Friday 15 October 2010

Sublime Ignorance - Brutal Reality

Having visited a small proportion of the many memorials and cemeteries in Flanders it became imperative to find out why the carnage happened. Researching the causes it became a little clearer. 
The ground had been made fertile by a series of secret and semi-secret treaties. German Imperialism was a threat to the British Empire.The French were embarrassed by their humiliation in 1870 and had re-armed accordingly. The Russians were in a state of non-stop turmoil. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was in decline. Communism and Socialism were on the rise in industrial heartlands across Europe. The old order was under threat.

And then as AJP Taylor says, there was the railway system. All the participants had elaborate mobilisation plans and once begun, there was an inexorable inevitability about it all. A more recent parallel arose during the Cold War. The 'defence' policy was based on Mutually Assured Destruction. There was much talk about striking first and knocking out your enemy before he could land a blow. This made the situation between the Soviet Union and the West very tense. There were many false alarms with aircrew scrambled and missiles primed. Communications were better though and the world pulled back from the brink. That did not happen in 1914. Once armies were entrained and rolling, there was no way of calling a halt.

Having all the pieces in place, it is astonishing how quickly the final acts towards war happened. Right up to the end of July most Britons were enjoying a glorious summer and blissfully unaware of the imminent cataclysm. The British Government were more occupied with troubles in Ireland. Events in Serbia seemed a long way off. Once Archduke Ferdinand had been assassinated events had moved quickly. Crucially Britain had a treaty with Belgium protecting its neutrality. The Germans expected the Belgians to allow them to use their country to launch the Schlieffen Plan. This would entail a rapid incursion through Belgium and northern France to sweep around behind the French massive fortifications on the French/German frontier. A forty day war similar to the victory of 1870 was the plan.

It did not quite work out as planned. On the 4th August 1914 the Germans invaded Belgium. The Belgians were unimpressed and resisted. The British Expeditionary Force (Regulars and Territorials) held up the attack at the Battle of Mons. The train system was used to move thousands of French troops   to help block the advance and German momentum was lost. From those rapid beginnings the war settled into a giant stalemate. 

And the carnage began. 

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