Army manoeuvres 1913

1913 was, weatherwise, generally a rather dull and cool year in which both sunshine and rainfall were limited. Perfect, in fact, for the second of the large scale army manoeuvres carried out before 1914. The first, in 1912, had exposed Haig as dangerously incompetent. Haig commanded a crack Aldershot 'Red' force with an established command structure, against Grierson's rag-bag 'Blue' force made up of scratch units including Yeomanry and cyclists (classed as cavalry). Despite having all the advantages, including being the attacking side, Haig screwed up monumentally and Grierson walked all over him. 

The 1913 manoeuvres again had a crack 'Brown' force under French of two Infantry corps and a cavalry division against a scratch 'White' force under Monro of Territorials and Yeomanry. This time there was no mistake and Brown duly won. White, however, did remarkably well - making excellent use of aircraft as spotters, motor transport and cyclists, by now correctly classed as mounted infantry. French had not done well, however. The problems in co-ordinating the movement of 50,000 men and 25,000 horses in the field had not been overcome and the generals were then practising very much a war of rapid movement. The stars were the aircraft, and they were to prove their worth in 1914 at the Aisne and the Marne.

Yet the following year it was French and Haig that led the BEF of 75,000 men in Belgium. Grierson died of a heart attack shortly after landing.  

Between now and next year there will be a great deal of guff that portrays farmhands and factory workers flocking to the colours in August 1914 and 'in the trenches' a month later. This will all be bollocks and can be disregarded. The trenches didn't come until later, and the only men sent to France and Belgium were the BEF and slightly later those trained men in the reserve. That first phase of the war, very much a war of movement, was fought by the professionals and no doubt lessons had been learned at Brigade level and below from the 1912 / 1913 exercises that served them well.

1913: The Road to War

The government's official planned commemoration of the Great War has been criticised on a number of levels, not least of which is the extent to which the official interpretation avoids any negative mention of Germany's role in igniting the conflict. Robert Hardman in the Mail, a jingoist in full Horatio Bottomley mode, suggests we should upset the Germans by reminding them of their war crimes. This, I think, completely misses the point. No nation has clean hands in war, but only the losers get tried. The truth is rather more complex. Franz Ferdinand's assassination did not cause the Great War, but was 'the gift from Mars' that provided the pretext. 

In January 1914 Germany wanted a European war and was militarily ready for one. Russian military expansion in the first decade of the twentieth century had been spectacular and was estimated to reach parity with Germany by 1917; Germany was terrified of trade barriers and tariffs that would restrict her own expansion, particularly if imposed by Britain, France and Russia. Just prior to the war the first version of the EU was proposed, a vast tariff-free area uniting the Hapsburg empire, the Balkans, Germany, Italy and Belgium - and indeed this Mitteleuropa was to feature explicitly in German war aims. Supported by German business, and in particular by Germany's cleverest businessman, Walter Rathenau, Bethmann Hollweg maintained that this would be the outcome of a short, sharp 'preventative' war lasting perhaps only weeks. 

The major barrier to war throughout Europe had been seen as the opposition to it by the proletariat and the social democratic parties across the continent. No nation wanted to commit to a war that would cause a domestic revolution. By 1914 this had all changed. Across Europe the working classes clamoured for war; in Britain, far from opposing conscription, the entire working class volunteered for war - and nowhere was more jingoistic than the Rhondda. In every European nation it was the same, with volunteers overwhelming the resources available to clothe, feed and equip them. 

These pressures alone - of intense nationalism, of trade war, of colonial supremacy, of the arms race, of fear of falling behind - were dangerous enough, making Europe a powder keg. One nation was pivotal in being in a position to prevent global war - Prussian Germany. I'll save for a subsequent post how she not only failed to do so, but covertly encouraged all the measures to ensure it happened. Including the extraordinary sensitivity inside Germany to this fact, with Norman Stone's account of the subsequent cover-ups.
 

"The lamps are going out all over Europe ..."

How astute of David Cameron to seize Sir Edward Grey's words as the keystone of the centenary commemoration of the start of the Great War. What we had all mis-ascribed as a hopeless shambles of a government energy policy that will leave us with rolling blackouts and power cuts in 2014 was in fact a perspicacious preparation for Cameron's 'reality war experience'. Together with coming food shortages and rationing and draconian restrictions on alcohol sales, Dave is determined we won't forget 2014.