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MARCH OF THE TITANS A HISTORY OF THE WHITE RACE
Chapter 59:The First Great Brothers' War - World War I
PART ONE 1914 - 1916
The First World War was the first continent wide war between the newly industrialized
countries of Europe: starting out as a local war between Austro-Hungary and Serbia, it
mushroomed into a world wide conflict involving 32 nations, inflicting incalculable genetic
damage on all of the nations involved.
The fundamental cause of the conflict lay in the centuries of conflict in Europe which preceded
it: the endless rounds of nationalist wars which had characterized the region for two hundred
years, reached a climax in 1914, when the old adversaries squared up once again.
The big difference in this conflict was however that it was the first to be fought with the aid of
the massive developments in technology which had occurred towards the end of the 19th and the
early 20th centuries. The result was a devastating war which had never been seen before; and
indeed some aspects were not to be seen again.
NATIONALISTIC CONFLICTS FLOURISH AFTER NAPOLEONIC WARS
If there was a particular starting point for the rash of nationalistic conflicts in Europe, it must be
the French Revolution and resulting Napoleonic Wars, starting in 1789. As Napoleon's armies
marched across Europe, the idea of ethnic groups being entitled to their own lands with
representative governments, separate and distinct from other nations, was spread in all directions.
It is no co-incidence that many of the modern European nations only started taking on their
approximate present day borders at the time of the Napoleonic Wars.
In this sense, the existence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was an anachronism in a changing
political landscape. Consisting of a multitude of different ethnic, and in some parts, even racial,
nationalities thrown together under one royal household was a form of government which was
certainly pre-French Revolution style: indeed it smacked of the empire of Charlemagne and of
the Holy Roman Empire, and was completely out of pace with the spread of ethnically based
nationalism.
Internationally, growing competition
between the European nations and a series
of conflicts dating back to the beginning of
the 19th century resulted in the formation
of two great alliances: the Central Powers
and the Triple Entente. The Central
Powers consisted of Germany, AustroHungary and Italy; and the Triple Entente,
of Britain, France and Imperial Russia.
Against the background of these emerging
alliances, all the nations began to invest
heavily in armaments, resulting in the
creation of large standing armies poised
for war.
Indeed, at least three times before the
outbreak of the First World War, a conflict
did break out: twice over German and
French interests clashing in Morocco, and
once over the Balkans Wars which saw the
Ottoman Turks ejected from all but a small
part of Europe. Against this turbulent
background came the assassination of the
heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne,
Archduke Ferdinand, by a Serbian
nationalist, Princip, in July 1914.
Above: The assassination of Archduke Franz
Ferdinand by Serbian nationalist Princip - the
shot which sparked the First World War, and,
indirectly, the Second World War as well.
AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN ULTIMATUM TO THE SERBS
Unsurprisingly, the Austro-Hungarians linked the Serbian nationalist movement to the
assassination - which it was - and on 23 July an ultimatum was submitted to Serbia submitting
ten specific demands, most of which had to do with the suppression, with Austrian help, of antiAustrian propaganda in Serbia.
Two days later, Serbia had accepted all but two of the demands. On 28 July, Austria-Hungary
then declared war on Serbia, thinking it could use the opportunity to extinguish the budding panSlavism which was in any event tugging at the seams of that empire.
WAR ESCALATES AS RUSSIA, GERMANY ENTER
Much to everyone's surprise, Russia promptly announced a partial mobilization against Austria.
This was surprising, as everyone knew that the Russians were the weakest of all the powers, and
had in fact just been beaten by tiny Japan a few years before in the 1904 Russo-Japanese war.
The Russian army was badly equipped and suited mainly to 19th century warfare.
Nonetheless, Germany issued a warning that any moves against Austro-Hungary would be met
with pan-German resistance. An official German note was sent to Russia demanding
demobilization: the Russians refused, and on 1 August, Germany declared war on Russia. At the
time the Germans did not foresee any great trouble in overcoming the Russian army. The French
then announced a general mobilization: the conflict was already out of control.
GERMAN INVASION OF BELGIUM AND FRANCE - BRITISH DECLARE WAR
On 2 August, the Germans decided to strike first at the French: advancing through Belgium, they
penetrated French territory on 3 August, declaring war on France the same day. Britain,
objecting to the invasion of neutral Belgium, then declared war on Germany on 4 August. Japan,
which had made an alliance with Britain in 1902, then declared war on Germany on 23 August.
