The Guns of August (79 page)

On Russia

A
GOURTINE
, L
éON
,
Le Général Soukhomlinov,
Clichy, l’Auteur, 1951.

A
LEXANDRA
, E
MPRESS OF
R
USSIA
,
Letters of the Tsaritsa to the Tsar, 1914–16,
ed. and intro. by Sir Bernard Pares, London, Duckworth, 1923.

B
OTKIN
, G
LEB
(son of the Czar’s physician),
The Real Romanovs,
New York, Revell, 1931.

B
UCHANAN
, S
IR
G
EORGE
,
My Mission to Russia,
Boston, Little, Brown, 1923.

B
RUSILOV
, G
ENERAL
A. A.,
A Soldier’s Notebook,
tr., London, Macmillan, 1930.

D
ANILOV
, G
ENERAL
Y
OURI
,
La Russie dans la guerre mondiale,
tr., Col. A. Kaznakov, Paris, Payot, 1927.

———,
Le Premier Généralissime des armées russes: le grand-duc Nicolas,
tr., Paris, Berger-Levrault, 1932.

D
OBROROLSKY
, G
ENERAL
S
ERGE
(Chief of Mobilization Service in the Ministry of War in 1914), “La Mobilisation de l’armée russe en 1914,”
Revue d’Histoire de la Guerre,
1923, pp. 53–69 and 144–165.

G
ILLIARD
, P
IERRE
(tutor to the Czar’s children),
Thirteen Years at the Russian Court,
tr., New York, Doran, 1922.

G
OLOVIN
, L
IEUT
.-G
ENERAL
N
ICHOLAS
N.,
The Russian Army in the World War,
tr., New Haven, Yale, 1931.

———,
The Russian Campaign of 1914,
tr., Captain Muntz, A.G.S. Command and General Staff School Press, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 1933. The first of these on the organization, and the second on the military operations, of the Russian Army are the outstanding sources on the Russian war effort in the early months.

G
OURKO
, G
ENERAL
V
ASILII
(B
ASIL
) (Commander of a Cavalry Division in Rennenkampf’s Army),
War and Revolution in Russia, 1914–17,
tr., New York, Macmillan, 1919.

G
OURKO
, V
LADIMIR
,
Features and Figures of the Past: Government and Opinion in the Reign of Nicholas II,
tr., Stanford University Press, 1939.

I
RONSIDE
, M
AJOR
-G
ENERAL
S
IR
E
DMUND
,
Tannenberg: The First Thirty Days in East Prussia,
Edinburgh, Blackwood, 1925.

K
NOX
, M
AJOR
-G
ENERAL
S
IR
A
LFRED
,
With the Russian Army,
London, Hutchinson, 1921.

K
OKOVTSOV
, C
OUNT
V. N. (Premier, 1911–14),
Out of My Past,
tr., Stanford Univ. Press, 1935.

N
IKOLAIEFF
, C
OL
. A. M., “Russian Plan of Campaign in the World War, 1914,” tr.,
Infantry Journal,
September-October, 1932.

P
ALÉOLOGUE
, M
AURICE
,
An Ambassador’s Memoirs,
tr., F. A. Holt, Vol. I, London, Hutchinson, 1923.

R
ADZIWILL
, P
RINCESS
C
ATHERINE
,
Nicholas II, Last of the Czars,
London, Cassell, 1931.

———,
Sovereigns and Statesmen of Europe,
New York, Funk & Wagnalls, 1916.

R
ODZIANKO
, M. V. (President of the Duma),
Memoirs: Reign of Rasputin,
tr., London, Philpot, 1927.

S
AZONOV
, S
ERGEI
,
Fateful Years, 1909–16,
tr., New York, Stokes, 1928.

S
UKHOMLINOV
, V
LADIMIR
,
Erinnerungen,
Berlin, Hobbing, 1924.

W
ITTE
, C
OUNT
S
ERGIUS
,
Memoirs,
tr., New York, Doubleday, Page, 1921. Among the rash of memoirs inspired by the fall of the Czarist regime, this is the most solid and informative, although Witte’s official career ended in 1906.

W
RANGEL
, B
ARON
N
ICHOLAS
,
Memoirs, 1847–1920,
tr., Philadelphia, Lippincott, 1927.

On Turkey

D
JEMAL
P
ASHA
,
Memoirs of a Turkish Statesman, 1913–1919,
tr., New York, Doran, 1922.

