Introduction

This book or more accurately guide is for those who want to experience a battleground tour, but with an extra dimension. If you want to go beyond the classic kind of tour, you will find this book very informative. Even if you are not able to travel and conduct a tour in person, you can get a sense of what happened during this campaign.

Review

This book is written by Christina Holstein, published by Pen and Sword and is but one of over 160 books in the Battleground Series, this title consists of 186 pages on good quality paper, with many black and white period photographs and maps, a glossy soft back cover and easy to read text. This book covers four battleground tours as follows:

Tour 1 - Bois des Caures, Beaumont and Wavrille Hill
Tour 2 - Azannes-et-Soumazannes, Herbebois, Chemin St Andre
Tour 3 - Damloup Battery, La Laufee, Chenois and Fumin Sectors
Tour 4 - St Michel Ridge, Ravin de la Poudriere, Ravin de Brazil, La Caillette, Fleury, The Louse

This books purpose is as an informative and visual guide for someone taking a battlefield tour, while that is the case this book also offers a level of information to make it of interest to someone who cannot attend a battlefield tour in Europe. This particular book covers the four tours listed above, and covers four battles that took place over the course of 1916, in and around Verdun. There are a number of period photographs within the book, which will bring an added dimension to those on a tour as it will enable them see what it was like at the time of the battles and what it is like now. Due to these events having taken place over 100 years ago the photographs within the book really help the viewer to see what it was like to live fight and die within this sphere on conflict.

There are a number of GPS way points included in the tour book which will prove their worth as isolated areas are visited and this can add another dimension to your visit. The way points appear in the text within brackets and as bold numbers within the maps. This guide gives you the sense that the real places to visit are the forests and dug outs where the unimaginable happened. This guide is well written and easy to follow. This guide also contains snippets of firsthand accounts of what was happening. All timings in this book are given in French time, but the German timings were normally one hour ahead.

Conclusion

This book is a must for those who are thinking of, or those who have already been on a battleground tour. An easy to carry guide book with handy advice and tips. A very useful and informative tool for anyone who wants the experience of a battlefield tour with an added extra dimension. I particularly liked the way the booked introduced you to some of the soldiers who took part in the battle, and were lost but whose remains were not found until 95 years later. For the reader who has not gone on a tour, this book may well encourage you to pack a suitcase and head for a World War One battlefield. For those already going on one of these tours this adds a whole new dimension to the tour.