The First World War
Page 58
49. M. Farndale, A History of the Royal Artillery: The Western Front, 1914–18, London, 1986, p. 144.
50. Travers, p. 140.
51. Travers, p. 140.
52. Travers, p. 139.
53. See, for example, the bibliographical references to T. Travers, P. Griffith and G. Sheffield in Cecil and Liddle, pp. 413 ff̣.
54. M. Browne, The Imperial War Museum Book of the Somme, London, 1996, p. 67.
55. Keegan, Face, p. 245.
56. Fourth Army Records, Public Record Office, WO158/233–6, July 2.
57. Wynne, p. 118.
58. Wynne, p. 120.
59. Clarke, p. 93.
60. K. Macksey and J. Batchelor, Tank, London, 1971, pp. 14–25.
61. Personal visit, 1996; The Daily Telegraph, 29/6/96.
62. Farwell, p. 293.
63. See G. Robertson, Chitral, The Story of a Minor Siege, London, 1897.
64. Asprey, pp. 207–8.
65. Stone, pp. 229–30.
66. Stone, p. 231.
67. Asprey, p. 67.
68. Stone, p. 68.
CHAPTER NINE
1. R. Cobb, French and Germans, Germans and French, Oxford, 1983, pp. 3–35.
2. J. Glubb, Into Battle, London, 1978, p. 153.
3. See, passim, A. Clark, The Donkeys, London, 1961; L. Wolff, In Flanders Fields, London, 1958; N. Dixon, On the Psychology of Military Incompetence, London, 1976.
4. J. Terraine, Haig, The Educated Soldier, London, 1963.
5. Quoted F. Davies and G. Maddocks, Bloody Red Tabs, London, 1995, p. 26.
6. Davies and Maddocks, p. 23.
7. P. Griffith, Battle Tactics of the Western Front, London, 1994, p. 171.
8. Wynne, p. 125.
9. Public Records Office, WO95/2366, 95/820, 153, 167/256/11.
10. S. Bidwell and T. Graham, Fire-Power, London, 1982, pp. 141–3.
11. Thébaud in J. J. Becker, Guerres et Cultures, p. 113.
12. J.-J. Becker, The Great War and the French People, Leamington Spa, Eng., 1985, p. 21.
13. Becker, Great War, p. 227.
14. R. Wall and J. Winter, The Upheaval of War, Cambridge, 1988, p. 30.
15. L. Moyer, Victory Must Be Ours, London, 1995, p. 164.
16. Wall and Winter, p. 117.
17. Cruttwell, pp. 363–4.
18. Moyer, pp. 165–71.
19. T. Wilson, The Myriad Faces of War, London, 1986, p. 407.
20. Becker, Great War, p. 324.
21. Stone, p. 282.
22. E. Spears, Prelude to Victory, London, 1939, p. 42.
23. Wynne, p. 134.
24. Wynne, pp. 166–7.
25. Spears, Prelude, pp. 40–1.
26. Wynne, p. 180.
27. Wynne, p. 174.
28. A. McKee, Vimy Ridge, London, 1966, p. 102.
29. McKee, p. 116.
30. Spears, Prelude, p. 331.
31. Spears, Prelude, p. 41.
32. Spears, Prelude, pp. 489–90.
33. Spears, Prelude, p. 492.
34. Spears, Prelude, p. 493.
35. Spears, Prelude, p. 509.
36. L. Smith, Between Mutiny and Obedience: The Case of the French Fifth Infantry Division during World War I, Princeton, N.J., 1994, p. 185.