Within a matter of days, three huge war fronts had been opened: in the west on the FrenchGerman border; in the east on the German-Russian border, and in the south east between AustriaHungary and Serbia.
GERMAN ADVANCE IN THE WEST
At first, the German advance was rapid: sweeping through Belgium, they easily won the first
engagement with the French at the Battle of Charleroi. The British sent an expeditionary force of
90,000 men across the channel to help the French, but they too were routed by the Germans at
the Battle of Mons.
The Allied forces in the west were plunged into a headlong retreat. Making the campaign seem
easy, the Germans pressed home their victories, crossing the Marne River. The French capital,
Paris, seemed certain to fall, and the seat of the French government was formally moved to
Bordeaux. Flushed with victory, the Germans then transferred six army corps from the Western
Front to the Eastern Front, where the campaign against Russia was moving into full swing.
This single tactical error would prove catastrophic for the German advance.
FRENCH COUNTER ATTACK HALTS THE GERMAN ADVANCE
As the first of the three major German armies converging on Paris crossed the Marne River, a
French attack fell upon them: the first Battle of the Marne was joined on 5 September 1914.
Weakened by the transfer of part of its reinforcements, the German advance wilted under the
unexpected French counter attack.
Quickly the tables were turned, and the German army was forced into a general retreat. The
Germans fell back to the Aisne River, where they were reinforced by two other German armies.
There they dug themselves into defensive positions and awaited the French attack.
THE FIRST TRENCHES
The Germans prepared their defenses on the Aisne well: digging huge trenches and other
positions in the earth, they unwittingly set the standard for virtually the rest of the war in the
West. Trench warfare, a new and horrifying form of static war, was to emerge: moving
completely away from the set battle pieces and mobile tactics of previous European wars.
The French launched three major attacks to
try and dislodge the Germans from their
dug in positions: the Battle of the Aisne; a
battle on the Somme River; and the First
Battle of Arras.
All three attempts failed, and the French
saw first hand how effective trenches could
be as a defensive measure. They started
digging their own large trenches virtually
immediately.
ANTWERP FALLS TO GERMANS
On the northern part of the front, the
Germans still managed to keep up their
Above: A German trench position. The
emergence of static trench warfare proved to be momentum: on 10 October, the city of
the main reason why the conflict lasted so long, Antwerp fell. The Germans then began
pursuing the British Expeditionary Force
with each side finding it almost impossible to
and the Belgians towards the English
dislodge the other from these well fortified
channel itself.
positions.
The Belgians then flooded a large part of the front in the path of the Germans by opening the
sluices on the Yser River.
The British had in the interim managed to draw together their forces, and in a series of battles
now known as the Battle of Flanders, halted the German advance in the north, forcing a trench
based stalemate as had happened in the south.
WESTERN FRONT GRINDS TO A HALT IN DECEMBER 1914
In December 1914, the French and British launched a new assault on the German line: this broke
on the defensive positions and trenches set up by the Germans, and the entire front settled down
to a bloody and muddy stalemate By the end of 1914 both sides had established trench lines
extending 800 kilometers (500 miles) from Switzerland to the North Sea.
Trench warfare had broken the mobility needed to bring conflicts to a sharp end and neither side
was able to penetrate each other's defenses to any great measure. As a result the front line hardly
moved for another three years from the positions established in October 1914.
NAVAL CLASHES IN NORTH SEA, PACIFIC AND SOUTH ATLANTIC
During the course of 1914, the German and British fleets did not come to grips with one another
off the European coast: the only engagements were a British raid on a German naval base at
Helgoland Bight, an island off Germany in the North Sea, in which three German ships were
sunk. German submarines then went onto the offensive, sinking several British naval units,
including the warship Audacious, in October 1914.
During September and October 1914, a task force of five German naval raiders in the South
Pacific attacked French installations on the island of Tahiti and the British on Fanning Island.
The German raiders then engaged and defeated a British squadron off Chile in November 1914,
but then suffered a major defeat, losing four of the five ships in the party, to the British at the
Battle of the Falkland Islands in December 1914.
