The Guns of August

by Barbara W. Tuchman

  “Il plut des marmites”: Engerand, 537.

  “Prey to extreme anxiety” and all quotations on these pages: Lanrezac, 181, 183–4, 196. General Spears has stated (173) that the retreat of the Fourth Army “was not the reason” for Lanrezac’s decision because, according to Spears, Lanrezac did not know of it until next morning, a direct contradiction of Lanrezac’s own statement that he had “received confirmation” of it before he made his decision. Writing after Lanrezac was dead, Spears states (173 n.), “There is not the least trace of such a communication.” In view of the fact that, as Messimy testified at the Briey hearings, the archives contained 45,000 to 50,000 files of 500 to 1,000 documents each, a probable total of 25 to 30 million pieces, Spears’ negative is hardly proof. His verdict was conditioned less by the evidence than by his feeling that Lanrezac’s retreat “left the British in the lurch” (176).

  “Thinking himself menaced on his right”: Lanrezac, 185; Pierrefeu, Plutarque, 74.

  “Owing to the retreat of the Fifth Army”: Edmonds, 68, 72. For the battle of Mons, see also Maurice, 58–76.

  Smith-Dorrien’s orders on bridges: Edmonds, 72, n. 1.

  “Most perfect targets”: Smith-Dorrien, 386.

  “Stubborn resistance”: Edmonds, 77.

  Efforts to blow the bridges: Hamilton, 28; Edmonds, 86.

  “You are my sole support” et seq.: Bloem, 72–73.

  Wilson made a “careful calculation” and “persuaded”: Wilson, 165.

  Telegram from Joffre: French, 64; Wilson, 167.

  Sar-la-Bruyère difficult to find: Smith-Dorrien, 388; and experience of the author in 1959.

  Wilson blames lack of six divisions: Wilson, 167.

  “Defense of Havre”: Arthur, 36.

  “Over all lay a smell”: qtd. Mark Sullivan, Our Times, V, 26.

  Joffre blames executors and all quotations from following four paragraphs: Joffre, 178, 181, 183–5, 187.

  Deuxième Bureau discovery about reserves: Joffre, 187.

  Joffre’s postwar testimony: Briey, July 4, evidence of Joffre.

  Anonymous British spokesman: editor of Army Quarterly, April, 1925, 35.

  Fall of Namur a “distinct disadvantage”: NYT from London, August 26, 1:3.

  “We must make up our minds”: Poincaré, III, 88.

  15. “The Cossacks Are Coming!”

  Chief sources for military operations in this chapter are Golovin (all references are to his Campaign of 1914), Gourko who was with Rennenkampf’s Army, Knox who was with Samsonov’s Army, Hoffmann and François who were with the Eighth Army, Danilov and Bauer who were at Russian and German Headquarters, respectively, and finally, Ironside who assembled material from both sides. (Hoffmann’s two books are referred to in the Notes as WLO and TaT.)

  “William to St. Helena!”: Paléologue, 65.

  Czar, “Our proper objective”: Golovin, 89.

  “I entreat Your Majesty”: Paléologue, 61.

  Grand Duke’s message to Joffre: Joffre, 140.

  Grand Duke’s tears: The colleague who reported them was General Polivanov, War Minister in 1915–16, qtd. Florinsky, Russia, New York, 1958, II, 1320.

  Tears of Messimy and Churchill: Poincaré, III, 3 and Wilson, 163.

  Russian mobilization orders: Ironside, 39–50.

  General Reinbot: Gardiner, 132.

  “Gentlemen, no stealing”: ibid., 133.

  “Never since the dawn of history”: qtd. Florinsky, End of the Empire, 38.

  Rumors in Frankfort of 30,000 refugees: Bloem, 13.

  Faulty schedule of war games repeated in war: Golovin, 38–9.

  Russians used wireless in clear: Danilov, 203; Hoffmann, TaT, 265.

  Characteristic odor of a horse: Julius West, Soldiers of the Tsar, London, 1915, 8.

  Two German divisions equal to three Russian: McEntee, 90.

