Download or read book The German Failure in Belgium August 1914 written by Dennis Showalter and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2019-05-21 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If wars were wagered on like pro sports or horse races, the Germany military in August 1914 would have been a clear front-runner, with a century-long record of impressive victories and a general staff the envy of its rivals. Germany's overall failure in the first year of World War I was surprising and remains a frequent subject of analysis, mostly focused on deficiencies in strategy and policy. But there were institutional weaknesses as well. This book examines the structural failures that frustrated the Germans in the war's crucial initial campaign, the invasion of Belgium. Too much routine in planning, command and execution led to groupthink, inflexibility and to an overconfident belief that nothing could go too terribly wrong. As a result, decisive operation became dicey, with consequences that Germany's military could not overcome in four long years.
Download or read book Rehearsals written by Jeff Lipkes and published by Leuven University Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 817 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "People screamed, cried, and groaned. Above the tumult I could distinguish the voices of small children. All this time the soldiers were singing.... Sometime after the first salvo, there was another round of fire and, once again, I was not hit. After this I heard fewer cries, save from time to time a small child calling its mother."?Félix Bourdon, survivor of a mass execution in Dinant, BelgiumIn August 1914, without any legitimate pretext, German soldiers killed nearly 6,000 Belgian noncombatants, including women and children, and burned some 25,000 homes and other buildings. Rehearsals is the first book to provide a detailed narrative history of the German invasion of Belgium as it affected civilians. Based on extensive eyewitness testimony, the book chronicles events in and around the towns of Liége, Aarschot, Andenne, Tamines, Dinant, and Leuven, where the worst of the German depredations occurred. Accounts of the killing, looting, and arson have long been dismissed as "atrocity propaganda," particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. Rehearsals examines the campaign by revisionists that led to voluminous and compelling testimony about German war crimes being discredited.Recently, the case has been made that the violence that came to a peak between August 19 and August 26, 1914, was the result of a spontaneous outbreak of German paranoia about civilian sharpshooters. In Rehearsals, Jeff Lipkes offers compelling evidence that the executions were in fact part of a deliberate campaign of terrorism ordered by military authorities. In his shocking account of events that have been largely overlooked by historians of World War I, Lipkes commemorates the heroism as well as the suffering of the Belgian victims of German aggression.
Download or read book German Atrocities 1914 written by John Horne and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2001-01-01 with total page 632 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is it true that the German army, invading Belgium and France in August 1914, perpetrated brutal atrocities? Or are accounts of the deaths of thousands of unarmed civilians mere fabrications constructed by fanatically anti-German Allied propagandists? Based on research in the archives of Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, and Italy, this pathbreaking book uncovers the truth of the events of autumn 1914 and explains how the politics of propaganda and memory have shaped radically different versions of that truth. John Horne and Alan Kramer mine military reports, official and private records, witness evidence, and war diaries to document the crimes that scholars have long denied: a campaign of brutality that led to the deaths of some 6500 Belgian and French civilians. Contemporary German accounts insisted that the civilians were guerrillas, executed for illegal resistance. In reality this claim originated in a vast collective delusion on the part of German soldiers. The authors establish how this myth originated and operated, and how opposed Allied and German views of events were used in the propaganda war. They trace the memory and forgetting of the atrocities on both sides up to and beyond World War II. Meticulously researched and convincingly argued, this book reopens a painful chapter in European history while contributing to broader debates about myth, propaganda, memory, war crimes, and the nature of the First World War.
Download or read book The Month that Changed the World written by Gordon Martel and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2014 with total page 511 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dedicating a chapter to every day of July 1914, the author retraces the actions that led to World War I, beginning with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and following leaders of the time as they escalated the crisis.
Download or read book The Rape of Belgium written by Larry Zuckerman and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2004-02 with total page 476 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author presents a compelling and untold story of Germany's occupation of Belgium after WW1. It's a great, trade history book from a wonderful storyteller.
