The Guns of August

I’ve always wanted to understand more about the World Wars. In school we focus on World War Two but I cannot remember being taught anything about World War One. A quick search of the internet or simply asking around is always met with answer about the assassination of Arch Duke Ferdinand in Serbia. What I’ve learned is that is simply the spark that lit the conflagration whose origins had been building for a very long time.

The book begins with the funeral of King George to whom all of the monarchs in Europe and Czar in Russia were related! I knew of the centuries old, incestuous relationships between the royal families such as the Hapsburgs and Bourbons. However, I was surprised to learn that loyalty to country greatly outweighs familial relations and when conflicts arise those relationships aren’t much help.

To understand World War Two, I needed to understand World War One. Reading this book I learned that to understand World War One I needed to understand the Franco-Prussian War and what happened with Alsace and Lorraine. Going further I realized there is a long list of wars before that with the aim of conquering territory and gaining power over Europe. Napoleon, Teutonic Knights, it just keeps going further back with an enormous list.

As for World War One my current understanding of the main reasons are these two: Germany felt encircled between France and Russia and there has always been rivalry, between France and Germany especially to determine who would control Europe. Leaders want more power as well as control and it is easy to convince one tribe of people to go against another tribe for whichever reason the leaders want to give.

Here are my notes:

The Great Illusion by Norman Angell, had just been published, which proved that war had become vain. By impressive examples and incontrovertible argument Angell showed that in the present financial and economic interdependence of nations, the victor would suffer equally with the vanquished; therefore war had become unprofitable; therefore no nation would be so foolish as to start one.

I wish humanity would learn this lesson. The benefits of war in modern times especially, benefit nobody. The one exception may be World War Two where the allies made out quite well, reshaped the world and cemented the USA as the leader as well as greatly improved their economy. However, as we’ve seen in recent times from Vietnam to Afghanistan war only benefit those who make the weapons. Long gone are the days of colonialism. The game now is an economic one where amassing money creates power and killing potential customers is a bad idea. The USA tried to make Vietnam and Afghanistan in the image of capitalism but that failed. Communism eventually became capitalist anyway on the economic front and it didn’t involve killing anyone. All leaders can see the path to riches was through economic means and so we’ve just experienced a great period of growth and wealth (with a few hiccups) that may be coming to an end with growing geopolitical hostility.

War, he stated, “is a biological necessity”; it is the carrying out among humankind of “the natural law, upon which all the laws of Nature rest, the law of the struggle for existence.” Nations, he said, must progress or decay; “there can be no standing still,” and Germany must choose “world power or downfall.”

Yes, progress or stand still on the economic front for the past three decades. With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the growing might of China we unfortunately may be seeing a reversal and back to war we go to keep up “progress.”

Germans had imbibed from 1870 the lesson that arms and war were the sole source of German greatness.

The Franco-Prussian war. Germans won and thought they could do so again through force of arms. They almost did in World War One and would have completed their goal of conquering Europe if it weren’t for a few fortunate mistakes from Hitler such as attacking Britain and trying to coerce Mexico into declaring war with the USA. From what I’ve read I’ve come to the conclusion the world would look very difference if Hitler had consolidated his gains, not attacked Britain, or Russia and wooed the German population in the USA. On that last point I feel as though we’re seeing something similar with Putin wooing the GOP. I think the invasion of Ukraine would look very different now if Trump were still in power as Putin has Trump in his pocket. However, that isn’t mentioned in the media nor is the fact that NATO kept creeping closer to Russia. That reason for the invasion is a very taboo one here in the USA unless you tune into Fox News. My own opinion is a simple one. Just ask the Ukrainians if they want to join Russia and/or be invaded by them. I think we all know the answer now given the ferocity of their defense and sacrifices they are making.

Character is fate, the Greeks believed. A hundred years of German philosophy went into the making of this decision in which the seed of self-destruction lay embedded, waiting for its hour.

What made the Schlieffen plan was not Clausewitz and the Battle of Cannae, but the body of accumulated egoism which suckled the German people and created a nation fed on “the desperate delusion of the will that deems itself absolute.”

“I told him,” William reported to Chancellor von Bülow, “I could not be played with. Whoever in the case of a European war was not with me was against me.”

Sound familiar? George Bush copied this for the Iraq war after 9/11. It didn’t work and resulted in America changing the name of French Fries to “Freedom Fries.”

Originally neither German nor French, Alsace had been snatched back and forth between the two until, under Louis XIV, it was confirmed to France by the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648.

