The World That Was

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02 Nov 2017

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Come begin on a journey…

Of power, greed and ambition,

Of kings, leaders and empires,

Of courage, treachery and cowardice,

Of trenches, submarines and mines,

Of blood, tears and corpses,

Of loss, sorrow and devastation,

Of a world wounded and bathed in flames,

Come begin on the journey of World War One.

The world that was…

Nineteenth century Europe could boast of many great things – great books, great paintings, great inventions and for laying the seeds of the Great War.

The entire nineteenth century was dotted with skirmishes and battles.

Towards the end of the century Europe housed five super powers – Britain, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia. The cast list was unchanged since the eighteenth century except that Prussia was now Germany.

However there was a change ;the nineteenth century wars were shorter as opposed to the long drawn out eighteenth century wars.

Of the five major powers, Germany was the newest entrant; transformed by Chancellor Bismarck from a small time player to one of the most promising super powers of continental Europe.

But Germany’s late entry on the scene had certain drawbacks. It had no empires to match those of Britain, France and Russia nor a spectacular navy which was the most noticeable symbol of international power.

However its chancellor Bismarck was a born statesman and knew well the importance of friendly alliances forged for defensive purposes. If and when times changed these alliances could swiftly turn to aggressive partnerships.

But which superpowers must Germany join hands with?

France was out as she was still resentful over the loss of Alsace and Lorraine in the Franco-Prussian war.

And Britain need not be cultivated as she would not support France in any case due to the traditional rivalry between the two.

Austria-Hungary and Russia were the likely partners; it was especially essential to cultivate Russia to avoid the possibility of ever being called on to fight a two front war with France on the west and Russia on the east.

Unfortunately, Austria-Hungary and Russia had their own differences over the unstable Balkans region and so a three country treaty with these two nations was not possible.

Bismarck improvised with a Dual Alliance with Austria-Hungary in 1879 which later became the Triple Alliance a decade later when Italy joined the party. Simultaneously, the shrewd negotiator constantly patched up Germany’s relations with Russia.

However, things changed when Wilhelm II became the new king or Kaiser of Germany and Bismarck was forced to retire.

The die is cast

With the entry of Kaiser Wilhelm II, the erstwhile chancellor’s carefully drafted system of treaties faded away. ‘Germany did not need Russia’, thought the new Kaiser with the result that the Reinsurance Treaty with Russia was not renewed in 1890.

Russia and France, both alarmed by the changed Germany held secret negotiations which led to the creation of the Franco-Russian alliance in 1894.

This alliance was not pleasant news for Germany. ‘A present alliance could mean a future war’, it mused.

As an anticipatory measure, Germany devised the Schlieffen plan which detailed the course of action to be followed if and when she had to fight a two front war.

The Schlieffen plan proposed a swift and major attack on France through Belgium, while a significantly lighter force took care of Russia, which was assumed to be slower in its war preparations.

France would be defeated quickly and then the entire German force would be moved to Russia defeating it; two swift and easy victories for Germany!

However, in 1904 the German Empire received yet another unpleasant surprise.This was the formation of the Entente Cordiale (friendly understanding) between Britain and France.

Young Germany was left with the two least valuable powers, the declining Austria Hungary and the weak Italy.

Undeterred, the new superpower set its mind to building the Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial German Navy) to compete with the British Royal Navy for world nava ldominance.

Britain countered with the launch of a new and powerful kind of battleship called the dreadnoughts in 1906; Germany hastened to revise its own fleet to the new standard and the other super powers followed suit leading to a deadly arms race.

Friends and enemies were decided, the weapons were in readiness, the only missing element now was the war.

Bang…

The climax to the wait came on 28 June 1914 when a Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne.

No doubt, it was a highly dramatic event but was it worth fighting a world war for? ‘Yes’, declared Vienna.

A war with Serbia would crush once and for all, the backbone of Slav resistance to Austria-Hungary in the Balkan region.

But what worried Vienna was Russia’s reaction who was the traditional ally of Serbia.

An urgent message was sent to Germany on July 4. Will Germany support Austria-Hungary in the event Russia jumped in on behalf of Serbia?

The so-called ‘blank cheque’ or carte blanche offering Germany’s unconditional support to the Dual Monarchy came within two days itself.

Though Germany had given its go ahead for the war it wanted Russia to hold back from the fight and leave it to be decided between Vienna and Belgrade.

