by Max Hastings
Wolff, Theodor Diaries 1914–19 Vol. I Boldt Verlag Boppert/Rhine 1984
Wolmar, Christian Engines of War: How Wars Were Won and Lost on the Railways Atlantic 2010
Wolz, Nicolas Das lange Warten. Kriegserfahrungen deutscher und britischer Seeoffiziere 1914 bis 1918 Paderborn Schöningh 2008
Yerta, Gabrielle and Marguerite Six Women and the Invasion Macmillan 1917 republished as an e-book by Gutenberg
Young, Filson With the Battlecruisers Cassell 1921
Zeynek, Theodor Ritter von Ein Offizier im Generalstabskorps ed. Broucek, Peter Vienna 2009
Ziemann, Bejamin War Experiences in Rural Germany 1914–23 OUP 2007
Acknowledgements
I must acknowledge many debts for this book, the first to Clive Harris and Mike Sheil, splendid battlefield guides who in April 2012 conducted me on a tour of the 1914 Western Front from the snowclad ridges of the Vosges to the old floodplains behind the Belgian coast. Christoph Nübel did outstanding work on German and Austrian sources, and will plainly become an important scholar; Pavlina Bobić provided material from Serbia and Slovenia; Serena Sissons trawled French sources; Dr Lyuba Vinogradovna, as for my last four books, produced a mass of Russian accounts. I learned much from the October 2011 conference organised by the German Historical Institute in London under the title ‘New Perspectives on the Fischer Controversy’. Josh Samborn passed on some of his important writings on Russian experiences in 1914. John Röhl generously gave me access to relevant draft passages of his forthcoming book on the Kaiser in the war.
Jack Sheldon shared his unpublished monograph on Le Cateau, and also read and commented upon my draft chapters about the British Expeditionary Force’s experience. Gary Sheffield did likewise for my entire manuscript, which reflected extraordinary generosity with his time. My old newspaper colleague Don Berry cast over the text the eye of a layman who is also a splendid critic. I owe gratitude to those who provided me with copies of unpublished contemporary correspondence, including James Illingworth for the papers of his grandfather Percy, Liberal chief whip in 1914; Anthony Gray for the MS of his grandfather Robert Emmet; John Festing for that of his great-uncle Maurice. As for my earlier books, for this one also Professor Sir Michael Howard OM, CH, MC has been throughout a peerless tutor and critic, though he bears no responsibility for either my judgements or my errors. Professor Nicholas Rodger and Matthew Seligmann read and commented upon the draft of the naval chapter, much to the advantage of the final text. Professor Mark Cornwall gave some guidance on Serbian sources. It seems prudent to reiterate my usual caution about all large numbers quoted in my text above, and for that matter in any other historical study: they have been extracted from the best available sources, but must be regarded as indicative rather than precise.
I should also acknowledge thanks which are none the less sincere because common to all my books, to the British National Archive, the Imperial War Museum and the London Library for the invaluable assistance of their splendid staffs. Many collections in Europe likewise made possible the studies and translations of my researchers in France, Russia, Germany, Austria, Serbia and Slovenia. Michael Sissons and Peter Matson have been my London and New York agents for more than three decades, and I value their guidance and advice as much as ever. Arabella Pike and Robert Lacey at HarperCollins in London and Andrew Miller at Knopf in New York supported the project from its inception and have much improved my words during its gestation. My secretary Rachel Lawrence has been assisting my labours for most of the past thirty years, and her energy and commitment never cease to earn my gratitude. My wife Penny endured the writing of this book, like so many others before it, with a fortitude and sympathy that would command the respect of a war veteran.
