How NOT to Run a War in Europe at the Turn of the Century

VonShlieffen plan screwed everything up So did Austria’s indecision about Serbia Ironically, the war would not get back to Serbia for over a year The principal players in the war would then be England, France, Germany Russia had some role, to be sure, but was mostly involved with the Ottoman Empire and Austria Led to a great deal of atrocities Destabilized Russia immensely

From the beginning, the war ground to a halt There was no quick defeat of France Turned into trench warfare almost immediately in the West, in the East less so, but still not much movement Machine-guns kept the areas between the trenches a No-Man’s Land The war remained a defensive war for 4 years, due largely to the machine gun

The boys’ll be home by Christmas – not a chance By December, 1914 – everyone knew the war would last a while Millions were drafted Drafted in groups – could go off to fight with your chums (at least in England) The result: entire neighborhoods had sons who all died in the war

Oddity of the war: 1st Christmas – the guns fell silent it was a 24-hour undeclared truce this was by the common soldiers, NOT the officers Why would the common soldiers declare a truce, but not the officers? No Man’s Land became a soccer field in some areas In other areas, Germans and Brits, French came across No Man’s Land to hug, kiss, read prayers, sing hymns, worship together This enraged commanding officers, many court martials followed The next day, the bloodbath resumed

The killing in WWI was vastly different than previous wars You were shooting at anonymous people You were getting shot at by anonymous people In all previous wars, the combatants saw each other as humans they were killing Now, it was different Why is it harder on someone to be shot at by someone they don’t see? Very demoralizing

The level of killing was higher than ever, as well Why?

During the war, several other countries jumped in Ottoman Empire came to Germany’s side in 1914 Japan came to the Entente’s side in 1914 Saw it as an opportunity to expand their empire in Asia, take over German colonies – it worked Italy switched sides to the Entente in 1914 America came in on the Entente’s side in 1914

Battles:

February, 1916 Battle of Verdun Germany needed a sudden and quick win – started getting desperate Germans decided that to win, they had to fight a battle of attrition They would trade lives for victory Germany had 5 German soldiers for every 2 Allied soldiers Started out throwing Germans against the French and got some success Then the English came, and that success was nullified How many people died at Verdun? How long did it take?

May, 1916 Battle of Jutland Was a non-event naval battle Off the coast of Denmark, the Kaiser’s navy went against the King’s navy and lost Nothing really got settled, German boats went back to port and stayed there for the rest of the war Did slow down German U-Boat campaign, but it was already slowing due to a lack of U-Boats

June, 1916 Battle of Somme British and French decided to launch an offensive First, they saturated cannon fire for 10 days 10 days of shelling on the German lines There was 1 cannon for every 10 feet firing for 10 days Germans went into bunkers to wait it out Could you stand that kind of noise in an enclosed space for 10 days? Not knowing when it would end? After 10 days, they stopped firing on the Germans The smoke lifted, and a whistle blew – British and French were ordered forward, to go over the top However, it was a hot day, and the officers ordered the men to walk only Germans got out of their bunkers, brought out machine guns, and mowed them down If they didn’t use machine guns, they bayoneted them to death 60,000 British died in the first day, and yet they kept on going 600,000 died in the Somme

Between Verdun and Somme, the line moved little more than a mile Think about what that would do to the morale of the people in Europe. 1.3 million dead in 2 months, and the line moved maybe a mile. It’s no wonder that the generation to follow would be called the Lost Generation

Germany did figure out how to deal with Russia, however Russia was tearing itself apart in revolution, as well as fighting in the war Many Russian soldiers didn’t even have guns, so when they went over the trenches, they would use sharpened sticks Germany took Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and sealed him in a boxcar They sent that boxcar into Russia

1916 Russia was already having troubles, and had set up a provisional government after the Duma declared one, forcing Czar Nicholas II to step down. What is a Duma?

1918 Russia sued for peace separately from the rest of the Allies Germany then could put all of its attention on the Western Front Too late, America was coming America tipped the scales in favor of the Allies

The war ended, Nov 11, 1918

There were many aftereffects, but they will be discussed in the weeks to come.

For now, we will focus on the atrocities that occurred during the war, as well as the role that Africans and Americans played in the war

What caused the war to last so long? What caused it to be so ineffectual?

What did Sigmund Freud say about the war? What did Hemingway say about the war? Who was right?