The First World War: The War to End All Wars

351 Pages·2003·22.34 MB·English

by  Peter Simkins

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Front 1914-1923
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ISBN 1 84176 738 7
Editor: Rebecca Cullen
Design: Ken Vail Graphic Design, Cambridge. UK
Cartography by The Map Studio
Index by Alan Thatcher
Picture research by Image Select International
Origination by Grasmere Digital Imaging, Leeds. UK
Printed and bound in China by L. Rex Printing Company Ltd.
03 04 05 06 07 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Foreword by Professor Hew Strachan 7
Introduction 9
Chronology 13
Part l: The Western Front 1914-1916
Background to war - The road to war 21
Warring sides - The opposing sides 26
Outbreak - Countdown to war 32
The fighting War on the Western Front 1914 1916 35
Portrait of a soldier - Private Archie Surfleet 94
The world around war - The Home Fronts 1914-1916 96
Portrait of a civilian - Winnifred Adair Roberts 100
How the period ended - No end in sight 102
Part II: The Western Front 1917-1918
Background to war - Strategic choices for 1917 104
The fighting War on the Western Front 1917- 1918 110
Portrait of a soldier - Private Frederick 'Fen' Noakes 171
The world around war - The Home Fronts 1917-1918 174
Portrait of a civilian - Caroline Webb 179
How the war on the Western Front ended - The final month 181
Part III: The Eastern Front 1914-1918
Background to war - Russian ambitions 185
Warring sides - Russia, Germany and Austria-Hungary 187
The fighting -War on the Eastern Front 1914-1918 195
Portrait of a soldier - A trooper, an ensign and a sergeant 245
The world around war - The last days of Tsarist Russia 252
Portrait of a civilian - 'Living on cereals and porridge' 257
How the war on the Eastern Front ended:The Bolsheviks seize power 260
Part IV: The Mediterranean Front 1914-1923
Background to war The decline of the Ottoman Empire 268
Warring sides The opposing armies 275
The fighting - War on the Mediterannean Front 1914-1923 283
Portrait of a soldier Cecil, Harold and Noel Wright 321
The world around war - The loose ends of war 326
Portrait of a civilian - The village of Christleton 330
How the war on the Mediterranean Front ended: End of the tragedy 335
Conclusion and consequences
337
Bibliography
342
Index 344
Foreword
by Professor Hew Strachan
The First World War was fought on many most basic issues of war and peace. Should
fronts intensively and simultaneously. In this Britain introduce conscription in order to raise
respect it bears direct comparison with the a mass army? Should it not concentrate on
Second World War. In the Second World War, what it could do best, providing the arms and
the relationship between fronts, and the co money for other powers on the European
ordination of their efforts, would be called mainland to fight? The resulting discussions
grand strategy. But this was not a phrase were frequently acrimonious, and after the war
known or used in 1914-1918. Most of the the memoirs of the participants flung
campaigns described in this volume were accusations that made 'easterners' and
self-contained in their origins and even in 'westerners', 'frocks' and 'brasshats' terms of
their conduct. They represented national abuse rather than precise descriptions. In reality
efforts made in pursuit of national goals. the categories were never that neat,
In this respect the first World War became and the vigour with which the various options
a world war because it conflated wars that had were canvassed bore testimony to the strength,
lives and directions of their own. It began in not the weakness, of democracies in effective
the Balkans. As such it was the third Balkan decision-making.
war fought in rapid succession since 1912, and Germany was more genuinely divided
in most respects the interests of the principal between 'easterners' and 'westerners', but here
Balkan states in the war never ranged beyond the casualty was strategy itself. It stood at the
the Balkan peninsula. Serbia, Bulgaria and physical heart of Europe, and it was the
Rumania all sought local objectives. The mainstay of the Central Powers' alliance. Its
exception was the most reluctant of the armies could go east or west with comparable
Balkan belligerents, Greece, which had eyes on facility, but it never found a consistent policy
territory in Asia Minor. But that conflict - the with which to determine their deployment.
one fought over the Ottoman empire - makes Moreover, as Peter Simkins makes clear in his
the Same point: it too began before 1914 and contribution to this volume, by 1918
it did not end in 1918. Its conclusion was Germany's most important voice in the war's
reached with the establishment of modern direction, Erich Ludendorff, had lost his way.