37. Becker, Great War, pp. 217–22.
38. Becker, Great War, p. 219.
39. M. Pedrocini, Les mutineries de 1917, Paris, 1967, Chapter 4.
40. Smith, pp. 218–19.
41. Smith, p. 197.
42. Smith, p. 206–7.
43. T. Ashworth, Trench Warfare 1914–18: The Live and Let Live System, London, 1980, pp. 15–16.
44. Smith, pp. 225–6.
45. Stone, p. 282.
46. Becker, Great War, pp. 220–1.
47. A. Wildman, The End of the Russian Imperial Army, New York, 1980, p. 109.
48. Stone, pp. 284–5.
49. Stone, pp. 299–300.
50. O. Figes, A People’s Tragedy, London, 1996, p. 378.
51. Wildman, p. 128.
52. Wildman, p. 149.
53. Quoted Figes, p. 315.
54. R. Pipes, The Russian Revolution, London, 1990, p. 258.
55. Pipes, pp. 321–2.
56. Pipes, p. 329.
57. Pipes, p. 328.
58. Wildman, p. 335.
59. Pipes, p. 393.
60. Wynne, p. 294.
61. Figes, p. 445.
62. Pipes, p. 477.
63. Pipes, p. 583.
64. Buldakov in Cecil and Liddle, p. 542.
65. Pipes, pp. 418–19.
66. Buldakov in Cecil and Liddle, p. 542.
67. J. Gooch, “Italy During the First World War,” in Millett and Williamson, p. 181.
68. Whittam, p. 197.
69. J. Gooch, “Morale and Discipline in the Italian Army 1915–18,” in Cecil and Liddle, p. 437.
70. Gooch in Cecil and Liddle, p. 440.
71. J. Keegan, “An Army Downs Tools” (review of L. Smith, Between Mutiny and Obedience), The Times Literary Supplement, May 13, 1994, pp. 3–4.
72. Rochet and Massobrio, p. 185.
73. C. Falls, Caporetto, London, 1966, p. 26.
74. Falls, pp. 36–7.
75. Falls, p. 40.
76. Rommel, p. 177.
77. Rommel, p. 221.
78. Falls, p. 49.
79. Gooch in Cecil and Liddle, p. 442.
80. J. Pratt, A History of United States Foreign Policy, New York, 1959, pp. 477–82.
81. Halpern, pp. 337–9.
82. Asprey, p. 293.
83. Halpern, p. 404.
84. Halpern, p. 84.
85. J. Terraine, Business in Great Waters, London, 1989, pp. 52–3.
86. Terraine, Great Waters, p. 54.
87. Terraine, Great Waters, p. 148.
88. R. Blake, The Private Papers of Douglas Haig, London, 1952, p. 236.
89. Woolf, p. 77.
90. J. Terraine, The Road to Passchendaele, London, 1977, p. 156.
91. Terraine, Passchendaele, p. 166.
92. P. Oldham, Pillboxes on the Western Front, London, 1995, Chapter 6.
93. Wynne, pp. 288–9.
94. Wynne, pp. 295–6.
95. J. Edmonds, Military Operations, France and Belgium, 1917, II, London, 1948, p. 134.
96. J. Morrow, The Great War in the Air, London, 1993, p. 202.
97. Morrow, pp. 186–7.
98. N. Steel and P. Hart, Tumult in the Clouds, London, 1997, pp. 25, 214.
99. A. Kernan, Crossing the Line, New York, 1994, p. 108.
100. Farndale, p. 203.
101. Farndale, p. 204.
102. Edmonds, 1917, II, p. 148.
103. E. Vaughan, Some Desperate Glory, London, 1981, pp. 219–32.
104. Woolf, pp. 165–7.
105. Wynne, pp. 307–8.
106. Wynne, pp. 303–10.
107. P. Griffith, The British Army’s Art of Attack 1916–18, London, 1994, p. 89.
108. De Groot, p. 341.
109. De Groot, p. 343.
110. D. Morton, A Military History of Canada, Toronto, 1992, p. 149.
111. D. Morton, When Your Number’s Up, London, 1993, p. 171.
112. Edmonds, Short History, p. 252.
113. Farndale, pp. 216–17.
114. 251 Divisions, p. 224.
