List of Illustrations and maps
Acknowledgements
Introduction: La Forêt de Compiègne
Prologue: Calais, 1940

PART ONE: THE GREAT WAR
Chapter 1: The Kaiserschlacht and its consequences
Chapter 2: Confronting the enormity of the Great War on the front line
Chapter 3: Finding a way through the mud and the blood to the green fields beyond
Chapter 4: Masters of the battlefield, 1918

PART TWO: POST WAR AND INTER WAR
Chapter 5: Peace, and derangement
Chapter 6: Old and new post-bellum responsibilities - and the Irish Question
Chapter 7: Imperial policeman versus continental commitment
Chapter 8: The modern major general: more categorical or allegorical?
Chapter 9: What is the army for, and how should it fight?
Chapter 10: The battle of the tank
Chapter 11: Britain faces a rapidly changing world

PART THREE: NEW THREATS AND NEW REALITIES
Chapter 12: Boiling the frog: the rise of the Nazi threat
Chapter 13: The slow rush to rearm
Chapter 14: Feeding the crocodile

PART FOUR: THE END OF THE BEGINNING
Chapter 15: The empire declares war
Chapter 16: The chickens come home to roost
Chapter 17: Sichelschnitt: the anatomy of disaster

Epilogue: El Alamein and beyond
Appendix: Chiefs of the Imperial General Staff 1915-46
Notes
Suggestions for further reading
Index