Turkey in 1923. By then its allies were critically dependent on
Only two powers, one on each side, fully Berlin not only for weapons and money, but
confronted the fact that they were fighting a also for military advice and leadership.
multi-front war. Britain was of Europe but not Germany could not stretch its resources that far.
in it; moreover it had sprawling and The First World War may in some respects
vulnerable global interests. These included have begun before 1914 and continued after
India and a network of colonial bases between 1918, but this does not mean that fighting was
Delhi and London. Their sizeable Muslim continuous in this period, however defined.
populations were intimately affected by the Even in the middle of the war two fronts
fate of Islam's Holy Cities, which lay within enjoyed periods of comparative quiet. Both
the Ottoman empire. The pursuit of grand fall within the purview of Michael Mickey's
strategy therefore found its most coherent section of this book. In the autumn of 1915
form in the debates of the British cabinet as it Serbia, the country for whose defence the
weighed the priorities of competing Entente powers of Russia, France and Britain
commitments. At bottom these went to the had - at least nominally - gone to war, was
8 The First World War
overrun. Confronted by Austria-Hungary and The message here is that no one theatre of
Germany from the north and Bulgaria from the war could in reality be treated in isolation from
east, its army fell hack through Albania to the its neighbour. Rumania was a Balkan power;
Adriatic sea. From here it was evacuated via the fighting in Serbia had implications for
Corfu to Thessalonica. Throughout 1916, 1917, Russia; the frontiers of both Germany and
and much of 1918, the Macedonian front was Austria-Hungary straddled the compartments
quiet enough for the British troops there to be into which this book is logically divided. Much
known as 'the gardeners of Salonika'. Then in of Vienna's war effort was directed against Italy,
mid-September 1918 it roared into life, and the and so undermined its conduct of the war
allied forces, led by the Serbs, knocked Bulgaria against Russia. But when in October 1917 it
out of the war and threatened what Churchill achieved one of the most spectacular victories
saw as the soft underbelly of Europe. of the war, at Caporetto on the river Isonzo,
Six months after the collapse of Serbia, in the response of Italy's allies had repercussions
April 1916, a British division, besieged at Kut-el- for the war in the west, not the east. French
Amara on the river Tigris in Mesopotamia, and British divisions were despatched to Italy,
surrendered to the Turks. Here too the front and the Supreme War Council was created to
went quiet. The British did not resume their coordinate the allies' efforts - a process which
advance on Baghdad until the following winter, would culminate with the appointment of
taking the city on 11 March 1917. On the Ferdinand Foch as allied generalissimo in
Turks' other southern front, that in greater March 1918.
Syria, there were similar pauses, the product Peter Simkins, acknowledges this
not only of different priorities but also of the interdependence, but still argues that the
weather and of supply problems. western front was the heart of the war. The
Serbia, Macedonia, Mesopotamia and fact that others agree with him is recognised
Palestine are all treated here as part of the by his being allowed twice as much space to
Mediterranean theatre. And so they were for a discuss a smaller theatre of war (in
power like Britain that waged economic war geographical terms) as is each of his fellow
through its mastery of the world's oceans and contributors. And he is probably right.
used the sea to project its forces overseas. But Germany was the mainstay of the Central
that was not how it seemed to Turkey. It had Powers, and however many divisions they sent
one front, in the Caucasus, which determined to other fronts, the total never exceeded that
the forces available for its other fronts, on the western front. Moreover, for Britain too
including in 1915 Gallipoli. However, here the the western front was an irreducible
Caucasus is treated by Geoffrey Jukes as part of minimum, for two sensible strategic reasons.
the eastern front. That was precisely the First, it had entered the war to secure the
context into which it fitted for Germany: a neutrality of Belgium. It could not afford to
Turkish thrust into Georgia and Azerbaijan have an over-mighty continental power
could draw Russian troops away from the threatening its principal sea lanes and imperial
eastern front. The latter ran from the Baltic communications. Secondly, its principal ally
states in the north, through Poland, to Galicia in this endeavour was France. France had been
in the south. When Rumania entered the war invaded. The need to drive the Boche from its
on the side of the Entente in 1916, the eastern homeland, to recover its industries, to restore
front extended yet further, as Russia found to its frontiers and to liberate its peoples gave a
its cost. Rumania managed to divert German dynamism and intensity to the western front
and Austro-Hungarian troops from Russia, but probably unequalled elsewhere. There were no
then required Russia to send troops to help it. long pauses here, and when armistice came it
Geoffrey Jukes concludes that by the winter of meant victory for one side and defeat for the
1916-17 the defence of Rumania had become other.
the principal preoccupation of Stavka, the
Russian high command. HEW STRACHAN
Introduction
by Professor Robert O'Neill
The focus of our authors moves from the that France's principal ally, Russia, shared a
origins of the war to the battles of the border with the Ottoman Empire meant
Western Front, then to the Eastern Front that soon the armies of both Russia and
Including the Russian Revolution, and finally Turkey were engaged in and around the
to the war across the Mediterranean from Caucasus. Thus the direct clashes of the
Italy and the Balkans to the Dardanelles, German and French armies in Western
Sinai, Palestine and Mesopotamia. Europe, and of the German, Austrian and
The First World War challenged political Russian armies in Eastern Europe, while
and military leaders in a way in which no being potentially of decisive importance,
other conflict had since the Napoleonic have to be understood as two campaigns in
Wars of a century earlier. It was the first a global engagement.
