Russia lost territory in 1915. Miles of territory- thousands of miles of territory to the Austro-German
colossus. Russia now needed someone to beat and if it couldn’t happen in the north,
then Russia would turn her attention far to the south.
I’m Indy Neidell; welcome to the Great War.
Last week the invasion of Montenegro by Austro-Hungarian forces was complete, and they then attacked
Albania, while the Allies were working hard to evacuate the remainder of the Serbian army
from Albania to Corfu. The Western, Eastern, and Italian fronts were quiet, but at home
in Germany anti-American sentiment was growing, and in Greece the Allies were building up
their forces in violation of Greek neutrality.
The Western Front may have been fairly quiet on the lines, but behind the lines there was
a lot going on.
German Army Chief of Staff Erich von Falkenhayn was setting up for his plan to bleed the French
army to death at Verdun. He was going to attack Verdun in the belief that its national symbolism
was so great the French would have no choice but to defend it to the end. The attack was
scheduled for February 12th.
The German Fifth Army had built ten new railway lines and a couple dozen railway stations.
Trainloads of steamrollers and road building equipment were on the move. Whole villages
behind the lines were evacuated to make room for the hundreds of thousands of men arriving
for the attack. Just one Corps was outfitted with over a million sandbags and over half
a million pounds of barbed wire, but it was, of course, the artillery that was the real
focus here. Big guns were brought in from as far away as Russia and the Balkans- over
1,200 of them, to attack on a front barely 8 miles long. These included 13 Big Berthas;
with a caliber 17 inches they fired shells that weighed over a ton and when they were
fired, the concussion broke windows for several kilometers around. These were the guns that
had shattered the impregnable fortress of Liege in 1914. Two 15 inch long distance naval
guns were also brought in, as well as 17 Austrian 305 mm mortars, and loads of the quick-firing
210s, which would become- to the French- the most familiar gun at Verdun. 150s, 130s, mine
throwers; they all came by the hundreds. And one other weapon that would make its large-scale
debut at Verdun: the flamethrower.
By February 1st, all of the guns were in place. Now, all of this is a lot to conceal from
the enemy, but the Germans were helped by the wooded and broken countryside. Also, they
set the artist Franz Marc to work painting camouflage canvas and nets and where there
were no trees, these were draped over the roads and ground.
There were other big changes from the battles of 1915. For one, there were underground concrete
galleries called Stollen. See, surprise had been lost earlier by cramming assault troops
into the front trenches. The enemy can see when you’re going to attack and the counter
attacks always did huge damage. Now, the men were to wait in shellproof Stollen, hundreds
and hundreds of them in each one. And overhead, 168 airplanes would provide a dawn to dusk
aerial barrage that would prevent the French from sending any aircraft to spy on the German
positions. This would be the first aerial umbrella the world had seen.
But the war in the skies was heating up the whole time.
Back on January 23rd two French air squadrons, 24 planes, bombed the railway station and
barracks at Metz. These bombers were escorted by two more squadrons and the escorts engaged
in ten combats with German Fokkers, but only one French plane was damaged enough to be
forced down. On the 29th there was a zeppelin raid on Paris, on the 31st, 6 zeppelins raid
East Anglia and the Midlands killed 70 and injured 113, and on February 1st, the first
merchant ship ever sunk by aerial bombardment, the British cargo ship Franz Fischer, went
down. And speaking of new forms of attack, on January 29th, the first British tank began
its testing.
I want to look now at a front we haven’t seen much of for quite a while, the Caucasus
front.
The winter had so far prevented any real activity there, except behind the lines, but no longer.
This front now became for Russia one of major importance. For one, attacks there promised
the best return for the smallest expenditure of time, men, and money. Against both Germany
and Austria-Hungary Russia had suffered severe setbacks, and the Ottomans seemed to be, comparatively,
an easy opponent, even through the roadless- and railless Trans-Caucasian mountain passes.
Of course, that’s what the British had thought in 1915 at Gallipoli and in Mesopotamia.
