Ring of Steel

by Alexander Watson

  47.Sanitätsbericht, iii, pp. 163–8, and S. Kirchenberger, ‘Beiträge zur Sanitätsstatistik der österreichisch-ungarischen Armee im Kriege, 1914–1918’, in C. Pirquet (ed.), Volksgesundheit im Kriege (2 vols., Vienna and New Haven, CT, 1926), i, pp. 47, 60 and 69.

  48.Cron, Imperial German Army, pp. 122 and 145, Wegs, ‘Austrian Economic Mobilization’, p. 160, and Gratz and Schüller, Wirtschaftliche Zusammenbruch, p. 114.

  49.B. I. Gudmundsson, Stormtroop Tactics: Innovation in the German Army, 1914–1918 (Westpoint, CT, 1989), pp. 43–53 and 77–88. Also C. Stachelbeck, Militärische Effektivität im Ersten Weltkrieg. Die 11. Bayerische Infanteriedivision 1915 bis 1918 (Paderborn, Munich, Vienna and Zurich, 2010), p. 99. For Habsburg tactics in 1916, see k.u.k. Korpskommando Szurmay, ‘Erfahrungen aus der Neujahrschlacht 1916 bei Toporucz-Rarancze’. KA Vienna: NFA 2 ID. Karton 121: Nr. 143/6.

  50.A. Horne, The Price of Glory: Verdun 1916 (London, 1962), pp. 46–50.

  51.Afflerbach, Falkenhayn, pp. 363–4, and Foley, German Strategy, p. 190.

  52.Reichsarchiv, Der Weltkrieg. Die Operationen des Jahres 1916 bis zum Wechsel der Obersten Heeresleitung (Berlin, 1936), x, pp. 61–4, and Gudmundsson, Stormtroop Tactics, pp. 58–60.

  53.Foley, German Strategy, pp. 194–7.

  54.Ibid., pp. 204–5 and 215–17, Afflerbach, Falkenhayn, pp. 362 and 369, and Stachelbeck, Militärische Effektivität, p. 105.

  55.H. von Obergassel, diary/memoir, p. 2 (21 February 1916).

  56.Foley, German Strategy, pp. 194–7 and 204–5, and Afflerbach, Falkenhayn, p. 369.

  57.The best account of Douaumont’s capture is Horne, Price of Glory, pp. 105–24.

  58.Foley, German Strategy, pp. 218–21 and 227, and Afflerbach, Falkenhayn, pp. 369–70.

  59.Quoted in H. Afflerbach, ‘ “Bis zum letzten Mann und letzten Groschen?” Die Wehrpflicht im deutschen Reich und ihre Auswirkungen auf das militärische Führungsdenken im Ersten Weltkrieg’, in R. G. Foerster (ed.), Die Wehrpflicht. Entstehung, Erscheinungsformen und politisch-militärische Wirkung (Munich, 1994), p. 80.

  60.Sanitätsbericht, ii, p. 655.

  61.M. Wittmann, diary, 24–25 May 1916. DTA, Emmendingen: 926.

  62.E. von Falkenhayn, The German General Staff and its Decisions, 1914–1916 (New York, 1920), p. 270.

  63.Foley, German Strategy, p. 259.

  64.Reichsarchiv, Der Weltkrieg 1914 bis 1918. Die Operationen des Jahres 1916 bis zum Wechsel in der Obersten Heeresleitung (14 vols., Berlin, 1936), x, p. 406.

  65.Foley, German Strategy, pp. 228–30 and 254–6.

  66.See Sanitätsbericht, iii, p. 49, and, for French figures, Doughty, Pyrrhic Victory, p. 309.

  67.Jeřábek, ‘Brussilowoffensive’, i, pp. 145–8, and Stone, Eastern Front, p. 227.

  68.A good account of the preparations and attack can be found in Rauchensteiner, Tod des Doppeladlers, pp. 330–43.