115. Farndale, p. 224.
116. Travers, p. 22.
117. Farndale, p. 223.
118. Farndale, p. 224.
CHAPTER TEN
1. M. Kitchen, The Silent Dictatorship, London, 1976, p. 123.
2. M. E. S. Harries, The Last Days of Innocence, London, 1997, p. 89.
3. Harries, p. 324.
4. 251 Divisions, p. 97.
5. M. Middlebrook, The Kaiser’s Battle, London, 1978, pp. 380–4.
6. Middlebrook, Kaiser, p. 52.
7. Middlebrook, Kaiser, p. 53.
8. C. Falls, The Great War, London, 1959, p. 285.
10. Fischer, p. 610.
11. Kitchen, p. 248.
12. Fischer, p. 450.
13. Fischer, pp. 460–9.
14. R. Luckett, The White Generals, New York, 1971, pp. 126–30.
15. Luckett, p. 142.
16. G. Mannerheim, Memoirs, New York, 1953, p. 176.
17. Kitchen, p. 220.
18. Fischer, p. 515.
19. E. Mawdsley, The Russian Civil War, New York, 1989, p. 27.
20. Mawdsley, pp. 286–7.
21. Pipes, Revolution, p. 581.
22. Pipes, Revolution, p. 581.
23. Pipes, Revolution, p. 584.
24. Mawdsley, p. 34.
25. Pipes, Revolution, p. 584.
26. Mawdsley, p. 26.
27. Mawdsley, pp. 225–9.
28. C. Ellis, The British Intervention in Transcaspia, 1918–19, London, 1963, p. 12.
29. G. Uloth, Riding to War, privately printed, 1993, pp. 8–9.
30. G. Bayliss, Operations in Persia, 1914–19, London, 1987, pp. 210–11.
31. Ellis, p. 12.
32. Ellis, pp. 57–65.
33. Ellis, p. 12.
34. Luckett, p. 196.
35. Luckett, p. 197.
36. Pipes, Revolution, p. 610.
37. Mawdsley, p. 59.
38. J. Bradley, Allied Intervention in Russia, London, 1968, p. 2.
39. Bradley, pp. 11–14.
40. Bradley, p. 181.
41. Mawdsley, p. 20.
42. Mawdsley, p. 21.
43. Bradley, p. 18.
44. Luckett, p. 163.
45. Bradley, pp. 94–5.
46. Mawdsley, p. 97.
47. Luckett, pp. 198–208.
48. N. Nicolson, Alex, London, 1963, pp. 57–66.
49. G. Bennet, Cowan’s War, London, 1964, p. 157.
50. P. Kencz, Civil War in South Russia, New York, 1977, pp. 182–91.
51. Bradley, pp. 106–31.
52. Pipes, Revolution, p. 657.
53. M. Carley, Revolution and Intervention, New York, 1983, p. 38.
54. Pipes, Revolution, p. 657.
55. Pipes, Revolution, p. 634.
56. H. Herwig, The First World War, New York, 1997, pp. 400–1.
57. Middlebrook, Kaiser, p. 382.
58. J. Edmonds, Military Operations, France and Belgium, 1918, I, London, 1935, p. 139.
59. Herwig, pp. 399–400.
60. Edmonds, 1918, I, p. 156.
61. Herwig, p. 302.
62. Edmonds, 1918, I, p. 51.
63. Edmonds, 1918, I, p. 99.
64. Edmonds, 1918, I, p. 123.
65. Middlebrook, Kaiser, p. 152.
66. Middlebrook, Kaiser, p. 162.
67. Middlebrook, Kaiser, p. 189.
68. Middlebrook, Kaiser, pp. 191–2.
69. Middlebrook, Kaiser, p. 192.
70. Middlebrook, Kaiser, p. 238.
71. Edmonds, Short History, p. 286.
72. Edmonds, Short History, p. 542.
73. Herwig, pp. 406–7.
74. Herwig, p. 410.
75. Herwig, p. 408.
76. Herwig, p. 409.
77. Edmonds, Short History, p. 305.
78. Herwig, p. 404.
79. Herwig, p. 415.
80. Harries, p. 251.
81. Edmonds, Short History, p. 323.
82. Fischer, p. 622.
83. Herwig, p. 416.
84. Herwig, pp. 421–2.
85. Kitchen, pp. 247–9.
86. Herwig, p. 421.
87. Harries, p. 345.
88. Goodspeed, p. 208.
89. Goodspeed, p. 211.
90. Goodspeed, p. 211.
91. R. Watt, The Kings Depart, London, 1968, p. 149.
92. Goodspeed, p. 215.
93. Goodspeed, pp. 216–17.
94. Macartney, pp. 829–33.
95. Macartney, p. 833.
96. Watt, pp. 164–5.
97. Watt, p. 195.
98. Watt, p. 187.
99. Cruttwell, pp. 595–6.
100. Watt, p. 199.
101. F. Carsten, The Reichswehr and Politics, 1918–33, Oxford, 1966, p. 8.
102. Watt, p. 191.
103. N. Jones, Hitler’s Heralds, London, 1987, Appendix 4.
104. Ward and Gibson, p. 281.
105. Winter, Sites of Memory, p. 108.
106. Herwig, p. 439; Whalen, p. 40.
