A World Undone
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Americans launch Meuse-Argonne offensive north of Verdun.
September 30:
Bulgaria agrees to an armistice—in effect a surrender.
October 1:
Allied forces enter Damascus.
October 14:
Italian offensive launches Battle of Vittorio Veneto.
October 26:
Erich Ludendorff resigns as Quartermaster General of the German Army.
October 29:
German sailors mutiny at Kiel naval base.
October 30:
New Turkish government agrees to armistice.
November 4:
Austro-Hungarian government agrees to armistice.
November 8:
German delegation meets with Allied leaders in Compiègne to discuss armistice terms.
November 9:
Kaiser Wilhelm II, having abdicated, goes into exile in Holland.
November 11:
Armistice terms accepted by Germans become effective at eleven A.M.
Major Characters
Albert I. King of Belgium; commander of Belgian forces during the war
Alexandra. Tsarina of Russia; wife of Nicholas II
Alexeyev, Mikhail. Chief of staff to Nicholas II; commander in chief of Russian armies following the tsar’s abdication
Asquith, Herbert Henry. British prime minister, 1908–16
Balfour, Arthur. British Conservative leader; succeeded Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty in May 1915; succeeded Grey as foreign secretary December 1916
Below, Otto von. German general holding major commands on the Eastern, Western, and Italian Fronts and in the Balkans
Berchtold, Leopold von. Austro-Hungarian foreign minister, 1912–15
Bernstorff, Johann von. German ambassador to the U.S. 1908–17
Bethmann Hollweg, Theobold von. Chancellor of Germany, 1909–17
Bonar Law, Andrew. British Conservative and Unionist leader; chancellor of the exchequer, 1916–18
Briand, Aristide. French politician; succeeded Viviani as premier, October 1915; headed government until March 1917
Bruchmüller, Georg. German artillerist; originator of brilliantly innovative offensive tactics
Brusilov, Alexei. Russian army and army group commander; leader of the 1916 offensive that bears his name
Bülow, Karl von. Commander of German Second Army at the start of the war
Byng, Julian. Commander of British Third Army in 1917 and 1918
Cadorna, Luigi. Chief of general staff of the Italian army, July 1914– November 1917
Caillaux, Joseph. Leader of French political opposition in 1914; arrested by Clemenceau government in 1918
Carden, Sackville. British admiral; commander of Royal Navy forces involved in the start of the Dardanelles offensive
Castelnau, Noël-Edouard de. French army and army group commander
Churchill, Winston. Britain’s First Lord of the Admiralty, 1911–15; minister of munitions, 1917–18
Clemenceau, Georges. “The Tiger”; French premier from November 1917
Conrad von Hötzendorf, Franz. Austro-Hungarian field marshal; army chief of staff to March 1917
Currie, Arthur. Commander of Canadian army corps on the Western Front, 1917–18
De Robeck, John. British admiral; second commander of Royal Navy forces at the Dardanelles
Driant, Émile. French politician, writer, and lieutenant colonel; killed in opening fighting at Verdun
Enver Pasha. Turkish general; leading member of the Young Turks; minister of war 1914–18, commanding troops in the Caucasus and Middle East
Evert, Alexei. Commander of Russia’s Western Army Group from September 1915
Falkenhayn, Erich von. Prussian war minister, 1913–15; army chief of staff, September 1914–August 1916
Fisher, John. British admiral; first sea lord, October 1914–May 1915
Foch, Ferdinand. French general; appointed Allied supreme commander, April 1918
Franchet d’Esperey, Louis. French army and army group commander on the Western Front and, from mid-1918, in Salonika and the Balkans