  69.M. Thompson, The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915–1919 (London, 2008), pp. 163–5, T. C. Dowling, The Brusilov Offensive (Bloomington and Indianapolis, IN, 2008), pp. 49–50, and Herwig, First World War, pp. 205–7.

  70.Stone, Eastern Front, pp. 227–31.

  71.Ibid., p. 239.

  72.Jeřábek, ‘Brussilowoffensive’, i, pp. 209–28.

  73.For Habsburg ‘best practice’ in trench building, see k.u.k. Korpskommando Szurmay, ‘Erfahrungen aus der Neujahrschlacht 1916 bei Toporucz-Rarancze’, esp. p. 4. KA Vienna: NFA (2. I.D). Karton 121: Nr. 143/6, and k.u.k. 4. Armeekommando, Nr. 1080, entitled ‘Verschiedenes über Stellungskampf’, May 1916. KA Vienna: NFA (2. I.D). Karton 121. For the defences in the Fourth Army’s sector, see Jeřábek, ‘Brussilowoffensive’, pp. 175–8 and 199–200. Also Dowling, Brusilov Offensive, pp. 50–54.

  74.K.u.k. 2.ITD, Op. Nr. 142/5, Reservat Abfertigung, 21 May 1916. KA Vienna: NFA (2. I.D). Karton 121.

  75.Telegrams from ‘Delta 70’ at 4.10 nm, ‘Kalif 10’ at 6.48 nm and ‘Delta 2’ at 7.30 nm, 4 June 1916. KA Vienna: NFA (2. I.D.) Karton 121.

  76.Oberstleutnant Max Schönowsky-Schönwies and Leutnant A. D. August Angenetter, quoted in Jeřábek, ‘Brussilowoffensive’, i, p. 259.

  77.Ibid., pp. 259–63.

  78.Ibid., pp. 264–85. For the advance’s distance, see L. Sondhaus, World War One: The Global Revolution (Cambridge, 2011), p. 220.

  79.T. Ritter von Zeynek, Ein Offizier im Generalstabskorps erinnert sich, ed. P. Broucek (Vienna, Cologne and Weimar, 2009), p. 246.

  80.Stone, Eastern Front, pp. 252–4m and Jeřábek, ‘Brussilowoffensive’, i, p. 292 and ibid., ii, p. 522.

  81.Dowling, Brusilov Offensive, p. 175.

  82.Jeřábek, ‘Brussilowoffensive’, i, pp. 195–200, and Stone, Eastern Front, pp. 237–8.

  83.Jeřábek, ‘Brussilowoffensive’, i, pp. 159–60 and 293, and Stone, Eastern Front, pp. 239, 242 and 251–2.

  84.Zeynek, Offizier im Generalstabskorps, p. 242. The German officer alluded to was General Seekt. For his views, and for Habsburg General Staff officers’ distance from their men, see Jeřábek, ‘Brussilowoffensive’, ii, pp. 560–61.

  85.Jeřábek, ‘Brussilowoffensive’, i, pp. 211–18 and ibid., ii, p. 560. The minimal loss rate also bears out the inactivity of most Habsburg units in the months before the offensive. See Stone, Eastern Front, p. 240.

  86.Redlich, Schicksalsjahre Österreichs, ii, p. 121 (14 June 1916).

  87.Rauchensteiner, Tod des Doppeladlers, p. 348.

  88.Evidenzbüro des k.u.k. Generalstabes to Generalstabsabteilung des Festungskommandos in Krakau, 23 July 1916. AN Cracow: DPKr 111: fos. 1735–6.

  89.J. R. Schindler, ‘Steamrollered in Galicia: The Austro-Hungarian Army and the Brusilov Offensive, 1916’, War in History 10(1) (January 2003), pp. 46–7.

  90.Rothenberg, Army of Francis Joseph, p. 195.

  91.Jeřábek, ‘Brussilowoffensive’, i, pp. 230–38.

