The First World War
 

... we know who lost, but anyone who thought he won is nuts, imho :cool:

Your takes?

All the French were concerned about was that no matter what, Germany was crippled economically and militarily so the Boche were no longer a threat to la Belle France.

Having mentioned a possible WWI thread in response to a comment made by our learned friend Mal Hombre in the WWII thread, I suppose I'd better "put up or shut up"!

Mal suggested that "the RFC and RNAS were often forced to make do with planes that were markedly inferior to enemy machines."

I don't disagree in principle, but I do think it was the pace of development which "forced" one side or the other to fly inferior aircraft at any given time; not the respective politicians or senior commanders.

The Fokker Eindeckers were probably the first to gain what we'd now recognise as air superiority, but the actual E-series aircraft were somewhat unremarkable and their advantage was (in the main) the gun synchronization gear. The resulting "Fokker Scourge" lasted for a relatively short time, and by early 1916 the DH.2's and the Nieuport 11's were (arguably) the best fighter aircraft around.

Then, along came the new Albatros variants and the Germans had the superior aircraft ... until the SE5, Camel and later SPAD variants appeared and the pendulum swung back ... but then the Fokker D.VII arrived ... !!

I'm not aware of aircraft development being held back by "the powers that be" during WWI, but I have no problem with anyone putting me right on that score!

The main function of aircraft over the Western Front was Artillery spotting and Photo Reconaissance,the main functiom of fighter or "Scout" aircraft was to shoot down enemy reconasaisance planes.The main British design of spotters were the BE2 and it's replacement the RE8(Harry Tate),both were slow, stable and difficult to defend and very many British aircrew were killed flying them.

To do for WWI what I've been doing for WWII...
March 18, 1915
Western Front There is violent, indecisive fighting between Four-de-Paris and Bolante.
Eastern Front Russian troops occupy Memel. Austrian attacks in the Bukovina and the Carpathians continue to fail. Grand Duke Nicholas orders that, hereafter, all offensive operations will center on the southern fronts, in particular in the Carpathians.
North SeaDuring exercises off the Pentland Firth, HMS Dreadnought rams and sinks U-12, which had sunk the Cressy and her sisters.
MediterraneanDe Robeck sends his ships to the attack in three divisions. At 10:30 AM the first division steams up the straits. Within an hour they reach their targets and the Queen Elizabeth’s 15” guns rain shells on the forts at Chanak, while her companions fire on the forts at Kilid Bahr across the straits. Turkish artillery on both banks responds, but causes only minor damage. Just after noon de Robeck decides it is time to move closer and signals Admiral Guepratte to come on with the French division. The ships unleash a ferocious shelling for three quarters of an hour, but Turkish guns damage the Gaulois and Inflexible. The Turkish fire subsides as the forts suffer tremendous damage. De Robeck decides to send the French division back and order up the third division. Just before 2:00, the Suffren begins to lead the second division out. Suddenly, her trailing ship, the old battleship Bouvet, rocked by a mighty explosion, heels over and sinks in less than two minutes, taking 640 men with her. The gunnery duel resumes. After two hours, the Turkish fire again subsides, and de Robeck orders in the minesweepers. But after destroying only three mines, the minesweepers abruptly hasten back out of the straits. The Inflexible hits a mine and limps off in danger of sinking – miraculously her crew gets her safely to Tenedos. Another explosion rips the pre-dreadnought Irresistible, leaving her powerless and adrift. Her crew, along with the dead and wounded are taken off. To terminate the day’s action, de Robeck sends Admiral Keyes to try to salvage the stricken ship. The old battleship Ocean suffers an explosion and a damaged rudder sets her revolving. Upon reporting to de Robeck, Keyes discovers that the officers of both ships have been removed to the Queen Elizabeth, now safely out of the straits. Returning after dark to search for the two drifting ships, Keyes finds nothing.
RumaniaSome classes of reserves are called up.

