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Series
Tales of Valour: The Great War uses documented episodes from World War I as the foundations for tightly focused military novels. The series places fictionalised participants inside situations where machinery, terrain and tactical innovation create an enclosed struggle for survival.
The Iron Fortress, the first volume, is inspired by the crew of British tank F41 during the Third Battle of Ypres. Its emphasis on a single immobilised tank allows the wider battle of Passchendaele to be experienced through armour, mud, mechanical failure and the vulnerability of early tank crews.
Reading order
During the Third Battle of Ypres, Captain Richardson leads a group of British heavy tanks across the devastated ground before the German trenches. One machine after another is disabled until tank F41 becomes trapped in mud close to the enemy line. Unable to advance or withdraw,…