Great empires ruled much of Europe when the war began.
These empires had, of course, many religious, ethnic, or national minorities as parts of
them, but in a great many cases those minorities and their interests were not given equal rights
or were actively repressed, but as the war has progressed we see more and more the rise
of nationalism and demands for self determination.
I’m Indy Neidell; welcome to the Great War.
Last week the Romanian campaign came to an end, with the rival forces now facing each
other across the Sereth River.
Kaiser Wilhelm decided that he would bring back unrestricted submarine warfare and Russia
got a new Prime Minister.
It was the height of a very cold European winter, and during January 1917, there was
no theater of the war more affected by weather than the Italian one.
Along much of the lines it was in mountainous territory, sometimes thousands of meters high,
and the terrain and the weather prevented most action except sudden violent bursts of
artillery.
I was reading, though, about a small action in the Vallarsa this winter that I thought
I’d share because it illustrates the unique nature of this front.
The Italians were attacking a peak called Luma, and the Alpini and Bersaglieri had scaled
the mountain on rope ladders.
Once over the crest, there was a furious battle on the mountaintop.
“Their (Austrian) resistance was specially keen around the fearful natural fortifications
called the Tooth, consisting of spires and slender ledges and abounding in caverns...
One of the spectacular sights of the day was an Alpini perched on his spire of the tooth,
who kept the Austrian machine gunners from their task, pelting them with rocks every
time they set to work.”
I thought that was a good image to put in your minds.
That lone Italian fighting off machine gunners with a barrage of rocks.
Just a good illustration of how bizarre this war really was.
This week on that front, though, there was a concerted attack.
On the 18th, after a violent artillery barrage, the Austrians attacked Italian positions near
Frigido on the Carso, south of Gorizia.
Italian rifles stopped the attack before it could really get going.
The attacks this week on the Western Front were also fairly small scale.
Canadian troops carried out a successful raid this week there, northeast of Cité Calonne,
penetrating as far as the second German trench lines on a front of close to a kilometer,
wrecking the German dugouts and causing heavy losses.
100 men and several machine guns were captured.
Canadian troops, Cossacks, Zouaves, Indian soldiers, you could now see, though, that
in addition to just fighting, national aspirations were becoming a larger part of the war.
The Arab Revolt was gaining momentum in the Arabian Peninsula.
British officers, including Lawrence of Arabia, were leading Arab raids on positions near
Yenbo on the Red Sea.
Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, and more, were planning their national futures, should Austria-Hungary
collapse.
Many Jews were hoping for Jewish autonomy in Palestine once the Ottomans were defeated.
At the beginning of the week came an Allied declaration from Rome, promising to strive
for the liberation of all the peoples of Austria-Hungary, naming Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Slovenes, Croats,
Serbs, and Romanians.
US President Woodrow Wilson would say in his State of the Union address that a united Poland
should be a product of the war, with access to the Baltic.
The Tsar actually gave support to that this month.
Yep, after a century of being Poland’s overlords, the Russians were possibly willing to liberate
them in search of military and popular support.
And someone else was looking for national support this week.
Dr. Alfred von Zimmermann, recently appointed German Foreign Minister, had a plan where
if resuming unrestricted submarine warfare brought the US into the war, Germany could
maybe win Mexico’s alliance against the US.
On January 19th, in a coded telegram to his minister von Eckardt in Mexico City, Zimmermann
wrote that with generous German financial support, Mexico could reconquer the territory
it had lost to the US- Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.
This was the Zimmermann telegram, and we’ll hear more about it soon.
Mexico was neutral, but neutrality hadn’t stopped either side from trying to influence
nations.
Allied occupation had caused great public uproar in neutral Greece.
In fact, over the past month, the Greek situation had occupied French Commander Maurice Sarrail’s
thoughts as much as the Bulgarian army opposing him did.
Allied Troops were sent to occupy the five-mile “neutral zone” between the Greek Royalist
and Venizelist spheres of influence.
