First World War
The Battle of Arras, where two
Farndales gave their lives
The context of the First World War to
our family’s history
Amongst
other sources, I found Robert Tombs, The
English and their History, 2023, pages 582 and 597 to 644 particularly
helpful to summarising the history of the First World War.
The
causes of War
Tensions
between France, Russia, Britain and Germany increased as the new Twentieth
Century progressed. In the early years, Britain was most concerned by French
rivalry in Africa and Russian rivalry in Persia. However the political arena
became more complicated when Germany started to increase its navy from 1900.
Lord Selbourne, first lord of the Admiralty, saw this as a direct threat to
Britain, though in reality it was probably an attempt by Germany to deter
Britain from interfering in its own interests.
Ententes
were agreed with France in 1904 and Russia in 1907, which were intended to meet
German military build ups. In 1909 Britain pledged to outbuild Germany in its
naval armament programme. Lloyd George’s People’s Budget was intended to fund
more Dreadnaughts.
From 1908
Germany, France and Russia all started to build up gold reserves in case of
war.
In 1908, the
German general staff secretly developed the
Schlieffen Plan. This was a strategy to launch a devastating attack through
Belgium to defeat France within a month in order to allow it to move its force
to the eastern front to confront Russia before it had time to mobilise. Speed
and surprise were of the essence. An attack on the Belgium city of Liege was
scheduled for the third day.
Germany
continued to increase its battleship programme from 1912. The British
ambassador in Vienna predicted a coming crisis. The Admiralty agreed a naval
treaty with France, whereby France would focus on defending the Mediterranean
and Britain the North Sea.
Even as
tensions continued, Germany and Britain remained the biggest trading partners.
Admiral von Tirpitz, head of the German navy sent his daughters to Cheltenham
Ladies College. German naval officers bought their dress uniforms in Saville
Row.
The Balkans
had become the focus of tension between Austria-Hungary and Russia. Slav
nationalism threatened multinational Austria-Hungary. By 1914, German were
growing increasingly distrusting. Helmut von Moltke felt the French and
Russians would be too strong by 1917. He considered that an ultimatum to Serbia
would intimidate Russia and France against intervention.
Britain was
more concerned about Ireland at this time. Nevertheless, it was wary of falling
out with Russia and a desperate French ambassador threatened that if Britain
let France down, it would watch the future ruin of the British empire.
The
events that led to war
On 28 June
1914 the open topped car carrying Archduke Franz
Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, took a wrong turning in
Sarajevo, Bosnia and reversed, allowing a Bosnian Serb student, trained by the
Serbians, to kill him with two bullets.
On 23 July
1914 Austria-Hungary delivered its ultimatum to Serbia to formally and publicly
condemn the dangerous propaganda against Austria-Hungary and to accept
an Austro-Hungarian inquiry into the assassination.
On 24 July
1914, Asquith and Grey mentioned the Serbian crisis in the first discussion of
foreign affairs for a month. The Liberals and its Labour allies were
overwhelmingly opposed to war. Bankers and businessmen were aghast at the
thought. So Grey invited Germany, France and Italy to a conference in London.
On 28 July
1914 Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia and bombarded Belgrade.
On 1 August
1914, on foreign office advice, George V urged Russia to stop its mobilisation
in a letter addressed to Dear Nicky, from Georgie.
On 2 August
1914 Asquith made a statement to the Commons asserting that to stay neutral
would sacrifice Britain’s reputation. Public opinion started to favour
intervention.
On 4 August
1914 Germany attacked Belgium. The British Empire declared war on Germany at
midnight.
War was not
taken lightly in Britain. Those who thrilled for the fight were tempered by
foreboding and alarm. There was no flag waving. When the war began, civilians
rallied to send off their troops, and these scenes were depicted in
contemporary photographs. In reality no one expected it to be all over by
Christmas at this stage.
The Start
of the War
On 6 August 1914,
the British
Expeditionary Force (“BEF”) was sent to northern France. It included
all the regular troops based in Britain, supplemented by reservists. There were
110,000 men available, of whom 75,000 were combat troops. They were moved by
1,800 special trains, 240 requisitioned ships and 165,000 horses, even with
some London buses.
By then
there were 1.7 million German and 2.4 million French troops on the battlefield.
It was
expected that 75% of the BEF would be killed or wounded, which proved to be an
underestimate. The BEF came in the path of 580,000 Germans advancing through Belgium.
On 23 August
1914, the BEF fought a defensive battle at Mons.
On 26 August 1914, they fought another defensive battle at Le
Cateau. They inflicted heavy casualties on a tightly packed German force.
