The Battle of the Lys, 1918

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 defenses manned by the British and Portuguese. A series of intense attacks and counterattacks followed, and the Germans were on the 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 Tomasellis 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.