To this end, Wilhelm IIeven sent telegrams to the Tsar pressing this option.However if Russia did intervene, Germany would still benefit as the resultant war could then be presented asfruit of Russian violence.

Three deceptively quiet weeks passed byin which Serbia made desperate efforts to detonate the smoking bomb which threatened to grip the continent but all its efforts were in vain.

And so it began…

On July 28 1914, the Austria-Hungary declared war on its small neighbour, Serbia.

The war began the next day itself when an Austrian fleet attacked Belgrade. The message was clear –there was no turning back, now.

The first move had been made ;now followed the wait for the opponent’s reaction.

The Central Powers, Austria-Hungary and Germany had not long to wait; true to its ally ,Russia began mobilising its army which led to the activation of the Schlieffen plan.

And so the war began manifesting its power, refusing to be controlled by any one person or nation.

Germany could not afford time to be given to Russia for its mobilisation as then the former would not have time to defeat France first.

Left without a choice, Germany declared war on Russia on August 1. Two days later, she declared war on France.

On the night of August 3, German armies began crossing into Belgium to begin their flanking of France.

And this triggered the entry of the only as yet silent superpower onto the scene. In their fixation with the Entente Cordiale(this treaty did not require Britain to come to France’s aidin case the latter was attacked) the German statesmen had completelyforgotten to considerone crucialalliance in which Britain was involved.

And this was Britain’sguaranteeto Belgium toprotect it as ‘an independent and perpetually neutral state.’

On August 4, Britain declared war on Germany.

And so it began…in a flash the whole of Europe was at war. Subsequently the war spread to the colonies of the warring nations and friends of both sides and the human race saw its First World War.

Victory by Christmas?

Most of the rulers and statesmen believed that the war would be over by Christmas 1914. Indeed many young men rushed to enlist in the army before the "fun" ended. But the war had other plans.

It began swiftly and simultaneously in many places.Some of the very first clashes involved the British, French and German colonial forces in Africa. Intermittent and violent fighting continued there throughout the war.

On the western front, Germany continued with the Schlieffen plan which was initially successful, particularly in the Battle of the Frontiers of France (14-24 August).

By the 23rd of August, Germany also successfully capturedLiege, Brussels and Namur though heroically resisted by the Belgians.

Elated with their success, the Germans planned to take over Paris. Fearing a fall of the capital, the French government moved south to Bordeaux.

However, when Germany was just 30 miles from the capital, the French troops with the support of the British managed to halt the German advance at the First Battle of Marne (5-12 September).

The battle was gory,perhaps a forerunner of things to come.The French sufferedclose to 250000 casualties while the British Expeditionary Force lost 12733 men. German losses were believed to be on similar lines to that of the French.

This battlerang the death knoll for the Schlieffen plan with France refusing to be summarily conquered.

The plan’s assumption of the Russian’s laggardness had also been wrong with Russia making early advances into East Prussia in Germany and Galicia in Austria-Hungary.

To counter the Russian threat, the German high command was forced to transfer four divisions from Belgium to the eastern front.

Germany defeated Russia soundly in a series of clashes collectively called the First Battle of Tannenberg (17 August – 2 September).

The scale of the German victory unnerved the allies; of the 150000 Russian soldiers only 10000 managed to escape andmore than 92000 men were taken as prisoners. Unable to face the Tsar, the Russian GeneralAleksandr Vasiliyevich Samsonov shot himself.

The only silver lining was that the Russian massacre had managed to divert the German attention from their French attack which helped to save the day for British and French forcesat Marne.

On September 5, 1914, Britain, France and Russia signed a treaty in which each guaranteed not to make a separate peace treaty with the Central Powers and the trio came to be known as the Allied Powers.

The beginning of "the battle without an end"

Soon after the First Battle of Marne, the German forces moved west to outwit the allied armies and consequently so did the Allies. Thus began the competitive"Race to the Sea."

October and November saw fierce battles at Ypres, a primitive town in Belgium which Germany had taken over at the beginning of the war.

The British and French forces successfully retook Ypres forcing the Germans to retreat. About 130000 Germans were killed or wounded and the BEF lost around 60000 men while the French losses were numbered around 50000.

The point at which the two armies reached the sea became the line of demarcation. It ran more or less along the French and Belgian border and then down towards the French and German border to Switzerland.

The only part which was flat and so, hard to defend, was in the northwest among the fields of Flanders.

Here, each side began to obsessively dig out trenches in early winter. Germany defended the positions while Britain and France took the offensive.