March 18, 1916
Eastern Front In order to assist the French effort at Verdun, Tsar Nicholas II has agreed to mount an offensive three months before the Russian commanders anticipated being ready to resume the battle. The offensive centers at Lake Naroch, gateway to the railhead at Vilna, with 2nd Army (General Ragoza) as the spearhead and with secondary assaults elsewhere. Although an unexpected thaw renders the lakes that the troops must cross unsafe and floods the swamps they must traverse with a foot of water, the battle begins. The 271 guns the Russians have assembled shell the German positions for three hours and then the infantry moves in to the attack. But the Germans have learned of the Russian build-up at the front and have reinforced the sector. As a result, the attacking Russians encounter withering artillery and rifle fire that quickly halts their advance. At the end of the day, the Russians have 4000 casualties, the Germans 200.
German East Africa General Stewart and General Tighe have resigned from Smuts’s army, the former under fire for his fatal slowness, and have headed for India. Smuts sends van Deventer to attack Lettow-Vorbeck near the Ruwu River. Van Deventer catches up with the Germans at Kahe, but with the same results as before – Lettow-Vorbeck slips away during the night. With the rainy season beginning, further pursuit must wait.
RussiaIt is determined that Sukhomlinov should face a court martial.
Khvostov is fired as Interior Minister when it is discovered that he was organizing a plot to have Rasputin murdered. The reactionary Shturmer replaces him.

March 18, 1917
Western Front British troops occupy Chaulnes and Peronne. The Germans launch a heavy attack in the Verdun sector.
MacedoniaThe French clear the Bulgarian trenches at Svegovo north of Monastir after five days of fighting.
CaucasusRussian troops again enter Van. The Viceroyalty of the Caucasus is abolished and authority transferred to a civil administrative body.
MesopotamiaMaude’s troops sweep to the west of Baghdad to capture Nukhta and to the northeast to capture Buhriz and Baqubah on the Diyalah River.

March 18, 1919
EgyptEight British soldiers are murdered on a train at Deirut.

March 18, 1921
Eastern Europe The Treaty of Riga ends the Polish-Soviet War. The Russians concede all of Poland’s territorial claims. This war leaves the Russians eager for revenge. It also gives the Poles an inflated sense of their military power that will last until 1939.
The Poles are unable, however, to secure Ukrainian independence. The Soviets crack down on Ukrainian nationalism.

There was no "World War One." Or "World War Two" for that matter. There was only, "The World War - Act One 'Europe's Game'," an intermission including a period of prosperity followed by a Great Depression, then "The World War - Act Two 'Asia Joins the Fun'".

I disagree on that Max. What I've learned about Archduke Ferdinand was that he was truly concerned with all the people of his fractious nation and if he had survived to become emperor, he wanted to institute true reform. Whether it would have worked is just a historian's fantasy.

Actually, there was fighting in Asia and the Pacific in WWI. Japan was on the Allies side and fought Germans in China and in the German holdings on the Pacific islands. At Versailles, the Japanese wanted a piece of China as a price for their participation. They also asked for a clause in the treaty that espoused racial equality, which the Europeans laughed at. One of the reasons that Japan joined the Axis was that like Italy, they felt cheated out of what they thought they were due after WWI.

Steven Ambrose said that the World Wars were, in essence, a 30 year European Civil War.

Perhaps the biggest difference was to throw into relief the inequalities in society; this was the last war where the 'upper' classes would be the officers as a matter of course. Technology boomed overnight - compare the aircraft at the beginning of the war - canvas and wire contraptions fit only to be called 'kites' and treated as novelties by officers determined to have calvary charges whenever possible, to the remarkable late war Fokkers, Siemens and Sopwith Snipe etc., not to mention the large bombers that would quickly develop into the first commercial aircraft.

Arguably the greatest impact in the UK was to radically undermine the social class system; whole estate staffs were lost; the absolute rule of the upper classes was thrown into serious doubt and the spread of socialism and questioning of social order became accelerated in a way that would have taken decades in years of peace.