  “Only 25 shells per gun”: Golovin, Army, 144.

  “Kosaken kommen!”: Gourko, 33.

  “Psychological dangers”: Hoffmann, WLO, 17.

  “How to get the Kaiser’s ear”: Lt.-Gen. Kabisch, Streitfragen des Weltkrieges, qtd. AQ, July, 1925, 414.

  “Japan is going to take advantage”: qtd. Stephen King-Hall, Western Civilization and the Far East, London, 1924, 160.

  Prittwitz’s orders and François’s protest: François, 156; Hoffmann, WLO, 17.

  Scene in the steeple: François, 170–76.

  Rennenkampf’s halt and his reasons: Danilov, 192–3; Golovin, 155.

  German professor of mathematics: François, 276.

  Moltke’s last words to Prittwitz: François, Tannenberg, Das Cannae des Weltkrieges, qtd. AQ, January, 1927, 411–13.

  Prittwitz orders François to retreat to Vistula: François, 190.

  “You can take your clothes off now”: Knox, 88.

  “The whole weight of all that is sensuous”: Clausewitz, I, 224.

  “Lost command of their nerves”: Hoffmann, WLO, 20–22.

  Prittwitz and Hoffmann dispute retreat to Vistula: Hoffman, TaT, 248.

  Prittwitz telephones OHL: from Prittwitz’s papers, found after his death and published in Militär Wochenblatt, April 22 and May 7, 1921, qtd. AQ, October, 1921, 88–92.

  Moltke aghast and his orders: Bauer, 45.

  Hoffmann proposes maneuver to meet Samsonov: Hoffmann, WLO, 23.

  “They are not pursuing us at all”: Hoffmann, TaT, 250.

  “Impossible—too daring”: Lt.-Gen. Kabisch, qtd. AQ, July, 1925, 416.

  Circumstances of Ludendorff’s appointment: Ludendorff, 49–55.

  Circumstances of Hindenburg’s appointment: Hindenburg, 100-03; John Wheeler-Bennett, Wooden Titan, New York, 1936, 14–16; Ludwig, Hindenburg, Philadelphia, 1935, 83.

  Gardener who worked for Frederick the Great: Hindenburg, 8.

  Hindenburg and Ludendorff meet: Ludendorff, 55; Hindenburg, 103

  Marshall Was sagst du: Capt. Henri Carré, The Real Master of Germany, qtd. NYT, May 19, 1918.

  “A very startled expression”: Hoffmann, TaT, 253.

  French “insist” upon offensive upon Berlin: Paléologue, 102.

  “Simple and kindly man”: Knox, 60.

  Horses hitched in double harness: Golovin, 183.

  Jilinsky’s orders and Samsonov’s protests: Ironside, 126–9.

  “A small, gray man,” Knox, 62.

  Martos eats the mayor’s dinner: Martos Ms. qtd. Golovin, 188.

  Further orders of Jilinsky to Samsonov: Ironside, 134–5.

  VII and XIII Corps did not have the same cipher: Golovin, 171

  Scholtz “grave but confident”: Hoffmann, TaT, 261.

  Intercept of Samsonov’s orders: ibid., 265; Ludendorff, 59.

  16. Tannenberg

  François refuses to attack without artillery: Hoffmann, 273–5; (all references in this chapter to Hoffmann are to his Truth About Tannenberg).

  “If the order is given”: François, 228.

  Two intercepted Russian messages: Ludendorff, 59; Hoffmann, 265–68. “He kept asking me anxiously”: qtd. Nowak, Introduction to Hoffmann’s Diaries, I, 18. Hoffmann’s account of Rennenkampf-Samsonov quarrel, 314; his handing over the messages while cars in motion, 268.

  Ludendorff’s fit of nerves: Ludendorff, 58; Hindenburg, 115, 118; Hoffmann, 282.

  Tappen’s call from OHL: Hoffmann, 315–16. OHL’s reasons: Tappen, 16–19, 110–111. President of the Prussian Bundesrat: Ludwig, 456. Director of Krupp: Muhlon, 113. Kaiser deeply affected: François, 51. Moltke quoted: Memorandum of 1913, Ritter, 68–9.

