 Not sure if this should be here or in 'Good Books' (Feel free to move it or even put on both threads)
These three books tell us a lot about the thoughts and feelings of the people at the time before, during and after 'The Great War'. In many ways these thoughts and feelings echo what we feel today 90 years on...
I Survived Didn't I?, Joy Cave
The Great War reminiscences of Private Charlie 'Ginger' Byrne, 2nd Battalion. Hampshire Regiment and MGC are set down by Joy Cave in this short but very interesting book published by Leo Cooper in 1993.
It is not a tale of high strategy, a recital of epic heroism, but a trench's eye-view of one man's experiences during the war. Charlie Bryne reminds us that wars are fought by ordinary people, but that in each of them there is always something extraordinary.
An underage volunteer soldier in 1914, Charlie's recital of how he joined the Hampshire's at Winchester brings a smile to the readers face. He describes going into action on 1 July 1916; of a catastrophic gas attack in the Ypres Salient; of raids, wiring and ration parties, work details and transport duties, and life in billets behind the lines.
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There were anti-war demonstrations . In the UK, on the 2nd August 1914, an estimated crowd of 100,000 people, mainly socialists, demonstrated against the impending war and a letter appeared in the Times, signed by some sixty Oxbridge academics, decrying war with Germany. Both groups had very very different reasons for doing so however. Similar demonstrations also took place in Germany.
Did they take any notice...
Dare Call it Treason,
Richard Watt
"Dare Call It Treason" is rich in historial detail: the wishful military plans, the dreadful reality of trench warfare, the fierce political infighting, the secret documents that were for so long suppressed by succeeding French governments, the years of governmental scandal....
TIME August 1914
THE PLACE Paris France
" In Paris (t)here were no cheers, no crowds surrounding the Elysee Palace to cry "A Berlin!," few thundering demonstrations with the mob pelting the departing troops with flowers. Instead, all was quiet, calm, and subduded."
TIME: 1917 -- the darkest year of the First World War.
THE PLACE: The Western Front -- with the Allies and the Germans strung out from the English Channel to the Swiss Border, senselessly mauling each other in vast and bloody combats for a few acres of shell-pocked, gas-poisoned mud
THE CAST: The generals -- some brilliant, like Petain; some incompetent butchers and political opportunists, like Nivelle... The politicians -- a few of them honest and devoted to their cause, like Clemenceau; many of them linked in a chain of espionage, defeatism, corruption and blackmail... And, above all, the forgotten men -- the soldiers, facing the third year of war with a desperate courage near the breaking point.
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And for those who wonder what it was all about...
How and why WW i Started
War in general is very complicated. The 1st World War is more complicated than usual. The 'spark' that caused Europe to explode was the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand, next in line to the throne of the Austo-Hungarian Empire, by a Serbian nationalist in the Bosnian town of Sarajevo in 1914. The Austrians were very annoyed (as you can imagine) and demanded that Serbia (an independent country) accept a 14 point ultimatum. This was backed up by the threat of force. Serbia accepted every point but one, that the Austrian army be allowed enter Serbia to hunt for the other conspirators in the plot. Austria demanded full compliance and mobilised its army. In quick succession, Russia (Serbia's ally) and Germany (Austria's ally) mobilised their armies. France (Russia's ally) then mobilised its army, while Britain and Belgium mobilised their armies but did not declare sides. Germany then decided that the best form of defense was attack and invaded Belgium (using the pretext that it was defending it from French attack). Belgium, Britain, France and Russia then declared war on Germany due to Germany attacking Belgium and breaching the terms of the 5 Powers (Germany, Britain, France, Russia, Italy) Treaty that guaranteed Belgium neutrality. Austria declared war with its ally, and WW1 was started. As for Turkey, that is a rather sad tale. Both Britain and Germany were trying to persuade Turkey to enter the war on their side. To do this they used both the threat of force and bribery. In the end, 3 German battleships that were being harassed by the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean decided to seek refuge in Constantinople. While there, they threatened to bombard the city unless Turkey provided them with weapons, ammunition, crews for their ships and other supplies. They then set sail under the Turkish flag (having then been made 'officially' part of the Turkish Navy) but German officers and attacked the Royal Navy. This brought Turkey into the war on the German side, and precipitated the Gallipoli landings to knock the Turks out of the war. In terms of why the war started, as opposed to who and how it started, that is a simpler storyGermany was unified in 1870 under the might of the Prussian Army, and the Prussian Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck. This unified Germany took in all of modern Germany, Poland, Kaliningrad (Russian), and parts of most northeast Europe. In France, Napoleon III was in power. These two countries came to loggerheads in 1870, during the France-Prussian War. The Germans defeated the French on numerous occasions and eventually captured Paris. They then had a triumphant parade down the Champs Elyses and the German Empire (2nd Reich) was declared in the Palace of Versailles. This left a stain on the French collective consciousness that begged to be removed. France then decided to flex its muscles by grabbing more colonies and by declaring Morocco a French protectorate. However, Germany stopped this by diplomatic means, which further added to the insult to injury. Germany, while remaining behind its frontiers was busy industrialising. This included a large build up in the size of their Navy and the size and equipment of their Army, as well as the logistic planning and infrastructure development required to keep a modern army going. Meanwhile, Britain, while studiously ignoring Europe and only intervening when her colonies were a stake, was also building up its Navy to keep one step ahead of Germany. It was this arms race as well as the public humiliation of France in 1870 that set off the powder keg that was Europe. The assassination of Ferdinand was only the catalyst that hurried up the onset of war.
Hopefully this helps explain why Anzacs, British, Dominion, Indian and Turkish troops wound up fighting in Gallipoli, and why Europe went to war in the first place.
:cry:
