This war, which was supposed to be over by last Christmas, celebrates its first birthday
this week. In just 12 months we’ve seen the advent or weapons of horror like the flamethrower
and poison gas, we’ve seen submarines intentionally torpedo civilians, and we’ve seen new fronts
spring up pretty much every month, and now it seems, the people at home have had enough,
for there were stirrings of revolution in the air.
I’m Indy Neidell; welcome to the Great War.
Last week in Poland the Germans beat back the Russians on two sides of Warsaw, and the
great Russian retreat both there and between the Bug and Vistula rivers had led to a scorched
earth policy that would create millions of refugees. The Western Front was static, the
Italians tried again and failed to break through the Austrian lines at the Isonzo River and
at Gallipoli disease was becoming a major issue.
Something that also happened last week, but was happening every week was the ongoing Armenian Genocide in Eastern Anatolia.
Now, on the 27th, the Ottoman Imperial Army forced the Russians back near Mush, but Mush
had been in the headlines all month, since throughout the month thousands of Armenians
had been massacred in the region, but though news of these massacres caused great indignation
among the Allies, it was becoming obvious by now that all restraints were easing on
all sides. For Britain was preparing to use poison gas in its next offensive, and the
Kaiser took back his earlier orders not to bomb residential areas of London. As impossible
as it seems; the war was getting even uglier.
Look at what was happening on the Western Front this week and you’ll see it even more.
One of the micro battles that happened basically everyday on the stalemate of the Western Front
was this week at Hooge. This was a battle for a mine crater, which had been created
during an earlier British assault on the German trenches. Mine craters were big prizes because
they gave shelter to whoever captured them and a pretty well protected place from which to fire on the enemy.
The attack began on the 29th and the Germans used their heavy mortar shells, the minenwerfer,
later known as the Minnie’s by the British. These shells not only blew people to pieces,
but the power of the explosions was so terrific that several men of the attacking battalion
were sent back behind the lines in a state of gibbering helplessness. Well, that was
on the 29th, on the 30th the Germans used flamethrowers on the British. Way back in
February the Germans had experimented with flamethrowers in battle, though ineffectively,
but at Hooge, the burning jets of gasoline were devastating. Lieutenant G.V. Carey wrote,
“There was a sudden hissing sound and a bright crimson glare over the crater turned
the whole scene red. As I looked I saw three or four jets of flame- like a line of powerful
fire-hoses spraying fire instead of water- shoot across my fire trench. The men caught
in the blast of the fire were never seen again.”
That was the morning attack. In the afternoon the British attacked again, going over the
top at three o’clock and being cut to pieces by the machine guns that they hadn’t had
time to locate. It was a complete, agonizing failure. And all for a hole in the ground.
But while the action in the West might be micro, it was certainly macro in the East.
In fear of possible invasion, Russia evacuated the factories in both Riga and Warsaw on the
25th. On the 27th, Warsaw was attacked on three sides. On the 28th, the German army
crossed the Vistula between Warsaw and Ivangorod. On the 29th, the Lyublin-Chelm railway, vital
for the Russians, was finally cut by Austro-German forces, and on the 30th the Russians fell
back along the entire line, as the evacuation of Warsaw continued and the Austro-Hungarian army occupied Ljublin.
The Russians had steadily been losing territory for three solid months since German General
August von Mackensen kicked off the Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive and now that a second offensive
was beginning far to the north, it seemed like it would only get worse.
And just imagine the effect it had on the morale of the hopelessly out gunned and out
equipped soldiers. There were certainly those willing to step in and take advantage of the situation.
This week, the Russian General staff gave out to all Russian commanders a secret report
about Bolshevik anti-war propaganda that was apparently being hidden in gifts sent from
home. At this point, one Russian report said that super human efforts were required to
keep the men in their trenches, and on the 30th in Petrograd, General Polivanov, the
new Minister of War warned that “Demoralization, surrender, and desertion are assuming huge proportions”.
Actually, on the 27th, James W. Gerard, the American Ambassador in Berlin, told Washington
that Germans were, “picking out the revolutionists and liberals from the many Russian prisoners
of war, furnishing them with money and false passports and papers, and sending them back
to Russia to stir up a revolution.” But the idea of governmental change was not only
Russian; British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey had even said back on the 15th, “the
continuation of the war must result in the overthrow of all existing forms of government.”
That’s the Foreign Secretary saying that.
And this week in Berlin, the New Fatherland League supported a declaration by 91 German
intellectuals, including Albert Einstein, that pushed for a compromise peace with no
annexed territories. When the league then did a mail out of an anthology of statements
by British pacifists like George Bernard Shaw and Bertrand Russell, the league’s offices
were raided and it was forced to cease all publications. Eventually, the League’s existence
was banned. But you could see the huge discontent that was spreading in the countries that had been at war the longest.
This wasn’t quite the case with Italy, though, who had only been at war for a couple of months
and hadn’t yet had the time to suffer a million casualties or so.
This week went well for the Italians, as they advanced on the Lower Isonzo the 25th, occupied
crests in the Julian Alps the 26th, captured the island of Pelagosa in the Adriatic that
same day, and at the end of the week were making offensives in the Venetian Alps and Trentino.
Also in the Adriatic this week, the French d estroyed an Austrian submarine supply station
at Lagosta. It was an active week for subs.
The American Steamer Leelanaw was torpedoed on the 25th. This was a cargo ship and there
were fortunately no casualties, but on the 30th the Leyland liner Iberian was torpedoed
and an American citizen was killed, but since it had disregarded an order to stop and tried
to escape, the American state department said it would take no action.
And here are a few notes to round out the week:
On the 25th, South Africa officially annexed German Southwest Africa. That same day in
the Middle East, Nasiriya was shelled, attacked, and occupied by British forces under General
Gorringe, and the following day Nejd in North Eastern Arabia which I’m probably pronouncing
wrong announced its independence from the Ottoman Empire and put the garrison there
to flight. And at the end of the week, 45 French planes bomb Freiburg and Pfalzburg
as the war in the air continues to grow.
So that’s what was happening. The Germans closing in on Warsaw and Ivangorod as the
Russians evacuate; the British being stopped from taking a hole in the ground by flamethrowers
and high explosives; the Italians on the move, and revolution in the air.
But it had to come to that, right? Dreams of revolution. Especially for Russia, who
had already had one revolution in the past decade. Think if you were in that army, an
educated officer, watching hundreds of thousands of your comrades throw themselves against
Austrian and German artillery again and again armed only with bayonets. Or clubs. The lucky
ones having a rifle. And all for what? Why were you fighting the Germans again? Because
a Serb shot an Austrian a year ago? Did that make any sense to you? Did you still support
your government? Your absolute ruler who sent you to fight? More and more often, the answer
was no, as despair grew and grew. The war was exactly a year old, with no end in sight,
you were reduced to torching your own country just to survive, and all you had left were
your dreams of a future were you finally had control of your own destiny. Happy Birthday, Great War.
If you are new to our show or want to catch up on the events of the past 12 months, you
can watch our playlist of special recap episodes right here.
Now 12 months of war of course mean that our channel and this show also celebrate their
birthday with this episode. We’ve come a long way and couldn’t have done it without you.
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