The First World War (3): The Western Front 1917-1918 (Essential Histories) |
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The First World War (3): The Western Front 1917-1918 (Essential Histories)
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by Peter Simkins
Sales Rank: 198522
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$0.72
At Amazon
on 6-20-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Paperback with 96 pages
Published by: Osprey Publishing June 25, 2002
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 1841763489
ISBN 13 Number: 978-1841763484
Book Dimensions:
9.7 x 6.5 x 0.4 inches
Weighs: 9.9 ounces
Book Description
In this, the second volume covering the war on the Western Front, Peter Simkins describes the last great battles of attrition at Arras, on the Aisne and at Passchendaele in 1917. Then he moves on to relate the successive offensives launched by Germany in the spring and summer of 1918 in an effort to achieve victory or a favourable peace before American manpower proved decisive. Again, questioning and correcting several myths and long-held assumptions about the nature and conduct of war on the Western Front, the author also looks at the aftermath and legacy of the 'war to end wars'.
Publisher Description
This unique series studies every major war in history looking at all the aspects of war, from how it felt to be a soldier to the lasting impact of the conflict on the world around it.
Reader Reviews
This review is from: The First World War: The Eastern Front 1914-1918 (Essential Histories) (Paperback)
This Osprey Essential History volume, concerning the Eastern Front, has its good points and its bad points. On the plus side, the volume is well written and provides a thorough summary for the Russian Front in the First World War, given its size limitations. On the negative side, one need only look at the bibliography, which has only seven sources listed, none of which were written after 1971. In the past thirty years, a great deal of new information has been uncovered about Russia in the First World War - none of which seems to have been incorporated by the author. Readers will probably be unfamiliar with the name of Geoffrey Jukes - and they should be, since Jukes did most of his writing for the old Ballantine series back in 1968-1971 and has written nothing significant in nearly two decades. In fact, the best part of this volume concerns the 1916 Brusilov offensive, which Jukes wrote a book about in 1971. Jukes does have a great deal of insight into Russian history, insight which is interwoven throughout the pages of this summary, but the insight is from another era, from the 1950s and 1960s. Furthermore, not only is much of the information outdated, but the focus is overly Russo-centric, with little attention given to German or Austrian perspectives. The First World War: The Eastern Front 1914-1918 consists of a brief introduction and seven chapters. The first chapter provides an 8-page summary of Russian, German and Austro-Hungarian capabilities. The war itself is covered in the second chapter, which covers the fighting in 50 pages. The next three chapters attempt to add depth to the narrative by providing case studies on typical Russian soldiers, civilian life (mostly in Russia) and the last days of the Romanov dynasty. The sixth chapter covers the Bolshevik seizure of power and the Russian withdrawal from the war, followed by a brief conclusion. There are ten maps including: Russia in 1914, the Battle of Tannenberg, the Lodz-Warsaw campaign, Galicia 1915, the Battle of Gorlice-Tarnow, the fall of Trebizon, the Brusilov offensive, the invasion of Romania, Lenin's route into Russia and the front-line in 1918. Concerning the campaign summaries themselves, readers will be disappointed by the flimsy coverage of the 1914 East Prussian and Galician campaigns in a couple of pages. Jukes repeats an oft-quoted legend as fact about the alleged feud between the two Russian army commanders (Samsonov and Rennenkanpf) that supposedly contributed to the Russian defeat in East Prussia; readers should consult Dennis E. Showalter's 1991 Tannenberg: Clash of Empires on page 134 to see the actual facts. While Jukes' campaign narrative does get better after this shaky start, it remains rather shallow until he approaches the 1916 Brusilov offensive, which he knows so well. Jukes makes the interesting point that Brusilov, "deliberately violated the principle of concentration of force to increase his chances of surprise." The Turkish front is covered in some detail in 1915-1916, particularly joint Russian army-navy operations along the Black Sea coast, but then drops from sight. Jukes tends to harbor an antiquated view of the Russian army as poorly equipped, clumsy and incompetent. In the discussion of the relative armies, Jukes cites Russian weakness in key weapons, "Machineguns were in equally short supply. In 1914 Russia had just over 4,100 (less than one per infantry battalion)..." In fact, Russia had two machineguns authorized per infantry battalion like most other European armies of 1914 and in starting the war with about 950 infantry battalions, the amount of machine-guns needed to equip the front-line infantry and cavalry units would have been about 2,000 weapons. Jukes also mentions a "deficiency of 350,000 rifles at the outbreak of war.." which is a misstatement, since Russia started the war with adequate numbers of small arms but was unable to replace losses by early 1915. These perceptions of ill-equipped Russian masses were not appropriate for 1914; the Russian army that started the war was equipped with solid, reliable weapons like the Mosin-Nagant rifle, Maxim machine-gun and Putilov howitzer. Furthermore, many of the Russian officers and NCOs had recent combat experience, which the Germans lacked. It was not lack of weapons that hindered Russian operations in 1914, but poor logistics, inadequate command and control, and an inefficient reserve system. Jukes also misses the fact that Russian military modernization after the disastrous Russo-Japanese War was one of the cassus belli from the German point of view (see David G. Hermann's 1996 The Arming of Europe). Jukes' figures on pre-war defense spending are way off, "Parsimony was the rule in Austria-Hungary's defense spending. As late as 1911 it was less than a quarter of Germany's, and just over a quarter of Russia's." In fact, Austrian spending was 52% of Germany's and 37% of Russia's. Jukes fails to note that Russian defense spending was greater than Germany's every year during the period 1904-1912. Jukes does make some interesting points about the disintegration of the Russian army in 1916-1917. He cites the burden created by the Romanian entry into the war in 1916, requiring seventy Russian divisions to cover a new front in Moldavia, as draining Russia's last combat reserves. Another key factor often overlooked is the decline of Russia's rail system - run-down by the war, bad weather and mismanagement - which led to the food shortages in the major cities that instigated the collapse of the Romanov monarchy. Jukes also makes the point that the Tsarist regime made no effort to dispel revolutionary propaganda and relied solely on blind obedience from below; "STAVKA never attempted persuasion, or even telling the troops why Russia was at war..." In sum, readers will find this volume a useful overview but they should be wary of the lack of recent research incorporated into its text and the dated views based upon out-worn assumptions.
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The First World War (3): The Western Front 1917-1918 (Essential Histories)
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Updated on 6-20-2008.
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