The First World War
Page 38
Both the book and the series have been shaped by two over-arching considerations. First, this war was a global war, even if it began as a local Balkan conflict. In particular the aim has been to offset the Anglophone emphasis on the western front and Britain’s participation in it, so central to popular conceptions of the war. Second, we have sought to recover the views of the war that prevailed before it fell into the hands of the writers and novelists of the late 1920s. Much of the war was futile, and it was also wasteful — of treasure as well as of lives. But it was fought because big issues were at stake, some of them concepts that continue to shape our values and views of the world. Moreover, the fact that other ideas and ideologies now seem foreign to us does not deny their charge for those who went to war in 1914. Hindsight of this sort fosters arrogance, not understanding.
Readers of To Arms will recognise its role in shaping the first third of this book, but the remainder has had to anticipate in a brief compass what I plan to say in the subsequent two volumes in greater detail. Given the range of reading on which that study has been based, it seemed otiose to provide a bibliography for this book. Instead, I have used its notes not only to convey immediate sources but also to give guidance as to some of the best secondary reading.
Alan and Janice Hadlow of Channel 4 told me that the key to the project’s success was the relationship I would forge with the series producer. They were right. Undoubtedly, the series is Jonathan Lewis’s much more than it is mine, but it is one to which I remain proud to put my name. Not all historians can say as much. Jonathan told me at the outset that I must not go native, not compromise on my academic standards because I felt that the medium of television required me to do so. There was never a danger of this happening, principally because of Jonathan’s own standards, which comfortably exceed those of even the most scrupulous historian. Script and footage were revisited scores of times. But what impressed me even more was Jonathan’s ability to turn complex ideas, often involving the usual academic vice of spurning the simplistic generalisation for something more even-handed, into clear and arresting commentary. He put the humanity into the story, and made sure that the final product was not just military history for other military historians. If my prose style in this book is different from anything I have written before it is a consequence of late nights with Jonathan searching for forms of words that possess pace but retain veracity. I have been immensely fortunate to work with a man of intelligence, honesty, wisdom and wit.
Individual programme production was in the hands of a team of five producers, each of whom took charge of two films. Marcus Kiggell, Simon Rock ell, Emma Wallace, Ben Steele and Corinna Sturmer, and their assistant producers, Milan Grba, Gregor Murbach, Andrea Laux, Martina Caviccholi and Ross Harper, prompted me to rethink some of my assumptions, and also turned up fresh sources. So too did Sarah Wallis and Svetlana Palmer, whose search for what the production team dubbed ‘biscuits’ (the testimony of participants), has resulted in their own book, A War in Words. Alison McAllan headed the film archive team and delivered on the promise of my first two solutions to the problem of footage. The illustrations for this book only occasionally duplicate those used in the series. The initial research for both was undertaken by Isobel Hinshelwood, whose rapid illness and sudden death left a huge hole. It might have been even bigger but for Gregor Murbach. Gregor is one of the principal creators of this book. He has located images that are fresh, and has brought an aesthetic as well as a historical judgement to bear as we have wrestled with the final selection.
Gregor has read and commented on the text, as have my other principal supporters, Andrew Gordon of Simon and Schuster, Anthony Goff of David Higham Associates, my agents, and of course Jonathan Lewis. Evan Mawdsley, Jürgen Förster, Donald Bloxham, Roy Foster, Michael Hochedlinger and John Gooch have helped with specific queries. Kath Steedman, Kate Cotter and Su- sanna Posnett, all of Wark Clements, have provided tremendous back-up over a hectic eighteen months.
The principal casualties of this particular war have been, once again, my family. My wife, Pamela, has provided unswerving love, and kept better track of my movements and papers than I have. She and Mungo, the only one of our children still at home, have had not one but two family holidays cancelled to meet the deadlines of series and book. My only response is love and gratitude.