  Three corps withdrawn from Belgium: Bülow, 64–5; Hansen, 179.

  “Advance into the heart of Germany”: Ironside, 133.

  “I don’t know how the men bear it”: ibid., 130.

  Jilinsky’s orders “to meet the enemy retreating from Rennenkampf”: ibid., 134.

  “To see the enemy where he does not exist”: Golovin, 205; Poddavki: ibid., 217.

  Samsonov’s orders to VIth Corps: Ironside, 155
–7.

  “In God’s name”: Agourtine, 34.

  Army chiefs’ pessimism quoted by Sazonov: Paléologue, 104.

  Description of Stavka: Danilov, 44–46.

  Notes of Rennenkampf’s Staff officer: Ironside, 198.

  “May be supposed to be retreating to the Vistula”: ibid., 200.

  Blagovestchensky “lost his head”: ibid., 157.

  Samsonov and Potovsky see retreat at first hand: Knox, 68–9; “Terribly exhausted”: Ironside, 176.

  Samsonov’s orders to General Artomonov: ibid., 164.

  Battle of Usdau: Ludendorff, 62–3; Hoffmann, 285–89.

  Report that François’ Corps beaten: Ludendorff, 62.

  Jilinsky’s order, “by moving your left flank”: Ironside, 207.

  Ludendorff begs François to “render greatest possible service”: Hoffmann, 305.

  Ludendorff “far from satisfied”: Ludendorff, 64.

  Mackensen’s messenger receives “far from friendly welcome”: Hoffmann, 310.

  “He took with him to his grave”: Golovin, 254.

  Samsonov’s farewell to Knox: Knox, 73–4.

  “You alone will save us”: Martos Ms., qtd. Golovin, 263.

  Martos’ and Kliouev’s corps starving: Kliouev, 245; Knox, 80.

  Capture of Martos and meeting with Hindenburg and Ludendorff: Martos Ms., qtd. Golovin, 294, 327.

  “The Czar trusted me” and Samsonov’s death: Potovsky Ms., qtd. Golovin, 301; Knox, 82, 88.

  Prisoners and casualties: François, 243–45.

  General von Morgen at Neidenberg: François, 240.

  “I will hear their cries”: Blücher, 37.

  Marshes a myth: Ludendorff, 68; François (245) also calls it a “legend.”

  “One of the great victories”: Hoffmann, Diaries, I, 41. Naming the battle Tannenberg: Hoffman, 312; Ludendorff, 68. “Strain on my nerves”: ibid.

  Ludendorff would go personally to inquire for intercepts: Dupont, 9.

  “We had an ally”: Hoffmann, Diaries, I, 41. Tappen (108) also acknowledges that the detailed knowledge of Russian movements obtained from the intercepts “greatly facilitated” German command decisions in East Prussia.

  “This is where the Field Marshall slept”: qtd. De Weerd, 80. Hoffmann remained on the Eastern Front throughout the war, eventually succeeding Ludendorff as Chief of Staff on that front and conducting the German side of the negotiations at Brest-Litovsk. He appears as General Wilhelm Clauss, the central character of Arnold Zweig’s novel The Crowning of a King, N.Y., 1938.

  Disgrace of Rennenkampf and Jilinsky: Gurko, 83; Golovin, 386.

  “Firm conviction that the war was lost”: Golovin, Army, 24.

  Ministers’ Memorandum urging peace: Richard Charques, The Twilight of Imperial Russia, New York, 1959, 216.

  “We are happy to have made such sacrifices”: Knox, 90; Paléologue, 106.

  17. The Flames of Louvain

  The quotations on these pages, with three exceptions, are taken from the books by the persons quoted, listed under SOURCES, as follows: Verhaeren, Dedicace, unpaged; Cobb, 176–7; Bethmann-Hollweg, 95; Shaw, 37; Bridges, 73; Bergson (Chevalier), 24; McKenna, 158; Claus Clausewitz, I, 5. The statement by Thomas Mann is from his “Reflections of a Nonpolitical Man,” 1917, qtd. Hans Kohn, The Mind of Germany, New York, 1960, 253–5. H. G. Wells is quoted from NYT, August 5, 3:1. “I’m a’goin’ to fight the bloody Belgiums” is from Peel, 21.

