Over 100 Facts WW1 , livre ebook
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22
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2013
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Publié par
Date de parution
19 novembre 2013
Nombre de lectures
0
EAN13
9781783333868
Langue
English
Publié par
Date de parution
19 novembre 2013
Nombre de lectures
0
EAN13
9781783333868
Langue
English
Title Page
OVER 100 FACTS WW1
Neil Michael O’Mara
Publisher Information
Publisher Information
Published in 2013 by Andrews UK Limited
www.andrewsuk.com
The right of Neil Michael O’Mara to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998
Copyright © 2013 Neil Michael O’Mara
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Any person who does so may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
Dedication
In Memory of my Great Uncle
William Isaac Caddick
Died of Wounds 24 th May 1918
Aged 19
Introduction
Until 1945 the First World War was referred to as the Great War. Great, that it was unprecedented in its intercontinental spread of fighting and where casualties were on an incomprehensive scale. What started as a local crisis with an assassination of an Archduke, nations soon moved to mobilise their armies like a chain of dominoes. A series of alliances developed this crisis into a terrible conflict which history had thus far never recorded. Initially army numbers swelled for many reasons, patriotism and adventure or simply for three regular meals a day. In Britain commentators reported it would be over by ‘Christmas’, some like the Secretary for War, Lord Kitchener believed it would be a long protracted affair. Indeed it has been argued in the past one hundred years that the spark created by the assassination in Sarajevo was simply an excuse to go to war. That it was inevitable because of an arms race between Britain and Germany in the previous ten years. For every ‘Dreadnought’ that was launched it was like the modern day equivalent of increasing an atomic arsenal. And yet this was a war in which horses were taken in their thousands to fight a war on the fields of Europe like the Battle of Waterloo a hundred years before. Only to cruelly morph into an age of aerial bombing, chemical weapons, fighter aircraft, the battle tank and submarines. All this development led to what has been described as killing on an industrial scale. This was a war where generals came and went and the huge losses that were felt in every shire and every town and village across the land became somehow acceptable and indeed was planned for, in a bloody state of attrition that became trench warfare. One man appeared to have more influence than most and yet he was not a head of government or field marshal. This was Dr Arthur Zimmerman of the German Foreign Office, as Under-Secretary he drafted the initial telegram to Austria confirming their unequivocal support and therefore allowed the Austro-Hungarian guns to shell the capital of Serbia. Later as Foreign Minister, he sent a telegram to Mexico urging them to war against the Americans. This telegram was intercepted by the British and released to the United States. This incensed the American public and it eventually helped their decision to declare war on Germany. This was the war to end all wars where kings had lost their thrones and nations had lost their empires. Yet German generals believed their army had not been beaten. General Ludendorf had said it felt like he had been ‘stabbed in the back’ meaning the war was lost due to lack of support on the home front. The Treaty of Versailles that followed was not signed until 28 th June 1919 and the Allied blockade, which produced real suffering and starvation in Germany and central Europe, was not lifted until the Treaty was signed. Other conditions and reparations were imposed on the former Central Powers and the seeds of real resentment were sewn for the future.