truly global conflict between several major Because success eluded the Central
powers, ranging across Europe, Africa, the Powers on these two key European fronts,
Middle Fast and Fast Asia, and hence over the resources of the world beyond Europe
the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. Of became increasingly important in inclining
course the war was not intended by the the balance of force in Europe in favour of
principal instigators, Germany and Britain, France, Russia and their allies. I he
Austria-Hungary, to be other than a United States was not directly touched by
European conflict, with later consequences the opening of the war, and the US
for the wider world. But in threatening the Government attempted to remain aloof
interests of Great Britain in August 1914, from what it saw as a war between
the Central Powers brought into immediate- European powers. But American commerce
play not only the full resources of the needed the freedom of the seas and from
British Empire, but also those of Britain's 1915 this liberty came into jeopardy. As
East Asian ally, Japan. Only one hour after well the balance of American interests made
hostilities had begun for Britain, the Royal its technological and industrial resources
Australian Navy was firing on and capturing more readily available to Britain and France
the first of 24 German ships seized in than to Germany. It was only a matter of
Australian waters. On 23 August Japan time before the increasingly hard pressed
declared war on Germany and began to Germans were to attack American shipping
eliminate the German presence in China and draw the United States into the war on
and the northern Pacific. their opponents' side.
The German colonial empire in Africa By 1914 the technological revolution in
soon became the theatre for a protracted armaments, and hence in tactics and
struggle. The Ottoman Empire, despite its strategy, had reached the point at which the
strong naval links with Britain, chose to total resources of the belligerent powers
side with the Central Powers, whose armies became essential elements in the conflict.
the Turks rated the more highly. For Britain, Human resources in Europe soon became
whose navy was converting from coal to oil fully stretched. Political leaders, where
as its principal fuel, control of the Persian they were wise, paid heed to the needs,
Gulf region at the south-eastern end of the aspirations and opinions of their citizens
Ottoman Empire was vital and this need set and subjects. Societies which had moved
a wider dimension to the conflict. The fact towards becoming representative
10 The First World War
democracies had more effective ways of The period of the First World War was
bearing the strains of the conflict than had one of the most fruitful in terms of
the more autocratic structures of Germany, technological development and application.
Austria-Hungary, Russia and the Ottoman Aviation, developed only just before the
Empire. Britain and France endured the war war, became a major asset for the
much more cohesively than did the other belligerents. Tens of thousands of aircraft
four, all of whose empires were to collapse were produced by the major powers.
either during the war or as immediate Strategic bombing began and civilians
consequences of it. learned to recognise warning alarms and the
When Russia was plunged into revolution 'all clear' signal. Chemical warfare was
in 1917, it withdrew from the war and introduced to the battlefield in a major way.
virtually allowed the Central Powers to The submarine became a potent threat to
command resources and territory from the the mercantile and naval shipping of the
Baltic to Ukraine. The German High powers which controlled the surface of the
Command drew fresh hope for a decisive sea. The range and destructive power of
victory in Western Europe in 1918. While artillery increased immensely. The
Lenin consolidated his authority in the development of radio communications
Russian heartland General I.udendorff allowed senior commanders to control their
moved forces to the west for his great forces directly and immediately over
gamble, Operation Michael. But the strain of distances unimagined before, from the
war was telling on every German family and continental theatres of action in Europe to
when Michael failed, a crisis of morale at the oceans of the world. The firepower of
home and in the trenches, set a limit on the machine gun and the now more
what German soldiers, workers and women accurately made rifle increased the defensive
were prepared to tolerate. Acceptance of capabilities of infantry in trenches.
defeat in 1918 brought with it the end of the The challenge to the feasibility of
German monarchy and initiated the attacking such defences forced military
experiment in democracy that we now call leaders to develop new tactics and new ways
the Weimar era which, in turn was to of devolving initiative to front line
collapse under the impact of Nazism. commanders when in action. It took all too
The role of women was extended into long before these new approaches were
new domains by the pressures of war. They developed and tested to the point at which
played an increasing part in industrial they began husbanding the lives of the
production. Their responsibilities as carers hapless infantry who had to make attacks
for families and homes became heavier across open ground. Both sides proved adept
under the impact of war-induced shortages, in inventing new methods of combat, so
the absence of their men and the burden of lengthening the war and adding to its huge
bereavement. Their demands for political costs in human life and resources. But
power through having the right to vote finally the weight of Allied numbers and
could no longer be resisted by those firepower eroded the capacities of the armies
democracies which had refused it in the face of the Central Powers to hold their ground,
of the Suffragette movement of the pre-war and their collapse followed shortly.