  Placards signed by Bülow: facsimile in Gibson, 324.

  Massacre at Andenne, Seilles, Tamines: Apart from Belgian sources, the most complete firsthand record of these events is that of the American Minister, Mr. Whitlock, in his chapters w, “Dinant”; xxxi, “Namur, Andenne and Elsewhere”; xxxii, “Tamines”; and xxxiii, “Man Hat Gechossen.” For estimated total of civilians shot in August, see Encyc. Brit., 14th ed., article “Belgium.”

  10 hostages from each street in Namur: Sutherland, 45.

  Bloem on hostages: 34.

  Cobb watched from a window: 104.

  Visé: NYT from Maestricht, August 25, 2:2; Whitlock, 198.

  Hausen on Dinant: 167–70. 612 dead: Gibson, 329. For description of Dinant after the destruction, Cobb, 409–10.

  Quotations on these pages are from the works of the persons cited, as follows: Wetterlé, 231; Kluck, 29; Ludendorff, 37; Crown Prince, War Experiences, 41–2, 50; Bloem, 28, 32, 20, Blücher, 16, 26.

  Goethe: qtd. Arnold Zweig, Crowning of a King, N.Y., 1938, 306.

  “That’s the French for you”: Cobb, 269.

  Riderless horse sets off panic at Louvain: Whitlock, 152.

  Luttwitz, “A dreadful thing has occurred”: ibid.

  Richard Harding Davis: qtd. Mark Sullivan, Our Times, V, 29; Arno Dosch in World’s Work, Oct. and Nov., 1914.

  Gibson at Louvain: 154–172.

  Monseigneur de Becker: Whitlock, 160.

  Rotterdam Courant and other papers quoted: NYT, August 30.

  German Foreign Office quoted: ibid., August 31.

  King Albert quoted: Poincaré, III, 166.

  Kriegsbrauch quoted: 52.

  Belgium “supreme issue”: Wile, Assault, 115. “Precipitant”: Mark Sullivan, loc. cit.

  Erzberger quoted: 23.

  Kaiser’s telegram: NYT, Sept. 11.

  Manifesto of the 93 intellectuals: text in Literary Digest, Oct. 24, 1914.

  Bethmann’s reply to Wilson: NYT, September 18, 1:4

  “No convictions but only appetites”: Wetterlé, 144.

  Bethmann on Erzberger’s bright ideas: Bülow, III, 235.

  Erzberger’s Memorandum: Among others to whom Erzberger sent it was Grand Admiral von Tirpitz, who published it after the war in his Politische Dokumente, Hamburg, 1926, III, 68–73. See also Karl Epstein, Matthias Erzberger, Princeton, 1959, chap. v.

  “Largest human fact since the French Revolution”: Frank H. Simonds in “1914—the End of an era,” New Republic, Jan. 2, 1915.

  18. Blue Water, Blockade, and the Great Neutral

  Sources used for this chapter only:

  Baker, Ray Stannard, Woodrow Wilson, Life and Letters, Vol. V, N.Y., Doubleday, Doran, 1935

  Consett, Rear-Admiral Montagu, The Triumph of the Unarmed Forces, 1914–18, London, Williams and Norgate, 1923

  Guichard, Lieut. Louis, The Naval Blockade, 1914–18, tr. N.Y., Appleton, 1930

  House, Edward M., The Intimate Papers, ed. Charles Seymour, Vol. I, Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1926

  Page, Walter Hines, Life and Letters, Vol. I, ed. Burton J. Hendrick, London, Heinemann 1923

  Parmelee, Maurice, Blockade and Sea Power, N.Y., Crowell, 1924

  Puleston, Captain William (USN), High Command in the World War, N.Y., Scribner’s, 1934

  Salter, J. A. Allied Shipping Control, Oxford U.P., 1921

  Siney, Marion C., The Allied Blockade of Germany, 1914–16, Univ. of Michigan Press, 1957

  Spring-Rice, Sir Cecil, Letters and Friendships, ed. Stephen Gwynn, Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1929.

