“[A] compelling read . . . Highly recommended for its extraordinarily powerful insight into the fragged edges of the first months of the European War.” —The Western Front Association Why did the Germans brutally and illegally execute a group of British soldiers who had been trapped behind the lines during the retreat to the Marne in 1914? Hedley Malloch, in this gripping and meticulously researched account, vividly describes the fate the soldiers on the run, and of the French civilians who sheltered them. He tells a dramatic and tragic story of escape, betrayals and punishment that also gives a fascinating insight into the life stories of the soldiers and civilians involved and the mind-set of the German army on the Western Front. The book names the German officers responsible for this atrocity and explores their motivations. “This is an episode of WW1 with which I am not familiar, and one that I found particularly fascinating and, at the same time, harrowing. The author attempts to set the record straight by naming the perpetrators of this enormous outrage.” —Books Monthly “Hedley Malloch, who is chair of the Iron Memorial fund and Honorary Life Member of the RMFA, has done a wonderful job with his book, a true memorial in its own right to those that were executed; innocent soldiers who just happened to find themselves on the wrong side of the lines.” —Redcoat and Khaki “If you have a Top Ten ‘books on the First World War’—then make room for The Killing of the Iron Twelve by Hedley Malloch.” —The Western Front Association