Notes and References
The following abbreviations are employed in the references below: NA – British National Archive at Kew; IWM – Imperial War Museum document collections; ASA – Austrian State Archives (Österreichisches Staatsarchiv, Kriegsarchiv – OeStA/KA); AS – Arhiv Srbije (Serbian National Archive); ASC1938 – the British Army staff college study pack on the Battle of Le Cateau dated 1938, which includes important 1930–33 correspondence with military eyewitnesses; GW – correspondence with veterans preserved in the author’s files from BBC TV’s 1964 Great War series; SB – Staatsarchiv Bremen; NUK – Slovenian State Archive, Ljubljana; GHAC – German Historical Association October 2011 conference: New Perspectives on the Fischer Controversy. I have omitted references for quotations from the principals’ speeches and statements long in the public record or domain.
xv ‘As commandant’ Jeffrey, Keith Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson: A Political Soldier OUP 2006 p.80
xv ‘We are readying’ Gide, André Journals 1914–27 trans. Justin O’Brien Secker & Warburg 1948 p.48
xv ‘You soldiers ought’ Knox, Sir Alfred With the Russian Army Hutchinson 1921 Vol. I p.45
Introduction
xvii ‘No part of the Great War’ Spears, Edward Liaison 1914 p.vii
xix ‘a creative activity’ Brenda Horsfield The Listener 20.1.72
xx ‘The war of 1914 was’ McMeekin, Sean The Russian Origins of the First World War Belknap 2011 p.5
xxi ‘When an ocean liner’ Spears p.9
Prologue
xxix ‘Excellency!’ Morton, Frederic Thunder at Twilight NY 1989 p.92
xxx ‘Never have I’ Steed, Wickham The Hapsburg Monarchy Constable 1913 p.282
xxxi ‘a menace to democracy’ Đurič, Silvija and Stevanović, Vidosav (eds) Golgota i vaskrs Srbije, 1914–1915 Beograd 1990 3rd edn p.242 diary of Jovan Žujović
xxxiv ‘My dear Dr Sunarić’ Dedijer, Vladimir The Road to Sarajevo MacGibbon & Kee 1967 p.10
xxxvi ‘He received it with’ Dirr, P. (ed.) Bayerische Dokumente zum Kriegsausbruch und zum Versailler Schuldspruch, Munich, Berlin 1922 pp.114–15
xxxvi ‘a dreadful act’ Hopman, Albert Das ereignisreiche Leben eines ‘Wilhelminers’. Tagebücher, Briefe, Aufzeichnungen 1901 bis 1920 ed. Epkenhans, Michael Munich Oldenbourg 2004 p.380
xxxvi ‘a characteristic bit’ Ransome p.166
xxxvii ‘Princip is better-looking’ Mihaly, Jo … da gibt’s ein Wiedersehn! Kriegstagebuch eines Mädchens 1914–1918 Freiburg F.H. Kerle 1982 p.26 5.8.14
xxxvii ‘there is no sense of grief’ Mitrovic, Andrej Serbia’s Great War Hurst 2007 p.13
Chapter 1 – ‘A Feeling that Events are in the Air’
1 CHANGE AND DECAY
1 ‘What will happen’ Churchill, Winston The Great War George Newnes 1933–34
1 ‘The sardonic objectivity’ Pound, Reginald The Lost Generation Constable 1964 p.12
3 ‘whether civilization is’ Masterman, Charles The Condition of England London 1909 p.74
3 ‘There is a feeling that’ Lang, Carl von Die Lage auf dem Balkan in: Danzer’s Armee-Zeitung 19 (1914) No 1/2 pp.10–11
4 ‘Scarcely anything’ Churchill, My Early Life p.67
4 ‘we obtain a sum of’ BNA FO371/1374 Russell dispatch