THE ZEPPELINS RAID PARIS AND LONDON
The German airforce launched its first air raid on Paris in August 1914, and the first German air
raid on Dover, England, took place in December of that year. Then in 1916, the Germans
perfected the airship (known as the Zeppelin, after its designer, Count Graf von Zeppelin) and
during that year, England and London were raided 60 times by bomb dropping Zeppelins. The
first German aircraft raid on London took place in
November 1916.
The Germans continued to raid the city right up
until the end of the war. No military advantage
was gained by the raids, and they were intended
solely as a moral breaking exercise on the British
- an effort which failed.
MANFRED VON RICHTHOVEN - THE RED
BARON
Above: A Zeppelin and its air fighter
escort
- these massive craft raided Britain
The progress of the war saw a number of
and
France
right up the end of the war.
technological breakthroughs in aircraft design: the
German invention of a machine gun which could shoot through the rotating propeller without
destroying the blades, made the German fighters for a while the most accurate gunships in the
air.
Amongst the German air aces to exploit this technological leap was the famous Red Baron,
Manfred von Richthoven, who led his squadron, the Flying Circus, in his aircraft painted bright
red (so as to attract enemy aircraft - other aircraft were camouflaged to avoid detection.) After
Richthoven was shot down and killed in 1918, leadership of the Flying Circus passed to his
deputy and another German air ace of the war, Herman Goering.
By 1918, the arrival of hundreds of American aircraft had ensured that air supremacy had passed
into Allied hands.
CHLORINE GAS USED BY GERMANS FOR FIRST TIME
On the Western Front, the situation remained static until March 1915, when the British launched
a massive attack at Neuve Chapelle. It achieved virtually no significant territorial advances,
taking only the very outermost advanced German positions. The Germans then launched their
only offensive of 1915 - they were busy with a major offensive in the East at the time - in April
at Ieper.
This attack was marked by the German use of chlorine gas for the first time, setting a frightening
precedent which would soon be followed by all sides, adding significantly to the horror of the
front line. The German attack also achieved virtually nothing in terms of territorial advantage.
In May and June, the French and British
launched a combined offensive against the
German lines between Neuve Chapelle
and Arras. Once again, despite huge
losses, the gains were pathetic, with only
some four kilometers (2.5 miles) of land,
all still in the German trenchworks, falling
into Allied hands. In September, the
French launched an attack on the German
lines between Reims and the Argonne
Forest. Once again the attack ground to a
halt after the French had taken only the
Above: The horror of a gas attack: blinded
British soldiers are led away, each man following first line of German trenches.
the next by placing his hand on the other's
THE RUSSIANS INVADE EAST
shoulder.
PRUSSIA
In the East, the Russians initially did well. Beating numerically inferior forces in several straight
battles in August 1914, the Russians advanced deep into East Prussia and into the Austrian
province of Galacia. The German situation became so desperate in East Prussia that emergency
plans to evacuate the entire province were started, while the Russian armies in the south overran
most of Galacia and by March 1915, were poised to invade Hungary itself.
THE BATTLE OF TANNENBURG - RUSSIAN DEFEAT
Just when a German collapse in East Prussia seemed inevitable, a fresh German army arrived.
Under General Paul von Hindenburg they rushed East and in a furious battle at Tannenburg,
decisively defeated the invading Russians in East Prussia in August 1914. Tannenburg marked
the first of three major defeats for the Russians: the cumulative effect of these reverses would see
Russian forces retreat into Russian territory where the front would mostly remain for the duration
of the war.
THE GERMANS AND AUSTROHUNGARIANS DRIVE EAST
The German forces followed up this
victory with two further overwhelming
victories: the First Battle of the Masurian
Lakes, fought in September 1914, and the
Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes
fought in February 1915. In April 1915, a
combined German and Austrian army
launched a major offensive against the
Russians, driving them out of the
Carpathians.
Above: Russian troops march west - and then
east again.
In May, the Austro-German armies began a
great offensive in central Poland, forcing the Russians to withdraw from Galacia. By September
1915, the Germans had driven the Russians out of Poland, Lithuania, and Courland, and had also
taken possession of the western border of Russia itself. When the German drive east finally ran
out of steam, the front line lay well within Russia: behind the Dvina River between Riga and
Dvinsk and south to the Dniester River. The Russians lost thousands of men and much
equipment: it would be months before they were to play any significant role in the war again.
