Stumbling towards victory : the final year of the Great War

The First World War tore apart the early twentieth century.

Both terrible and terrifying, it banished misplaced optimism that war on such an unconscionable scale could never occur.

A century after the guns fell silent on the Western Front, its scars continue to shape our modern idea of remembrance. As the national museum of arms and armour, the Royal Armouries brings a unique perspective to studies of the Great War.

Stumbling Towards Victory contains photographs – many previously unpublished – from the museum archives, all of which were taken in the final twelve months of the war.

Amidst the haunting emptiness of broken ground and shattered trees, these images convey the horror, and hope, of that final cataclysmic year.

Published to coincide with the First World War centenary commemorations, Stumbling Towards Victory illustrates the final months of a global conflagration that was nothing less than an armageddon for the ages.