4 ‘Early in 1914, the British’ Seligmann Naval Intelligence p.535
5 ‘Durch Kampf zum Sieg’ Hirschfeld Kriegserfahrungen. Studien zur Sozial – und Mentalitätsgeschichte des Ersten Weltkriegs Essen Klartext 1997 pp.330–1
5 ‘He was an extreme’ Clark, Christopher The Sleepwalkers Allen Lane 2012 p.182
6 ‘He is vanity itself’ Hopman p.368
6 ‘I stood in front of a castle’ ibid. p.378
6 ‘Bismarck … left a system’ Steinberg, Jonathan Bismarck: A Life OUP 2011 p.458
6 ‘He left a nation’ ibid. p.479
7 ‘other large European maritime’ Seligmann Naval Intelligence p.528
7 ‘the two white nations’ ibid. p.545
8 ‘rather trying guests’ H.H. Asquith Letters to Venetia Stanley ed. Michael and Eleanor Brock OUP 1982 14.6.14 p.86
9 ‘we will not leave Austria’ Rohl, John C. The Kaiser and His Court CUP 1994 p.175
10 ‘a system of insti
tutionalised escapism’ Stone, Norman The Eastern Front Hodder & Stoughton 1975 p.71
10 ‘It was less a legislature than’ Morton p.19
11 ‘The combination of stateliness’ Steed p.202
12 ‘create for me a new’ Lieven, D.C.B. Russia and the Origins of the First World War NY St Martin’s 1983 p.46
12 ‘the Straits must become’ ibid. p.128
12 ‘Russia was perfectly’ McMeekin p.32
13 ‘this vast country’ The Lady 27.8.14
14 ‘We shall not let’ Lieven p.65
15 ‘Russian youth, unfortunately’ ibid. p.15
15 ‘we are a great, powerless’ ibid. p.23
15 ‘we have become a’ ibid. p.21
15 ‘we saw much martial’ Knox p.37
16 ‘France’s Gen. Joseph Joffre’ Joffre, Joseph Jacques Césaire The Memoirs of Marshal Joffre trans. Col T Bentley Mott Bles 1931 p.59
16 ‘some of the characteristics’ Lieven p.113
16 ‘without ceasing to’ NV 1/14.6.08 p.3
16 ‘Serbia is, practically’ Lieven p.41
17 ‘shows the activity’ ibid. p.42
17 ‘Within little more’ Vivian, Herbert Servia: The Poor Man’s Paradise Longmans 1897 p.vi
17 ‘there lies an’ ibid. p.236
18 ‘I am so fond’ Reed, John The War in Eastern Europe London Eveleigh Nash 1916 p.53
18 ‘All sorts of people’ ibid. p.3
19 ‘In Paris in June’ Becker Guerre p.47
20 ‘The influence of the Church’ ibid. p.21
20 ‘most people had’ Minaudier, Jean-Pierre Population et Société de 1850 à 1914 Lycée La Bruyère, Versailles 2004 p.4
20 ‘the 1907 census’ ibid. p.7
20 ‘when one in ten’ ibid. p.2
21 ‘Poincaré presented’ Becker Guerre pp.52–3
21 ‘The new financier’ Dangerfield, George The Strange Death of Liberal England Constable 1935 p.211
21 ‘The English world’ Montague, C.E. Rough Justice Chatto & Windus 1926 p.49
22 ‘Everyone seems to have’ Dangerfield p.242
23 ‘we soldiers beat’ Wilson, Henry diary 23.3.14
24 ‘a Roman reserve’ Jenkins, Roy Asquith Collins 1964 p.52
24 ‘He was ingenious’ Dangerfield p.17
24 ‘government by a cabinet’ ibid. p.49
24 ‘an intelligent fanatic’ ibid. p.79
25 ‘Very few prime ministers’ ibid. p.322
25 ‘the country is menaced’ ibid. p.281
2 BATTLE PLANS
27 ‘This man could be’ Mombauer, Annika Helmuth von Moltke and the Origins of the First World War CUP 2000 p.50
27 ‘Austria’s fate will not’ Herwig War p.45
29 ‘dark, small’ Churchill World Crisis Vol. I p.154