Probably for this reason, German trenches were much better constructed than the trenches of the Allies which were only meant to be ‘temporary’ till they cracked the German defence.

German trenches were quite sophisticated and sometimes had living quarters more than 50 feet below the surface. They even had electricity, beds and toilets unlike the open air trenches of the Allies.

But the trenches of both sides went on to be permanent and for many soldiers these becamethe last homes which they would ever know as the fanciful picture of ‘victory by Christmas’ was ripped away and replaced by a grim and deadly reality of war of a kind previously unknown to mankind.

War in the east

Though the Russians had suffered a humiliating defeat in eastern Prussia they had better luck in Austria-Hungary. By the end of 1914, considerable parts of Galicia were still under Russian control.

Meanwhile, the war of the two neighbours which had rapidly ballooned into the world war was going badly for Austria as it failed to crush its little neighbour Serbia.

The Austrian invasion of Serbia had begun in mid-August but surprisingly the Serbs managed to throw back the attacks with such ferocity that the Dual Monarchy lost around 50000 men.

An attack in November proved more successful but by the end of 1914 Serbia had recovered all of its territory.

In search of allies

Meanwhile, the search for supporters was underway on both sides howeverthe Central Powers were the first to win a surprising ally.

Germany had befriended the Turks by helping them build up their navy. The two were also united by their common enmity towards Russia.

On 29 October 1914,a Turkish fleet under the command of a German admiral attacked Russian ports in the Black Sea.

Russia declared war on Turkey on November 1. Four days later France and Britain followed suit.

Surprisingly, Italy an original member of the Triple Alliance had as yet remained neutral. The treaty did not need it to join in if the other two members began the aggression.

Italy quietly observed its chances for the first nine months of the war. By the first half on 1915 the Allies successfully tempted it into joining them by promising Italy Trentino and Trieste of the Austrian empire and the German speaking South Tirol.

Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary in May 1915 setting itself up for trench warfare which would lead to mass casualties and yet bring no change in its territory.

Bulgaria entered the war on the side of the Central Powers baited by the prospect of receiving Serbian Macedonia.

Romania joined the Allies in return for the promise of several neighbouring parts of the Austrian empire.

Portugal voluntarily joined the war on the Allies side in support of Britain.

The last European nation to join the war was Greece who joined the Allies in November 1916.

The Asian nation Japan joined the war on the side of the Allies. It declared war on Germany on 23 August 1914.

However, Japan’s support reeked of self interest in the valuable port of Qingdao leased by China to the Germans.

One superpower outside Europeseemed resolute to avoid the war at all costs.However Germany’s submarine strategy seemed determined to wake up the sleeping giant.

Turbulent tides

From the start of the war, Britain and Germany had made efforts to cut off each other’s maritime supplies.

For Britain this was easy but Germany had a challenging task in front of it as Britain, the island nation had the entire North Atlantic as access to the outside world.

The only way to cut off Britain wasby using the incredibly tricky submarine warfare. And Germany managed to pull off just that.

The first ship sinking by U-boat (or Unterseeboot) was on 20 October 1914. This episode was quite civil as the Germans ordered all the ship’s crew onto lifeboats and then sunk the ship.

But it soon started becoming ugly. Before long, ships were being sunk without warning.

In February 1915, Germany declared all the waters around Britain as fair war ground.

Many of the neutral countries, including the USA, started protesting against this unjust practice. But Germany was in no mood to listen.

May 7, 1915 changed the game. The British passenger line Lusitania(which the Germans rightly alleged contained military supplies) was sunk off the coast of Ireland.

A thousand civilians lost their lives, including 128 American citizens.

American protests fell on deaf ears. But the die had been cast; from careful neutrality American opinion was now shifting towards sympathy for the Allied cause.

Encounters in the air

Air warfare had been a part of the war from the beginning. The Allies were the first with a British bombardment of German airships at Düsseldorf.

The Germans soon hit back with bombings at London and other British areas.

The Great War also saw the development of fighter airplanes. Though air war was not a decisive force in World War one it showed its capability beyond a doubt.

Russia, Gallipoli and the Armenian massacre

By the beginning of 1915, Russia was facing war with its three powerful neighbours – Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey.

What was more, it was cut off from all its allies.

Turkey was considered to be the least powerful of the Central Powers. So, Russia sent a message to its allies, Britain and France to mount an attack on Turkey which would give some respite to Russia.