Franz Ferdinand. Archduke; heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary; assassinated in Sarajevo, June 28, 1915
Franz Joseph. Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, 1848–1916
French, John. Commander of British Expeditionary Force, August 1914– December 1915
Gallieni, Joseph. French general; key figure in First Battle of the Marne; minister of war, 1915–16
George V. King of Great Britain
Gough, Hubert. British division, corps, and army commander; removed after defeat of his Fifth Army in the German offensive of 1918
Grey, Edward. British foreign secretary, 1905–16
Gröner, Wilhelm. German staff officer and administrator; succeeded Ludendorff as Hindenburg’s chief of staff, October 1918
Haig, Douglas. Senior general with British Expeditionary Force from August 1914; commander in chief from December 1915
Hamilton, Ian. British general; commander of Entente forces at Gallipoli, March–October 1915
Hertling, Georg von. German chancellor, November 1917–October 1918
Hindenburg, Paul von Beneckendorff und von. German field marshal; army chief of staff from August 1916
Hoffmann, Max. Key German military planner and leader on the Eastern Front
Holtzendorff, Henning von. Chief of staff of the German navy, 1915–18
Horne, Henry. Commander of British First Army, 1916–18
House, “Colonel” Edward. American president Woodrow Wilson’s principal adviser on foreign affairs
Hutier, Oskar von. German corps and army commander on Eastern Front, 1915–17; introduced innovative offensive tactics that came to bear his name; commander of Eighteenth Army on the Western Front, 1918
Jagow, Gottlieb von. German foreign minister to March 1917
Jellicoe, John. Commander of Britain’s High Seas Fleet, 1914–16; first sea lord, 1916–17
Joffre, Joseph. Chief of French general staff, 1911–16
Karl I. Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary from 1916
Kemal, Mustafa. Turkish division commander at Gallipoli; later served in the Caucasus and Middle East
Kerensky, Alexander. Russian social democratic leader; prime minister, July–November 1917
Kitchener, Horatio. British war minister, August 1914–June 1916
Kluck, Alexander von. Commander of the German First Army at the start of the war
Kühlmann, Richard von. German foreign minister, August 1917–July 1918
Lanrezac, Charles. Commander of the French Fifth Army at the start of the war
Lansing, Robert. U.S. secretary of state, 1915–20
Lawrence, T. E. “Lawrence of Arabia”; planner and leader of Arab revolt, 1917–18
Leman, Gérard. Commander of Belgian defenders at Liège, 1914
Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich. Leader of the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Communist Party; head of the government from late 1917
Lichnowsky, Karl Max. German ambassador to Britain
Lloyd George, David. British chancellor of the exchequer, 1908–15; minister of munitions, 1915–16; war minister, 1916; prime minister from December 1916
Ludendorff, Erich. German general; chief of staff to Hindenburg, August 1914–August 1916; quartermaster general of the German army, 1916–18; effectively dictator of Germany from mid–1917
Mackensen, August von. German field marshal holding important commands on the Eastern Front, 1914–18
Mangin, Charles. French general; prominent at Charleroi, Verdun, the Chemin des Dames, and the Second Battle of the Marne
Marwitz, Georg von der. Commander of the German Second Army at Cambrai in 1917 and in the 1918 offensive
Max of Baden, Prince. German chancellor, October–November 1918
Michaelis, Georg. German chancellor, July–October 1917
Millerand, Alexandre. French minister of war, August 1914–O
ctober 1915
Milner, Alfred. Member of Lloyd George’s War Council, 1916–18; minister of war from April 1918.
