Falkenhayn and Verdun (1 Viewer)

[Currahee Chris]

Hey gang:

I am starting to crack the books on WW1- seen some more old time pics of my great grandfather the doughboy and it has picqued my interest.

Anyway, I am reading "World War 1" by noted historian SLA (Slam) Marshall. I was reading some of the information around Verdun and Falkenhayn's thoughts on the war in general. I just read on in absolute horror how he basically intended Verdun to be the last ditch battle by making it so bloody and costly that all the nations would capitulate and get it over. The amazing thing is that it sort of did the opposite. Sort of reminded me of the quote by Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) in SPR when he said "If I order one forward then I hope that is ten lives I just saved" but on a macro scale.

WW1 just boggles the mind- the numbers in men and material are just insane- I was reading about 132 French and British divisions engaged in battle- 132!!! It just boggles the mind. Plus the spent shells and other logistics.

I read "Why nations go to war" my freshman year in college and it touched on some of the circumstances surrounding the collision in 1914. It just seems like such a failure in terms of civilian leadership and diplomacy. Couple that with the meteoric advances in combat technology and the inadequacy of training for the situations in the senior commander had to have led to the worst war the world has ever seen- I am just completly convinced nothing was more brutal than WW1.

Love to hear everyone's thoughts on it.

 

[Louis Badolato]

I agree with you completely Chris, on both the failure of the civilian leadership/diplomacy (its always seemed to me that Queen Victoria's Grandchildren decided to have a pissing match and cost the world a generation of young men) and the scale and horror of WWI. It truly boggles the mind.

 

[Rob]

As well as the unremitting horror and loss of life on an industrial scale Chris,as you say the statistics are mind blowing.They reckon the British 18pounder and 13pounder guns alone fired some 26 MILLION Shells in WW1.The Battle of the Somme cost around three human lives dead or maimed for every twelve inches gained.On some battlefields like Passchendaele/Somme they believe a ton of high explosives exploded for every square foot of ground.Each year 60-90 Tons of unexploded shells are still recovered in France and Belgium(the 'Iron harvest'),killing members of the Bomb disposal teams and members of the public.A recent survey of the battlefields reported that it will be over a hundred years before the shells are all gone and it is completely safe again.Hard to believe that here we are approaching one hundred years from the start of that awful War and its still claiming lives to this day.

Rob

 

[lancer]

Marshall's book on WW1 is good but by necessity, brief. His assessment of Falkenhayn's strategy is way over simplified. A tremendous book on the subject is "German Strategy and the Path to Verdun: Erich von Falkenhayn and the Development of Attrition, 1870-1916". Written by Robert Foley, 2005, pub. Cambridge. Everything you ever wanted to know on the subject. Also do not miss Alistair Horne's classic on Verdun, "The Price of Glory" done in 1963 by St. Martin's Press. Reading about WW1 will drag you in and not let you go. I find it the most interesting conflict to read and study. JMHO. -- lancer

 

[Rob]

Marshall's book on WW1 is good but by necessity, brief. His assessment of Falkenhayn's strategy is way over simplified. A tremendous book on the subject is "German Strategy and the Path to Verdun: Erich von Falkenhayn and the Development of Attrition, 1870-1916". Written by Robert Foley, 2005, pub. Cambridge. Everything you ever wanted to know on the subject. Also do not miss Alistair Horne's classic on Verdun, "The Price of Glory" done in 1963 by St. Martin's Press. Reading about WW1 will drag you in and not let you go. I find it the most interesting conflict to read and study. JMHO. -- lancer

'The Price of Glory' is a superb book,i second Lancer in that it will drag you in.And another book to do excactly the same is Lyn Macdonald's 'They called it Passchendaele'.She is without doubt one of the very best authors on this conflict

Rob

 

[lancer]

The word "slaughter" is best applied to the military efforts in WW1. Modern weapons as the MG and vastly improved artillery combined with outmoded tactics to produce staggering casualty figures. The July 1, 1916 figures are well known, almost 60,000 total with almost 20,000 dead on the British side alone. August 22, 1914 cost the French Army 27,000 dead while the whole sequence Aug.20-23 totaled 40,000 dead Frenchmen. These numbers are hard to visualize and to remember that they are people, not just stats. Modern war in 1914-1918 grabbed the world by the throat and has not let go yet. -- lancer

 

[Saber]

'The Price of Glory' is a superb book,i second Lancer in that it will drag you in.And another book to do excactly the same is Lyn Macdonald's 'They called it Passchendaele'.She is without doubt one of the very best authors on this conflict

Rob

I read "Price of Glory" years ago and it is still one of my favorite WWI books. It really gives you a sense of what that conflict must have been like. "Storm in Flanders" was another pretty good read on the topic.