29 ‘Such an ancient’ Zeynek, Theodor Ritter von Ein Offizier im Generalstabskorps erinnert sich. Broucek, Peter (ed.) Vienna, Cologne, Weimar 2009 p.47
30 ‘In proportion to’ Bihl, Wolfdieter Der Erste Weltkrieg 1914–1918. Chronik – Daten – Fakten Wien Böhlau 2010 pp.61–2
30 ‘he does not draw’ Rohl pp.162–3
31 ‘Three other sources’ see ibid. passim
32 ‘Germany has no reason’ Wilson, Keith (ed.) Decisions for War 1914 UCL Press 1995 p.44
34 ‘they proposed to make’ Becker Guerre p.55
34 ‘England is embracing’ Lloyd George, David War Memoirs Vol. I Ivor Nicholson & Watson 1933 p.30
35 ‘Both powers are scarcely’ Lieven p.48
35 ‘Do you trust’ Recouly p.104
35 ‘You are all wrong’ Lloyd George Vol. I p.1
35 ‘It’s not the Germans’ Sitwell, Osbert Great Morning Macmillan 1948 p.297
36 ‘there was still no’ Jeffrey p.97
36 ‘you have over’ Clark p.213
36 ‘enthusiastic planning’ ibid. p.211
36 ‘Winston Churchill wrote’ My Early Life p.66
37 ‘Grey’s most recent biographer’ Waterhouse, Michael Edwardian Requiem Biteback 2013 passim
37 ‘During the eight years’ Lloyd George Vol. I p.46
38 ‘At a dinner party’ ibid. p.48
38 ‘Sir Edward Grey belongs’ ibid. p.97
38 ‘the grasp of the situation’ Henry Wilson diary 9.8.11
38 ‘a Junker from his’ Holroyd, Michael Bernard Shaw Chatto & Windus 1997 p.450
39 ‘our funny little army’ Henry Wilson diary 22.11.13
39 ‘the best & most patriotic’ Jeffrey p.76
39 ‘inconceivable stupidity’ ibid. p.80
40 ‘with a sense of’ ibid. p.84
40 ‘that poisonous’ Asquith to Stanley 20.12.14
Chapter 2 – The Descent to War
1 THE AUSTRIANS THREATEN
41 ‘Joven Avakumović’ Avakumović, Joven D. Memoari Izdavačka knjižarnica Zorana Stojanovića Sremski Karlovci-Novi Sad 2008 p.587
41 ‘I noticed especially’ ibid. p.589
41 ‘Down with Serbia’ Dirr p.120
42 ‘leap through fire’ Dinić Jovan, ‘Stupanje u đački bataljon’ in Đurič and Stevanović p.261
42 ‘We decided on war’ Keith Wilson p.13
43 ‘the man who caused the war’ ibid. p.14
43 ‘if we really saw’ Thompson, Wayne C. In the Eye of the Storm University of Iowa Press 1980 p.74
44 ‘if war should come’ ibid. p.78
44 ‘In my opinion’ Hopman 6.7.14 p.383
44 ‘personally, I do not’ ibid. p.385
45 ‘However the Serbs’ Keith Wilson p.15
45 ‘No one today can’ Mombauer pp.213–14
45 ‘real success cannot’ Kronenbitter pp.485–6
46 ‘war is not the worst’ Mombauer p.122
48 ‘as if in competition’ quoted Verhey, Jeffrey The Spirit of 1914 CUP 2000 p.14
48 ‘Today, the balance is’ Wetterleuchten in Danzer’s Armee-Zeitung 19 1914 No 5/6, pp.9–10
49 ‘sailing under the illusion’ Poincaré, Raymond Comment fut déclarée la Guerre de 1914 Flammarion 1939 passim
50 ‘I can’t believe’ Paléologue, Maurice An Ambassador’s Memoirs trans. F.A. Holt NY George H. Doran 1925 p.3
50 ‘I shall long remember’ ibid. p.4
50 ‘It was Poincaré’ ibid. p.3
51 ‘whenever we have taken’ Clark p.209
51 ‘a sad wobbler’ ibid. p.266
52 ‘Monsieur le Président’ Paléologue p.7
53 ‘Between 14 and 25 July’ Hayne pp.272–3
2 THE RUSSIANS REACT
54 ‘The situation is very’ Đurič and Stevanović p.48