107. J. Winter, Upheaval, pp. 16–27.
108. Whalen, p. 41.
Bibliography
OFFICIAL HISTORIES
Neither Russia nor Turkey published official histories, the state structure of both empires having been devastated by the war and subsequent civil war. Nor is there an American official narrative history, though the United States government produced a number of volumes about specific aspects of the war. The most important official histories are the British, French, German, Austrian and Australian. The French history, though detailed, is desiccated in tone; the most useful volume is the tenth, divided into two parts, which contains the order of battle and records the movements and changes of command of divisions and higher formations. The Austrian official history also includes valuable orders of battle and provides a narrative less clinical than the French. The sixteen volumes of the German official history of operations on land was written in a detached general-staff style but is an indispensable record of the German army’s activities; a companion series of informal battle narratives (e.g., Reichsarchiv, Ypern, Gorlice) is also useful. The British official series comprehends extended narratives of army operations in all theatres, a naval and an air force history, some technical volumes (medicine, transportation) and a subordinate and extremely detailed set of orders of battle, absolutely necessary to an understanding of Britain’s part in the war. The Australian official historian, C. W. E. Bean, collected personal reminiscences from many participants. His series of volumes, as a result, has a human dimension none of the other official histories achieves, and anticipates in its approach that successfully adopted in the magnificent American official narrative of the Second World War. The titles of these official histories are as follows:
J. Edmonds, Military Operations, France and Belgium, 1914–18, London, 1925–48, and companion volumes on operations in Italy, Macedonia, Egypt and Palestine, the Dardanelles, Persia and East and West Africa by other authors. The naval history, Naval Operations, London, 1920–31, was written by J. Corbett and H. Newbolt. The aviation volumes are those of W. Raleigh and H. Jones, The War in the Air, Oxford, 1922–37.
Etat-major de L’armée, Les Armées françaises dans la grande guerre, Paris, 1922–39
Reichsarchiv, Der Weltkrieg, Berlin, 1925–39
Bundesministerium für Landesverteidigung, Österreich-Ungarns Letzter Krieg, 1914–18, Vienna, 1930–8
C. E. W. Bean, Australia in the War of 1914–18, Sydney, 1921–43
GENERAL HISTORIES
There are few satisfactory general histories of the war, perhaps because of the miseries and rancours it left behind. The losers preferred to forget, while even among the victors there was little enthusiasm for recalling the events which had literally decimated their male populations. The British, who suffered proportionately least of the combatant great powers, produced the most successful general accounts. Theirs and others include:
J. Edmonds, A Short History of World War I, Oxford, 1951, a brief but comprehensive operational survey.
C. Falls, The First World War, London, 1960, incisive and compact.
M. Ferro, The Great War 1914–18, London, 1973, the first general history with a philosophical and cultural dimension.
A. J. P. Taylor, The First World War: An Illustrated History, London, 1963, characteristically succinct.
H. Herwig, The First World War: Germany and Austria 1914–18, London, 1997, is wider than its title suggests and surveys much modern scholarship.
