Robert Cowley

The final months of 1914 were the bloodiest interval in a famously bloody war, a killing season. They ended with the First Battle of Ypres, a struggle in West Flanders, Belgium, the importance of which has been too long over-looked - until now.

Robert Cowley's account of this crucial period describes how German armies in France were poised to sweep north to capture the Channel ports and knock England out of the war - and were only held back by a brilliant improvisation from a cobbled-together handful of desperate British, French and Belgium troops.

In a re-examination of events that have too long seemed set in stone, Cowley combines a wide array of source materials with sharp portrayals both of military leaders and the men they lead.