The World Crisis. Volume 5: The Eastern Front

354 Pages·2016·9.79 MB·English

by  Churchill Winston.

THE EMPEROR FRANCIS JOSEPH
The World Crisis
Part V—The Unknown War
The Eastern Front
Winston Churchill
Copyright
The World Crisis
Part V—The Unknown War
The Eastern Front
First published 1923–31. © Estate of Winston S. Churchill
Cover art to the electronic edition copyright © 2013 by RosettaBooks, LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form or by any electronic or
mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from
the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.
Image of Winston Churchill at Stadwald with the Army Council to the Rhine, 1919 reproduced by
permission of Curtis Brown, London, on behalf of The Broadwater Collection, an archive of photographs
owned by the Churchill family and held at the Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge.
Electronic edition published 2013 by RosettaBooks, LLC, New York.
ISBN Mobipocket edition: 9780795331558
To
Our Faithful Allies
and Comrades
In the Russian Imperial Armies
Contents
Preface
I. The Dusk of Hapsburg
II. The Annexation of Bosnia
III. Towards the Abyss
IV. The Murder of the Archduke
V. The Austrian Ultimatum
VI. The Fronts and the Combatants
VII. Declarations of War
VIII. The Mobilization Interval
IX. The Assembly of the Eastern Armies
X. Austria Against Russia
XI. The Battle of Lemberg
XII. The Invasion of East Prussia
XIII. The Battle of Tannenberg
XIV. The First Masurian Lakes
XV. The Second Round
XVI. The Battle of Lodz
XVII. East or West?
XVIII. The Winter Battle
XIX. Beyond the Dardanelles
XX. The Fall of Warsaw
XXI. The Reckoning with Serbia
XXII. Falkenhayn Returns to the West
XXIII. Brusilov’s Offensive
XXIV. The Russian Collapse
Appendix I: The Hapsburg Dynasty
Appendix II: Some Authorities Consulted
Appendix III: References
PREFACE
In the five volumes of the World Crisis and the Aftermath I have told the story of
the War from the British standpoint, and particularly from those positions of
authority which I held myself. The war at sea, the expedition to the Dardanelles,
and the campaigns in France and Flanders filled the stage. It was only here and
there that brief summaries of the struggles of Russia with Germany and Austria
in the East could find a place. In this new volume the proportions are reversed.
The tale both of the events leading to the War and of its battles is told from the
Eastern theatre, and only brief, indispensable references are made to British and
French affairs. I have attempted to give a general account of the whole War upon
the Eastern Front, and the distant cannonade in France breaks only fitfully upon
the ear. The primary theme arises in Vienna and covers the agonies of Central
Europe. The familiar events in the West are seen only in their reactions upon the
Eastern Front.
Although I had lived and toiled through the war years in positions which gave
a wide outlook and the best information, I was surprised to find how dim and
often imperfect were the impressions I had sustained of the conflict between
Russia and the two Teutonic Empires. It was not until I studied its problems
from this new angle that I began to see the tragedy in its completeness. I believe
that British and American readers will also find the narrative of these events
necessary to a true understanding.
The sources are abundant. Voluminous histories, memoirs, rejoinders,
exculpations and official accounts, some only recently published, are available.
Many have not been translated into French. Few have been translated into
English. Others are technical, and interest chiefly military students. A whole
library exists into which the English-speaking world has scarcely ventured. Yet
our own fortunes were powerfully swayed by all that happened in the East, and it
is there that we must look for the explanation of many strange and sorry turns in
our fortunes.
I must acknowledge the assistance I have derived from the massive records of
Conrad von Hötzendorf, the virtual Austro-Hungarian Commander-in-Chief;
from the works of Hindenburg, Ludendorff, Falkenhayn and Hoffmann; from the
Russian accounts by Danilov, Gourko and Sukhomlinov; from the successive
volumes of the German and Austrian official histories; from the library of the
Royal Institute of International Affairs; and from the long series of searching
military monographs which have appeared from time to time in the Army
Quarterly. I must also pay my tribute to the statement of the causes of the War
by Professor Bernadotte E. Schmitt, of Chicago University, who has marshalled
in masterly fashion the whole series of official and authentic documents in an
impressive array.
Finally, I am deeply indebted to Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Hordern, who for
more than a year has assisted me in the assembly and sifting of material with his
excellent advice, and in making the necessary translations, and preparing the
numerous maps without which the story would be unintelligible.
A list of some of the authorities consulted or cited will be found in Appendix
II. In all cases I have sought to probe the original documents, and have had
direct translations made from the German and Russian texts.
I have striven to make the operations of the Armies plain to the lay reader and
to show also, as in previous volumes, what happened and why. Every effort has
been made to simplify the terminology. Russian, Polish and Austrian names of
men and places in great numbers are an inevitable deterrent to English-speaking
readers. But the same difficulty would no doubt recur, if unhappily a great war
were ever to be fought in Wales! For convenient brevity the word ‘Austrian’ is
nearly always used to cover the Austro-Hungarian Empire. William II is
described throughout as the Kaiser, and Francis Joseph as the Emperor. Other
abbreviations and symbols will be introduced as the narrative proceeds. It is my
hope that in the result the reader who will gaze attentively upon the simple maps
and diagrams which illustrate and sustain the text will have at his disposal a
continuous and compendious description of these vast and mournful episodes of
human destiny.
CHARTWELL,
KENT,
13 August, 1931.