Over the Top: Alternative Histories of the First World War

240 Pages·2014·9.62 MB·English

by  Jones

To Those Who Served in the War to End All Wars, 1914–1918

Over the Top: Alternate Histories of the First World War This edition published
in 2014 by Frontline Books,
an imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd,
47 Church Street, Barnsley, S. Yorkshire, S70 2AS
www.frontline-books.com
Copyright © Pen & Sword Books Ltd, 2014
The right of the contributors to be identified as the authors of this work has been
asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
1988.
ISBN: 978-1-84832-753-5
eISBN: 9781473841628
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or
introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means
(electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior
written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act
in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil
claims for damages.
CIP data records for this title are available from the British Library For more
information on our books, please visit
www.frontline-books.com, email [email protected]
or write to us at the above address.
Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY
Typeset in 11.75/14 point Adobe Jenson Pro by JCS Publishing Services Ltd,
www.jcs-publishing.co.uk
Contents
List of Illustrations
Maps
Contributor Biographies
Introduction
1 Der Tag: The German Decision to Go East in 1914 by Peter G. Tsouras
2 Vormarsch! The Breakthrough at Ypres, 1914 by Spencer Jones
3 Kitchener of Arabia by Stephen Badsey
4 The Queen of Cities Beckons by Peter G. Tsouras
5 Germania Delenda Est: America Enters the War, 1915 by Peter G. Tsouras
6 Britannia Rules the Waves: The Battle of Jutland, 1916 by Spencer Jones
7 The Brusilov Offensive, 1916: Russia’s Glory by Peter G. Tsouras
8 The Somme Steamroller by Stuart Mitchell
9 ‘From Mud, Through Blood to the Green Fields Beyond’: The Great Allied
Tank Offensive of 1917 by Spencer Jones
10 German Strategic Raiding, the Murder of David Lloyd George, and the
Rise of Lord Northcliffe by James Pugh
Illustrations
Maps
1-1 Mobilisation on the Eastern Front as of 11 August 1914
2-1 The Battle of Gheluvelt: The German Breakthrough at Ypres, October 1914
3-1 The Ottoman Empire at War on Five Fronts, 1915
4-1 Eastern Thrace and Constantinople, Ottoman Empire, 1914
4-2 Dardanelles–Eastern Thrace Campaign, 1915
5-1 The Attack of the German 5th Army on the US 1st Army at Verdun, March
1915
6-1 Approach of the Rival Fleets for the Battle of Jutland, May 1916
7-1 The Eastern Front, June 1916
7-2 The Brusilov Offensive, June 1916
8-1 The Battle of the Somme: Ground Taken During the First British ‘Bite’, 1
July 1916
9-1 The Allied Tank Attacks that Defeated the German Army in 1917
Plates
Chapter 1 Der Tag: The Germans Decision to Go East in 1914
1-1 Kaiser Wilhelm II
1-2 General Helmuth von Molkte, Chief of the German Army General Staff
1-3 Russian mobilisation was slower than Germany’s allowing the Germans to
assemble an overwhelming mass of manoeuvre for the battles of 1914
1-4 Russian POWs taken during the roll of German victories in 1914
Chapter 2 Vormarsch! The German Breakthrough at Ypres, 1914
2-1 German heavy howitzers in action
2-2 Brigadier-General Charles FitzClarence VC
2-3 General Max von Fabeck
2-4 British and German troops locked in murderous combat at the Battle of
Gheluvelt
2-5 Battle-worn French infantry during the harrowing retreat from Flanders,
November 1914
Chapter 3 Kitchener of Arabia
3-1 Field Marshal Earl Kitchener of Khartoum and Broome in 1914
3-2 Lieutenant General Sir Ian Hamilton, commander of the Constantinople
Expeditionary Force
3-3 HMS Doris, the light cruiser whose cheeky raid on Alexandretta emphasised
its weakness
3-4 Indian lancer cavalry in the drive on Aleppo
3-5 Machine-gunners of the Indian Corps at the Battle of Alexandretta
3-6 2nd Australian Light Horse from the ANZAC Mounted Division with
thousands of Turkish prisoners taken in the drive on Aleppo
Chapter 4 The Queen of Cities Beckons
4-1 Venizelos and the Great Idea: A map of Great Greece with Venizelos’s
portrait in the left corner
4-2 Venizelos and Constantine I, King of the Hellenes
4-3 Colonel Mustapha Kemal, commander of the Ottoman 9th Infantry Division
at Gallipoli
4-4 Greek soldiers of A Corps fighting to cut off the Turkish 5th Army in
Gallipoli
4-5 General Liman von Sanders, who commanded the Turkish 5th Army at
Gallipoli
4-6 Constantine I and the Greek Army of Thrace on the march to Constantinople
4-7 The Hagia Sophia before its reconsecration as an Eastern Orthodox cathedral
after the Greek capture of Constantinople
4-8 Greek troops marching in the Allied victory parade in Paris
Chapter 5 Germania Delenda Est: America Enters the War, 1915
5-1 Former President Theodore Roosevelt visiting Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1910
5-2 General Frederick Funston, commander of the American Expeditionary
Force.
5-3 The brilliant American Assistant Secretary of the Army, Franklin D.
Roosevelt, President Theodore Roosevelt’s proconsul in Europe.
5-4 Fort Douaumont, the key to the fortress complex of Verdun.
5-5 The marine counterattack at Verdun
5-6 King George V decorates an American soldier armed with the American
Enfield, the US modification of the famed British rifle.
Chapter 6 Britannia Rules the Waves: The Battle of Jutland, 1916
6-1 Admiral Sir John Jellicoe aboard his flagship HMS Iron Duke
6-2 Admiral Reinhard Scheer
6-3 British battlecruiser HMS Lion in action at the Battle of Jutland, 1916
6-4 HMS Iron Duke
Chapter 7 The Brusilov Offensive: Russia’s Glory
7-1 Pyotr Stolypin, the Russian defence minister
7-2 General Aleksei Brusilov
7-3 General Nikolai Nikolaevich Yudenich, commander of the North-West Front
against the Germans
7-4 General Franz Ferdinand, commander of the Austro-Hungarian 4th Army
which collapsed on the first day of the Brusilov Offensive
7-5 Cossack cavalry overrunning an Austro-Hungarian artillery battery during
the exploitation of the Russian breakthrough of the Brusilov Offensive
7-6 British Lanchester armoured cars, part of the British Armoured Car
Expeditionary Force in Russia
Chapter 8 The Somme Steamroller
8-1 Sir Henry Seymour Rawlinson
8-2 British night bombardment at the Battle of the Somme
8-3 British infantry in the attack at the Battle of the Somme
8-4 Vanishing villages: Beaumont Hamel, 1916
Chapter 9 ‘From Mud, Through Blood to the Green Fields
Beyond’: The Great Allied Tank Offensive of 1917
9-1 A damaged British tank at the Battle of Arras, April 1917
9-2 Light tanks in action at the Battle of St Quentin, 1917
9-3 A British tank smashing through a German trench at the Battle of St
Quentin.
9-4 British heavy tanks pushing forward into open country following the
breakthrough at the Battle of St Quentin, 1917
Chapter 10 German Strategic Bombing, the Murder of David
Lloyd George, and the Rise of Lord Northcliffe 10-1 Alfred Charles
William Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe
10-2 German Gotha GV, heavy bomber, June 1917
10-3 ‘End of the Baby Killers!’ – British poster showing the destruction of a
German airship in a bombing raid over London
10-4 Prime Minister David Lloyd George
All plates are supplied from the private collections of Dr Spencer Jones and
Peter Tsouras.