Germany Ascendant

List of IllustrationsList of MapsAuthor's NoteDramatis PersonaeIntroduction1. The Combatants2. The First Carpathian Campaign3. Winter in Masuria4. Springtime: Slaughter and Disappointment5. Mackensen's Breakthrough6. The Exploitation7. Lemberg8. Decisions and Departures9. The Great Retreat10. Volhynia: The End of the Leash11. The Fall of Serbia12. The Burden of WarNotesBibliographyIndex

Prit Buttar studied medicine at Oxford and London before joining the British Army as a doctor. After leaving the army, he worked as a GP, first near Bristol and then in Abingdon, Oxfordshire. He is extensively involved in medical politics, both at local and national level, and served on the GPs' Committee of the British Medical Association. He has appeared on national TV and radio, speaking on a variety of medical issues. He contributes regularly to the medical press.An established expert on the Eastern Front in 20th-century military history, his previous books include the critically acclaimed Battleground Prussia: The Assault on Germany's Eastern Front 1944-45 (Osprey 2010) and Between Giants: The Battle for the Baltics in World War II (Osprey 2013) and a definitive four-part series on the Eastern Front in World War I which concluded with The Splintered Empires: The Eastern Front 1917-21 (2017). He now lives in Kirkcudbright in Scotland.

In this book Prit Buttar continues his analysis and narrative on what was happening on the Eastern Front in the Great War from his previous Collision of Empires: The War on the Eastern Front in 1914 [Osprey, 2014]. He continues to make the point that most scholars focus on the dreadful suffering and stalemate on the Western Front without any consideration of what was happening on the Eastern Front. This meticulous survey reveals that the Central Powers were making measurable progress to the east with the GoliceTarnow Offensive which led to the retreat of Russian forces from Poland and the occupation of Serbia, being two examples of their advances. These successes were achieved at the expense of massive human losses, basically unreported in the west. However, amidst this success, Prit Buttar does stress that leadership weaknesses on the part of the Central Powers balanced mismanagement on a massive scale by the Russians, leading to an absence of a final success for either side. Prit Buttar communicates his narrative and associated analysis in a very clear manner. This is a book for scholars with a focused interest. By contrast the enormity of the detail will deter the casual enquirer unless they are carefully guided to begin by exploring the opening and concluding chapters. These very carefully both set the scene and also explain what had happened over that year. With that preparation the interested reader might then explore some or all of the key events of the 1915 campaigns in the east. Trevor James The Historian 20150901