And perhaps for the first time, we had individual war 'heroes' - the aces in the air were used as propaganda, less so in the UK where the practice was frowned upon but the exploits of Ball, Mannock, McCudden (do read his diary - fascinating stuff) and Rhys Davids still make interesting reading as do the exploits of airmen like Immelman and Voss, the Jastas under Richthofen and the lone fighters such as Coppens, the Belgian balloon buster and the contraversial Billy Bishop (who, more than any other, has 'claims' that have long been debated amongst historians as being open to question). Bishop may have been guilty of simply wanting to feed the publicity machine back home...

Lost Ships VI: The Ghosts of Jutland
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ndn-9vj80I

May 31st 1916: 250 ships of the Grand Fleet of the Royal Navy and the High Seas Fleet of the Kaiserliche Marine met in what was to become the largest naval battle of the First World War: The Battle of Jutland

By the time the guns fell silent on June 1st 1916, 24 ships had been sunk and 8,645 crewmen had been killed, with both sides failing to achieve their objectives

Eddie Rickenbacker top-scored for the US forces with 26 confirmed kills; he wrote a very readable and informative WW1 memoir called Fighting the Flying Circus, which was in the school library when I was a pupil way back when. Rickenbacker was surprisingly humane for a individualist warrior; he wrote some memorable anecdotes, including a strange incident when his guns jammed at the critical moment when he was about to deliver the coup de grace to a helpless and badly damaged enemy aircraft. It impressed me that after the first moment of rage and frustration, a more generous impulse took over and, since he could not kill the German as it was his duty to do if his guns were still working, he flew alongside the other plane and waved him goodbye, wishing him luck. He wasn't really sorry that the other man got away, though he would have killed him had that been possible; Rickenbacker never expressed hatred for his opponents and often expressed considerable respect. He fought with integrity.

The other anecdote I remember right now is that he took to the air just before the ceasefire was due on 11 November 1918, and observed the fierce fighting right up to the last second; then the shelling just stopped and the men on both sides started to emerge and walked towards each other as Rickenbacker circled overhead. He watched as they met and saw them shaking hands; reading his book I felt that he was sharing with me an extremely privileged moment.

Probably the last war more soldiers than civilians got killed

Still the flu sorted that out, karma I expect

If it affected politicians and bankers the same way I'd give peace a chance :D

March 19, 1915
Western Front The Germans launch an attack in the Vosges.
Eastern Front An Austrian sortie from Przemysl fails. The situation of the garrison is now desperate.
Mediterranean Bad weather halts operations. Although the Allied shelling has done its job – Chanak and its forts are abandoned and in ruins and the Turks have consumed half their ammunition – de Robeck does not know of his enemy’s vulnerability. He and Keyes decide, nevertheless, to sweep the straits once more and then resume the attack. But General Ian Hamilton reaches a different conclusion: that the battleships cannot do the job alone. He telegraphs to Kitchener’ “It must be a deliberate and prepared military operation, carried out at full strength, so as to open a passage for the Navy.” Kitchener concurs.

March 19, 1916
Western Front, Verdun A German attack on Poivre Hill is repulsed.
Eastern Front Russian forces on the Dniestr gain a success at Uscieczko. The attack at Lake Naroch resumes on a broader front, but with little success.
Persia Russian troops enter Isfahan.

March 19, 1917
Western Front The French take Chauny on the Oise. The Germans at Verdun are repulsed between Avocourt and Hill 304. The Germans successfully complete the withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line, conceding the initiative on the Western Front to the Allies and embracing a policy of “strategic defense”.
Mesopotamia The British occupy Fallujah and Sindia. Maude issues a proclamation, promising freedom for the Arabs.
Mediterranean The French semi-dreadnought battleship Danton is torpedoed by U-64; 296 are lost.
Russia The Petrograd Soviet orders people back to work. There is an assassination attempt on Kerensky.
Diplomatic Relations Prince Sixtus has written a letter to Emperor Karl advising him that the opportunity for negotiating a peace with Russia is heightened by the revolution and the new government, that if Germany negotiates a peace it will come at Austria’s expense, and that he should preclude an offensive against Italy. He presents the letter to Count Erdody in Geneva; the count tells him that Karl must see him and Xavier in Vienna and promises safe conduct. The brothers agree to make the journey.

