World War One: A Short History (20 page)

Read World War One: A Short History Online

Authors: Norman Stone

Tags: #World War I, #Military, #History, #World War; 1914-1918, #General

Chapter 6: J. W. Wheeler Bennett,
Brest-Litovsk: The Forgotten Peace
(London, 1938) is
the
book, but W. Baumgart,
Deutsche Ostpolitik 1918
(Vienna, 1966) has important details regarding the Caucasus, Ukraine, etc. The Ludendorff offensives are discussed in Martin Middlebrook,
The Kaiser’s Battle
(London, 1978) and Tim Travers,
How the War was Won
(London, 1992); for the decline of the German war economy, see G. D. Feldman,
Army, Industry and Labour in Germany 1914–1918
(Princeton, 1966). Klaus Schwabe,
Woodrow Wilson, Revolutionary Germany and Peacemaking 1918–1919
(London, 1985) ends the war. Bernard Michel,
La Chute de l’Empire austro-hongrois
(Paris, 1991) recounts the disintegration of Central Europe in absorbing detail.

Chapter 7: see Stanford J. Shaw,
From Empire to Republic: The Turkish War of National Liberation 1918–1923
(5 vols., Türk Tarih Kurumu, 2000) and Michael Llewellyn-Smith,
Ionian Vision
(Michigan, 1999) which is extraordinarily fair-minded as between Greeks and Turks. Margaret MacMillan,
Paris 1919
(New York, 2003) is a splendid survey of peacemaking, and Robert Skidelsky,
J. M. Keynes: Hopes Betrayed
(London, 1998) is a brilliant book on the intellectual and moral atmosphere of that generation. For the Middle East, David Fromkin,
A Peace to End All Peace
(London, 2005) has been deservedly a bestseller, but there are two older books that make
for thought:Walter Laqueur,
A History of Zionism
(New York, 2003) and Elie Kedourie,
England and the Middle East: The Destruction of the Ottoman Empire
. For the upshot in Germany, Samuel Halperin,
Germany Tried Democracy
(rep. New York, 1965) is a journalist’s very well informed account, though it should be read together with H. A. Winkler,
Weimar 1918–1933
(Munich, 1999). On the catastrophe of the interwar period, the first hundred or so pages of A. J. P. Taylor’s
Origins of the Second World War
(London, 1963, with ‘second thoughts’) sum up the enormous gap between aspiration and reality. The same conclusion comes, very entertainingly, through Malcolm Muggeridge,
The Thirties
(written in 1939).

Finally some works of fiction. The generation of 1914 was highly literate, and wrote more and better than that of 1939. The novels that I should put at the top of my own list are Louis-Ferdinand Céline,
Voyage au bout de la nuit
, C. S. Forrester,
The General
, Sebastian Faulks,
Birdsong
and, most recent, Louis de Bernieres,
Birds Without Wings
. The compliment in all cases is that I read them without stopping.

Index

air war,
104
,
117
,
134
,
136
,
140
–41

aircraft,
12
,
104

Aisne, battle (1918),
138
–9; stalemate (1914),
38

Alexeev, Genl Mikhail,
70

Alsace-Lorraine, British war aim,
131

Amiens (1918),
135
,
140

anti-semitism,
156

Antwerp,
34
,
36

Aosta, Emanuel, Duke of,
123

Ardennes, French defeat (1914),
35

Armenian massacres (1915),
58
–9

armistice negotiations (Western Allies),
145
–8;
see also
Brest-Litovsk

arms race,
14
–15

Arras, battles (1917 & 1918),
106
,
142

artillery,
31
–2; air support,
117
,
134
,
136
; British,
83
–5,
86
–7,
106
,
114
–15,
117
,
134
,
143
; communications,
84
,
104
–5; counter-battery fire,
139
,
143
; creeping barrage,
86
,
98
,
105
,
115
,
116
; French,
33
,
139
; German,
33
–4,
78
,
118
,
121
,
134
,
136
,
138

atomic bomb,
25
,
54

Australia, Gallipoli campaign (1915–16),
59
; Western front (1918),
143

Austria,
8
; alliance with Germany,
18
,
19
,
21
,
41
–2,
47
–8; arms race,
15
; Balkans and,
9
,
11
,
14
; casualties and losses,
48
,
64
–5,
89
,
119
; end of empire,
144
–5; financial situation,
30
; treaty of Brest-Litovsk,
5
–6; unreliability,
18
; war with Italy,
66
,
80
,
118
–24; war with Russia,
21
,
22
,
41
–4,
65
,
68
,
88
–91; war with Serbia,
21
,
22
,
41
–4

Badoglio, Genl Pietro,
120
–22

Balkan Wars,
12
–13,
14
,
18

Balkans,
9
,
11
,
71
–2,
91
,
144
,
154

Baltic states,
6
,
71
,
118
,
132

Bapaume, battle (1918),
142

Belgium, casualties and losses,
45
; invaded by Germany,
22
–3,
34
,
35
–6; key to peace negotiations,

Belgium –cont.
100
–101,
131
; territorial ambitions,
146

BelleauWood, battle (1918),
138

Below, Genl Otto von,
120
–24,
132
–3

Benedict XV, Pope,
119
–20

Berendt, Brig Richard von,
121

Beseler, Genl Hans von,
71

Bethmann Hollweg, Theobald von,
16
,
20
,
21
,
24
,
100
–101

Bezobrazov, Genl Vladimir M.,
80
,
90

Bismarck, Otto, Prince von,
7
,
8
–9,
12
,
19
,
60

Blitzkrieg
(Hutier tactics),
117
,
118
,
134
; employed by British (1918),
140
–41; employed by French (1918),
139
–40;
see also
Hutier, Genl Oskar von

blockade, of Germany,
53
–7,
60
,
97
,
98
–9,
103

Boghos Nubar,
59

Böhn, Genl Hans von,
138
–9

Bolsheviks,
6
,
30
,
108
–112

Breslau
(German battleship),
48
,
49

Brest-Litovsk, armistice treaty (1918),
5
–6,
129
–30,
136
;
see also
armistice negotiations (Western Allies)

British army, Arras (1917& 1918),
106
,
142
; British Expeditionary Force,
34
,
35
,
36
,
37
–8,
62
–3; casualties and losses,
45
,
59
,
85
,
87
,
112
,
133
,
135
,
137
; counter-attack (1918),
140
–41,
142
–3; Gallipoli campaign (1915),
59
; and German March offensive (1918),
132
–6; new armies,
83
; Somme (1916),
83
–7; trenches,
46
; Ypres/Passchendaele,
45
,
61
,
105
,
112
,
113
–17,
136
–7;
see also
Great Britain