E
MIN
, A
HMED
,
Turkey in the World War,
New Haven, Yale, 1930.

K
ANNENGIESSER
, G
ENERAL
H
ANS
(a member of the German military mission to Turkey in 1914),
The Campaign in Gallipoli,
tr., London, Hutchinson, 1928.

M
ORGENTHAU
, H
ENRY
,
Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story,
New York, Doubleday, Page, 1918.

N
OGALES
, G
ENERAL
R
AFAEL DE
,
Four Years Beneath the Crescent,
New York, Scribner’s, 1926.

Secondary Works

B
ENSON
, E. F.,
The Kaiser and English Relations,
London, Longmans, 1936.

B
UCHAN
, J
OHN
,
A History of the Great War,
Vol. I, London, Nelson, 1922.

C
RAIG
, G
ORDON
, A.,
The Politics of the Prussian Army, 1640–1945,
New York, Oxford, 1956.

C
RUTTWELL
, C. R. M.,
A History of the Great War, 1914–18,
Oxford Univ. Press, 1936.

D
E
W
EERD
, H. A.,
Great Soldiers of Two World Wars,
New York, Norton, 1941.

E
ARLE
, E
DWARD
M
EADE
, ed.,
et al., Makers of Modern Stategy,
Princeton Univ. Press, 1943.

———,
Modern France,
Princeton Univ. Press, 1951.

F
LORINSKY
, M
ICHAEL
T.,
The End of the Russian Empire,
New Haven, Yale, 1931.

F
ROTHINGHAM
, C
APT
. T
HOMAS
G.,
The Naval History of the World War,
Vol. I,
Offensive Operations, 1914–15,
Cambridge, Harvard, 1925.

G
OERLITZ
, W
ALTER
,
History of the German General Staff,
tr. Brian Battershaw, New York, Praeger, 1955.

H
ALÉVY
, E
LIE
,
A History of the English People, Epilogue,
Vol. II,
1905–1915.
London, Benn, 1934.

M
AUROIS
, A
NDRÉ
,
Edwardian Era,
tr., New York, Appleton-Century, 1933.

M
C
E
NTEE
, C
OL
. G
IRARD
L.,
Military History of the World War,
New York, Scribner’s, 1937.

M
ONTEIL
, V
INCENT
,
Les Officiers,
Paris, Editions du Seuil, 1958.

N
EAME
, L
T
.-C
OL
. P
HILIP
,
German Strategy in the Great War
(Lectures at Staff College, Camberley), London, Arnold, 1923.

P
ONSONBY
, A
RTHUR
,
Falsehood in Wartime,
New York, Dutton, 1928.

R
ENOUVIN
, P
IERRE
,
The Forms of War Government in France,
New Haven, Yale, 1927.

R
OSINSKI
, H
ERBERT
,
The German Army,
London, Hogarth, 1939.

1. A Funeral

Accounts of the funeral, besides those in the daily press and in memoirs of the periods, appear in
The Queen, The Sphere,
and
The Graphic
for May 21, 1910; “The Meeting of Nine Kings” by William Bayard Hale in
World’s Work
for July, 1910; “An Impression of the King’s Funeral” by Mary King Waddington in
Scribner’s
for October, 1910; Theodore Roosevelt to David Grey, October 5, 1911,
Letters,
ed. E. E. Morison (Harvard UP., 1951–54), VII, 409–13.

“Grave even to severity”:
The Times,
May 21, 1910.

“Call this place my home”: to Bülow, qtd. Ludwig, 427.

“He is Satan”: Zedlitz-Trutschler, 177–8. The German press also represented Edward’s tour as “having the sole object of forming an alliance against Germany.” Lascelles to Grey, April 19, 1907, BD, VI, No. 15.

“A very nice boy”: Roosevelt to Trevelyan, October 1, 1911,
Letters,
VII, 397.

“I bide my time”: Lee, I, 477–8.

Ferdinand of Bulgaria annoyed other sovereigns: Roosevelt to
Grey, op. cit.,
409–10. His Byzantine regalia: Sazonov, 230.

Prince Danilo and friend: Cust, 111, 249.

“You have a nice country”: qtd. Maurois, 44.

Edward’s visit to Paris and reports of Belgian and German envoys: Lee, II, 241–2.

“Not a mouse could stir”: Lee, II, 11.

