BOOK REVIEW | The British on the Belgian Coast – The North Sea as Front Line During the Great War
By Luc Vanacker
History emphasises the dramatic. The enormous, lengthy and very costly battles of the Somme and north-west France dominate the history of World War I. Other important events tend to be sidelined.
Thus the important efforts to protect the French left flank in Belgium are now only infrequently mentioned. The battles around the Belgian fishing port of Nieuport, for example, were of enormous significance to both the Allies and the Germans. They were very hard fought as the author well explains.
So, while, perhaps, a sideshow to the main event along the Somme, the North Sea front line along the Belgian coast was still a vital component of the subsequent Allied victory.
In his extensively and well-illustrated book, the author describes the campaign very dramatically and places it in its proper historical perspective.
Available from Academia Press, Ghent, Belgium.
Web: www.academiapress.be