NOTES
CHAPTER 1: TO ARMS
1 Sidney Fay, The Origins of the World War (2 vols, New York, 1934), vol. 2, p. 31.
2 Imanuel Geiss, July 1914 (London, 1967), p. 64.
3 Stanoje Stanojevi, quoted in Samuel Williamson and Russel Van Wyk, July 1914 (Boston, 2003), p. 20.
4 Kurt Peball, Conrad von Hötzendorf. Private Aufzeichnungen (Vienna, 1977), p. 148.
5 Gerhard Ritter, The Sword and the Sceptre: the problem of militarism in Germany (4 vols, London, 1971-73), vol. 2, p. 229.
6 Williamson and Van Wyk, July 1914, p. 57.
7 Ibid., p. 102.
8 Fay, vol. 2, p. 204.
9 Geiss, July 1914, p. 78.
10 Keith Wilson (ed.), The Rasp of War: The Letters of H. A. Gwynne to the Countess Bathurst (London, 1988), p. 15.
11 Williamson and Van Wyk, July 1914, p. 123.
12 Slavka Mihajlovic, Oblaci nad gradom 1914-1918 (Belgrade, 1955).
13 Josef Redlich, Schicksalsjahre Österreichs 1908-1919. Das politische Tagebuch Josef Redlichs, ed. Fritz Fellner (2 vols, Graz, 1953), vol. 1, p. 240.
14 Geiss, July 1914, p. 289.
15 Graydon A. Tunstall, Planning for War against Russia and Serbia: Austro-Hungarian and German Military Strategies, 1897-1914 (Boulder, CO, 1993), p. 221.
16 Rudolf Jerabek, Potiorek (Graz, 1991), p. 93.
17 R. A. Reiss, How Austria-Hungary Waged War in Serbia : Personal Investigations of a Neutral (Paris, 1915), p. 46.
18 Jerabek, Potiorek, p. 165.
19 John R. Schindler, ‘Disaster on the Drina: The Austro-Hungarian Army in Serbia, 1914’, War in History, vol. 9 (2002), p. 187.
20 A. A. Brusilov, A Soldier’s Note-book 1914-1918 (London, 1930), p. 96.
21 Manfred Rauchensteiner, Der Tod des Doppeladlers. Österreich-Ungarn und der Erste Weltkrieg (Graz, 1993), p. 136.
CHAPTER 2: UNDER THE EAGLE
1 Wolfgang Mommsen, Max Weber in German politics (Chicago, 1984), p. 69.
2 Lloyd George, War Memoirs (2 vols, London, n.d.), vol. 1, p. 26.
3 James Joll, Second International (London, 1975), p. 168.
4 John Rohl, ’An der Schwelle zum Weltkrieg: eine Dokumentation über den “Kriegsrat” vom 8. Dezember 1912’, Militärgeschichte:Mitteilungen, vol. 1 (1977), no. 21, p. 100.
5 Helmuth von Moltke, Erinnerungen-Briefe-Dokumente, 1877-1916 (Stuttgart, 1922), p. 308.
6 Robert T. Foley, Alfred von Schlieffen’s Military Writings (London, 2002), p. 198.
7 Gerhard Ritter, The Schlieffen Plan (London, 1958), p. 166.
8 Nicholas Stargardt, The German Idea of Militarism (Cambridge, 1994), p. 36.
9 John Home and Alan Kramer, German Atrocities 1914: A History of Denial (London, 2001), pp. 145-6.
10 Joseph Bédier, Les Crimes allemands d‘après des témoignages allemands (Paris, 1915), p. 12.
11 Ernst Röhm, Die Geschichte eines Hochverräters (Munich, 1933), p. 33, quoted by Dieter Storz in Wolfgang Michalka (ed.) Der erste Weltkrieg (Munich, 1994), p. 252.
12 Aubrey Herbert, Mons, Anzac and Kut (London, 1930), p. 45.
13 Pierre Rocolle, L’hécatombe des généraux (Paris, 1980), p. 98.
14 Dr Antoine, Au village pendant la guerre (Paris, 1924), p. 25.
15 Guy Pedroncinci, Les Mutineries de 1917 (Paris, 1967), p. 23.
16 Shimon Naveh, In pursuit of military excellence (London, 1997), p. 76.
17 E. L. Spears, Liaison 1914 (London, 1930), p. 417.
18 Henri Barbusse, Under Fire (London, 1929), p. 156.
19 ‘Correspondance entre Romain Rolland et Jean-Richard Bloch 1914-1919’, La Revue Europe, nos. 95-
103 (1953-4), pp. 4-5.