Compared to Bülow an eel was a leech: qtd. Maurois, 177.

Holstein called warnings “naïve”: Eckhardstein, 249.

Eckhardstein overhears:
ibid.,
230.

Kaiser wanted to go to Paris: Paléologue,
Un Prélude,
494–5

Kaiser complained to Roosevelt: Roosevelt to Trevelyan,
Letters,
VII, 396.

Kaiser told King of Italy: Bülow, II, 355; Benson, 248.

Bernhardi, “We must secure”: Bernhardi, 81.

Huns of Attila: Bülow, I, 418.

“Legitimate aims”: Hans Delbruck, professor of history at University of Berlin and Germany’s leading military historian, qtd. Wile,
Men Around the Kaiser,
119–22.

Deutschland ganzlich einzukreisen: Neue Freie Presse,
April 15, 1907, qtd. Lee, II, 542.

Clemenceau on Germany’s “lust for power”: qtd. Bruun, 116.

Clemenceau told Edward: Goschen to Grey, August 29, 1908, BD, VI, No. 100; Steed, I, 287.

Czar a “common murderer”: Lee, II, 587.

“An Englishman is a
zhid
”: Witte, 189.

Edward waltzed with Czarina: Fisher,
Memories,
234.

Czar only fit “to grow turnips”: The Kaiser expressed this opinion to the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Lansdowne, at Queen Victoria’s funeral, qtd. Newton, 199.

“Garcon
mal
élevé
”: Benson, 45.

“Nicky, take my word for it”: October 25, 1895,
Willy-Nicky Letters,
23.

“More speeches, more parades”: Botkin, 103.

A detail that “escaped his Majesty”: qtd. Ludwig, 263.

“Lies. He wants war”: qtd. Maurois, 256.

Kaiser took to his bed: Crown Prince, 98–100.

Esher’s lectures on
The Great Illusion:
“Modern War and Peace” and “La guerre et la paix” in Esher,
Essays,
211–28 and 229–61.

Germany “receptive” to
The Great Illusion: ibid.,
224. Esher gave copies to the Kaiser,
ibid.,
55.

Bernhardi the first to enter Paris in 1870: Hindenburg, 59. Quotations for Bernhardi’s book are from Chapters I, II, IV, V, IX, and X.

King Edward’s death; quotations from Isvolsky and
Le Figaro
and details of mourning in Paris, Tokyo, and Berlin are from
The Times,
May 8, 1910.

Kaiser’s arrival at Victoria Station:
The Times,
May 20, 1910.

Kaiser impressed by the Lying-in-State: Kaiser’s
Memoirs,
129.

Kaiser’s proposal to Pichon: Arthur,
George
V, 125.

“Other sovereigns so much quieter”: Trevelyan, 172.

Kaiser denies proposal to Pichon: Kaiser’s
Memoirs,
131.

“Amiable and pacific”:
The Times,
May 21, 1910.

Conan Doyle’s account:
ibid.

Queen Alexandra loathed Kaiser: Arthur,
George
V, 126. Her letter to George: Nicolson,
George
V, 40.

“There never was such a break-up”: Esher,
Journals,
III, 4.

2. “Let the Last Man on the Right Brush the Channel with His Sleeve”

“The heart of France”: qtd. Buchan, I, 118.

“An unimportant obstacle” : Goerlitz, 129.

“The whole of Germany must throw itself”: Schlieffen’s Memorandum of 1912, Ritter, 172.

The Schlieffen plan: Schlieffen’s Memoranda for 1892 and 1912 in Ritter; Schlieffen’s
Cannae,
Kuhl’s
Generalstab,
Förster.

“It is better to lose a province”: qtd. by Schlieffen, Ritter, 172.

“The principles of strategy remain unchanged”: Schlieffen, Cannae, 4.

Von der Goltz, “We have won our position”: qtd. Wile,
Men Around the Kaiser,
222.

“Desperate delusion of the will”: Santayana, 69.

Elder Moltke foretold a long war: Foerster, 21.

Younger Moltke, “It will be a national war”:
Erinnerungen.

“Belgian neutrality must be broken”: General von Hahnke’s notes on Schlieffen’s Memorandum of 1912, Ritter, 186.

“Gaining great victories”: Clausewitz, III, 209–10.

“The one that willed war more than the other”: General Percin in article in
Ere Nouvelle,
January, 1925, qtd. Ponsonby, 55–6.