years. While women, even in the most The length and heavy human toll of the
advanced democracies, did not gain equality war inclined both mass opinion and
with men in the sense that we now practically-minded politicians towards
understand the term, the First World War placing a ban on the offensive use of
was a powerful catalyst of the social change military power and requiring nations to
which was to lead to an era in which settle matters in dispute by negotiation or
women now share the highest political (but arbitration. President Woodrow Wilson of
not military) offices with men. the United States took the lead in drawing
Introduction 11
up the Covenant of an association to comrades. Geoffrey Jukes, a modern Russian
achieve these ends: the League of Nations. historian and linguist, was a Senior Fellow
Although it was to fail and be discarded in in International Relations at the Australian
the 1930s, the League did much good work National University, Canberra. He has
in the 1920s and provided many lessons, studied his subject deeply, walked the key
positive and negative, which influenced battlefields and visited Russia many times
the foundation and shaping of its to draw on and appraise the work of its
successor, the United Nations. The scope scholars. Michael Hickey has seen war as a
of this conflict, the new developments it soldier in Korea, in East Africa, at Suez and
fostered, its costs andl consequences have in Aden in the 1950s and 60s. His books
made the First World War one of the most include a major study of the Dardanelles
rewarding passages in human history for Campaign. He has also walked many a mile
study and contemplation. over the battlefields of Europe and the
This study of that war is brought to you Middle Last, testing his ideas in terms of
by three authors who know their fields well, what the war was like for the men on the
have studied and written about them with ground there in 1914-18.
distinction over many years, and most This book is but an introduction to a vast
importantly have interesting and important and fascinating topic. Knowledge of the
new things to say about their respective problems men and women faced during the
topics. Peter Simkins, formerly Senior First World War, and of the solutions they
Historian at the Imperial War Museum, developed, from the tank to the League of
London, has pioneered new approaches to Nations, is a good foundation for the
the history of events on the Western front, understanding of international events,
especially the ingenuity and intelligence of especially wars, in the twenty-first century
the men involved, leavened by their sense of and how their destructive effects might be
humour and the capacity to care for their avoided or minimised.
Chronology
1908 Austria-Hungary annexes Germany; Germany invades
Bosnia-Herzegovina Belgium
Loss of Turkish North African 5 August Austria declares war on
provinces to Italy Russia; Montenegro declares war
on Austria
1912-13 Balkan wars 6 August Serbia declares war on
Germany; French troops move into
1914 28 June Assassination of Archduke Upper Alsace
Franz Ferdinand and his wife at 7 August Germans capture citadel
Sarajevo at Liege
5/6 July Germany gives 10 August France declares war on
Austria-Hungary blank cheque of Austria-Hungary
support against Serbia 12 August Austrians invade Serbia;
23 July Austro-Hungarian Britain declares war on Austria-
ultimatum to Serbia Hungary
25 July Serbia mobilises 12-13 August Russia invades
26 July Austro-Hungarian East Prussia
mobilisation against Serbia; Russia 14 August Battle of the Frontiers
enters 'period preparatory to war' begins
28 July Francis Joseph signs 17 August Battle of Gumbinnen
declaration of war against Serbia 20 August Battle of Stalluponen
29 July Germany demands 23 August Battle of Mons; British
immediate cessation of Russian Expeditionary Force begins retreat
mobilisation preparations 25-27 August Battle of Komarow
30 July Russia decrees full 26 August Battle of Le Cateau
mobilisation in support of Serbia 27-31 August Battle of Tannenberg
31 July Russian mobilisation 31 August Greece formally declares
begins; Germany proclaims neutrality
'threatening danger of war' and 3 September Battle of Lemberg
issues ultimatum to Russia 5-10 September Battle of the Marne
1 August Germany declares war on 7-17 September Battle of the
Russia and orders general Mazurian Lakes
mobilisation; France orders general 11 September Battle of Grodek
mobilisation 13-27 September Battle of the Aisne
2 August German ultimatum to 14 September Falkenhayn takes
Belgium demanding right of over control of German operations
passage through her territory; from Moltke
Herman troops invade Luxembourg 15 September 'Race to the sea' begins
3 August Germany declares war on 1 October Turkey closes Dardanelles
France; Austria-Hungary declares 10 October Antwerp falls to the
war on Russia; France asks Russia Germans
to attack Germany; Turkey declares 18-30 October Battle of the Yser
armed neutrality' 19 October-22 November First
4 August Britain declares war on Battle of Ypres