A World Undone
Page 79
“it would have been possible”: Liddell Hart, Real War, 147.
“To attack Turkey…would be”: Higgins, 104.
“The unavoidable losses must be accepted”: Magnus, 323.
“having entered on the project”: Ibid., 325.
It was defended by only: Figures on German and British troop strength are in Clark, Donkeys, 49.
Their way would be cleared: Winter, Haig’s Command, 37.
“led by donkeys”: Clark, Donkeys, frontispiece.
He had lost 11,600 men: Keegan, Illustrated History, 174.
“I was wounded”: Arthur, 76.
“I am being most reluctantly driven”: Higgins, 164.
“must be a deliberate”: James, 65.
All along the strait: Moorehead, 67.
“The first ammunition dump”: Arthur, 83.
With Przemysl the Russians had captured: Herwig, 139.
“Out of approximately 19,500 square miles”: Asprey, German High Command, 180.
“supreme contempt for death”: Tschuppik, 121.
The offensive began on April 5: French data are in Mosier, 145.
When Joffre finally allowed: Ibid., 148.
The explosion was followed: Casualty figures are in Groom, 97.
This time, however, when the guns: Data on chlorine gas are in Barrie, 62.
The advancing Germans were shocked: Groom, 102.
“Left at 6: 30 P.M. for reserve”: Lewis, 83.
They had taken forty thousand: Asprey, German High Command, 180.
“The profitless slaughter pit”: Gilbert, Churchill, 3: 516.
“If the English will leave me alone”: Marshall, 110.
Two hundred transport ships: Ship and troop numbers are in Moorehead, 107.
Sanders by now had six Turkish divisions: Keegan, Illustrated History, 219.
The British, when they came ashore: Moorehead, 140.
By then half the Turks: Ibid., 141.
“A galling fire rained on us”: Palmer and Wallis, 125.
Twelve thousand Anzacs got ashore: James, 111.
“I don’t order you to attack”: Moorehead, 131.
“dig, dig, dig”: James, 130.
Three days later nineteen thousand: Ibid., 141.
On May 26 twenty-five thousand: Ibid., 150.
“came over in two great waves”: Arthur, 114.
A corporal at Anzac Cove: Palmer and Wallis, 127.
By May 8 the British and French: Casualty figures and the quotes by Hamilton and Fisher are in Moorehead, 156.
In the years leading: German figures are in Strachan, First World War, 995.
The French, who thought they had: British, French, and German consumption data are in ibid., 998.
When Grand Duke Nicholas told: Stone, 144.
Being essentially bankrupt: Ibid., 153.
He got three hundred and fifty thousand skilled industrial workers: Stevenson, Cataclysm, 189.
He thereby started a gender revolution: Ferguson, 268.
Historians who have examined: Uses of shell shortages for political advantage are explored at length in Stone, 144-63, and Strachan, First World War, 993-1005.
“as soon as we were supplied”: Strachan, First World War, 1001.
Conrad, however, remained desperately short: Churchill, Unknown War, 308.
In four hours fifteen hundred: details of this bombardment are in Falls, 122; Gilbert, First World War, 154; and Rutherford, 121.
Worse, the Russians’ five and a half: Austro-Hungarian, German, and Russian troop and division totals are in Stone, 130.
They advanced eight miles: Ibid., 139.
“finish the war in three months”: Marshall, 123.
After only forty-six minutes: Clark, Donkeys, 106.
Only eight percent of the British shells: Douglas Porch, “Artois 1915,” in Cowley, 76.
On that first day: Asprey, German High Command, 179.
The French had much greater initial success: Porch, “Artois,” in Cowley, 76.
When the battle came to its end: Evans, Battles, 23.
If only in numerical terms: Asprey, German High Command, 194.
“Success will come in the final analysis”: Gilbert, First World War, 173.
“a real danger…a very great national disaster”: Higgins, 196.
“It is repugnant to me”: Woodward, 48.
“We relieved our fourth”: Lewis, 112.
Its armies, in disorderly retreat: Casualty figures are in Herwig, 144, and Rutherford, 133.
“Poor Nikolasha, while telling me this”: Massie, Nicholas and Alexandra, 313.
“They are in despair”: Palmer and Wallis, 107.