  92.A. Klauser, diary, 6 July 1916. KA Vienna: B330.

  93.Jeřábek, ‘Brussilowoffensive’, ii, pp. 523–5. Also Herwig, First World War, pp. 209–11.

  94.Landesgerichtsrat A. Regius, diary, 6–18 June 1916 and 3 August 1917. KA Vienna: NL Regius B/395. For Russian conduct during the occupation, see the report of the k.k. Polizeidirektor in Czernowitz to k.k. Minister des Innern, 20 November 1917. AVA Vienna: MdI, Präsidiale 22/Bukowina (1900–18): Karton 2096: Nr. 23741.

  95.Philpott, Bloody Victory, pp. 71–2, 77–83 and 121.

  96.R. Prior and T. Wilson, Command on the Western Front: The Military Career of Sir Henry Rawlinson, 1914–1918 (Barnsley, 1992, 2004), pp. 33, 77, 85 and 111.

  97.R. Prior and T. Wilson, The Somme (New Haven, CT, and London, 2005), pp. 41–3.

  98.Ibid., pp. 43, 47 and 50–51.

  99.For the explosives estimate, see J. Keegan, The Face of Battle: A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo and the Somme (London, 1976, 1983), pp. 238–40.

  100.‘Notes on German Dug-Outs Located North-West of Serre’ (Annexe to G.H.Q. Summary, 26 November 1916). TNA: WO 157/15.

  101.G. Hirschfeld, ‘Die Somme-Schlacht von 1916’, in G. Hirschfeld, G. Krumeich and I. Renz (eds.), Die Deutschen an der Somme, 1914–1918 (Essen, 2006), p. 79.

  102.Prior and Wilson, Command on the Western Front, p. 139.

  103.Philpott, Bloody Victory, pp. 106–19.

  104.For figures, see G. Sheffield, Forgotten Victory: The First World War. Myths and Realities (London, 2001), p. 95, P. Simkins, Kitchener’s Army: The Raising of the New Armies, 1914–1916 (Manchester, 1988), p. 17, and [British] War Office (ed.), Statistics of the Military Effort of the British Empire during the Great War, 1914–1920 (London, 1922), table facing p. 64.

  105.This follows Prior and Wilson, Somme, esp. pp. 114–16.

  106.Keegan, Face of Battle, p. 226. Cf. also M. Middlebrook, The First Day on the Somme, 1 July 1916 (London, 1971, 1984).

  107.C. E. Carrington, ‘Kitchener’s Army: The Somme and After’, Journal of the Royal United Services Institution for Defence Studies 123(1) (
March 1978), p. 17.

  108.‘Bericht des Reserve-Infanterie-Regiments 111 über die Kämpfe um Fricourt’, GLA Karlsruhe: 456 F16 Nr. 123. Also, for the British New Armies’ training, see Samuels, Command or Control?, p. 120, and for British divisions’ arrival in France, I. F. W. Beckett and K. Simpson (eds.), A Nation in Arms: A Social Study of the British Army in the First World War (Manchester, 1985), Appendix I.

  109.For the German Order of Battle, see Reichsarchiv, Weltkrieg, x, pp. 348–9. For a sense of the regiments’ ethos, see their war histories, e.g. G. vom Holtz, Das Württembergische Reserve-Inf.-Regiment Nr. 121 im Weltkrieg 1914–1918 (Stuttgart, 1922).

  110.A. Spemann, diary, 24 June 1916. HStA Stuttgart: M660/041, Nr. 10.

  111.Philpott, Bloody Victory, p. 167, Prior and Wilson, Somme, pp. 61–9, A. Tooze, ‘The German National Economy in an Era of Crisis and War, 1917–1945’, in H. Walser Smith (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Modern German History (Oxford, 2011), p. 403, and ‘Bericht des Reserve-Infanterie-Regiments No. 111 über die Kämpfe um Fricourt’. GLA Karlsruhe: 456 F16 Nr. 123.

