The class of a nilpotent wreath product

Let G be a group with a normal subgroup H whose index is a power of a prime p, and which is nilpotent with exponent a power of p. Gilbert Baumslag (Proc. Cambridge Philos. Soc. 55 (1959), 224–231) has shown that such a group is nilpotent; the main result of this paper is an upper bound on its nilpotency class in terms of parameters of H and G/H. It is shown that this bound is attained whenever G is a wreath product and H its base group. A descending central series, here called the cpp-series, is involved in these calculations more closely than is the lower central series, and the class of the wreath product in terms of this series is also found. Two tools used to obtain the main result, namely a useful basis for a finite p-group and a result about the augmentation ideal of the integer group ring of a finite p-group, may have some independent interest. The main result is applied to the construction of some two-generator groups of large nilpotency class with exponents 8, 9, and 25.