What followed was the mistake – Gallipoli. On Winston Churchill’s urging, British, Australian, New Zealand and French troops attacked the Turkish positions in Dardanelles.

The Allies, especially Churchill believed the Turks to be a soft target.

The Turks forces were weak but they fought the battle cleverly by mining (laying explosives) the waters and attacking by stealth.

The allies suffered one of its worst defeats with over 200000 casualties coupled with the sheer loss of eight crucial months.

Russia’s own clash with Turkey had better results. By July 1915, Russian soldiers had reached a line fromTrabzon to Erzincan.

But this victory set the trigger for the first genocide of the twentieth century. The Armenians in Turkey had a soft corner for the Russians because of their shared religion, Christianity.

The Turks feared that the Armenians would pose a danger to it and so decided to move the 1.6 million Armenian population from their homes to the desert regions of Syria.

The resultant rush and the resistance from the Armenians led to the cold blooded massacre of thousands of Armenians.

Many more died on the way through starvation and weakness. The exact numbers are not known but between half and three quarters of a million Armenians died due to the atrocities.

The last man standing wins

By 1915, the war was characterised by trench warfare which remained a constant throughout the war.

This deadly strategylockedall the combatants together in an endless game of deadlockwhich continued for the next three years at the cost of the blood and lives of millions of youth.

The leaders and rulers of both camps agreed on one thing. The only way to win wasthrough a relentless war of attrition. Tiring the opposing faction to the point that one sudden advance would change the war in favour of them.

Both sides launched offensives time and again but they proved more costly to their own side than to the defenders.

Battles, bloodshed and missed opportunities

The Great War brought in new styles of warfare. One of these was introduced in the Battle of Ypres in April 1915.

The Germans released the deadly chlorine gas on the Allies rank to great effect.

Unfortunately the Germans were themselves taken by surprise by the success of the gas andfailed to make use of this godsend opportunity.

The Allies reassembled and fought on using impromptu gas masks of water soaked clothesas chlorine is water soluble.

Though a second and a third gritty attack was made by the Germans they failed to make a breakthrough and lost a rare opportunity to change the course of the war.

True, the battle was hard on the Allies who suffered around 60000 casualties but the Germans also lost around 35000 men.

The Germans lost another precious chance to turn the game in their favour at the battle of Verdun (February 1916-December 1916).

Dubbed as the greatest and most demanding battle in history by many historians this battle was the longest single battle of the war (February 1916-December 1916).

Verdun held great sentimental value for the French people and the German high command believed that the French would defend Verdun to the last man.

When this happened, thought Germany, France could be chalked out of the gameand the odds of the Central Powers emerging victorious would increase substantially.

Such was the plan and things went well for Germany at first. Indeed by June she was in a position to win but yet again the young superpower let the opportunity slip out of its fingers.

This was due to the fact that by this time, Germany had more corpses than men and so was in no position to make good of this golden chance.

The battle turned Verdun into a huge graveyard. The French lost around 360000 men while the Germans casualties numbered at around 340000.

So many lives lost, so little gained. This battle unwittingly became the cause of one of the most disastrous losses for the British.

To ease off the pressure from the French at Verdun, Britain was forced to undertake an offensive near the River Somme in July.

On the first day itself as a host of mines detonated an unprecedented 58000 British soldiers were blasted away.

By the end of the battle of Somme, some four months later, little was gained but much and more was lost. The British casualties were 420000, French 195000 and Germans 600000.

Entry of the sleeping giant

When the war in Europe began, the American public and its leaders were all of one mind – America had best stay away from the conflict erupting in the old world.

But the strategy of two key war countries interfered with thisgood resolution from the start and this was the constant sinking of ships, cargo and passenger ships by Germany and to some extent by Britain.

The sinking of the liner Lusitania in 1915 led to public outrage in the US. However President Woodrow Wilson stillrefrained from entering the war.

Germany did promise to modify its submarine campaign under pressure from America but by 1916, the Germans were at it again.

Another unarmed steamer, the Sussex was sunk, again the US demanded and Germany consented to end submarine warfare.

At the same time, Wilson tried to act like a mediator between the two warring sides and asked both parties to give him the terms on which they were ready to end the war.

Subsequently, he drafted his famous Fourteen Points. But in the meantime, by the New Year, the Germans were back at their submarine game.

In January 1917, Germany informed this to America. In March, three US ships were sunk by the Germans with the loss of many lives.

Meanwhile, the US also came to know of an inflammatory message sent by Germany to Mexico urging it to side with the Central Powers.