  112.‘Gefechtsbericht der 26. Reserve-Division für die Zeit vom 24.6. bis 30.6.1916. (einschl.)’. HStA Stuttgart: M43, Bü 60.

  113.For Second Army’s casualties, see Sanitätsbericht, iii, pp. 51–2.

  114.Karl Eisler, report from August 1916, reproduced in G. Hirschfeld, G. Krumeich and I. Renz (eds.), Die Deutschen an der Somme, 1914–1918. Krieg, Besatzung, Verbrannte Erde (Essen, 2006), p. 101.

  115.A. Spemann, diary, 24, 25, 26 and 27 June 1916. HStA Stuttgart: M660/041, Nr. 10.

  116.See Spemann’s entry in the regimental muster roll. HStA Stuttgart: M433/2, Bü 441.

  117.A. Spemann, diary, 28 and 29 June 1916. HStA Stuttgart: M660/041, Nr. 10.

  118.Copy of an order passed on by the division from XIV Res. Korps, 28 June 1916. HStA Stuttgart: M43, Bü 60. For troops eating more under bombardment, see 28 Reserve-Division, ‘Gefechtsbericht für die Zeit vom 24.6. bis zum 6.7. 12° mittags’, 20 August 1916, p. 14. GLA Karlsruhe: 456 F16 Nr. 64.

  119.A. Spemann, diary, 28 June 1916. HStA Stuttgart: M660/041, Nr. 10.

  120.51. Res. Inf. Brig. (K. Württ), ‘Gefechtsbericht. Die Schlacht an der Somme und der Ancre bei der 51. Res. Inf. Brig.’, 21 July 1916, p. 3. HStA Stuttgart: M43, Bü 19.

  121.Philpott, Bloody Victory, p. 175.

  122.51. Res. Inf. Brig. (K. Württ), ‘Gefechtsbericht’, p. 3. HStA Stuttgart: M43, Bü 19.

  123.‘Gefechtsbericht des Resrve [sic] Infanterie Regiments Nr. 119 über die Zeit vom 24.6.–14.7.16’, 24 July 1916, pp. 12–21. HStA Stuttgart: M43, Bü 19. For the attack from the British perspective, see Prior and Wilson, Somme, pp. 70–81.

  124.See 51. Res. Inf. Brig. (K. Württ), ‘Gefechtsbericht’, p. 3. HStA Stuttgart: M43, Bü 19.

  125.‘Bericht des Reserve-Infanterie-Regiments 111 über die Kämpfe um Fricourt’, Battle Report of 28 Reserve Division, pp. 14 and 20–23, and ‘Nachweisung der durchschnittlichen Mannschafts-Gefechtsstärken der Infanterie (ohne Radfahrer- und Maschinengewehr-Formationen) – Stand am 21. Juni 1916’, GLA Karlsruhe: 456 F16, Nrs. 123 and 64, fos. 35, 61 and 65–6. For other information on the sector’s defences, see Prior and Wilson, Somme, p. 103.

  126.See Philpott, Bloody Victory, pp. 183–4 and 205.

  127.Herwig, First World War, p. 199.

  128.See Reichsarchiv, Weltkrieg, x, Anlage 2, ‘Zum Angriff auf Verdun. Verzeichnis der vom 12. Februar bis zum 28. August auf dem Kampffelde von Avocourt bis zu den Côtes Lorraines (sudöstlich von Verdun) eingesetzten Generalkommandos und Divisionen, ihrer Ablösungen, Verschiebungen und Verluste’, pp. 6–7, and H. Cron, Infanterie-Regiment Markgraf Karl (Nr. 60) (Oldenburg i. O., 1926), pp. 130 and 132–47. For praise of the French, see Philpott, Bloody Victory, pp. 183–4 and 205.