Bülow’s conversation with Schlieffen: Bülow, II, 88.

Leopold II a “thoroughly bad man”: Roosevelt to Trevelyan, October 1, 1911,
Letters,
VII, 369.

Kaiser’s proposal to Leopold II and Leopold’s reaction: Bülow, II, 82–85; Cammaerts, 108–9.

Two million pounds sterling: J. V. Bredt,
Die Belgische Neutralität und der Schlieffensche Feldzugsplan,
qtd. AQ, July, 1929, 289.

“The French would have had to pay for it”: Dupont, 23.

“Lining up her army along the road”: the diplomat was Richard von Kuhlmann, then counselor of the German Embassy in London, later, in 1917, Foreign Secretary, qtd. Cammaerts, 134.

“All fortresses, railways and troops”: Memorandum of 1912, Ritter, 175.

“Lille … an excellent target”:
ibid.

“Let the last man on the right”: qtd. Rosinsky, 137.

Schlieffen counted on British belligerency: Ritter, 161–4.

Use of reserves in the front line: Isaac,
Reserves,
335; Foerster, 71.

“Only make the right wing strong”: Foerster, 70.

“Engaging the enemy in his own territory”:
Erinnerungen.

“Entirely just and necessary”: Tappen, 92.

“We must put aside all commonplaces”: Cambon (French ambassador in Berlin) to Foreign Minister Pichon, May 6, 1913,
French Yellow Book
No. 3.

German spies’ reports on Russia: Tirpitz, I, 343.

Moltke to Conrad: “Any adjournment”: Conrad, III, 670

“We are ready and the sooner the better”: Eckhardstein,
Lebenserinnerungen,
Vol. III,
Die Isolierung Deutschlands,
Leipzig, 1921, 184.

3. The Shadow of Sedan

Official sources for Plan 17 and its predecessors are
AF,
Tome I, Vol. I, Chaps. 1 and 2 and Joffre, 45–112. Text of the general directive and of the deployment orders to the several armies is No. 8 in Annexes to
AF,
I, I. The leading critics of the Plan are Engerand, General Grouard, and General Percin; the last, being blamed for the evacuation of Lille in August, 1914, had a personal ax to grind.

General Lebas’s interview with Castelnau: Briey, session of May 23, evidence of M. Vendame, deputy of Lille, who accompanied Lebas; session of July 4, evidence of General Lebas.

Density of troops per meter for offensive action: Col. Grandmaison had worked it out at 6 to 8 km. per army corps. Engerand, 431.

“We proclaim forever the right of Alsatians”: Alexandre Zevaes,
Histoire de la Troisième République,
Paris, 1926, 41.

Gambetta,
“N’en panes jamais”:
Huddleston, 36.

Victor Hugo, “France will have one thought”: Zevaes,
op. cit.,
41.

Secret patrols gaze down on Colmar: Monteil, 38.

Forty-two ministers in forty-three years: qtd. Craig, in Earle’s
Modern Strategy,
276.

“Oh, les braves gens!”:
Pierre de la Gorce,
Histoire du Second Empire,
VII, 343.

Foch and doctrine of offensive: the quotations and episode of Clemenceau and Foch are from “Du Picq and Foch” by Stefan T. Possony and Etienne Manteux, Chap. 9 in Earle’s
Modern Strategy.

Grandmaison’s lectures: Lanrezac, 138, n. 1; Messimy, 72; John Bowditch, “The Concept of Elan Vital,” in Earle’s
Modern France,
39–43.

Fallières, “The offensive alone”: Joffre, 30.

Field Regulations of 1913: Drafted by a committee of which General Pau was chairman and which included Hely d’Oissel, later Chief of Staff of the Fifth Army, and Berthelot, later deputy chief of staff under Joffre at GQG. Published as a decree signed by Poincaré on October 28, 1913. Text in Engerand, 445–7.

Wilhelm I to Eugénie: Engerand, 592.

General Michel’s Plan of 1911:
AF,
I, I, 13–14; text of his report is in Annexes to this volume, No. 3, 7–11. Discussion of use of reserves in the front line from Proceedings of the Supreme War Council, July 19, 1911, is Annexe No. 4, 12–17.

“Les réserves, c’est zéro!”:
Spears, 218.

“No fathers at the front,” attributed to Kaiser: Joffre, 61.