Moltke, Helmuth von. Chief of staff of German army, 1906–September 1914
Monash, John. Commander of Australian Army Corps on the Western Front from May 1918
Nicholas, Grand Duke. Cousin of Nicholas II; Russian general; commander in chief, August 1914–September 1915; then served in the Caucasus
Nicholas II. Tsar of Russia, 1894–1917; executed, 1918
Nivelle, Robert. Commander in chief of the French armies, December 1916–May 1917
Painlevé, Paul. French minister of war from March 1917; premier, September–November 1917
Paléologue, Maurice. French ambassador to Russia, 1914–17
Pasic, Nikola. Prime Minister of Serbia
Pershing, John J. Commander in chief of the American Expeditionary Force from May 1917
Pétain, Henri-Philippe. French general; army commander in chief from May 1917
Plumer, Herbert. British corps and army commander, responsible for sector around Ypres
Poincaré, Raymond. President of France, 1913–20
Polivanov, Alexei. Russian general; succeeded Sukhomlinov as war minister, June 1915; dismissed, March 1916
Pourtalès, Friedrich von. German ambassador to Russia
Prittwitz, Max von. Commander of German Eighth Army in August 1914
Putnik, Radomir. Serbian field marshal, war minister, and army chief of staff until 1916
Rasputin, Grigori. Russian monk, mystic, and intimate of the tsar’s family
Rawlinson, Henry. British general, serving primarily as commander of the Fourth Army
Rennenkampf, Pavel von. Commander of Russian First Army at Tannenberg, August 1914
Robertson, William. British general; chief of the imperial general staff, December 1915–March 1918
Rupprecht, Crown Prince. Heir to the throne of Bavaria; commander of a German army from August 1914; of an army group from July 1916
Samsonov, Alexander. Commander of Russian Second Army at Tannenberg, August 1914
Sanders, Otto Liman von. German general, commander of Turkish defenses at Gallipoli
Sarrail, Maurice. Commander of French Third Army, 1914–15; Army of the Orient at Salonika, 1916–17
Sazonov, Sergei. Russian foreign minister, 1910–16
Smith-Dorrien, Horace. Corps and army commander with British Expeditionary Force, August 1914–May 1915
Stopford, Frederick. Commander of the landing force at Suvla Bay, Gallipoli, August 1915
Stürmer, Boris. Russian prime minister, February–November 1916; also served as interior minister and foreign minister
Sukhomlinov, Vladimir. Russian war minister, 1909–15
Tirpitz, Alfred von. Prussian naval minister, 1897–1916
Tisza, István. Prime Minister of Hungary, 1913–17
Trotsky, Leon. Leading member of Bolsheviks; principal political adviser to Lenin; head of Russian delegation to Brest-Litovsk negotiations
Viviani, René. Premier of France, June 1914–October 1915
Wilhelm, Crown Prince. Eldest son and heir of Wilhelm II; commander of the German Fifth Army from August 1914 and of an army group from September 1916
Wilhelm II. Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia, 1888–1918
Wilson, Henry. Britain’s military liaison with France; chief of the imperial general staff from March 1918
Wilson, Woodrow. U.S. president, 1913–21
Zimmermann, Arthur. German deputy foreign minister
Introduction
This book is a labor of love. It has grown out of a lifelong fascination with the war that George F. Kennan called “the great seminal catastrophe”—the one out of which a century of catastrophes arose.
My fascination began when, as a boy of twelve or thirteen, I came into possession of a paperback copy of Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front. I remember being unable to put it down—even taking it with me to the ballfield, where I could return to it on the bench when my side was at bat. I remember reading some of its more lurid descriptions of life in the trenches aloud to my pals and then to my mother, who, horrified, ordered me to stop.
It was not until twenty years later, when I made two long camping trips through Europe, that the immensity of the tragedy that was the Great War became clear to me. Nearly every village and church in Austria, Britain, France, and Germany has its First World War memorial, and their lists of the dead seem impossibly long. Everywhere I went the question was the same: how could so small a place have lost so many boys and men? My curiosity grew. My reading, untainted by any thought that I might one day undertake to write about what I was learning, broadened.
Years passed, and I gradually became aware that I had never found a one-volume history of the war that seemed to me entirely satisfactory. It hardly need be said that the number of fine works on the subject is very, very large. Among these works are brilliant scholarly accounts of how the war erupted when it did in spite of the fact that almost no one wanted it, why it went on year after year as European civilization slipped toward collapse, just how vast a calamity it was, and the terrible things that came in its wake. Some of these books are almost above criticism. Few of them even attempt to appeal to the general reader.