It is estimated that: Death totals for Armenians in 1915 are in Balakian, 179.
In the years after the war: U.S. high commissioner Mark Bristol is quoted in ibid., 367.
Hamilton sent a telegram: Hamilton’s troop request is in James, 307.
His August casualties totaled forty-five thousand: Casualty figures for Suvla and Gallipoli are in James, 297 and 301, and Marshall, 118.
In late 1914, claiming: Numbers of Polish Jews displaced in 1914 and 1915 are in Rutherford, 152.
Four million head of cattle: Ibid.
Not long after taking Warsaw: Data on what was captured at Novo Georgievsk are in Gilbert, First World War, 180, and Rutherford, 153.
By now the Germans: Prisoner of war totals are in Stone, 165.
“even though, by doing so, we suffer”: Stevenson, Cataclysm, 129.
“duty to the country which God”: Massie, Nicholas and Alexandra, 320.
“God be praised…The Emperor releases me”: Rutherford, 155.
“You are about to write a glorious page”: Ibid., 156.
“Perhaps a scapegoat is needed”: Ibid., 156.
The capture of Vilna had come: Asprey, German High Command, 190.
“On the whole Hindenburg no longer bothers” and “Hindenburg himself is becoming”: Ibid., 204.
“Now are you convinced” and “On the contrary!”: Ibid., 188.
In the Second Battle of Champagne: Troop numbers are in ibid., 197, and artillery totals are in Keegan, Illustrated History, 185.
The Third Battle of Artois: The number of divisions at Artois and Loos are in Liddell Hart, Real War, 188.
“it will cost us dearly”: Ibid., 187.
His early gloom: BEF data are in ibid., 190.
A corporal in the Sherwood: Arthur, 104.
His men meanwhile were huddled: Liddell Horta, 101.
When the British tried to resume: Casualty figures are in Clark, Donkeys, 173.
“nauseated by the sight”: Winter, Haig’s Command, 41.
“Coming back over the ground”: Arthur, 421.
In the end the casualties: Casualty numbers for Second Champagne, Third Artois, and Loos are in Evans, Battles, 25.
“If there had been even one division”: Liddell Hart, Real War, 195.
Haig’s own position was far from unassailable: Haig’s duplicity is examined in detail in Winter, Haig’s Command, 38-41.
His explanation was stark: Rutherford, 168.
“I remember things scattered”: Arthur, 116.
Serbia lost some two hundred thousand troops: James, 348.
“I’m twenty-one years old”: Palmer and Wallis, 141.
PART FOUR
1916: Bleeding to Death
An enormous literature on the great battles of 1916 has grown up over nine decades. In approaching the Battle of Verdun, the author found two works to be particularly helpful as overall guides: The Price of Glory: Verdun 1916 by Alistair Horne, and The Road to Verdun by Ian Ousby. A volume requiring special acknowledgment in connection with the Battle of the Somme is The First Day on the Somme by Martin Middlebrook. Both battles are dealt with helpfully in Attrition: The Great War on the Western Front, 1916, by Robin Neillands, and the year’s diplomatic background is illuminated by Divide and Conquer: German Efforts to Conclude a Separate Peace, 1
914-1918, by L. L. Farrar, Jr. In connection with 1916 as well as other years, Stone’s The Eastern Front and Herwig’s The First World War: Germany and Austria are rich in information about the war in the east.
More than twelve hundred guns: The size of the German bombardment at the start of the Battle of Verdun is, like so many aspects of the Great War, a question to which there appears to be no conclusive answer. Stevenson, on page 132 of Cataclysm, says the Germans had 1,220 guns. Divergent numbers in other recent histories are 1,300 (Clayton, 100), “about 1,200…over half of them heavy caliber” (Ousby, 63), “1,521 heavy guns” (Herwig, 183), and “850 heavy guns” (Gilbert, First World War, 231).
All through the morning: Asprey, German High Command, 222.
“Thousands of projectiles”: Austin, 4: 54.
Nine divisions came forward: Stevenson, Cataclysm, 132.
In the Gorlice-Tarnow campaign: Casualty figures and the Falkenhayn quote are in Herwig, 179.
Three hundred and thirty-five thousand: Ousby, 7.
