As well as writing the Sherlock Holmes stories, historical novels and fantasy fiction, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was intensely interested in military operations and wrote multi-volume histories of both the Boer War and the Great War - in which his only son Kingsley served ( dying of the Spanish 'flu). This volume covers 1917. a year of difficulty and disaster for the Allies, which saw Russia leave the war and America enter it. On the western front, Doyle covers the battles of Arras, the victory at Messines and the appalling 3rd Ypres ( Passchendaele) and Cambrai when the brunt of the burden fell on Britain following the French army mutinies after they were bled white at Verdun and the bungled Chemin des Dames offensive on the Aisne. Doyle concentrates on the front line fighting with frequent mention of the formations and units engaged, useful maps, and casualty figures,