THE SOUTH EASTERN FRONT SEES BRITISH AND FRENCH INTERVENTION
On the third front, that between Austro-Hungary and Serbia, the initial Austrian attacks were all
repulsed by the small but powerful Serbian army. The front then stalemated with both sides
holding their own territory. In October 1915, British and French troops were landed in neutral
Greece at Salonika, with the permission of the Greek government, with the aim of coming to the
aid of Serbia.
Then the Bulgarians, still smarting from their defeat in the Second Balkan War of 1913, tried to
retake the territorial claims they had lost in that previous war. In the same month that the French
and British troops landed in Greece, Bulgaria declared war on Serbia and formally entered the
war on the side of the Central Powers.
The Allied troops immediately advanced into Serbia, but were routed by a well planned
Bulgarian offensive and were forced to retreat all the way back to Salonika. Simultaneously the
Bulgarians also managed to inflict a severe defeat upon the Serbians.
SERBIA OVERRUN BY AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN AND GERMAN OFFENSIVE
In October 1915, a fresh combined Austro-Hungarian and German army drive south was
launched. This, coming on top of the Bulgarian victory, saw Serbia crushed. By the end of that
year all of Serbia was occupied and the Serbian army eliminated from the conflict.
TURKEY ENTERS WAR WITH ATTACK ON RUSSIA
Ottoman Turkey, still smarting at its defeat and ejection from its southern European held
territories during the First Balkan War of 1912, was easily persuaded to join in an attack on
Russia, its fiercest rival in Eastern Europe.
Turkish warships eagerly participated with German warships in a naval bombardment of Russian
Black Sea ports and Russia then declared war on Turkey in November 1914. Britain and France
then followed their Russian ally, and by the most bizarre set of circumstances the Nonwhite
power that had for so long tried to exterminate the Germans in Austria suddenly found itself
allied to that very same nation.
The Turks lost no time in attacking their
Russian foes. In December 1914, they
invaded the Caucasus, overrunning large
areas. The Russians, under severe pressure
from the Germans in the west and the
Turks in the south, then asked for help in
the form of a diversionary attack on
Turkey by the Allied powers.
Above: A Turkish army caravan makes its way
through the desert in that country's abortive
efforts to stop the British advance through the
Middle East. The Ottoman Empire was to be
destroyed for once and for all in this war.
GALLIPOLI - ALLIED DISASTER
In February 1915, the French and British
navies then bombarded Turkish forts along
the Dardanelles. This was followed up
with two sea borne invasion of Gallipoli in Turkey between April and August, one of British,
Australian, and French troops in April, and one of several additional British divisions in August.
The Turks prepared their defenses well: the invasion was a complete failure and the Allied forces
were forced to withdraw with severe losses.
BRITISH SEIZE MESOPOTAMIA FROM TURKS
The land of Mesopotamia had been occupied by Muslims since soon after the founding of that
religion, and had later been incorporated into the Ottoman Empire. Now it was attacked by a
British force operating out of India. The Turks were defeated in a series of battles from 1914,
and the British then launched a drive on Baghdad, another Ottoman stronghold.
However, a desperate Turkish rearguard action at the Battle of Ctesiphon in November 1915,
saw the British defeated and forced to retreat back into Mesopotamia, where they were besieged
by the Turks at the town of Al Kuut in December of that year.
ITALIANS SWITCH SIDES TO JOIN ALLIES
Although Italy had formally been a member of the Central Power alliance, it remained neutral
until May 1915, when it broke ranks and declared war on Austro-Hungary, allying itself to the
western powers. The Italians then launched an offensive to capture Trieste, but after four major
battles with the Austrian army, at the Isonzo River from June to December, they failed in their
attempts to break through the Austrian lines.
THE SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA
By May 1915, the Germans had instituted a policy of trying to blockade Britain into submission:
they reasoned that if that island country could be starved of all supplies and raw materials, it
would have to sue for peace. A policy of unrestricted submarine warfare was then declared: all
ships traveling to or from Britain were targets and would be sunk without warning.
On 7 May 1915, the British passenger liner, Lusitania, which was later shown to be carrying
munitions and military supplies, was sunk by a German submarine. A number of American
nationals were on board and died in the sinking. The American government protested and the
Germans then announced a modification in their policy: in future all such ships would be warned
before they were attacked and the Americans undertook to urge their nationals not to travel on
such vessels in future.