That did it…America declared war on 6 April 1917.

The support of the US had undeniable advantages to the Allies. It could provide them the much needed loans and also lend its powerful navy to their cause.

However manpower was short; new recruitments were made but it would take time to get them ready.

So for now, Germany had some breathing space and it soon received an unexpected gain on the Russian side.

Russia – War and Peace

In June 1916, the supposedly quiescent Russia unexpectedly fought back with heavy losses to the Central Powers.

Termed the Brusilov breakthrough after its leader Aleksey Brusilov, in its first three days itself, the Russians captured close to 200000 Central prisoners and were back in Austria-Hungarian territory.

The Central Powers casualties were gigantic with around 750000 men dead, wounded or taken prisoner.

But like so many times, Russia got as bad as it gave and it lost close to a million men.

In March 1917, the Romanov dynasty fell and Russia found itself in the midst of a revolution.

Vladimir Lenin and his group of supporters staged a nearly bloodless coup in October 1917 and on November 8the new government abolished private ownership of land and assigned it to the farmers.

This had an immediate and decidedly negative effect on the war as peasant soldiers rushed home to claim their stake.

At the same time, Lenin announced a Decree of Peace, offering to end the war with all of Russia’s enemies.

On 26 November 1917, the new government ordered all Russian units to stop fighting.

On 3 March 1918, with a minuscule majority, Lenin signed the treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Through it Russia lost control of Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine.

With the peace settlement with Russia, Germany was free to concentrate all her efforts on the western front.

The Central Powers win…almost

Fate gave the Central Powers another chance to in the spring of 1917. With the relaunch of submarine warfare in Germany both the Allies and Germany calculated that if ship losses continued at the present rate, the Allies would be hungered into submission by the end of the year.

The Allies desperately needed some way out…and fortunately they found a solution.

Their strategy was simple; they merely started sending out ships in convoys instead of as single ships. The effect was immediate; in the next six months only ten ships fell prey to the submarine threat.

Germany’s second chance came in 1918. She knew that it needed a breakthrough now before the arrival of the US ruined all chances of its victory.

Between March and June, three huge attacks were launched in three different parts and all three proved successful.

Alas, Germany failed to follow on her advantage. The German forces were forced to retreat in the second battle of Marne (from July 18) and the battle of Amiens (from August 8).

With these the tide started to turn. US soldiers also start flowing in large numbers from May 1918.

The beginning of the end

In September 1918, Bulgaria signed an armistice with the Allies, the Turks follow in October.

By October, a severely battered Austria-Hungary started disintegrating. Budapest, Prague and Zagreb all proclaimed the independence of their respective parts and signed an armistice with the Allies.

Now, Germany was the lone defender standing.

To no one’s surprise, she started looking out for peace and approached US President Woodrow Wilson.

The negotiations between the Allies and Germany were held in a railway carriage parked on a track in the forest of Compiegne, north of Paris.

The terms of the offer were hard and uncompromising but wounded Germany had no way out.

Through the armistice, it lost all its submarines and military equipment and had to also agree to a post war settlement insisted on by France and Britain.

The armistice was signed at 5 am on 11 November but ceasefire began six hours later. Dramatic till the end, the Great War ended finally at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

In 1919,an intergovernmental organisation, the League of Nations was formed. It aimed to promote world peace and avert the possibility of another world war.

The world had had its fair share of blood and carnage, it was hoped that peace would now follow.

And what it left behind…

Rotting bodies, barren lands, orphaned children, widowed wives…this was the legacy left behind by the World War One.

Germany lost around 1.8 million, Russia 1.7 million, France 1.55 million, Austria-Hungary 1 million, Britain and her empire 9 lacs, Italy 6.5 lacs and the USA 1.1 lac.

These figures do not include civilian deaths which were harder to calculate but the usually quoted figure is about seven million which brings the total death toll to around 15 million.

An entire generation had been wiped away, for the war’s biggest victims were the young adults.

The war had ended on paper but it never really ended for the "lost generation."The torment continued through maimed bodies, shocked minds and sleepless nights.

Peace was still a far cry for the world.

The slights imposed on Germany – the monetary burden, the complete disarmament, the public humiliation, all sowed the seeds of unrest and resentment in the German populace and set the stage for a German corporal Adolf Hitler to take the world by storm.

Violence kept its date with the world and less than 20 years later, the world was on the brink of another great war which changed…..but that’s another great story.



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