ORIGINS
The peremptory transition from an apparently profound peace to violent general war in a few mid-summer weeks in 1914 continues to defy attempts at explanation. Historians, after abandoning efforts to assign war guilt, turned first to an examination of causes, which proved almost as contentious, eventually to an analysis of circumstances.
The bedrock of all discussion remains L. Albertini’s The Origins of the War of 1914 (3 volumes), Oxford, 1952–7, which provides a detailed chronology of the crisis and excerpts from the most important documents. A more recent and carefully balanced analysis of circumstances is provided by J. Joll, 1914: The Unspoken Assumptions, London, 1984. Essential works on the unfolding of the crisis in each of the major combatant states are: I. Geiss, Juli 1914, Munich, 1965; J. Gooch, Army, State and Society in Italy, 1870–1915, New York, 1989; J. Keiger, France and the Origins of the First World War, New York, 1983; S. Williamson, Austria-Hungary and the Origins of the First World War, New York, 1991; and Z. Steiner, Britain and the Origins of the First World War, New York, 1977, which is particularly concerned with British official diplomacy. F. Fischer, in Griff nach der Weltmacht, Düsseldorf, 1961, and Krieg der Illusionen, Düsseldorf, 1969, controversially revived the issue of Germany’s war guilt. Both, though causing outrage in Germany at the time of their publication, remain essential texts.
Two books on the mood of pre-war Europe are vital: M. Eksteins, Rites of Spring, Boston, 1989, and R. Wohl, The Generation of 1914, Cambridge, Mass., 1979.
WAR PLANS
In The Schlieffen Plan, New York, 1959, G. Ritter dissected the texts of the German chief of staff which launched his army on its disastrous campaign the year after his death; it is perhaps the single most important book ever published on the First World War. Valuable commentaries are supplied by G. Tunstall, in Planning for War Against Russia and Serbia, New York, 1993; A. Bucholz, Moltke, Schlieffen and Prussian War Planning, New York, 1991; D. Herrmann, The Arming of Europe and the Making of the First World War, Princeton, N.J., 1996; and the essays in P. Kennedy, The War Plans of the Great Powers, London, 1979.
CONDUCT OF THE WAR
The strategy of the war, as distinct from planning for it, has generated little scholarship. Its tactics, on the other hand, have always stimulated investigation, perhaps because a successful tactical solution was perceived to be the principal strategic necessity, particularly on the Western Front. In recent years a new generation of British, Australian and Canadian scholars have revived enquiry. Three leading writers are T. Travers’ The Killing Ground, London, 1987, and How the War Was Won, London, 1992; P. Griffith, Battle Tactics of the Western Front, London, 1992, and Forward into Battle, Rambsbury, 1990; and H. Herwig, The First World War: Germany and Austria-Hungary 1914–18, London, 1997. None achieves the incisiveness of the British ex-official historian, G. C. Wynne, who, in If Germany Attacks, London, 1940, produced an analysis of British and French adaptations of their methods of the offensive against entrenched positions and of the German response which has not been surpassed. A valuable insight into the nature of trench warfare on the “inactive” sectors is supplied by T. Ashworth in Trench Warfare: The Live and Let Live System, London, 1980. Three important books on the war’s generalship, casting much light on its strategy, are: R. Asprey, The German High Command at War, New York, 1991; M. Kitchen, The Silent Dictatorship: The Politics of the German High Command under Hindenburg and Ludendorff, London, 1976; and C. Barnett, The Swordbearers, London, 1963.