The French established posts in this zone to keep the peace between those hostile sections
of the Greek nation.
This zone reached the sea at Ekaterini, where other allied troops were building roads and
piers.
Also this week in Greece, the Greek government accepted the allied ultimatum from December
31st that consisted of several humiliating terms before the Allies would lift their naval
blockade.
So that would come to an end.
Another thing that had ended was the Romanian campaign last week.
Now, this campaign is often overlooked today or dismissed as a minor side note, but the
Germans certainly viewed it as a major triumph.
In just four months, all of Wallachia and Dobrogea had been occupied and Bucharest had
fallen.
The Romanian army had been crushed and only huge Russian support allowed its remnants
to remain in the war.
The major medals and awards for the campaign went to German Chief of Staff von Hindenburg
and Field Marshal August von Mackensen.
But General Erich von Falkenhayn was pretty resentful over this.
Hindenburg received the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross for directing the campaign, and
Mackensen got the same for taking Bucharest.
Falkenhayn did not begrudge Mackensen that medal, but he was pretty pissed that high
command was getting credit for his work.
He believed his 9th army had borne the brunt of the fighting.
It had crossed a mountain range and several rivers, and destroyed three enemy armies,
and all critical decisions were made by he and his staff.
Falkenhayn’s biographer later wrote that they would make decisions and then telegraph
high command, who would then write directives based on what Falkenhayn had already decided
to do.
And that was a lot, according to Falkenhayn, (Prelude to Blitzkrieg) “It is really not
an exaggeration, if one were to say that this lengthy force march across Wallachia is one
of the greatest achievements in military history”.
But you know, Falkenhayn had been sacked as army chief of staff just last August, and
the mere fact that he had even gotten a chance to salvage his reputation was pretty unheard
of.
And anyhow, the German official history has nothing but praise for his actions in Romania,
in juxtaposition to its criticism of his work while chief of staff.
And Mackensen as well was nothing short of lavish in his praise of Falkenhayn and the
Romanian Campaign.
Falkenhayn wanted another field command, but Hindenburg just didn’t want him around.
Don’t know if you remember or not, but he had hated Falkenhayn as Chief of Staff and
had labored to have him removed.
He would soon convince the Kaiser to send Falkenhayn to the Ottoman Empire to command
Army Group F on the Palestine Front.
We’ll maybe see more of him down there.
And here are some notes to end the week.
On the 19th, after ten days continuous fighting, the British finally clear the right bank of
the Tigris below Kut.
Germany announced recently that total losses inflicted at sea by subs and mines in November
were 191 ships totaling 408,500 tons.
Of those, 138 ships of 314,500 tons were allied while 53 were neutral.
None were American, though here’s an interesting American sidenote-
The French Aviation Corps section containing American volunteers brought down 21 German
planes the past six months, and by this time four Americans, that I know of, had been killed
while flying for the Allies.
Kiffin Rockwell, shot down over the Thames in September, Norman Prince, who died from
wounds a week after taking them, Antony Jannus, killed flying for the Russians in October,
and Ruskin Watts, who flew for the British, missing since September, presumed dead.
And the week comes to an end, with small actions in Italy and the west, Falkenhayn feeling
slighted, and a telegram to Mexico that would prove somewhat of a game changer.
And in all of the empires waging this war, the rise of nationalism and indeed, the active
courting of minorities by imperial heads of state.
Places like New Zealand, Australia, or Canada that before the war had been seen as far-away
colonial backwaters, had now proven themselves as brave and independent forces.
Poles, Czech legions, and Bosnian battalions had shown their value and wished to be recognized
as nations, should the conflict ever end, and they were beginning to receive major support.
This was a huge change in mindset from just two years ago and showed that, no matter how
the war ended, the map of Europe would be very different indeed.
If you want to learn more about one of these colonies, click here for our Canada special.
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See you next time.