In October
1914 the first of four bloody battles was fought at Ypres.
These were
the deadliest battles of the war. By the end of 1914, the French had lost
528,000; the Germans 800,000 and the BEF were generally wiped out, having lost
90,000. On the Eastern Front the Russian steamroller had been halted, by a
smaller German force.
Mobilisation
Kitchener
realised this was to be a long haul. He appealed for volunteers. However time
was now needed to train them. There could be no significant reinforcement from
volunteers until late spring 1915. Britain would continue to rely on volunteers
until 1916. Conscription was unpopular, and there was no system in place for
it.
By the end
of 1915, 2,466,000 men had volunteered, about a third of those eligible.
Industrial workers including miners and railwaymen formed more than half the
army. Agricultural workers joined in lesser numbers. The land still had to be
worked and the prewar rundown of agriculture meant that many were older anyway.
There was a significant response from the upper and middle classes, from public
schools, the peerage, and bankers. Asquith lost a son, as did the Irish
Nationalist leader John Redmond.
Keeping to
volunteers did not give rise to fast mobilisation of large numbers, but
volunteers had higher morale, were motivated and enthusiastic. Discipline was
often founded on friendship. Pals Battalions drew on neighbourhoods, churches
and political identities. Scotland provided high numbers and the empire
supplied millions more. There was considerable moral pressure to join.
Class
distinctions were maintained in the ranks, but officers felt a gentlemanly duty
to their subordinates and an obligation of courage and leadership. By the end
of the war, a third of officers were from the lower middle and working classes.
Conscription
started in 1916. By then it had popular support, with growing hostility to shirkers.
The first
units of Kitchener’s New Army sailed in summer 1915. By summer 1916,
there were 30 divisions in the field. They included Siegfried Sasson, Robert
Graves, Rupert Brooke, Wilfred Owen, Harold Macmillan and J R R Tolkien, who found some of his inspiration for Lord of
the Rings.
It took time
to convert the experience of colonial campaigns to the realities of industrial
warfare. In 1914, the BEF had only 24 heavy guns. By 1918, it had 2,000. By
1916 fifty times the prewar annual output of TNT was used each day.
Few generals
believed in a quick breakthrough, the exception being the commander in chief,
General Sir Douglas Haig.
Eastern
theatres of operation
A political
group who came to be known as the Easterners, believed that the horrors
of France might be avoided by opening an alternative front. The First Lord of
the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, urged that a fleet be sent to Constantinople
to force the Turks to surrender.
On 18 March
1915, an Anglo French fleet sailed into the Dardanelles and in the face of
mines and shore batteries, British, French Australian and New Zealand (“ANZAC”)
troops were forced to land on the Gallipoli peninsula, where
they were fought to a standstill. They were finally evacuated in December 1915
and January 1916. Allied casualties were some 390,000. The determination and
ability of the Turks had been underestimated.
After
Gallipoli the Turks forced the whole British-Indian army in Mesopotamia to
surrender. A British and Indian army marched from Basra to Baghdad in 1915, but
was forced to surrender after the Siege of Kut in
1916.
In 1916
support was given to an Arab revolt against the Turks, involving the young
Oxford archaeologist, T E Lawrence,
the war’s romantic hero.
British,
Indian and ANZAC troops eventually took Jerusalem, Damascus and Baghdad in
1917.
The Balfour
Declaration in November 1917 committed Britain to a National Home for the
Jewish people in Palestine. It seemed a clever plan, and would please a Jewish
population influential in America. In time this would lead to an intractable
problem.
The
Western Front
The French,
Russians, British and Serbians agreed to simultaneous offensives in summer
1916. The biggest effort was a Franco attack along the Somme.
The Germans
struck first and aimed to bleed the French army to death in the killing
ground of Verdun.
The Easter
Uprising in Ireland was in April 1916.
On 4 June
1916 the Russians launched a long and costly offensive and the Italians
followed on 15 June 1916.
The British
prepared for the attack at the
Somme. General Charteris worried that the casualty list would be long. Wars
cannot be won without casualties. I hope people at home realise this.
On 1 July
1916 the British army began one of the bloodiest battles in its history. At
7.30am after an artillery bombardment of 12,000 tons of shells, 55,000 British
and French soldiers advanced out of their trenches, with 100,0000 to follow. In
places the advance seemed to go well. Siegfried Sassoon noted that men were cheering
as in a football match. However the artillery bombardment had failed to
destroy the barbed wire and the attack soon became nightmarish. Soldiers were
mown down. By the end of the first day, there were 19,240 dead and 37,646
wounded, including 75% of the officers.
