Anglo—French Relations and Strategy on the Western Front, 1914–18 PDF
Preview Anglo—French Relations and Strategy on the Western Front, 1914–18
ANGLO-FRENCH RELATIONS AND STRATEGYON THE WESTERN FRONT, 1914-18 STUDIES INMILITARY AND STRATEGICHISTORY GeneralEditor:Michael Dockrill,ReaderinWarStudies,King's College,London Publishedtitlesinclude: G.H. Bennett BRITISHFOREIGNPOLICYDURINGTHECURZONPERIOD, 1919-24 David A.Charters THE BRITISH ARMY AND JEWISH INSURGENCY INPALESTINE, 1945-47 Paul Cornish BRITISH MILITARYPLANNINGFOR THEDEFENCEOF GERMANY, 1945-50 Robert Frazier ANGLO-AMERICANRELATIONS WITH GREECE:The Comingof theColdWar. 1942-47 Brian HoldenReid J.F.C.FULLER:MilitaryThinker StewartLone JAPAN'S FIRST MODERNWAR: Army and Societyinthe Conflict withChina,1894-95 ThomasR.Mockaitis BRITISH COUNTERINSURGENCY,1919-60 RogerWoodhouse BRITISH POLICY TOWARDS FRANCE, 1945-51 Anglo-French Relations and Strategy on the Western Front, 1914-18 William James Philpott LecturerinEuropeanHistory LondonGuildhallUniversity in association with Palgrave Macmillan ~ First published in Great Britain 1996 by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-1-349-24513-0 ISBN 978-1-349-24511-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-24511-6 ~ First published in the United States of America 1996 by ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC .. Scholarly and Reference Division, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 ISBN 978-0-312-12944-6 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Philpott, William James. Anglo-French relations and strategy on the Western Front 1914-18 I William James Philpott. p. em.-(Studies in military and strategic history) Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 978-0-312-12944-6 1. World War, 1914-1918--Campaigns-Westem Front. 2. Great Britain-Military relations-France. 3. France-Military relations -Great Britain. 4. Strategy. I. Title. II. Series. D544.P49 1996 940.4'0 12--<lc20 95-53241 CIP © William James Philpott 1996 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1996 978-0-333-63125-6 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W 1P 9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 I 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 96 To the memory ofmy grandfather William James Dartnell who was there Contents ListofMaps VJlJ Acknowledgements ix ListofAbbreviations x Deficiencies inPreparation:August 1914 2 Differences intheField:MonsandtheMarne, August-September 1914 15 3 TheFailure ofCoordination: TheSiegeofAntwerpand theFirst Battleof Ypres 31 4 DiscordantStrategies: December 1914-January 1915 51 5 Politics andGrand Strategy 68 6 Relations intheField 93 7 The Ascendancy ofFrench Strategy:TheSommeOffensive 112 8 The Northern Flank Strategy 129 9 The CoordinationofAllied Strategy 150 10 Conclusion 161 Notes and References 166 Bibliography 213 Index 219 vii List of Maps 1 AntwerpOperations,29September-15 October 1914 39 2 SituationintheWesternFront,30June 1916 122 3 Haig's PlanforaFlandersCampaign 142 viii Acknowledgements I would like to thank the following individuals and institutions for allow ing me to cite and quote from material in their possession or for which they hold the copyright. Her Majesty theQueen and the Controllerof Her Majesty's Stationery Office; the archivist of the Archives Generales du Royaume, Brussels;the Chefdu ServiceHistoriquede l'Armee de Terre, Vincennes; the Clerk of the House of Lords Record Office and the Trustees ofthe Beaverbrook Foundation; the Trustees ofthe Liddell Hart Centrefor Military Archives, King's College, London; theTrusteesofthe Imperial War Museum; Lord Bonham Carter;Lord Esher; Lord Haig and the Trustees of the National Library of Scotland; Lord Mottistone; Lord Robertson; the Warden and Fellows of New College, Oxford; the Master and Fellows ofChurchill College, Cambridge; Lady Patricia Kingsbury; Mr A.Murray;Mr M.A.F.Rawlinson. Every effort has beenmade totrace the copyright holdersofmaterialcited inthis volume, andIapologisehere if any copyright has been inadvertently infringed. I would also like to thank the archivists and staff of the libraries and archives which I have used for theirhelp during the preparationof this work. The following individuals have all read the manuscript in whole or in part during its preparation and offered invaluable advice and encourage ment, which has improved the quality of the final work; Professor Ian Beckett;ProfessorBrian Bond;MichaelDockrill; DavidFrench;Professor John Gooch; Professor Sir Michael Howard; G.H. Le May; Professor Robert O'Neill; Roy Prete; ProfessorPaul Smith;Rhodri Williams. Their professional support and friendship during the early stages of my acade mic career has also proved invaluable.I would also like to thank Stewart Davidson,cartographer at the University of Bradford, forgiving his time and expertise to prepare the maps for this volume. Any errors of fact or interpretation remainingare my own. Finally, I would particularly like to thank the following individuals for their friendship and support during the lengthy gestation of this book: SamanthaAshenden; Paul Chilcott;Matthew Cragoe; TimMoreman;Kate Osborne;Jo Smith;Charles Robinson and Sarah Baxter. W.J.PHILPOIT ix List of Abbreviations AAT ArchivesdeI'Armee deTerre,Vincennes BEF BritishExpeditionary Force,France CMG Cabinet du Ministre de LaGuerre,Archives deI'Armeede Terre, Vincennes CGS ChiefoftheGeneral Staffof theBritish anny inFrance CIGS ChiefoftheImperial General Staff EWB ExecutiveWar Board ofSupreme WarCouncil, Versailles GHQ General Headquarters, British armies,France GQG Grand QuartierGeneral, French anny SWC SupremeWarCouncil, Versailles x
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