Presenting the chronology in its entirety from June to December 1917, Sheldon (retired, Queen's Lancashire Regiment) examines the long, slow progress of the fighting for Passchendaele Ridge (also known as the First through Fifth Battles of Flanders), drawing largely from regimental histories due to the loss of the Prussian archives in the Second World War. Due to the nature of these histories much is made of the German morale during this difficult time, though the majority of the book is actually comprised of military movements, tactics, and maneuvers logged nearly day-by-day with very little critical composition to complement the text. Each chapter begins with a helpful map marking the location of each eyewitness used in the text; the title is otherwise occasionally illustrated with battle maps. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)