To End All Wars_ A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918 - Adam Hochschild [210]
For statistics, I have relied on books with an overview of the war that I found most helpful, such as those by Trevor Wilson, Hew Strachan, John Keegan, David Stevenson, and Anthony Livesey listed in the Bibliography. However, these experts and the British Official History sometimes differ about the casualty toll of a particular battle or the number of miles or yards troops advanced. Precision in war is elusive: there is no arbitrary moment when one battle ended and the next began, and sometimes it was unclear which army held a particular patch of ground. The British and Germans calculated their casualties slightly differently, having to do with how soon wounded soldiers were returned to active duty, and for some German and many Russian operations there are only estimates available. Historians are still arguing about how many casualties the Germans suffered in the Battle of the Somme, for example. And, for British casualties at Passchendaele, although we know the rough numbers, the Official History notes that "the clerk-power to investigate the exact losses was not available." (This may or may not be true; eager to vindicate Haig, the Official History's authors dramatically inflate German casualty figures.) For death figures in 1918 it is not always clear when these include victims of the great influenza pandemic. When reliable sources give conflicting figures, I've generally used the most cautious, and so when I've said that there were at least 20,000 casualties in a particular battle, it usually means some sources cite higher numbers.
Within quotations, I have on a few occasions silently adjusted a comma or dash, but no words have been changed and all ellipses are indicated.
page INTRODUCTION: CLASH OF DREAMS
[>] My father's sister married: See pp. 21–101 of his lively autobiography: Boris Sergievsky, Airplanes, Women, and Song: Memoirs of a Fighter Ace, Test Pilot, and Adventurer (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1999).
The magnitude of slaughter: Whalen, p. 41.
[>] "The Great War of 1914–18": Tuchman 1, p. xiii.
"This is not war": David Omissi, The Sepoy and the Raj: The Indian Army, 1860–1940 (London: Macmillan, 1994), pp. 117–118, quoted in Keegan 1, p. 197.
"Supply me with socks": Gilbert, p. 82.
[>] "had won, nor could win": Mind's Eye: Essays (Manchester, NH: Ayer, 1977), p. 38.
"Humanity? Can anyone": Alexander Nemser, "Low Truths," New Republic, 30 July 2008.
"It cannot be that": Alan Bullock, Hitler: A Study in Tyranny (New York: Harper & Row, 1962), p. 88.
xiv more than 20,000 British: Pearce, p. 169. For some years scholars used a smaller figure, but Pearce's careful calculations are convincing as to why the earlier estimates were too low. A more precise number is impossible to determine.
[>] "They advanced in line": Travers, p. 158. Travers, like other writers, attributes this account to Brigadier General Hubert C. Rees. But Rees, in his papers at the Imperial War Museum (IWM 77/179/1), as more recent scholars have pointed out, complains that his corps commander, Lieutenant General Sir Aylmer Hunter-Weston, "put my remarks in his own language." It is likely that Rees was less responsible for the tone of this passage than Hunter-Weston, who is on record (see CAB 45/188, quoted in Middlebrook, p. 80) as being wildly unrealistic in believing that the troops would meet no obstacles to their advance on July 1, 1916.
1. BROTHER AND SISTER
[>] "How many millions": Morris 2, p. 31.
"I contend that we": Marlowe, p. 5.
[>] "We are a part": New York Times, 24 June 1897.
"From my heart": Times, 23 June 1897.
"a small select aristocracy": A. G. Gardiner, Prophets, Priests and Kings (London: Alston Rivers, 1908), p. 229.
"Only heaven left": Chauncey Depew to Lord Rosebery, 1894, quoted in Tuchman 1, p. 23.
[>] "I didn't know": Morris 2, p. 408.
[>] "You have the heartfelt": French to Buller, 15 July 1902, John French, p. 95.
[>] more