The Smoke and the Fire: Myths and Anti-Myths of War 1861-1945

Did the tanks really "win" World War I? Was the machine-gun the "most lethal weapon"? Were all British generals really cavalrymen? Did generals have no better idea than to throw thousands of men against impregnable defences to make a gap for cavalry to ride through, knee-to-knee? Was World War I the most deadly in history? The mythology which surrounds the 1914-1918 war to this day embraces all these myths and more. This book argues that the truth can be approached only by looking at that war in the light of the others which really resemble it - the American Civil War and World War II. These three were the life-and-death struggles fought with the technology of the first Industrial Revolution. What are the links between Abraham Lincoln, David Lloyd George, Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt? What connects Robert E. Lee, Marshal Foch and General Douglas MacArthur? What is the inner nature of the wars in which they all took part? These questions and others are addressed here by John Terraine.