I’d love to visit Alsace to learn more about this. One can only learn so much from books. I’ve found it to be much more advantageous as well as enlightening to ask the people that live there. Do they identify more as French, as German or as something else? From what I’ve read the answer is French but I’m sure the real answer is much more nuanced than that. I’d love to walk down the ancient streets, sit in a cafe drinking their splendid wine, and to think of the treasures my metal detector could find. That place would be littered with the remnants of many wars (must be careful!) and it was also part of the Roman empire.

“Never! Le pantalon rouge c’est la France!”

The French quickly learned not to wear red pants after the invention of the machine gun.

“The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.”

We have our own modern troubles, mostly with economic upheaval here in the USA. But compared with an invading army and entire towns being burnt to the ground our own troubles seem like trifles. It is good to live in the most powerful country the world has ever seen. We have a tradition of thanking our soldiers for their service which can seem a little overdone at times. However, when we realize how chaotic the world is I think it is good to let our mighty military, especially the individuals know they are appreciated. It is their power that allows me to sit here from the comfort of my own home and not have to worry about a foreign invasion. I will caveat that by saying we should spend more on schools, on equality and taking care of our people rather than spending such an obscene amount on the military and calling anyone who disagrees a traitor. It is a messy business indeed and one need look no further than all the expenditure for new navy ships the Navy doesn’t even want. Politics has always been a messy game. Those expenses are to keep people in jobs and thus the politicians in power. To give the people economic incentives directly would be deemed “socialism” and so much waste is created.

The cutting off of Russia with all its consequences, the vain and sanguinary tragedy of Gallipoli, the diversion of Allied strength in the campaigns of Mesopotamia, Suez, and Palestine, the ultimate breakup of the Ottoman Empire, the subsequent history of the Middle East, followed from the voyage of the Goeben.

The Goeben was Germany’s major war vessel that if captured might have lead to a quick end of the war with a German defeat.

Many who lived through the next thirty days of mounting combat, agony, and terror were to remember the sound of endless, repetitious masculine singing as the worst torment of the invasion.

On the road east from Nancy the French passed a stone marker inscribed, HERE IN THE YEAR 362 JOVINUS DEFEATED THE TEUTONIC HORDES.

I love history and would love to visit this marker one day. This commemorates the Battle of Reims where Julian Caesar fought the Alemanni, a German tribe. In Spanish (which comes from Latin) Germany is called Alemania. It amazes me how history is made much more clear through the study of language.

Moving toward that rendezvous his battalions sang the “Sambre et Meuse,” a memorial of 1870 and favorite marching song of the French Army: The regiment of Sambre and Meuse marched to the cry of Liberty! Seeking the path of glory that leads to immortality. The regiment of Sambre and Meuse died to the cry of Liberty! Writing a page of glory that gave them immortality.

The Sambre and Meuse! I looked this up on the internet and was surprised to hear a regular piece played by The Ohio State Marching Band. These are two important rivers in eastern France which played a role in the battle of 1794 when the French defeated the Austrian army.

The terrain of the Ardennes is not suitable for the offensive. It is wooded, hilly, and irregular, with the slope running generally uphill from the French side and with the declivities between the hills cut by many streams. Caesar, who took ten days to march across it, described the secret, dark forest as a “place full of terrors,” with muddy paths and a perpetual mist rising from the peat bogs.

I believe the terrors of dark forests lurk in the subconscious in all of us. In modern times we find ourselves surrounded by development, by concrete, or if we go to the country by endless expanses of farmland. But for most of human history vast, dark forests were everywhere and to enter deep into them was to enter into the unknown and maybe never return. The stories of terror eventually found their way into Children’s tales such as Hansel and Gretel in Germany’s Black Forest. This is probably where Tolkien drew his inspiration for Mirkwood in the Hobbit. I wonder how much of those dark, dense forests still remain and what it would be like to find myself in one? If I were to sit very still in the depth of the night perhaps I could see the shades of a Roman legion passing through, or hear the heavy breathing of soldiers hiding after just being overrun.

An unidentified French sergeant kept a diary: “the guns recoil at each shot. Night is falling and they look like old men sticking out their tongues and spitting fire. Heaps of corpses, French and German, are lying every which way, rifles in hand. Rain is falling, shells are screaming and bursting—shells all the time. Artillery fire is the worst. I lay all night listening to the wounded groaning—some were German. The cannonading goes on. Whenever it stops we hear the wounded crying from all over the woods. Two or three men go mad every day.”

I think none of us know how long our sanity would last in such conditions. I hope I never have to put my own to the test.