20 Romain Rolland, Au-dessus de la mêlée (Paris, 1915), pp. 39-42.
21 Hermann Lübbe, Politische Philosophie in Deutschland (Munich, 1974), p. 186.
22 Anna Woebcken (ed.), Im Western. Briefe eines Deutschen Frontsoldaten (Oldenburg, 1929), p. 23.
23 Eric Lahayle (ed.), Carnets de guerre d’Alexis Callies (1914-1918) (Château-Thierry, 1999), p. 185.
CHAPTER 3: GLOBAL WAR
1 Melvin Page, The Chiwaya War (Boulder, CO, 2000), p. 101.
2 Quoted in I. E Clarke (ed.), The Great War with Germany, 1890-1914 (Liverpool, 1997), p. 202.
3 Quoted in Michael Howard, The Lessons of History (Oxford, 1991), pp. 84-5.
4 Frederick R. Dickinson, War and National Reinvention: Japan and the Great War, 1914-1919 (Cambridge, MA, 1999), p. 35.
5 The words of Tanaka Güchi, ibid., p. 51.
6 Hans Werner Neulen, Feldgrau in Jerusalem.Das Levantekorps des kaiserlichen Deutschland (Munich, 1991), p. 113.
7 Andrew Gordon, The Rules of the Game (London, 1996), p. 391.
8 Richard Hough, The Great War at Sea (Oxford, 1986), p. 96.
9 Hans Pochhammer, Before, Jutland (London, 1931), p. 214.
10 Page, The Chiwaya War, p. 32.
11 Ludwig Deppe, Mit Lettow-Vorbeck durch Afrika (Berlin 1919), p. 393.
12 Richard Meinertzhagen, Army Diary 1899-1926 (Edinburgh, 1960), p. 82.
13 Ibid., p. 166.
14 Joe Lunn, Memoirs of the Maelstrom: a Senagalese oral history of the First World War (Portsmouth, NH, 1999), p. 137.
CHAPTER 4: JIHAD
1 Quoted in Geoffrey Lewis, ‘The Ottoman Proclamation of Jihad in 1914’, in Arabic and Islamic Garland: Historical, Educational and Literary Papers Presented to Abdul-Latif Tibawi (London, 1977), p. 164.
2 Ulrich Gehrke, Persien in der deutschen Orientpolitik (2 vols, Stuttgart, 1960), vol. 1, p. 1.
3 Carl Mühlmann, Deutschland und die Türkei 1913-1914 (Berlin, 1929), p. 39.
4 Carl Mühlmann. Oberste Heeresleitung und Balkan im Weltkrieg 1914-1918 (Berlin, 1942), pp. 22-3.
5 Henry Morgenthau, Ambassador Morgentbau’s Story (New York, 1919), p. 32.
6 Yigal Sheffy, British Military Intelligence in the Palestine Campaign 1914-1918 (London, 1998), p. 61.
7 Georges Kopp, trans. R. Jouan, À bord du ’Goeben’ 1914-1918 (Paris, 1931), p. 46.
8 Gotthard Jäschke, ‘Der Turanismus der Jungturken. Zur osmanischen Aussenpolitik im Weltkriege’, Die Welt des Islams, vol. 22 (1941), p. 5.
9 Felix Guse, Die Kaukasusfront im Weltkrieg (Leipzig, 1940), p. 7.
10 Gérard Chaliand and Yves Ternon, Le Genocide des Arméniens (Brussels, 1984), p. 47.
11 Ibid., p. 54.
12 Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill 1874-1965, (8 vols, plus companion vols, London, 1971-88), vol. 3: Companion part I, p. 361.