March 19, 1920
United States The Senate rejects the Versailles Treaty 49-35.
Germany In response to the putsch, Communists organize the Ruhr Red Army, over 50,000 strong, which defeats the local army and Freikorps forces to seize control of the area. Noske is forced to resign.

The aviation curiosity of WWI is that, having been invented in the US by the Wright Brothers, the US had no militarily adequate airplanes in WWI, and US pilots flew British and French planes -- most famously Eddie Rickenbacker (and Snoopy's) SPAD (for Société Pour L'Aviation et ses Dérivés)

The attitude of the US towards the military-industrial complex, pre-WWI bears zero resemblance to the contemporary . . . the US distrusted a standing military, and was extremely stingy. The Wright brothers spent years, mostly fruitlessly, trying to get military contracts, and also did not advance their technology rapidly enough.

For me, the British won that, even though they lost more heavy ships

Why? - because like in the Battle of Britain (air battle WW2) a "draw" was enough for them. They already had the most favorable situation, so all they had to do was maintain the status quo, which they did

You could say - well no, actually you must say - that Beatty lost to Hipper, which is not really open to question. Beatty was very incompetent, and would not command of a rowing boat in my navy

But because not enough English ships were sunk, Scheer could not change his situation, which was what it was all about. So Jellicoe beats Scheer. That was all that mattered

Jellicoe achieved his objective. The High Seas Fleet in port in no mood to come out again. He would have preferred to have sunk the lot but the fact was that the Grand Fleet were still in control of the battleground and were ready for more.

It is often missed that Jellicoe put his fleet in the perfect position. One minute Scheer was steaming North to finish off Beatty and his battlecruisers and the next he was coming to terms with a horizon lit by the fire of the Grand Fleet. The only thing that saved Scheer was superb training and the excellent build quality of his ships.

Palo couldn't agree more about Beatty.

Snoopy flies a Sopwith Camel....

One factor in battleship design was that the Royal Navy had to build ships which were in long term use in both peace and war.Crews would be at sea for long spells and accommodation-though spartan-had to take this into consideration.This had to be taken into consideration at the design stage and led to compromises being made.Other navies didn't build to these limits.
Also in an economy drive the Royal Navy didn't go ahead with the long range gunsights and predictors in the belief that actions would be at shorter ranges.Why people thought that-it's obvious that if you are close to the enemy you only got there by being further away earlier and if you have armament capable of accuracy at 26 000 yards why not use it?

. . . right you are.

On that note, its interesting to see how a historical event "ages out" of popular culture.

WW I remained contemporary in the British Empire and France much longer than it did in the US and Germany. WW I is "The Great War" in Britain, whereas WW II is "The Big One" in the US.

Its mostly the scale of the casualties. Walk around a small farm town in Wales, in New Zealand, in Australia, and you'll inevitably find a monument to the dead, with an improbably long list of names . . . on more than one occasion I've found myself looking around at a tiny village of just a few houses, and trying to figure out where the twenty young men could have come from.

Charles Schultz was the probably the last American popular writer with WW I references, the "Red Baron" mysteriously remained an icon in US pop culture, even getting a strange novelty song: "Snoopy vs the Red Baron (1966)

Its an artifact of Charles Schultz' age: he was born in 1922, so he's from the small chronological window of those who would have been exposed to stories of WW I as children, but would no longer be kids when WW II came around.

In all history there have only ever been few freak hits at that range. Like two and that's all?

There are a handful of towns and villages which lost none of their men in WW1 and these were dubbed "Thankful Villages" by Arthur Mee in the 1920s.A very few of these went on to lose nobody in WW2 either.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thankful_Villages

From a naval point of view I prefer WW2 in that it had more 'fun' from a wargaming point of view and strategic/tactical interest.

Somehow vessels from the Great War never captured my interest as much as those of WW2.

