World War I is a conflict that continues to capture the imagination of readers more than 80 years after its end. In this history of the war, Correlli Barnett gives intimate portraits of the men who led the British, French and German Armies through this tragic conflict. He focuses on four men in particular: Colonel General von Moltke who masterminded the German's initial attack on France in 1914; Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, who led the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet in the Battle of Jutland in 1916; General Petain, the French leader who halted the German advances at Verdun in 1916; and General Erich Ludendorff who led the last great German offensives in the summer of 1918. In this account, Correlli Barnett describes how these men struggled with events greater than themselves, and shows their moments of clarity and prophecy, of optimistic self-delusion, of uncertainty and despair. The period of their command together spans the war years, and gives a continuous history of the war on the Western Front.