  129.Reichsarchiv, Weltkrieg, x, pp. 350–52. For losses in 121 Division, see ibid., Anlage 3, ‘Zur Schlacht an der Somme 1916. Verzeichnis der vom 1. Juli bis Ende August auf dem Kampffelde eingesetzten Generalkommandos und Divisionen, ihrer Ablösungen, Verschiebungen und Verluste’, pp. 2–3. Revealingly, after being relieved from the Somme, 121 Division was transferred to the less demanding Eastern Front.

  130.Middlebrook, First Day on the Somme, pp. 263–4, and Philpott, Bloody Victory, p. 207. The German casualty figure is calculated on the basis of figures in Middlebrook added to the casualties of 121 Division (5,148 officers and men) south of the Somme.

  131.Reichsarchiv, Weltkrieg, x, pp. 358–9.

  132.A. Spemann, diary, 3 July 1916. HStA Stuttgart: M660/041, Nr. 11.

  133.Reichsarchiv, Weltkrieg, x, pp. 363–4, and Sheffield, Somme, 79–86.

  134.E. Klasen, letters to parents and siblings, 4 March, 30 and 31 July, and 9 and 27 August 1916. BA-MA Freiburg: PH 10 II/42. For a British-orientated account of the fighting in this sector, see Prior and Wilson, Somme, pp. 141–51.

  135.E. Klasen, letters to parents and siblings, 31 July and 9 and 27 August 1916. BA-MA Freiburg: PH 10II/42.

  136.See Reichsarchiv, Weltkrieg, x, p. 384, and Reichsarchiv, Der Weltkrieg 1914 bis 1918. Band 11. Die Kriegsführung im Herbst 1916 und im Winter 1916/17. Vom Wechsel in der Obersten Heeresleitung bis zum Entschluß zum Rückzug in die Siegfried Stellung (14 vols., Berlin, 1938), xi, pp. 109–13.

  137.M. von Gallwitz, Erleben im Westen, 1916–1918 (Berlin, 1932), p. 115 (entry for 15–18 September 1916).

  138.A judgement shown to be justified in Prior and Wilson, Somme, pp. 186–90.

  139.J. H. Boraston (ed.), Sir Douglas Haig’s Despatches (December 1915–April 1919) (London, Toronto and New York, 1919), pp. 19–20.

  140.Reichsarchiv, Weltkrieg, xi, p. 103, and Sheffield, Somme, p. 151.

  141.Sanitätsbericht, iii, pp. 50–51, 53 and 42*. Philpott’s claim that the German army suffered ‘probably more than 500,000 irreplaceable losses’ is not borne out by any official figures and should be regarded as greatly exaggerated. See Philpott, Bloody Victory, p. 602.

  142.Sanitätsbericht, iii, p. 7*.

  143.See the Zentralnachweisamt figures reported in J. H. McRandle and J. Quirk, ‘The Blood Test Revisited: A New Look at German Casualty Counts in World War I’, The Journal of Military History 70(3) (July 2006), p. 688, Table 10. The figures almost certainly underestimate the total killed and other casualties but they reflect loss trends accurately.

  144.All calculated from Sanitätsbericht, iii, pp. 52–3. Gas casualties on the Somme totalled 3,053 men. Nervous casualties totalled 9,354 men. See ibid., pp. 50 and 42*.

  145.Quoted in R. Foley, ‘Learning War’s Lessons: The German Army and the Battle of the Somme, 1916’, The Journal of Military History 75(2) (April 2011), p. 486.

  146.Houlihan, ‘Clergy in the Trenches’, pp. 192–5, and Ziemann, Front, pp. 250–52, on the decline in religion in 1916. For the unusually extreme psychological demands of the Western Front fighting, and particularly ‘battles of material’ like the Somme, see Watson, Enduring the Great War, pp. 22–34.

  147.Gallwitz, Erleben, pp. 115–16.

