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Today’s book review is written by my brother, Justin Wax, a CDT who will be commissioned as 2LT on May 8.

 

In 1914, an uneasiness enveloped Europe.

Just four years prior, the publishing of Englishman Norman Angell’s The Great Illusion achieved resounding success. Angell’s offering, translated into 11 languages, provided impressive reasons why war had become unnecessary and equally harmful to both victor and vanquished.

The hindsight of history, however, reveals an equally influential book published one year later in 1911 by German General von Bernhardi entitled Germany in the Next War. Bernhardi’s work demonstrated an insatiable appetite within Germany for recognition. This unfortunate characteristic, coupled with Germany’s paranoid, autocratic government hurtled Europe and soon Asia and America into a devastating world war that stole millions of lives.

It is these events, along with many others, that historian Barbara Tuchman so brilliantly relates to her audience in The Guns of August, a book which would have a profound impact on a President of the United States, John F. Kennedy and quite possibly have influenced his foreign policy, from his disastrous management of the Bay of Pigs to his exceptional handling of the Cuban Missile Crises.

In The Guns of August, Tuchman tells the fascinating background of the events leading up to the Great War and the pivotal first thirty days that ultimately shaped the outcome.

For instance, Tuchman explains the exciting tale of the Goeben, a German cruiser that outraced the British navy in the Mediterranean and brought the Ottoman Empire into the war on the side of the Central Powers. Shortly after Germany violated Belgian neutrality, Britain declared war on Germany and immediately set out to position its fleet to hunt and destroy German warships.

British naval leaders, tracking the Goeben, made a critical error by assuming the Goeben would sail west toward France or her colonies along the African coast. The thought that the Goeben would be on a political mission never occurred to the British. Consequently, the Germans strong-armed the Ottoman Empire into an alliance through the most daring and cunning military and political maneuvers and force the Allies to pay a heavy price.

While Germany’s initial operational plan was bold and sound, the German government’s blunder to invade France via neutral Belgium gained the Kaiser two additional enemies (eventually three in the United States) and tied up resources and manpower. Had the Germans attacked through France instead of bypassing her fortresses, the outcome of the war may have been very different. Germany unleashed new weaponry against Belgium’s fortifications that effectively rendered the fortress defense system obsolete.

Tuchman recounts multiple international law violations committed by the Germans. Prior to the war, the German government, trying to convince the Belgian government to acquiesce to the German army upon its movement through Belgium to attack France, claimed the latter had repeatedly bombed Nuremburg. The government ran this ridiculous lie in headlines and extras within Germany, apparently with enough believability that Nuremburg residents kept glancing nervously toward the sky waiting for the French to suddenly appear.

On another occasion, German soldiers changed into British uniforms and attempted to assassinate a Belgian general.

A German warship, violating the Hague convention forbidding the use of disguise in enemy colors, ran up the Russian flag before proceeding to shell the Algerian coast. German atrocities against the Belgium populace are arguably the most tragic of its war violations.

In the first few weeks of the war, the Germans secured resounding victories. The French were consistently on the retreat. The British forces arrived to find themselves a part of a failing war strategy. Britain’s focus shifted from a quick victory over the Germans to a survival strategy. The French, falling back, close to Paris pleaded with the British for cooperation.

At the battle of the Marne, thirty days into the war, the reeling Allies finally made a united, powerful stand and repelled the German onslaught. Although the Russians launched an attack on eastern Prussia with negative results, its invasion tied up German troops and resources that greatly contributed to the Allied victory at the Marne in the West.

The lessons of The Guns of August are vast. Before the war, Belgium’s army was scorned by its socialist population, could not attract the best and brightest and lacked the weaponry and leadership it needed to modernize. The French and British militaries were negatively impacted by naïve and socialist, anti-war dominated governments.

As a result, they were ill-prepared for the Germans in 1914. Russia’s officer corp was riddled with incompetent and lazy favorites. Russia’s infrastructure and resources could not keep pace with its armies, all of which led to its premature defeat and early withdrawal from the war.

The initial French war plan was fundamentally flawed. While the Germans invested in advanced weaponry, the French spent precious resources investing in obsolete fortifications. The French failed to adapt and modernize until later in the war. Its soldiers, ridiculously outfitted in traditional red pants, made themselves easy targets for its grey-clad opponent.

Every American should read this book. The lessons, particularly to military personnel, are powerful, fresh and relevant. So much of the tragedy of the First World War could have been at least mitigated with stronger foreign policy, stronger militaries and stronger cooperation on the part of the Allies. Tuchman’s Pulitzer Prize winning The Guns of August captivates her audience and offers a complete and exhaustive account from both the Allied and German commands.

written by Justin Wax  © 2009 Kingdom People blog

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