Download or read book The European War August 1914 to March 1915 written by Anthony Arnoux and published by . This book was released on 1915 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Advance from Mons 1914 written by Walter Bloem and published by Helion & Company Limited. This book was released on 2004 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here is an outstanding personal memoir penned by a German infantry officer recalling his experiences during the initial days and weeks of the war in the West, July-September 1914. Walter Bloem was a Captain in the German 12th Grenadier Regiment (Royal Prussian Grenadier Regiment Prinz Carl von Preußen, 2nd Brandenburg, Nr 12 - to give his unit its full title). His narrative gives a superb insight into the outbreak of war and his regiment's mobilisation, followed by the advance through Belgium and France, including the author's participation at the battles of Mons, Le Cateau, the Marne and the Aisne. His account of what it was like to face Britain's 'Old Contemptibles' at Mons is particularly valuable. Before the war, the author was a novelist, and The Advance from Mons clearly shows this - it is written with a great eye for detail, careful yet vivid descriptions abound and importantly, from a historical perspective, the book was penned whilst Herr Bloem convalesced from a wound he received at the battle of the Aisne. Such was the quality of his writing, that J.E. Edmonds, the British official historian of the Great War commented: "Some of the scenes ... are so truly and vividly depicted that I gave translations of them in the Official History, feeling that they could not be bettered."
Download or read book The Last Great Cavalry Charge written by Joe Robinson and published by Fonthill Media. This book was released on 2017-05-03 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Battle of the Silver Helmets was an engagement orchestrated according to the previous successes of the cavalry of Frederick the Great. It was staged so that the magnificently equipped and trained German Fourth Cavalry Division would charge into glory, sabres rattling; instead, 24 German officers, 468 men, and 843 horses were lost during the eight separate charges conducted that day. The entire right wing of the Imperial German Army consisted of only nine cavalry brigades in the Schlieffen Plan, and in the battle of 12 August 1914, two of these brigades were catastrophically beaten. This battle has not yet been explored in the English language because it took place before the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) landed in the Channel ports and well before any American involvement. British historians have also generally focused on Germany s efforts to enter Belgium through the forts at Liège, which are east of Halen. However, the Battle of the Silver Helmets so impacted century-old cavalry tradition that large-scale charges would never again be attempted on the Western Front. Thoroughly researched and hugely revelatory, The Last Great Cavalry Charge is a blow-by-blow account of the moment that the cavalry went from a prestigious, pivotal role in German Army tactics to obsolescence in the face of newly mechanised infantry. It provides essential and moving insight into the wider socio-cultural repercussions of technical military innovations in the First World War.
Download or read book Inventing the Schlieffen Plan written by Terence Zuber and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2002-10-31 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The existence of the Schlieffen plan has been one of the basic assumptions of twentieth-century military history. It was the perfect example of the evils of German militarism: aggressive, mechanical, disdainful of politics and of public morality. The Great War began in August 1914 allegedly because the Schlieffen plan forced the German government to transform a Balkan quarrel into a World War by attacking France. And, in the end, the Schlieffen plan failed at the battle of the Marne. Yet it has always been recognized that the Schlieffen plan included inconsistencies which have never been satisfactorily explained. On the basis of newly discovered documents from German archives, Terence Zuber presents a radically different picture of German war planning between 1871 and 1914, and concludes that, in fact, there never really was a `Schlieffen plan'.