But the German and Austrian drives had come to a stop and they seemed to be content for
the time being just holding the front from Riga to Romania, and this breather allowed
Russia to really turn her attention toward the Ottomans, and under the Grand Duke Nikolai,
all was now ready for an advance upon Erzurum. This was actually a really good time for such
an offensive because all Ottoman forces available were being sent to Baghdad and then thrown
into the siege of Kut, where General Charles Townshend’s British Indian army awaited
relief. Taking Kut would be a major victory for the Ottoman Empire.
Also, the war in the Balkans had brought the Allies to Salonika in ever growing numbers
and the Turks had an army of over 200,000 men at or to the north of Constantinople to
prevent an offensive there so who could be diverted to the Caucasus front? Good question.
In command of the Russian forces under Nikolai was General Nikolai Yudenich, who had- I’m
not kidding- spent years studying the specific problems of an offensive in the Kars-Erzurum
region, and he would advance upon Erzurum from three points. A pincer movement combined
with a frontal assault. But Erzurum was one of the strongest points in the whole Ottoman
Empire with two rings of defenses and hundreds of big guns. The Turkish plan for the defense
was this: the Third Army Corps was moved out of Erzurum and took a position between it
and the Russians, the 9th and 10th Corps moved out toward Olty to make an offensive ring,
and the 11th Corps was to hold the Russians on the Kars-Erzurum road. If they weren’t
able to do that, they would fall back as slowly as they could toward the fortress and draw
the Russian forces in, after which the 9th and 10th Corps would hit their flank. Things
were slowly building to a head, and the Russians advanced nearer and nearer.
But what of Russia at home? What was going on there after there was much turmoil and
strike throughout the last months?
Well, on February 1st, though the exact date is disputed in different sources, Ivan Goremykin
resigned as Prime Minister and Boris Stürmer was appointed. Stürmer was a favorite of
Rasputin, who in turn was a favorite of the Tsarina. The Tsar tasked Stürmer specifically
to improve relations between the government and the Romanovs, which did not happen. The
divide grew greater and greater. Stürmer, and his Germanic name didn’t help things,
was suspected of being pro-German and was deeply unpopular. which caused many to see
him as a dictator and his short time at the helm was marked by inflation, food shortages,
and an increase in Rasputin’s authority. War Minister Alexei Polivanov would later
call Stürmer’s appointment the beginning of the end.
And another week draws to a close, a week of foreboding. The Germans are gearing up
for a gigantic offensive, the Russians on the move against the Ottomans, and the war
in the skies growing and growing, while the Russian government becomes ever more turbulent.
There was a story going around the western front all winter that above a German parapet
somebody had put up a plank that said, “The English are fools.” British rifle fire destroyed
the plank. Soon, another plank appeared that said, “The French are fools.” British
rifle fire destroyed the plank. A third plank soon went up, “We’re all fools. Let’s
all go home.” And though it was also shot to pieces, it caused a great deal of laughter.
Correspondent Philip Gibbs wrote that men were saying, “There’s a good deal of truth
in those words. Why should this go on?... The fighting men have no real quarrel with
each other.” And that the men were caught in a devil’s trap, and Gibbs describes the
trap like this, “Loyalty to our own side, discipline, with the death penalty behind
it... obedience to the laws of war... all the moral and spiritual propaganda handed
out by pastors, newspapers, generals, staff officers, old men at home, exalted women...
a deep and simple love for England, and Germany, pride of manhood, fear of cowardice – a
thousand complexities of thought and sentiment prevented men, on both sides, from breaking
the net of fate in which they were entangled, and revolting against that mutual unceasing
massacre, by a rising from the trenches with a shout of, “We’re all fools! Let’s
all go home!”
But they weren’t fools, they were just ordinary men. Millions of them being led by fools,
perhaps, others perhaps not, but all of them hopelessly stuck into obedience of the laws
of war.
If you want to find out more about the Caucasian front and how Enver Pasha lost a whole army
there last year, check out our episode right here.
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