“Comme une insanité”:
Percin, 206.

Michel’s proposal and reaction of Supreme War Council: Briey, May 13, 23, and 30, evidence of Michel, Percin, and Messimy; Messimy,
Souvenirs,
76–8;
AF,
1, 1, 13–14.

“Reconciling the Army”: Messimy, 15. “Incapable of leading their troops”:
ibid.,
93. “Hesitant, indecisive”:
ibid.,
75.

“Chic exquis”:
In 1870 the Turco regiments under the command of General Charles Bourbaki inspired a marching song with these words: qtd. De Gaulle, 162.

“General Michel is off his head”: Briey, May 13, evidence of General Michel.

Statements on
pantalon rouge
by
Echo de Paris
and Etienne: qtd. Messimy, 118–20.

“Question de bouton”:
Percin, 208.

“Cool and methodical worker”: Messimy, 77.

“Take it,
cher ami
”: Briey, May 23, evidence of Percin.

Joffre would have preferred Foch: Joffre, 12.

“You will rouse a storm” and President and Premier “made a face”: Messimy, 78.

“Get rid of me!”: Briey, May 23, evidence of Percin.

Joffre’s conversation with Alexandre: Demazes, 65.

“Cuts like a scar”: Foch,
Memoirs,
lxii.

“Get to Berlin through Mainz”: qtd. Grouard, 5, n. 2.

“A posteriori and opportunist”: Joffre, 69.

“Foolishness”: Joffre, 17.

German officer betrays Schliffen plan in 1904: Paléologue,
Un Prélude,
486–88.

General Pendezac:
ibid.,
514.

“altogether likely”: Joffre, 63.

Castelnau and Joffre on most likely path of German offensive: Giraud, 25–29.

Castelnau, “impossible,” and Joffre, “same opinion”: Joffre, 64.

Deuxième Bureau knew of German use of reserves: “It was known that the German plan of mobilization predicated that ‘troops of the reserve will be used as active troops,’”
AF,
I, I, 39. The critique by Moltke is from Isaac,
Reserves,
335, who also states that a French analysis made in May, 1914, of the German mobilization plan for that year showed the role of reserves as identical with that of the active units. This is confirmed by Joffre in his discussion of the problem, 145–7. Major Melotte’s report is from Galet, 22. Joffre (61) is the authority for the belief that the Germans would use reserves only as second-line troops.

“I have two stars”: Briey, May 23, evidence of Vendame.

4. “A Single British Soldier …”

Péguy, “Like everyone else”: from his
Cahiers de la quinzaine,
October 22, 1905, reprinted in his
Notre Patrie,
Paris, 1915, 117–18.

General Staff war game of 19o5: Robertson,
Private to Field Marshal,
140;
Soldiers and Statesmen,
I, 24.

Huguet-Repington Memorandum: Repington, 6–10.

“A Hegelian army”: Haldane, 198.

Grey and Haldane in crisis of 1906: Grey, I, 72–88; Haldane, 203–04;
Before the War,
186; BD, III, 212.

Campbell-Bannerman, lunch at Calais: Maurois, 129.

Campbell-Bannerman on “honorable understanding”: Grey, I, 85.

Haldane authorizes talks: Grey, I, 76.

“Departmental affair”: Campbell-Bannerman’s phrase, qtd. Repington, 10.

Plans of Grierson and Robertson: Tyler, John E.,
The British Army and the Continent,
1904–14,
London, 1938, 46.

Esher favors action in Belgium: Esher,
Journals,
I, 375–6.

Fisher, landing on Prussian coast:
Letters,
III, 47; opinions of army strategy: Bacon, II, 182–3.

Wilson, in Hyde Park: Wilson, 51; spoke French:
ibid.,
2.

Wilson’s comment, “Very interesting” : qtd.
AQ,
July, 1929, 287.

Wilson’s visit to Foch: Wilson, 78.

“I’ve got a French general”:
ibid.,
79–80

“Tremendous gossips”: Aston,
Foch,
129.

Wilson’s “allez operations”: Wilson, 79.

“A single British soldier”:
ibid.,
78.

“Important question!”: Huguet, 21.

Foch’s views “same as mine”: Liddell Hart,
Foch,
51: in a letter to the British military attaché, Colonel Fairholme, Foch stated his belief that the principal front would be Epinal to Namur, BD, VI, No. 460.