Nonetheless I do remember reading AJP Taylor's books as a child and remember one striking image (a drowned mother holding her baby in the wake of the sinking of the Lusitania) and one striking phrase 'gefechtskehrwendung' as performed by the High Seas Fleet at Jutland.

The HSF were in much the same position as their sucessors in WW2. Hemmed in geographically and in an inferior position in terms of numbers and ship types compared to the RN.

No matter how fast they built the RN outbuilt them and outgunned them and also requsitioned ships being built for Chile, Brazil ie HMS Agincourt and Turkey (possibly tipping the balance for the Ottomans to join the Axis).

None of the designs like the Mackensen's ever materialized and even ships like the Bayern and Baden followed in the wake of the QE fast battleships.

And because of the implications of Versailles some of their design flaws ended up in the next class of battleships buily by Germany the Bismarck's.

There was even an action in the South Atlantic as well where the folly of the armoured cruiser was exposed but not learnt from (as seen at Jutland) and a brave Admiral Craddock fought to the last but is not remembered trying to close the range as Harwood would later try and do with the Graf Spee.

And like the Bismarck episode the RN sought swift vengeance exacting it and in turn highlighting the folly of the Imperial Navy for building armoured cruisers.

As in WW2 the Imperial Navy remained a fleet in being aside from some skulking raids on convoys to Norway and the east coast of England always with a real fear of being caught and preferred to rely on the submarine and commerce raiders.

Indeed though the term submarine could be barely applied to these vessels (more surface ships capable of diving to a shallow depth for short periods of time) compared to their current descendants the war saw the evolution of the submarine as a genuine weapon of war and final sucessor as the capital ship.

Strangely enough the lessons so bitterly learnt by the merchant marine resulting in the convoy system were forgotten by the time WW2 came about.

The war on land had seen the rise of the plane as a weapon leading to the idea of planes being carried at sea as scouts to measure the strength of the opposition as with the fast cruisers and battlecruisers but with greater range.

By the time of Jutland the RN had two seaplane carriers in Campania and Engadine after Charles Samson had demonstrated the idea of flying off a ship in 1912.

And other nations who were to become significant advocates of carrier borne aerial power had their own seaplane carriers namely the USN and IJN.

In essence WW1 led to the development of the capital ship types that would lead to the death of the battleship.

As for the flu epidemic you've all seen how certain viruses can jump and mutate and acquire infectivity in humans when animals and man are in close contact.

The huge marshalling yards of the Western Front were also home to huge animal pens. After all an army marches on it's stomach. Recent analysis suggests the very source of the strain of Spanish flu originated in these places.

What is very sad is the loss of life. There are several war memorials dotted around Watford. Some have the same surnames in triplicate. Whole families died out and with them through the ages march the ghosts of descendants destined never to be born numbering in the millions.

Our own school memorial book all wonderfully illuminated and written in flowing Gothic script holds some three hundred names of masters and pupils killed in that awful slaughter.

And when it comes down to it those men would have been friends in another time and place as one saw in certain places along the Western front.

Unparallelled horror that many thought ,wrongly as it turned out ,would not be repeated again. In the long run both wars bled Europe dry.

Then there were the pals regiments, formed from one local area, like the Accrington pals from near where I live.

720 took part in the battle for Serre, within a couple of hours 584 were killed, wounded or missing.

I live in the North East and the war memorials are heartbreaking. My own village had a population of 1500 souls in 1914, and there are nearly forty names on the war memorial. Given the number of families this represents a goodly proportion of the young men of the village.

"The Live Bait Squadron"
 

In 1914, the Royal Navy maintained a patrol of old Cressy-class armoured cruisers in the area of the North Sea known as the "Broad Fourteens" (so called because the large area off the Dutch coast is a fairly consistent fourteen fathoms deep). There was opposition to the patrols as the cruisers were obsolete (launched in 1899-1901), poorly maintained (no money was being wasted on them!) and crewed by inexperienced reservists. As such, The Seventh Cruiser Squadron, or Cruiser Force C, was often referred to as "The Live Bait Squadron".


http://ist1-2.filesor.com/pimpandhos...MS_Hogue_0.jpg HMS Hogue

On the 20th September 1914, the cruisers HMS Euryalus, HMS Aboukir, HMS Hogue and HMS Cressy were preparing to go on patrol under Rear Admiral Christian in Euryalus. Normally the patrol was under command of Rear Admiral Campbell in HMS Bacchantes but he was absent so Christian took his place. However, Euryalus then had to drop out due to lack of coal and weather damage to her wireless, and Christian had to remain with his ship as the weather was too bad to transfer. He therefore delegated command to Captain Drummond in Aboukir.