13 John Gooch, The Plans of War: The General Staff and British Military Strategy, c. 1900-1916 (London, 1974), p. 259.
14 Robert Rhodes James, Gallipoli (Basingstoke, 1989), p. 4.
15 Wilhelm Groener, Lebenserinnerungen (Göttingen, 1957)), p. 224.
16 Morgenthau, Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story, p. 210.
17 Kevin Fewster (ed.), Gallipoli Correspondent (Sydney, 1983), p. 70.
18 Jock Philips, Nicholas Boyack and E. P. Malone (eds), The Great Adventure: New Zealand Soldiers Describe the First World War (Wellington, 1988), p. 37.
19 Tim Travers, Gallipoli 1915 (Stroud, 2001), p. 199.
20 Jean Giraudoux, Carnet des Dardanelles (Paris, 1969), p. 97.
21 Travers, Gallipoli, p. 229.
22 Fewster, Gallipoli Correspondent, p. 153.
23 David Omissi (ed.), Indian Voires of the Great War: Soldiers’ Letters, 1914-1918 (Basingstoke, 1999), p. 160.
24 Carl Mühlmann, Das deutsch-türkiscbe Waffenbirndnis im Weltkriege (Leipzig, 1940), p. 71.
25 Colmar von der Goltz, Denkwürdigkeiten (Berlin, 1932), pp. 421-2.
26 John Buchan, Greenmantle (London, 1917 edn.), p. 16.
CHAPTER 5: SHACKLED TO A CORPSE
1 Gustaf Steffen, Weltkrieg une Imperialismus (Jena, 1915), pp. 49-51.
2 Vladimir Littauer, Russian Hussar (London, 1965), pp. 138, 150.
3 Max Hoffmann, War Diaries and other papers (2 vols, London, 1929), vol. 1, p. 40.
4 Jeffrey Verhey, The Spirit of 1914: Militarism. Myth and Mobilization in Germany (Cambridge, 2000), p. 91.
5 Reichsarchiv, Der Weltkrieg 1914 bis 1918, vol. 2 (Berlin, 1925), p. 324.
6 Dennis Showalter, Tannenberg (Hamden, Conn., 1991), p. 143.
7 Karl Friedrich Nowak (ed.), Die Aufzeichungen des Generalmajors Max Hoffmann (2 vols, Berlin, 1929), vol. 2, p. 29.
8 Hoffmann, War Diaries, vol. 1, p. 41.
9 Alfred Knox, With the Russian Army. 1914-1917 (2 vols, London, 1921), vol. 1, p. 68.
10 Letter from Hauptmann Geisler, 1 September 1914, in Wolfgang Foerster and Helmuth Greiner (eds), Wir Kämpfer im Weltkrieg (Berlin, n.d.), pp. 109-10.
11 Prince A. Lobanov-Rostovsky, The Grinding Mill: Reminiscences of War and Revolution in Russia, 1913-1920 (New York, 1935), p. 22.
12 Wolfgang Foerster (ed.), Mackensen. Briefe und Aufzeichnungen (Leipzig, 1938), pp. 73-4.
13 Holger Afflerbach, Falkenhayn (Munich, 1994), p. 217.
14 Norman Stone, The Eastern Front 1914-1917 (London, 1975), p. 178.
15 Diary of Hauptmann von Loebell of 3rd Foot Guards, in Wolfgang Foerster and Helmuth Greiner (eds), Wir Kämpfer im Weltkrieg (Berlin, n.d.), pp. 168-9.
16 Lobanov-Rostovsky, The Grinding Mill, p. 20.
17 George Buchanan, My Mission to Russia and Other Diplomatic Memories (2 vols, London, 1923), vol. 1, p. 215.
18 Knox, With the Russian Army, vol. 1, p. 349.
19 A. A. Brusilov, A Soldier’s Note-book 1914-1918 (London, 1930), p. 151.
20 Lobanov-Rostovsky, The Grinding Mill, p. 160.
21 Peter Gawell, A Whole Empire Walking: Refugees in Russia during World War I (Bloomington, IN, 1999), p. 15.
22 Ibid., p. 16.
23 Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius, War Land on the Eastern Front: Culture, National Identity and German Occupation in World War I (Cambridge, 2000), p. 192.
