The carnage on the Western Front at Passchendaele, where 275,000 Allied and 200,000 German soldiers fell, was neither inevitable nor inescapable, the authors of this gripping book insist. Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson here offer the most complete account of the campaign ever published, establishing what actually occurred, what options were available, and who was responsible for the devastation.\"The clearest and most balanced picture yet of a battle whose very name evokes the horror and supposed futility of World War I\". -- John Grigg, The Spectator, \"Book of the Year\"\"The authors should be commended for writing a balanced, convincing work that reveals the devastation of the First World War and the failure of military and political leaders to recognize this horror\". -- Virginia Quarterly Review\"This book will appeal to both the scholar and the general public and belongs in every World War I collection\". -- Agnes F. Peterson, History\"Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson have written an excellent, carefully researched, and dispassionate history of the Passchendaele campaign.... It must now become the standard scholarly work on the grim battle of Passchendaele, integrating as it does, both politics and war\". -- Tim Travers, Journal of Military History\"The authors excel in their thorough use of original sources to provide a masterly account ... clearly related and supported by admirable maps\". -- Brian Bond, Times Literary Supplement\"Well-represented, lu