boff

Narrator: Julian Elfer

Unabridged: 10 hr 46 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 12/25/2018


Synopsis

During the First World War, the British army's most consistent German opponent was Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria. Commanding more than a million men as a General, and then Field Marshal, in the Imperial German Army, he held off the attacks of the British Expeditionary Force under Sir John French and then Sir Douglas Haig for four long years. But Rupprecht was to lose not only the war, but his son and his throne.

In Haig's Enemy, Jonathan Boff explores the tragic tale of Rupprecht's war—the story of a man caught under the wheels of modern industrial warfare. Providing a fresh viewpoint on the history of the Western Front, Boff draws on extensive research in the German archives to offer a history of the First World War from the other side of the barbed wire. He revises conventional explanations of why the Germans lost with an in-depth analysis of the nature of command, and of the institutional development of the British, French, and German armies as modern warfare was born. Using Rupprecht's own diaries and letters, many of them never before published, Haig's Enemy views the Great War through the eyes of one of Germany's leading generals, shedding new light on many of the controversies of the Western Front.


About Jonathan Boff

Jonathan Boff is a Senior Lecturer in History and War Studies at the University of Birmingham, where he teaches courses on conflict from Homer to Helmand. He specializes in the First World War and his book, Winning and Losing on the Western Front: The British Third Army and the Defeat of Germany in 1918 was short-listed for the Templer Medal and for the British Army Book of the Year award. He was educated at Merton College, Oxford and the Department of War Studies, King's College London and spent twenty years working in finance before returning to academia. He serves on the councils of the National Army Museum and Army Records Society, has worked as a historical consultant with the British Army and the BBC, and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Anthony on February 13, 2023

Bringing the ‘Other-side’ to Life. It is a truth universally acknowledged that an English speaking historian is in want of more history of the Central Powers point of view in the First World War. Johnathan Boff, here tries to deliver this, a point of view and history Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria......more

Goodreads review by Bill on December 11, 2018

Rupprecht, the Crown Prince of Bavaria, commanded the Kingdom’s army on the Western Front throughout the First World War. Under the Imperial system, his forces were under the command of OKH – the army Supreme Command – which meant ultimately the Hindenburg/Ludendorff duo. In the postwar, a former co......more

Goodreads review by Liam on January 22, 2025

Excellent book for English language readers because it looks at WWI via one of the major German generals (and he was a real commanding officer unlike many other royals in uniform). For far too long those of us without reading ability in other languages have had UK-centric view of WWI, a very skewere......more

Goodreads review by Chrisorc on February 19, 2023

Boken förutsätter att du har ganska bra koll på första världskriget. Boken nämner att det dyker upp massa nya divisioner på västfronten efter mars 1918 men förklarar inte varför. Du förväntas själv veta att det var för att ryssarna signerat fred med Tyskland. Jag tycker också att fokuset på själva hu......more

Goodreads review by Simon on December 28, 2024

Haig’s Enemy covers the World War One career of a general that is often mentioned in British texts but rarely given much agency. Credit to Boff for remedying that… …mostly. The minor issues are: 1. Rupprecht’s impact peaks in August 1914 when he drives forward with his Sixth Army rather than pulling......more