Early on the 22nd, the German submarine U9 under the command of Commander Otto Weddigen sighted the Cressy, Aboukir and Hogue steaming at 10 knots without zigzagging. Although the patrols were supposed to maintain 12-13 knots and zigzag, the old cruisers were unable to maintain that speed and the zigzagging order was widely ignored as there had been no submarines sighted in the area during the war.


http://ist1-1.filesor.com/pimpandhos.../ZRWC/u9_0.jpg http://ist1-2.filesor.com/pimpandhos...weddigen_0.jpg
U-9 and her commander, Otto Weddigen

U9 manoeuvred to attack and fired a single torpedo at Aboukir which rapidly flooded and began to sink. Captain Drummond ordered her to be abandoned, and having assumed that Aboukir had hit a mine, signalled the other two cruisers to close and assist. U9 then fired two torpedoes at HMS Hogue which had stopped to rescue the crew of Aboukir, even although it was then realised that Aboukir had been attacked by a submarine. Hogue sank within ten minutes. The third cruiser, Cressy, under Captain Johnson, had also stopped to lower boats but got underway on sighting a periscope. However U9 fired two torpedoes, one of which just missed but the other hit Cressy on her starboard side. Turning round, U9 then fired her last torpedo. Cressy went down within fifteen minutes.

As a result of the rapid sinking of all three ships, around 1,400 seamen lost their lives (reports vary between 1,397 and 1,459).

At the subsequent court of inquiry, Drummond, Christian and Campbell were all criticised, but the bulk of the blame was directed at the Admiralty for persisting with a patrol that was dangerous and of limited value against the advice of senior sea going officers.

As a poststcript to the incident, it is claimed that a 15 year old midshipman, Wenman "Kit" Wykeham-Musgrave, who was aboard the Aboukir, swam to the Hogue when his own boat went down. However, he was just scrambling aboard the Hogue when she too was torpedoed, so he dived back into the water and swam to the Cressy. When she was then torpedoed, Wykeham-Musgrave found himself back in the water. He then clung to a piece of wood until he was eventually rescued by a Dutch trawler.

March 20, 1914
Britain Officers at the Curragh military base in Ireland submit their resignations rather than obey orders to force the loyal population of Ulster to accept Home Rule under the separatists of southern Ireland. This “Curragh Mutiny” shakes the British army, but all the officers are later reinstated under the stress of war.

March 20, 1915
Western Front The 1st Battle of Champagne ends. The French have gained less than a mile. Since late December, both sides have lost about 90,000 men here. The operation clearly demonstrates that “rapid and energetic action” is no substitute for improved doctrine and weapons, especially artillery.
Eastern Front A Russian attack near Smolnik takes some 2400 Austrian prisoners.
Southwest Africa A South African force under General Botha defeats a German force at Riet on the Swakop River.

March 20, 1916
Western Front, Verdun To secure any position at Le Mort Homme, the Germans must capture a similar ridge to the west called Hill 304, from which French machine gun fire can hit troops on their right flank. Forearmed with information about the defense on Hill 304 provided by French deserters, the Germans capture a position at the ridge’s base, but they thereby only expose themselves to still more machine gun fire. The Germans attack into Avocourt Wood.
North Sea There is an inconclusive clash between 4 British and 3 German torpedo boats.
Eastern Front The Lake Naroch offensive continues with small Russian gains at high cost. During the night, the temperature drops to 13 degrees Fahrenheit, ending the thaw.