Download or read book The Schlieffen Plan written by Gerhard Ritter and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2018-09-03 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Schlieffen Plan was the name given after World War I to the theory behind the German invasion of France and Belgium on 4 August 1914. In 1905-1906 Field Marshal Alfred von Schlieffen, the Chief of the Imperial Army German General Staff from 1891-1906, had devised a deployment plan for a war-winning offensive, in a one-front war against the French Third Republic. After the war, the German official historians of the Reichsarchiv and other writers, described the plan as a blueprint for victory. Post-war writing by senior German officers and the Reichsarchiv historians managed to establish a commonly accepted narrative that it was Schlieffen’s successor Helmuth von Moltke the Younger’s failure to follow the blueprint, rather than German strategic miscalculation, that resulted in four years of attrition warfare. In 1953, renowned historian Prof. Gerhard Ritter Schlieffen’s unearthed Schlieffen’s papers during a visit to the United States, and he published his findings in the book Der Schlieffenplan: Kritik eines Mythos, presented here in its 1958 English translation, The Schlieffen Plan: Critique of a Myth. It proved to be an important historical publication, as it set in motion a period of revision, when the details of the supposed Schlieffen Plan were subjected to scrutiny and contextualisation. In Der Schlieffen Plan, Prof. Ritter presents the full text of Schlieffen’s military testament, and the relevant parts of other memoranda which shed light on the evolution of the Plan. They are preceded by Professor Ritter’s masterly exposition of their content and significance, while his accompanying notes add to the illuminating effect. “FOR two generations the Schlieffen Plan has been a magic phrase, embodying one of the chief mysteries and ‘might have beens’ of modern times. The mystery is cleared up and the great ‘If’ analysed in Gerhard Ritter’s book—a striking contribution to twentieth-century history.”—B. H. Liddell Hart
Download or read book The European War August 1914 March 1915 written by Anthony Arnoux and published by . This book was released on 1917 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Marne Campaign of 1914 written by Hermann Von Kuhl and published by . This book was released on 2021-05-04 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The History of the Most Dramatic Campaign of the Great War In August 1914 the German army invaded France via Belgium. The invasion was a desperate gamble - if Germany could not defeat France within a few weeks, there would be no hope of victory. Marching with the German army's spearhead was Hermann von Kuhl, Chief of Staff for the First Army and a devotee of the creator of the original invasion plan. More than just a history, this is a vigorous defence of the Schlieffen Plan and German army by one of its leaders - and a damning condemnation of the High Command that led it to defeat. Hermann von Kuhl (1856-1958) was the Chief of Staff for von Kluck's First Army in the Great War and a military historian.
Download or read book Ludendorff s Own Story August 1914 November 1918 written by Erich Ludendorff and published by . This book was released on 1919 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Agony of Belgium written by Frank Fox and published by Uniform Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the start of World War I, King Albert of Belgium refused the German army safe passage through Belgium to France, a defiance that was a key moment in the beginning of the war. Albert then took command of the relatively new and untested Belgian Army, and The Agony of Belgium recounts the army's bravery and resilience in the face of the challenges to come. The Agony of Belgium reveals the courageous and noble qualities of King Albert, whether at the Front as an active Commander-in-Chief; with his people during Zeppelin raids and artillery bombardments at Antwerp; declining refuge in France after the retreat from Ostend; or rallying his troops. This unique account of a part of the war often overlooked will be of significant interest to military scholars and historians.
Download or read book Ten Days in August written by Terence Zuber and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2014-08-01 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In August 1914 the German main attack was conducted by the 2nd Army. It had the missions of taking the vital fortresses of Liège and Namur, and then defeating the Anglo-French-Belgian forces in the open plains of northern Belgium.The German attack on the Belgian fortress at Liège from 5 to 16 August 1914 had tremendous political and military importance. Nevertheless, there has never been a complete account of the siege of Liège. The German and Belgian sources are fragmentary and biased. The short descriptions in English are general, use a few Belgian sources, and are filled with inaccuracies. Making professional military use of both German and Belgian sources, this book for the first time describes and evaluates the construction of the fortress, its military purpose, the German plan, and the conduct of the German attack on the night of 5-6 August. Previous accounts emphasize the importance of the huge German “Big Bertha” cannon, to the virtual exclusion of everything else: the Siege of Liège shows that the effect of this gun was a myth, and shows how the Germans really took the fortress. This is how the whole bloody mess started.
Download or read book A Journal from Our Legation in Belgium written by Hugh Gibson and published by New York, Doubleday. This book was released on 1917 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: English edition has title "Diplomatic diary".
Download or read book The Siege of Antwerp written by Daniel Van Basten and published by . This book was released on 2016-07-13 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In so many ways, "The War to End all Wars" was a military holocaust rooted in the treaties, arrogance, and insecurities of the previous generations. The initial victim of the past was Belgium, which, owing to the misfortunes of geography, was located in the path of the German invasion. The Belgian Army, which had seen its cities fall, one by one, to the Germans, looked to Antwerp and its fortifications to save the country. Antwerp was a sufficient distance from Sarajevo, the place where World War I truly began. The war, with its roots in the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, began in August 1914. But in truth, World War I possessed roots that were firmly entrenched in the Europe of the 19th century. The 19th century had been very good to the nations like Great Britain, whose colonization efforts yielded an empire, but not so beneficial to countries like Germany, which wasn't unified until 1870. This meant that by the time the Germans got around to claiming territory outside their borders, the pickings were slim.