24 Ibid., p. 71.
25 Stone, The Eastern Front, p. 210.
26 David Stevenson, The First World War and International Politics (Oxford, 1988), p. 51.
27 John R. Schindler, Isonzo : The Forgotten Sacrifice of the Great War (Westport, CT, 2001), p. 18.
28 Holger Herwig, The First World War : Germany and Austria-Hungary 1914-1918 (London, 1997), p. 151.
29 Fernanda Bellachioma (trans.), Letters and Drawings of Enzo Valentini, Conte di Laviano, Italian Volunteer and Soldier (London, 1917), p. 78; see also pp. 157-68.
30 C. E. J. Fryer, The Destruction of Serbia in 1915 (New York, 1997), pp. 149, 159.
31 Misha Glenny, The Balkans (Harmondsworth, 1999), p. 331.
32 David French, British Strategy and War Aims 1914-1916 (London, 1986), p. 141.
33 George Leon, Greece and the Great Powers 1914-1917 (Thessaloniki, 1974), p. 282.
CHAPTER 6: BREAKING THE DEADLOCK
1 Alexander Murray, ‘Remembrance’, Oxford Magazine, no. 208 (2002), p. 10.
2 Jean Bernier, La Percée (Paris, 1920), quoted in Edmund Blunden (ed.) Great Short Stories of the War (London, 1933), p. 311.
3 Alexandre Arnoux, Le Cabaret (Paris, 1919), quoted in ibid., p. 127.
4 Charles Edmonds [Carrington], A Subaltern’s War (London, 1930), p. 23.
5 George Coppard, With a Machine Gun to Cambrai (London, 1969), pp. 24-5.
6 J. C. Dunn, The War the Infantry Knew, 1914-1919 (London, 1987; first published 1938), pp. 192, 195-6.
7 Gerd Hardach, The First World War 1914-1918 (London, 1977), p. 80.
8 Arthur J. Marder, Fear God and Dread Nought: The Correspondence of Admiral of the Fleet Lord Fisher of Kilverstone (3 vols, London, 195
2-9), vol. 3, p. 238.
9 Abel Ferry, Les Carnets secrets (1914-1918) (Paris, 1957), p. 88.
10 Description by Queen Marie of Romania, quoted in Glenn Torrey, Henri Mathias Berthelot (Iai, 2001), p. 191.
11 Margaret H. Darrow, French Women and the First World War (Oxford, 2000), p. 185.
12 Ute Daniel, The War from Within: German Working-class Women in the First World War (Oxford, 1997), pp. 46-7.
13 Angela Woollacott, On Her Their Lives Depend: Munitions Workers in the Great War (Berkeley, CA, 1994), p. 82.
14 Robert Blake (ed.), The Private Papers of Douglas Haig (London, 1952), p. 93.
15 Maréchal Fayolle, Carnets secrets de la Grande Guerre, ed. Henri Contamine (Paris, 1963), p. 169.
16 Robert Foley, Alfred von Schlieffen’s Military Writings (London, 2003), p. 199.
17 Cyril Falls, ‘Contact with Troops: Commanders and Staffs in the First World War’, Army Quarterly, vol. 88, no. 2 (1964), p. 179.
18 David French, ‘The Meaning of Attrition’, English Historical Review, vol. 103 (1988), p. 395.
19 M. Daille, Joffre et la guerre d‘usure 1915-1916 (Paris, 1936), p. 170.
20 Pierre Miquel, Les Poilus (Paris, 2000), p. 228.
21 Karl von Einem, Ein Armeeführer erleht den Weltkrieg (Leipzig, 1938), pp. 150-1.
22 Miquel, Les Poilus, p. 229.
23 Charles Mangin, Lettres de guerre 1914-1918 (Paris, 1950), p. 59.
24 E. L. Spears, Prelude to Victory (London, 1939), p. 33.
25 David Woodward, Lloyd George and the Generals (Newark, 1983), p. 77.
26 French, ’The Meaning of Attrition‘, p. 398.