March 20, 1917
Western Front The French complete the clearance of the Department of the Oise. They take Tergnier and cross the St. Quentin Canal.
Franc eThe 75-year old Alexandre Ribot becomes Premier. Paul Painlevé, who does not think highly of Nivelle, becomes Minister of War; unlike his predecessors, he is determined that if he is to accept responsibility for the conduct of the war, then he must be fully informed of all plans. Shortly after assuming office, he meets with Nivelle and assumes that the German withdrawal from their salient will render Nivelle’s offensive redundant. He also advises the general that since assuming office, he has heard complete details of the plan bruited about Paris; even the date of the attack is well known. Secrecy has obviously been hopelessly compromised. Nivelle assures the minister of success and that only small details of the plan have needed to be changed. The objective is now a clean breakthrough.
Russia Responding to pressure from the Petrograd Soviet, the Provisional Government places the tsar and his family under arrest at Tsarskoe Selo, intending to allow him to leave some time later for asylum in England. Nicholas reviews troops and urges loyalty to the new government. The Provisional Government announces that it cannot assume neutrality because the prospects of peace in Europe are non-existant.
United States Ex-president Theodore Roosevelt in New York issues a statement calling for war with Germany. At a meeting of all the members of his cabinet, the president requests advice on whether to call a special meeting of Congress before April 16 and what exactly to ask of the convened Congress. The cabinet members unanimously support calling an earlier special session and asking for a declaration of war. During the night, the president decides his cabinet is right.

March 20, 1918
Western Front There are large German raids in Champagne, near Verdun, in the Woevre, and in Lorraine.
English Channel A German force of 9 destroyers and 6 torpedo boats raids the Dover Barrage and is engaged by a mixed British and French flotilla. Two German torpedo boats are sunk.
United States Dutch shipping in American ports is seized.

March 20, 1921
Germany A plebiscite is held in Silesia. A majority vote for continued inclusion in Germany.

March 20, 1922
Germany The last US occupation troops leave the country.

It's said the Germans lost a golden opportunity at Verdun, and could have won. Apparently, there was only one supply road to the place, but for some reason - which if we are objective can be called incompetence - the Germans didn't know. It is not clear to me why they didn't have this intelligence, because they had plenty of aircraft, and plenty of guns to keep the road destroyed :confused:

The same happened in WW2, but with reversed roles. The Germans only had three roads for their main invasion force of France, but somehow Western brains did not think to bomb these routes effectively, or even to look for them :eek:

In the case of "la voie sacree" -- the road from Bar le Duc to Verdun, the French had 8500 men working continuously to repair it, and moved a great deal of material at night. Much of the road was beyond the range of German artillery. Continuous barrage of the parts nearer German lines would have been difficult -- WW I was an artillerists' war, and counter-battery fire was extremely good.

In WW II, the allied air commanders had a strong ideological preference for strategic bombing, and clearly under-resourced tactical interdiction. There's a lot of evidence that fighter-bombers attacking road and rail lines were vastly more effective than B-17s dropping bombs on cities, but this is a case where the theory of strategic bombing held sway.

I know what you mean, but clearly the 40 cm Krupp guns could have been used for this purpose, and the rebuilding would have brought nothing :eek:

Possibly. WW I featured a lot of very big artillery, which proved quite difficult to employ effectively, most notably the "Paris Gun".

The 420 mm "Big Berthas" were used at Verdun, but against the French forts, with armor piercing ammunition, and without great success. It was a howitzer, and the range wasn't huge -- 8 miles is what I find by googling.

The ghost RE.8
 

On the afternoon of 17th December 1917, an RE.8 (serial number A.3816), flown by Lieutenant J. L. Sandy, with Sergeant H. F. Hughes as observer, was ranging an 8-inch howitzer battery when it was attacked by six Albatros DVa scouts between Deulemont and Armentieres. The RE.8 engaged the enemy and succeeded in forcing one of the DVa's to land. The German pilot was taken prisoner by infantry of the 21st Battalion, 2nd Australian Division. His Albatros aircraft was captured and is now displayed in the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

Meanwhile, another RE.8 had arrived to assist Sandy & Hughes, and the the dogfight continued until a third RE.8 turned up; at which point the German aircraft broke away. The RE.8 of Sandy & Hughes was flying normally and did not seem to be damaged, so the two supporting RE.8's headed off to continue with their allotted tasks.

