The Franco-British coalition – the only combination of Entente great powers to see the war through from start to end – was both young and inexperienced. It had no history of cooperation, quite the reverse; and the scale of the conflict was unprecedented for all combatants. Yet the coalition was victorious. This fact demands an answer to the question of how the vast problems were overcome.

This book examines how these two countries managed to create a workable alliance that lasted until the Armistice. It does so by considering the problems that arose and the mechanisms that were put in place to deal with them. Those problems occurred on land and at sea, and required resolution of difficulties in the command relationship and in supply of food and raw materials vital for the prosecution of the war. Its focus is essentially practical, eschewing any consideration of war aims or of finance, or (for reasons of space) any front other than the main one in western Europe.

The sources are French as much as they are British. All translations from the French are my own, unless stated otherwise. I have translated ‘anglais’ consistently as ‘British’, since the French used the word interchangeably with ‘britannique’, and British reflects the many nationalities who made up the British Expeditionary Force rather better than ‘English’. For the same reason I have preferred Franco-British to Anglo-French.