The Battle
of the Somme continued over a four an a half month
campaign. More attacks between 3 and 13 July resulted in a further 25,000
casualties. Gradually, the British tactics improved.
The Germans
felt the strain. They lost heavily and their army would never be the same
again. Strategically the French army had been preserved after the Verdun
disaster. Total casualties were 420,000 British, 200,000 French and 465,000
German.
The Russian
army and state fell apart in 1916 to 1917.
There were
mass surrenders and desertions in the Austrian army.
The British
army was largely amateur. There was resistance to free discussion of ideas.
There was no system for learning and applying lessons. Some senior officers,
including Haig, were ill equipped for the challenge. However there were new
younger generals and brigadiers emerging. The challenges of leadership and
initiative were not solely a British issue. The other armies had similar
problems.
The Allies
agreed to another offensive in 1917. In March 1917, the French army launched an
offensive in Champagne. They lost 130,000 casualties.
The Battle
of Arras, also known as the Second Battle of Arras, was a British offensive
on the Western Front. From 9 April to 16 May 1917, British troops attacked
German defences near the French city of Arras. The British achieved its longest
advance since the start of trench warfare. The British advance slowed in the
next few days and the German defence recovered. The battle became a costly
stalemate for both sides and by the end of the battle, the British Third Army
and the First Army had suffered about 160,000 casualties and the German 6th
Army about 125,000.
In July 1917
the British began the Third
Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele), with Haig convinced that this was a
critical moment in the war. Unseasonable August rain slowed progress and soon
the advancing force found itself bogged down and sinking. Soldiers crawled for
shell holes and sank in the mud. The British lost about 275,000 and the Germans
200,000.
In October
1917 the Italian army collapsed at the Battle
of Caporetto.
The German
army was starting to show signs of disintegration.
Life in
the Trenches
Soldiers
were not permanently in the trenches. They generally spent about 15 months on
the Western Front, with perhaps a third of the time, in short periods, on the
line. They relieved stress with superstitions, religion, folklore, letters and
sport. A black humour developed and satirical newspapers like the Wipers Times.
However trench
warfare was a drudgery. The British army remained remarkably cohesive. It kept
the soldiers busy. On the dark side, the British executed more of its own men,
about 400, 75% for desertion, than the Germans.
The junior
officers, supported by chaplains, generally instilled loyalty and motivation.
There was reasonable food, regular leave and rest, and means to let off steam.
There was also a general acceptance of the rightness of the cause.
War at
Sea
The War at
sea saw early action when the Australian ship HMAS
Sydney was sunk by a German cruiser and a German squadron was destroyed
near the Falklands.
German
cruisers attacked British shipping from the start of the war. Most were caught
and sunk.
There were
two opposing fleets in the North Sea – the German High Seas Fleet and the
British Grand Fleet at Scapa Flow and Rosyth, with 28 dreadnaughts and 9
battlecruisers.
The Germans
had some success with bombardments on Scarborough
and Hartlepool. However German naval
commanders were no match for the British fleet, at best ambushing smaller
units.
On 31 May
1916 a German fleet stumbled across the whole British fleet commanded by
Admiral Sir John Jellicoe. The Battle of
Jutland involved 250 ships and was the biggest concentrated naval battle in
history. It only lasted about 2 hours. The German fleet escaped and inflicted
higher casualties on the British fleet, sinking 3 battlecruisers. However in
practice the differences were small, and whilst proving the vulnerability of
British battlecruisers, from a strategic perspective, the battered German fleet
fled back to port and never risked action again,. An American newspaper
explained that the German fleet had attacked its gaoler, but remained in gaol.
Between
August 1914 and October 1916, trade with the US quadrupled. Britain subsidised
its allies, advancing them £1.6 Billion, mainly to Russia and France, most of
which was never repaid.
However
Britain’s blockade of Germany was not decisive and as it continued to trade
with states like Holland and Scandinavia, it could not significantly degrade
German commerce without impacting on its own financial institutions.
An Order of Council
on 7 July 1916 procured the buying of neutral goods to deprive Germany. Meat
consumption in Germany fell and its economy came under increasing pressure,
sinking by 30%, with a spread of disease in the population.
The Germans
retaliated with its U boat campaign. The U boats torpedoed shipping without
warning, which was seen internationally as a war crime. After the Lusitania
sank in Mau 1915, American anger caused a temporary suspension of the attacks,
but by January 1917, when US involvement became inevitable, the attacks
resumed. By early 1917, the Admiralty and government were alarmed as the scale
of large scale sinkings.
One of the
motives for Passchendaele was to seize submarine bases on the Belgian coast.
