• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 2236 0

and French forces sent to confront them are routed. But once again von Moltke’s lack of confidence shows itself. Instead of ordering his commanders to stay the course, he remains out of touch, far to the rear, and the field commanders must make their own decisions. Instead of engulfing Paris, the Germans turn more toward the west, in an attempt to surround the French army. But in the field, the Germans have extended beyond their own ability to feed and supply their army, something the original Schlieffen Plan had failed to address. What von Moltke fails to realize is the opportunity that still rests in his hands. With the war less than a month old, the Belgians are conquered, the French are facing utter defeat, and the British are nearly eliminated before they can fully mobilize their army.

What follows is called the (First) Battle of the Marne. With the power of the German thrust wavering, cracks begin to appear in the German position, and on September 7, 1914, Joffre seizes the advantage and attacks. The Germans are without effective communications to their commander, and uncertain of his troops’ precise situation, von Moltke makes his final error. Once more he hesitates. With their position in jeopardy, and no one available to give a definitive order, the German field commanders believe they have no alternative but to pull back. The exhausted French and British troops cannot follow up their success, can only follow the German withdrawal, until both sides reach a safe defensive position. All along a ninety-mile front, the attacks have ground down into paralysis. Both sides have their northern flanks exposed, and thus begins a race to the sea, with both German and British troops seeking to turn the other’s flank. But neither side succeeds, and the northernmost point of the front is thus anchored firmly against the English Channel. With troops furiously fortifying their defenses, a no-man’s-land is created that eventually stretches from Flanders, in western Belgium, to the Swiss border, south of Alsace-Lorraine. The Western Front has come into existence. As both sides prepare for what surely must follow, the extraordinary cost of the first great battle becomes known. Both sides suffer twenty-five percent casualties. Driven by the shock of just what kind of horror they face, the Western Front becomes a fortress of defensiveness. Mammoth networks of underground trenches extend all along both sides of the line.

Stung by the enormity of their failure, the kaiser blames von Moltke’s timidity, and replaces him with General Erich von Falkenhayn. Joffre responds to the catastrophic carnage by blaming his generals, and he replaces numerous field commanders all along the line. Ultimately, both sides spend the rest of the year licking their wounds, planning what, if anything, they can do next.

In the East, the Russians respond as expected, and they begin a campaign along an enormous front of the German/Austrian border. The fighting there is as bloody and, ultimately, as inconclusive.

In November 1914, the Germans are gratified to learn that the Ottoman Empire of Turkey has decided to join the war on the German side. The centuries-old influence of the Ottoman Turks has waned across the region, a vast empire that once included most of North Africa and the Middle East. Their chief rival in specific areas such as Egypt and Mesopotamia is the British, and the Turkish rulers recognize an opportunity to reclaim both land and past glory. The Turks strike at their Russian neighbors as well, where, along their mutual borders, a variety of tribal and ethnic cultures have waged violent confrontations for centuries. Throughout the Balkans and Arabia the ethnic violence takes a horrific toll, including the slaughter of nearly six hundred thousand Armenians. The war ignites old ethnic differences into full-scale confrontations, and those on the weaker side of a dispute are often the victims of unspeakable abuses.

Germany provides considerable economic and military assistance to the Turks, the kaiser recognizing the importance of Turkish