There are also, of course, many admirable popular histories. Some are about specific aspects of the war (one of its years, fronts, battles); some embrace the entire conflict. That even the broadest leave out important things is not only unsurprising but inevitable—no one knows better than I now do that no narration confined within a single pair of covers can deal with everything. Still, I never found a work without gaps that struck me as unnecessary and regrettable, or whose narrative seemed quite as fully rounded as it could and should have been.
And so, no doubt presumptuously, nearly four years ago I embarked on the writing of this book. From the start my objective was to weave together all of the story’s most compelling elements—the strange way in which it began more than a month after the assassination that supposedly was its cause; the mysterious way in which the successes and failures of both sides balanced so perfectly as to produce years of bloody deadlock; the leading personalities; the astonishing extent to which the leadership of every belligerent nation was divided against itself; the appalling blunders; the incredible (and now largely forgotten) carnage—while at the same time filling in as much as possible of the historical background. And I use the word weave advisedly. An early decision was to intertwine the stories of the war’s major fronts rather than dealing with them separately in the usual way, and to mix foreground, background, and sidelights in such a way as to make their interconnections plain. I continue to think that such an approach is essential to showing how the many elements that made up the Great War affected one another and deepened the disaster.
It has long seemed to me that practically all popular histories of the Great War assume too much, expect too much of the reader, and therefore leave too much unexplained. In dealing with Hohenzollern Germany, for example, they commonly presume that today’s reading public knows more than a little about who the Hohenzollerns were, where they came from, and why they mattered. Authors are right, of course, in making mention of the decadence of the Ottoman Empire, the frailty of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the backwardness of the Russian Empire—of all the elements that gave rise to the war and that the war destroyed. The recurrent mistake, it seems to me, has been to only make mention of such things, thereby diluting the story. I believe that this volume, whether or not it has any other distinction, is unique in the extent to which it attempts to restore parts of the story that have almost always been missing. I hope that it captures at least some of the multidimensional richness of one of the most epic tragedies in the history of the world.
My final objective, and not the least of my objectives, has been to offer this story in the most readable form possible and thereby to do justice to its inherent drama. Can
didly, this has never seemed a singularly daunting challenge. Mark Twain said it isn’t hard to be funny: one need only tell the truth. Something similar can be said about my subject: to make a great drama of the Great War, one need only be clear and careful and thorough in telling it as it was.
The war is unique in the number of questions about it that remain unsettled. Who caused it—if it can be said that anyone did? Should Germany have won it in 1914—and need Germany have lost it in 1918? Could it have ended earlier if only a few things had gone just a little differently at Gallipoli, or on the Marne, or at Ypres? Was Douglas Haig—or Erich Ludendorff, or Conrad von Hötzendorf—a great commander, or a disastrously bad one, or something in between? Could the conflict have been brought to a negotiated conclusion before it did so much damage to so much of the world? After ninety years, scholars remain divided on such questions. It seems likely that they always will. I do not claim to have the answers—am not sure that answers are possible, which is part of what makes the questions so interesting. I hope I have provided enough information to allow readers to understand why the questions persist, and perhaps in some cases to arrive at conclusions of their own.
It is testimony to the power of the story that in all these years of learning about it and developing my own account of it, I have not had one boring day. If I have succeeded in making the reader understand and perhaps even share my fascination, I will regard my labors as rewarded fully. Among the many people to whom I am grateful as this project comes to completion, I must mention my agent, Judith Riven, and my editor, John Flicker, both of whom have been indispensable and endlessly supportive. I am grateful both to and for my children, Eric, Ellen, and Sarah, and I will never forget how Paul Wagman, that best of friends, saved the whole project from a very early death.
Finally, I must try to express my admiration for and gratitude to those scholars and researchers—among whom I cannot claim to be numbered—who for nearly a century have been devoting their lives to unearthing the buried secrets of the Great War. Without their labors and achievements, works like this one would be impossible.