This had brought to 2 million: Mosier, 18, puts French casualties by the end of 1915 at 2,478,000 with 941,000 dead or missing. Neillands gives comparable totals of 1,932,051 and 1,001,271 respectively.
Some two hundred thousand British were dead: Neillands, 36.
Italy’s entry into the war: Isonzo casualty figures are in Banks, 201.
By the start of 1916 the British: Mosier, 34, gives a total of 987,000.
The Germans had generally been far more careful: The success of the Germans in keeping their casualties below Entente levels is examined and discussed at length in several parts of Mosier and Ferguson.
They also understood, however: The German and Entente division totals are in Herwig, 178. Clayton, 196, says the Entente had ninety-five French, thirty-eight British, and six Belgian divisions versus 117 German.
Forty French divisions: The number of divisions that Joffre originally planned for the Somme offensive is in Clayton, 96.
“the Russian armies have not been completely”: Neillands, 60.
“She is staking everything on a war”: Ibid.
Since then, however, his pessimism: The assurances of the German naval leaders are in Asprey, German High Command, 219.
“There can be no justification”: Ibid.
“We should ruthlessly employ every weapon”: Neillands, 66.
“cannot intervene decisively”: Herwig, 181.
“France has arrived almost at the end”: Goodspeed, 176.
His thoughts were focused: An exceptionally illuminating explanation of Falkenhayn’s Verdun strategy and the thinking behind it is in Farrar, Divide and Conquer, 49-56.
“the forces of France will bleed”: Ousby, 52.
“Should our front line be overrun”: Ibid., 74.
“In the morning, Council of Ministers”: Mosier, 188.
“I consider that nothing justifies”: Ibid., 189.
“I cannot permit soldiers under”: Ousby, 75.
On the east bank of the Meuse: Manpower data are in ibid., 76.
Though he had more than nine hundred: Ibid. Horne, Price, 55, says the French had only 270 artillery pieces at Verdun at the start of the battle; this total differs greatly from other sources.
No fewer than five new railway lines: Marshall, 170.
In a seven-week period between late December: Stevenson, Cataclysm, 132.
In the sky above all this was: details of the German air umbrella are in Clayton, 100, and Mosier, 208.
“an offensive in the direction of Verdun”: Asprey, German High Command, 221.
When night fell, nothing was left: Driant’s surviving force on the night of February 21 is in ibid., 221.
By the outbreak of the war: Clayton, 99.
Ultimately 80 percent of its artillery: Neillands, 73.
The behavior of the Prussians seemed: Conflicts between German authorities and residents of Alsace-Lorraine are described in Alan Kramer, “Wackes at War: Alsace-Lorraine and the Failure of German Mobilization, 1914-18” in Horne, State, 110-20.
During the first day’s bombardment: Keegan, Illustrated History, 257.
Casualties on the German side were as light: Numbers are in Mosier, 213-14.
They advanced three and a half miles: Falls, 189.
“It wouldn’t take anything”: Ousby, 100.
Those men, however, numbered only sixty: Ibid., 108.
Four hundred and fifty thousand shells: Herwig, 190.
Pétain’s staff could find only seven hundred: Data about truck traffic are in Keegan, Illustrated History, 262; Clayton, 106; and Ousby, 146.
In time three-fourths of the entire French army: Ousby, 128.
Between February 24 and March 6: Asprey, German High Command, 190.
“not to defeat but to annihilate France”: Ibid., 184.
By December British doctors: Shephard, 21.
Their German counterparts would record: Ibid., 98.
But the number of men unable: Ibid., 38.
“a singularly ill-chosen term”: Ibid., 31.
Further confirmation came: Ibid., 75.
This is an area in which data: British and German totals are in Stevenson, Cataclysm, 170.
Sixteen thousand cases were reported: Shephard, 41.
Fifteen percent of all the British: Ibid., 144.
In 1922, four years after: Ibid., 158.
Pétain, anticipating a German advance: French west bank troop deployments are in Neillands, 175.
In the north, in the sector: German and Russian troop strength in the three main sectors of the Eastern Front is in Stone, 227.
They began Verdun-style: Information about shells expended, and the five-to-one troop margin, is in Rutherford, 188.
Twelve thousand unwounded Russians: Gilbert, First World War, 237.