55 ‘What will Russia do?’ Strandmann.p.300
55 ‘Raymond Recouly’ Recouly p.94
55 ‘Everybody’s selling everything’ ibid. p.95
55 ‘nobody could think’ Krafft-Krivanec, Johnanna Niedergeschrieben für euch. Ein Kriegstagebuch aus kulturanthropologischer Perspektive Vienna Passagen Verlag 2005 p.47 10.8.14
56 ‘We are astounded’ Mihajlović 25.7.14 in Đurič and Stevanović p.26
57 ‘public opinion would not’ Lieven p.143
58 ‘how her family’ Emigholz, Bjorn (ed.) Die Tagebücher der Gertrud Schädla 1914–1918 Verden 2000
59 ‘In the intervening period’ Lloyd George Vol. I p.53
60 ‘the parishes of Fermanagh and Tyrone’ Churchill Vol. I p.193
61 ‘Russia is trying’ Asquith letter to VS 24.7.14 p.125
62 ‘Sir Ernest Cassell’ Thomson, George Malcolm Lord Castlerosse Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1973 p.35
62 ‘People are relieved’ Gide p.45 27.7.14
63 ‘Jovan Žujović’ AS Jovan Žujović, enota 81.MS diary p.244
64 ‘in the evening’ Riezler diary 25.7.14
64 ‘Monsieur le Ministre’ Joffre p.115 24.7.14
64 ‘That night, French intelligence’ ibid. p.116
64 ‘Today the fate of France’ Keith Wilson p.158
65 ‘On the 26th also’ Russky In
valid No. 164
65 ‘Next day all Germans’ ibid. No. 163, 27.7.14, Sunday Section ‘The Public Life’
65 ‘The officers’ mess silver’ Littauer, Vladimir Russkie gusary [The Russian Hussars] Moscow 2006 p.126
65 ‘we noticed mobilisation’ McMeekin p.67
66 ‘Once completed, a message’ GW files, private information to the author 1964
66 ‘War – those letters embrace’ SB S 7 97/2-2 Kaisen MS
66 ‘In spite of your “liberty’ Seligmann Naval Intelligence p.538
67 ‘Vorwärts’ p.15
67 ‘a wave of the highest’ Chickering pp.59–60
67 ‘unthinkable, horrible’ Verhey p.20
67 ‘you have your information’ Recouly p.23
68 ‘It seems incredible’ Bertie, Francis The Diary of Viscount Bertie of Thame, 1914–1918 ed. Lady Algernon Gordon Lennox Hodder & Stoughton 1924
68 ‘not impossible that’ Keith Wilson p.16
68 ‘its form was so very’ Stojadinović, Milan M. Ni rat ni pakt Otokar Kerošvani, Rijeka 1970 p.71
69 ‘Lord, great merciful’ Štrandman, Vasilij N (Basil de Strandman) Balkanske uspomene [Balkan Memoirs]. Knjiga I., Deo 1–2, Žagor Belgrade 2009 p.329
69 ‘The main preoccupation’ Joffre p.120
70 ‘Mort aux Boches!’ Wencke, Meteling Ehre, Einheit, Ordnung. Preußische und französische Städte und ihre Regimenter im Krieg, 1870/71 und 1914–19 Baden-Baden Nomos 2010 p.321 Derenne diary 29.7.14
70 ‘We are getting ready’ Gide p.48 28.7.14
71 ‘Late that night’ Clarke, Tom My Northcliffe Diary Gollancz 1931 p.60
71 ‘Paul Cambon said later’ Recouly p.45
72 ‘My darling One’ Soames, Mary Speaking for Themselves p.96
72 ‘There is no record’ SSA Belgrade 80-7-356-7
72 ‘30 July will be proclaimed’ McMeekin p.73
73 ‘our prestige in the Slav world’ Lieven p.147
73 ‘You commit a serious error’ ibid. p.86
73 ‘They were just like’ Littauer p.127
73 ‘After a last’ Knox p.39
74 ‘The military measures which’ Geiss, Immanuel July 1914 Batsford 1967 p.132
3 THE GERMANS MARCH
75 ‘the press and its’ Hesse p.2