  148.A. von Thaer, Generalstabsdienst an der Front und in der O.H.L. Aus Briefen und Tagebuchaufzeichnungen, 1915–1919, ed. S. A. Kaehler (Göttingen, 1958), p. 92 (entry for 13 October 1916).

  149.Watson, Enduring the Great War, pp. 150–51. For the Somme, see A. Spemann, diary, 22 October 1916. HStA Stuttgart: M660/041, Nr. 12. For Douaumont, see Horne, Price of Glory, p. 314, and H. Fuchs, diary, 29 October 1916. BA-MA Freiburg, MSg 1/2966. For evidence of morale problems in both sectors, see ‘Summary of Information. GHQ’, 12 January 1917. TNA London: WO 157/17.

  150.Gallwitz, Erleben, pp. 115–16. For confirmation, see also the railway military police report to stellvertrenden Generalstab des Armee IIIb, 1 September 1916. GLA Karlsruhe: 456 F8/260.

  151.Von Thaer, Generalstabsdienst, p. 92 (entry for 13 October 1916). More generally, Schuhmacher, Leben und Seele unseres Soldatenlieds, p. 170.

  152.For more on Italy and Romania, see respectively Thompson, White War, pp.
169–225, and Stone, Eastern Front, pp. 264–81.

  153.Wegs, ‘Austrian Economic Mobilization’, pp. 99–101.

  154.See Herwig, First World War, pp. 213–17, Jeřábek, ‘Brussilowoffensive’, ii, pp. 471–511, and von Zeynek, Offizier im Generalstabskorps, p. 257.

  155.E. Ludendorff, My War Memories, 1914–1918 (2 vols., Uckfield, 1919, 2005), i, p. 274.

  156.Reichsarchiv, Weltkrieg, xi, pp. 11–12 and 62–3.

  157.See M. Geyer, ‘Rückzug und Zerstörung 1917’, in G. Hirschfeld, G. Krumeich and I. Renz (eds.), Die Deutschen an der Somme, 1914–1918 (Essen, 2006), pp. 163–79.

  158.‘Erfahrungen der 1. Armee in der Sommeschlacht (24.6.–26.11.1916)’. GLA Karlsruhe: 456 F13, Nr. 10.

  159.See M. Strohn, The German Army and the Defence of the Reich: Military Doctrine and the Conduct of the Defensive Battle, 1918–1939 (Cambridge, 2011), pp. 49–54. See also esp. Foley, ‘Learning War’s Lessons’, pp. 471–504. For the rise in desertions, see Jahr, Gewöhnliche Soldaten, p. 150.

  8. DEPRIVATION

  1.Sanitätsbericht, iii, pp. 6*–7* and 9*, Gratz and Schüller, Wirtschaftliche Zusammenbruch, p. 151, Bessel, Germany, p.9, and M.-S. Schulze, ‘Austria-Hungary’s Economy in World War I’, in S. Broadberry and M. Harrison (eds.), The Economics of World War I (Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore and São Paulo, 2005), p. 81.

  2.A. Hartmuth, letters from his mother, 13 March, 12 and 29 April, 15 November and 1 December 1916, and from his sister, Trudi, 17 November 1916. Author’s Collection. Also, V. Ullrich, Vom Augusterlebnis zur Novemberrevolution. Beiträge zur Sozialgeschichte Hamburgs und Norddeutschlands im Ersten Weltkrieg (Bremen, 1999), pp. 58–60.

  3.Berliner Tageblatt, 19 May 1916, cited abridged in A. Skalweit, Die deutsche Kriegsernährungswirtschaft (Stuttgart, Berlin and Leipzig, 1927), pp. 200–22.

  4.Healy, Vienna, pp. 75–6 and 82.

  5.Bessel, Germany, p. 32, and Schulze, ‘Austria-Hungary’s Economy’, p. 100.

  6.G. Bry, Wages in Germany, 1871–1945 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1960), pp. 197–202 and 212.