“One must have lived through”: [Story], 10: 2881.
And the losses were mounting: Ibid.
“a vigorous and powerful offensive”: Mosier, 218.
“Verdun was the mill on the Meuse”: Neillands, 197.
“Tell me…when was the war over?” Gilbert, First World War, 257.
“I shall sleep in peace”: Rutherford, 193.
In the two fights at Lake Naroch: Stone, 231, says Russian casualties totaled one hundred thousand. Rutherford, 191, says the total was between one hundred ten and one hundred twenty thousand.
“a useless and expensive fad”: Neillands, 82.
“good for sport but not for war”: Ibid.
Though both France and Germany: Details about prewar aircraft development and numbers of planes acquired by the Great Powers up to 1914 are in Herrmann, 140-42 and 201-06.
“We literally thought of”: Marshall, 316.
Even so, the Eindeckers: Michael Spick, “The Fokker Menace,” in Cowley, 261.
“steam tractors with small”: Gilbert, Churchill, 3: 535.
It was a mother indeed: The specifications of the first tank are in Cooper, 26.
“These were the happiest days of my life”: Jamie H. Cockfield, “Brusilov’s Immortal Days,” in Cowley, 227.
By the end of April: Mosier, 108.
To that purpose he assembled: Horne, Price, 170.
The Germans captured Côte 304: Neillands, 211.
Whatever the cause: Ousby, 275.
He and Falkenhayn were encouraged: Horne, Price, 229.
“if Main Headquarters order it”: Ibid.
“Dago dogs”: Herwig, 204.
Six of the divisions committed to the Trentino: Conrad’s removal of six prime divisions from Galicia is in Herwig, 205.
Their cumulative result: Austria-Hungary’s 1915 casualty figures are in ibid., 204.
When the Austrians finally attacked: Initial Austrian and Italian troop strength is in ibid., 206.
By the end of May: Numbers of soldiers and guns captured by the Austrians are in Stone, 246.
“Even the wounded refuse”: Austin, 4: 224.
In the five days preceding: Bombardm
ent details are in Horne, Price, 236.
The failure had been so complete: French casualty figures are in Ousby, 267.
“You did your duty”: Ibid.
He was reluctant in spite of: Cockfield, “Brusilov’s Immortal Days,” in Cowley, 225.
“the French Army could cease”: Horne, Price, 293.
The Austro-Hungarian Fourth Army: Casualty figures are in Herwig, 213.
It was the same almost everywhere: Prisoner-of-war totals are in ibid, 209.
Before the end of the first week: Stone, 254.
“the crisis would probably have developed”: in Rutherford, 204.
“This town today is a veritable maelstrom”: [Story], 92668.
“not the monkey our caricaturists”: Horne, Price, 264.
The last of Falkenhayn’s reserves: Data on the force attacking Fort Souville are in ibid, 284.
“Our heads are buzzing”: Lewis, 209.
Joffre’s view of the situation: Horne, Price, 289.
From 1885 to 1914 not one Jew: This history, and the associated data, are in Christhard Hoffmann, “Between Integration and Rejection: The Jewish Community in Germany, 1914-1918,” in Horne, State, 96-104.
“the curse of my country”: MacDonogh, 439.
“A war after the war stands before us”: Horne, State, 100.
Seven thousand miles of telephone lines: Johnson, 60.
Ten squadrons of aircraft: Middlebrook, 66.
Haig had eighteen divisions on the Somme: Falls, 198. Different historians give divergent numbers of British, French, and German divisions at the start of the Battle of the Somme, perhaps because of the frequency with which divisions were being shifted from place to place during the multiple crises of mid-1916.
He had fteen hundred pieces of artillery: Middlebrook, 68.
Between them the British and French: Artillery totals are in Herwig, 199.
“You will be able to go over the top”: Middlebrook, 78.
The French had one corps: Johnson, 57.Here again different writers give different numbers in describing the French forces on the Somme.For example, Johnson says the French had two divisions in reserve in addition to those on the front line, while Herwig, 199, says they had six.
Below had only seven divisions: Mosier, 233, and Herwig, 199, give this number, while Falls, 198, says the total is six.
By the time the troops went over the top: Shell numbers are variously in Cowley, 321;Herwig, 199;and Johnson, 61.