  “Luxury Fleet”: Churchill, 103.

  Invasion “impracticable”: Fisher, Letters, II, 504. Report of the “Invasion Committee” of the CID in 1912: Churchill, 158.

  “Interruption of our trade”: qtd. Custance, 104. Trade and tonnage figures: Fayle, 6, 15.

  “Whole principle of naval fighting”: Fisher, Memories, 197.

  “Germany’s future is on the water”: Kurenberg, 129.

  Navy League slogans: Wile, Men Around the Kaiser, 145–6.

  “Extreme psychological tension” et seq.: Churchill, 276.

  Jellicoe opened telegram marked “Secret”: DNB, Jellicoe.

  Jellicoe “to be Nelson”: Fisher, Letters, II, 416; III, 33.

  “Greatest anxiety confronting me”: Jellicoe, 92. His chaps. IV and V; “Declaration of War” and “Submarine and Mine Menace in the North Sea” describe this anxiety feelingly on every page.

  “Infected area”: Corbett, 79.

  “Could ha
ve been a seal”: ibid., 67.

  “Markedly superior”: Churchill, 261.

  “Strongest incentives to action”: ibid., 276.

  “Extraordinary silence”: ibid., 278.

  “Kept secret even from me”: Tirpitz, II, 87.

  Golden Age on Kaiser’s bed-table: Peter Green, Kenneth Grahame, N.Y., 1959, 291.

  Kaiser read Mahan: Kurenberg, 126.

  “Bring the English to their senses” et seq.: Ludwig, 423.

  Navy Law of 1900 quoted: Hurd, German Fleet, 183–4.

  Kaiser’s “darlings”: Bülow, I, 198.

  Tirpitz’s squeaky voice: Wetterlé, 218. Müller’s characteristics: Ludwig, 465.

  Ingenohl took a “defensive view”: Tirpitz, II, 91. “I need no Chief”: Ludwig, 466.

  “I have ordered a defensive attitude”: Ludwig, 465.

  Tirpitz’s request for control, reason for not resigning, and “My position is dreadful”: Tirpitz, II, 118–20, 219–20, 223.

  “Passage of the Atlantic is safe”: Corbett, 54.

  London Conference, Mahan, Declaration: Halévy, 223; Puleston, 130; Siney, 11; Salter, 98–99.

  U.S. requested adherence and British reply: Secretary Bryan to Ambassador Page, U.S. For. Rel., 1914, 215–16, 218–20.

  CID proposed continuous voyage be “rigorously applied”: Siney, 12.

  Order in Council of August 20: ibid., ff.; Parmelee, 37; Guichard, 17.

  Spring-Rice quoted: U.S. For Rel., 1914, 234.

  “All sorts of odds and ends”: Asquith, II, 33.

  “Don’t bother me with economics”: qtd. L. Farago, ed. Axis Grand Strategy, N.Y., 1942, 499.

  “To secure the maximum blockade”: Grey, II, 103.

  America “stands ready to help” and “permanent glory”: Baker, 2–3.

  “Neutral in fact” and further quotations in this paragraph: ibid., 18, 24–5, 73.

  U.S. trade figures: Arthur S. Link, American Epoch, N.Y., 1955, 177. Footnote on hidden trade: Consett, passim, and figures in Encyc. Brit., 14th ed., article “Blockade.”

  “A government can be neutral”: Page, 361.

  Wilson to Grey: Baker, 55–6.

  “Utter condemnation”: ibid., 62; “Felt deeply the destruction of Louvain”: House, 293; “In the most solemn way”: Spring-Rice, 223.

  “This outrage upon humanity”: Lansing Papers, I, 29–30.

  “I am afraid something will happen”: Baker, 74.

  “Enthusiasm of the first fight”: Tirpitz, II, 91. “Awkward embarrassments”: Churchill, 331–35.