The battles fought at Estaires and Givenchy, just south of
Ypres, in April 1918 were critical episodes
in the larger Battle of Lys which determined the outcome of the ultimate German
offensive on the Western Front. The massive assault of Ludendorff’s armies
crashed against defences manned by the British and Portuguese. A series of
intense attacks and counter-attacks followed, and the Germans were on verge of
gaining the decisive breakthrough that both sides on the Western Front had
struggled for since the onset of trench warfare in late 1914. A German success
might well have forced the British to retreat from Ypres.
Phil Tomaselli’s vivid account reconstructs events in the typical
Battleground style. He describes the course of the fighting in close detail,
using eyewitness accounts, official records, photographs and maps, and he
provides walking and driving tours of the battlefield and of the monuments and
cemeteries associated with it.