However, Sandy & Hughes never returned to base. Both had been killed instantly during the dogfight when an armour-piercing bullet had passed through Hughes' chest and into Sandy's head. The RE.8 had then entered a gentle banked turn to port and drifted about 50 miles downwind until the fuel ran out. The crash-landing caused little damage to the aircraft and did not result in additional injuries to the (already dead!) crew.

The RE.8 had originally been designed to be less stable than the BE.2, but pilots disliked the change so the aircraft was subsequently modified to improve stability ... to such an extent that it could fly, and land (albeit heavily), all on it's own!

It was never Falkenhayn's intention to 'win'. The whole cynical reason behind the German attack at Verdun was to hit the French in a place their pride would not allow them to cede. He wanted to bleed the French army white, not take Verdun.

Unfortunately for Germany, their army bled as profusely as the French.

And the German Army had it's back broken on the Somme according to Ludendorf.

Ah well krieg is krieg und schnapps is schnapps as the Germans would say.

This was von Falkenhayn's own version of events but has not been corroberated. It is quite likely that he made this up afterwards to conceal his failure. It should be noted that his attrition strategy, if indeed it was an attrition strategy, led to German casualties of 434,000 (332,000 killed) against French casualties of 542,000 (362,000 killed). German losses were astonishingly high and probably harder to bear than French losses, given that France had a large British expeditionary force to support her on her one and only main battlefront, while Germany was heavily involved in Russia and had to assist various allies such as Austria, Bulgaria and Turkey. Bleeding France white was only a good idea if it could be achieved economically. Falkenhayn needed to alter the ratio; more holes in them, less holes in us. It is also only fair to note that Marshall Petain instituted a rotation system a little bit like the one employed by Zhukov and Koniev in the latter stages of WW2, in which divisions were fought until they were exhausted and badly depleted, but then pulled right out of it and allowed all the time necessary to rest, refit, and train up the replacements. The German units did not rotate; their men stayed where they were until they were killed, wounded, or the battle ended, a battle which ran for nearly all of 1916. On the whole, I'd say the French won on points in the attrition stakes.

Having said that, I do believe Verdun left a scar on France which is still highly visible today.

Good Books
 

If anyone is interested

The Storm of Steel (Ernst Junger)

Eye Deep In Hell (John Ellis)

Death's Men (Denis Winter)

That's what he said. But the strange thing is, he could have taken it

Ludendorff wrote much nonsense to save his reputation. He even "forgot" to mention the arrival of two million American troops in 1918, which is really what ended the war in the West

The Somme is known in history for Western losses, and its incompetent commanders :eek::eek::eek:

Palo. It was reputedly one million U.S. troops & not two million. As has often been quoted. Although it is poosible that it could have been up to two million given the number of reinforcements that were arriving every day. The U.S declared war in April 1917. but their army didn't see any action on the western front until the march 1918 offensives.

What is also not remembered is that the battle of the Somme which began on July the first 1916 was actually designed originally by the French to get the B.E.F more involved on the western front. And it then became an attempt by an untried British army & it's French allies to take the pressure off the French at Verdun.

As for the senior officers. Whilst it's true that some were incompetent. There were also some excellent officers. Such as General Maxse the commanding general of the then 14th eastern division. Or it might have been the 15th. I'll have to go back to the books on that one.

The Somme was also the first time that the tank was used in battle. All be it not very succesfully. But the fact is that at that time the tank was also an untried weapon that had to be used somewhere at some time.
Thus proving that the high command were not the dunderheads that many historians have claimed them to be.

As is well documented on the first day the British suffered nearly sixty thousand casualties. With nearly twenty thousand killed.

To this day some of them have no known grave.

May they rest in peace.