In March 1916, a French liner, the Sussex, was sunk by a German submarine, again with the loss
of American lives, leading to another controversy between the American and German
governments. This time the Germans announced they were abandoning the unrestricted
submarine warfare policy completely.
THE BATTLE OF JUTLAND
On the last day of May and the first day of June 1916, the only major naval battle between the
Germans and the British took place off the north European coast of Jutland. Although the British
losses, both in ships and human lives, were greater than Germany's, the German fleet never again
joined battle on such a scale for the rest of the war.
THE SLAUGHTERHOUSES OF VERDUN AND THE SOMME
The German victories in the east enabled them to transfer a half million men to the Western
Front in 1916. In February that year, they launched a new offensive designed to break the French
lines around the city of Verdun. After bitter fighting, the Germans managed to seize some
surrounding forts, but failed to take Verdun itself, mainly due to the heroic French defense of the
region under the leadership of one of their ablest generals, Philipe Petain (who won the title of
Hero of Verdun in France as a result).
By the end of November, the French had managed to retake the German gains and the front line
had reverted to where it had started. German and French losses were massive: as a result, the
French were only able to contribute 16 divisions out of the intended 40 with which they had
started the year, to an Allied attack which began on the Somme in July 1916.
The Battle of the Somme, which continued until November 1916 saw the first significant Allied
territorial gains of the war in the west: some 325 square kilometers of land was wrested from the
Germans.
The main reason for this surprising territorial gain was the introduction of a British secret
weapon: the tank, the first time ever such a weapon was deployed in any war. These armored
vehicles, which had originally been conceptualized by Leonardo da Vinci, were built in secret,
and were only called tanks as a code name: the
word however stuck.
NEW RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE ENDS IN
IMMEDIATE FAILURE
In the east, the Russians recovered from their
first defeats and launched a new offensive
against the Germans in February 1916, in the
Lake Narocz region northeast of Vilna. The
attack was a complete failure and saw the
Russians lose more than 100,000 men.
Above: The tank, conceptualized by
In June 1916, the Russians carried out a new
Leonardo
da Vinci, first appeared during
attack against the Austrians on a wide front
the
First
World War, developed by the
running from Pinsk south to Czernowitz. This
British.
attack penetrated some 65 kilometers (40 miles)
and took half a million prisoners until the arrival of German reinforcements in September turned
back the Russian advance. The Russians lost a million men during the four month campaign.
The Russian advance had however persuaded Rumania that it could enter the war on the side of
the Allies: it declared war on Germany and Austria in August 1916 and invaded the AustroHungarian province of Transylvania. In a combined offensive which saw Austrian, Bulgarian
and Turkish troops invade Rumania, that country was completely overrun by January 1917 and
eliminated from the war.
THE SOUTHERN FRONT SEES ALLIED ADVANCE
On the Italian front, 1916 was marked by five more battles on the Isonzo River, all but one being
launched by the Italians, and all ultimately failing in their objective to significantly move the
front line.
Meanwhile, in Greece the Greek king was accused by the Allies of becoming pro-German. A
renewed Allied landing at Thesalonika saw rebel Greeks set up an alternative government under
Allied supervision in November 1916, splitting Greece politically and physically into two: one
section neutral, the other declaring war on Germany and Austro-Hungary. The Allies then
resorted to a naval blockade of the neutral part of Greece, giving formal recognition to the rebel
government in Thesalonika.
Simultaneously, an Allied push into Austro-Hungarian territory took place: Macedonia was
seized in November and by the end of the year the Allied armies had reached the border of
Albania and Macedonia.
TURKISH TERRITORY INVADED
In the Middle East the Turks were steadily put under pressure: by February 1916, a large part of
Mesopotamia had been cleared of Turkish troops by the British, while at the same time a number
of Arabs seized the opportunity to revolt against Ottoman rule in Saudi Arabia. Then the British
attacked from their long established bases in Egypt (which had been there since the building of
the Suez Canal) and steadily drove the Turks out of the Sinai Peninsula and Palestine. By early
1917, most parts of these regions were under British rule.
The First Great Brothers' War: World War One : Part Two 1917-1918