From the introduction: On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in the year of our lord 1918 the guns fell silent. The war to end all wars was over and the only task now was to win the peace. When the French field marshal Ferdinand Foch saw the resulting peace of Versailles he declared, “This is not peace. It is an armistice for 20 years”. It is now the 1st of January 1936 and Foch’s remark is already looking particularly perceptive.