US entry
into the war
After
uncovering a German plot that Mexico would attack to recover Texas and Arizona
if the US entered the war, USA declared war in April 1917, after a series of
peace initiatives.
The last
German offensive
In March
1918 war in the east ended with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, when the
Bolsheviks sought peace.
German
troops now concentrated on the western front and aimed at a decisive victory
before US troops could swing the balance. Field Marshall von Hindenburg and the
Kaiser planned the offensive. The main blow would be against the BEF at a
chosen weak point where the British and French armies met.
The German
attack, Operation Michael, started on 21 March 1918. After a barrage of 3
million shells, fifty nine German divisions led by storm troopers with flame
throwers and machine guns, cloaked by fog, attacked twenty six British
divisions. The British were outnumbered eight to one. Gaps opened in the
British lines and between 23 to 26 March 1918, the British were forced to
retreat. The Germans advanced about 40 miles on a front of 50 miles and the
German fleet was ordered to disrupt a likely British evacuation from Dunkirk.
By 28 March
1918, the British, reinforced by the French, started to stop the German
advance. In the face of air attacks from the British and struggling across the
devasted ground, the Germans grew exhausted. Having committed 90 divisions to
the attack, they lost 240,000. They had not taken their key objective, the key
railway hub at Amiens. By April 1918, they were bogged down and stuck.
Another
German offensive further north also became bogged down.
Still, at
this stage, the German idea of an acceptable peace was unrealistic.
The Germans
shifted their attacks to the French lines and began a devastating surprise
attack at Chemin des Dames, 70 miles north east of Paris on 27 May 1918.
Despite local successors, they did not achieve strategic success.
The
Allied counter offensives
A French
counter offensive on 18 July 1918, involving British, American and Italian
troops, showed the German army was out of steam.
On 8 August
1918, the Germans were completely surprised by a counter offensive near Amiens
by 552 British tanks leading Canadian, Australian, British and French infantry.
The massing of tanks allowed the Allies to push forward 8 miles, one of the
longest one day advances of the war.
The most
decisive campaign was fought in Autumn 1918. The Germans were dug in to the
Hindenburg line, six layers deep. On 29 September 1918 the 46th (North Midland)
Division stormed across the deep Saint
Quentin canal, where it was assumed to be impossible to cross, and the
Germans started to fall back from a continuous British attack.
The end
Few expected
the end when it came. The British were anticipating that the war might continue
to 1920 by this stage. However the German army, state and society were
collapsing.
On 5 October
1918 the Germans asked President Woodrow Wilson for an armistice, based on his Fourteen
points proposed in January 1918, with a withdrawal from occupied territory,
but with continued German self government, and no
punishment for Germany. The Allies didn’t relish invading and governing
Germany.
On 11
November 1918 at 11 o’clock, the fighting stopped. The BEF, now 1,859,000 men,
half of then teenagers, halted just north of Mons, where it had all begun.
The
memory
The memory
of the Great War is uniquely poignant. It came to occupy a place in the
national culture. The war had involved the whole nation. One household in three
suffered a casualty. One in nine suffered a death.
The emphasis
in commemoration was not on victory but on the deaths. Kipling called the
dignified Cenotaph the place of grieving. The memory was marked by the
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Westminster, by vast war cemeteries continuously
maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves
Commission, and by Armistice Day, a time of collective mourning of
sacrifice and incomparable loss, and the two minute silence.
The
incomprehension at the memory left no narrative of idealism, as against Fascism
in the Second World War.
Disillusion
continued to grow after the Treaty of Versailles failed to match the idealised
hopes for aftermath.
By the 1920s
the League of Nations seemed to have hopes of success. By the 1930s, the
population had been left with urgent reasons to reject war, which might have
led to wrong choices made then.
The horrors
of the war were remembered in R C Sheriff’s Journey’s End (1928),
the memoires of Robert Graves, Goodbye to All
That (1929) and Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs
of an Infantry Officer (1930) and the German Erich Maria Remarque’s
novel All
Quiet on the Western Front (1929).
The First
World War had not ended war. By the 1960s it was remembered with mockery and
pathos as in Joan Littlewood’s Oh
what a lovely war.
The wrong
lessons were learnt when facing Hitler’s threat in 1939. The First World War
arose out of mutual misunderstanding and mistrust, and might have been avoided
by dialogue beginning in sufficient time to have unwound the coiled spring.
Mediation and dialogue might have had a place in avoiding the catastrophe in
1914. However appeasement had no place, in retrospect, in opposing a maniac in
1939.
or
Go Straight to the First
World War Soldiers