WORLD WAR I

BY LEE SAUNDERS

VETERANS DAY • NOVEMBER 11, 2007

VETERANS MEMORIAL PARK • ABINGDON, VA

THE FIRST WORLD WAR BEGAN WITH TWO PISTOL SHOTS FIRED BY A 19-YEAR-OLD SERBIAN NATIONALIST.

HIS VICTIMS WERE ARCHDUKE FERDINAND, HEIR TO THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN THRONE, AND HIS WIFE, WHO WERE TOURING THE CITY OF SARAJEVO IN AN OPEN CAR. THE GUNMAN WAS CAPTURED AND IMPRISONED. THE DATE WAS JUNE 28^TH, 1914.

THESE TWO SENSELESS MURDERS IN THE BALKAN CAPITAL 93 YEARS AGO WERE INTENED TO TRIGGER THE LIBERATION OF SERVIA FROM AUSTRIAN CONTROL. INSTEAD THE ASSASSINATION SPARKED A GLOBAL WAR THAT OVER THE NEXT FOUR YEARS WOULD COST 10 MILLION LIVES. “THE GREAT WAR”, AS IT WAS CALLED, WOULD MARK THE END OF THE OLD, AUTOCRATIC EUROPEN ORDERS. AND FROM THIS DEBACLE, NEW OPPRESSIVE REGIMES WOULD EMERGE – REGIMES OF UNIMAGINABLE BRUTALITY.

THE EVETNS THAT FOLLOWED THE ASSASSINATION IN THE ENSUING WEEKS DEFIED RATIONALITY. FOR NEARLY HALF A CENTURY, EUROPE HAD ENJOYED PEACE AND PROSPERITY. WAR SEEMED IMPOSSIBLE. AND YET, UNDER THE VENEER OF DIPLOMACY, EUROPEAN GOVERNMENTS HAD FOR YEARS MADE SECRET PACTS TO OFFSET POWER IMBALANCS, BOTH REAL AND IMAGINED. THESE COMPLEX, INTERLOCKING ALLIANCES WOULD CREATE AN UNSTOPPABLE CHIAN OF EVENTS.

THESE ARE THE EVENTS AS THEY UNFOLDED:

- FIRST, AUSTRIA-HUNGRY IMPOSED HARSH DEMANDS ON SERBIA AS A REPRISAL FOR THE MURDERS, AND THEN DECLARED WAR AFTER RECEIVING ASSURANCE OF GERMAN SUPPORT.

- NEXT, THE RUSSIAN TSAR ORDERED THE IMMEDIATE MOBILIZATION OF HIS VAST FORCES TO PROTECT SERBIA’S LARGE SLAVIC POPULATION AND ENSURE CONTINUED ACCESS TO FRESH WATER PORTS.

- GERMANY COUNTERED BY ISSUING AN ULTIMATUM TO RUSSIA TO REVERSE THE MOBILIZATION ORDER.

- RUSSIA REFUSED, AND GERMANY DECLARED WAR.

- EXISTING FRENCH AND RUSSIAN DEFENSE AGREEMENTS PROMPTED GERMANY TO LAUNCH A SURPRISE ATTACK ON FRANCE TO PREEMPT A LIKELY TWO-FRONT ASSAULT ON ITS OWN BORDERS.

- AS GERMANY DEPLOYED ITS TROOPS ACROSS BELGIUM TO INVADE FRANCE, BRITAIN DECLARED WAR AS A GUARANTOR OF BELGIUM’S NEUTRALITY THROUGH AN EARLIER TREATY.

EUROPEAN PEACE COLLAPSED LIKE A HOUSE OF CARDS. THE FIRST GRAND ILLUSION OF THIS WAR WAS THAT IT COULD BE FOUGHT AND WON QUICKLY.

TWO OPPOSING FORCES EMERGRED FROM THIS SERIES OF BLUNDERS AND MISCALULATIONS:

1. GERMANY, AUSTRIA-HUNGARY, TURKEY AND BULGARIA FORMED THE CENTRAL POWERS.

2. FRANCE, RUSSIA AND GREAT BRITAIN ALONG WITH ITS COMMONWEALTH COUNTRIES COMPRISED THE ENTANTE, OR ALLIED POWERS.

MEANWHILE, AMERICA SOUGHT TO REMAIN CLEAR OF THIS DARKENING MORASS. PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON WISELY TRIED TO STEER A NEUTRAL COURSE. PUBLIC OPINION IN AMERCA WAS DIVIDED. MANY BELIEVED THAT THE ATLANTIC OCEAN WOULD ISOLATE AMERICA FROM THE WAR “OVER THERE”. BUT IN FACT, BRITAIN’S NAVAL BLOCKADE OF CONTINENTAL PORTS LIMITED OUR FREE TRADE RIGHTS AND SPURRED GERMANY TO RESORD TO UNRESTRICTED SUBMARINE WELFARE.

IN MAY 1915, A GERMAN SUBMARINE TORPEDOED THE BRITISH LINER, LUSITANIA, OFF THE IRISH COAST. GERMAN INTELLIGENCE SOURCES BELIEVED THE SHIP’S HOLD WAS CARRYING MUNITIONS TO BRITAIN. TWELVE HUNDRED PASSENGERS DROWNED, OF WHOM 128 WERE AMERICAN. THIS INCIDENT DRAMATICALLY SWAYED AMERICAN OPINION AGAINST GERMANY. CONTINUED U-BOAT ATTACKS AGAINST US MERCHANT SHIPS ONLY SERVED TO INCREASE AMERICAN ANGER.

GERMANY BELIEVED THAT AMERICA WOULD EVENTUALLY ENTER THE WAR ON THE SIDE OF BRITAIN. IN EARLY 1917, BRITISH AGENTS INTERCEPTED A CODED TELEGRAM FROM THE GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER, ARTHUR ZIMMERMAN WHO PROMISED MEXICO LARGE AREAS OF THE SOUTHWESTERN UNITED STATES IF MEXICO WOULD JOIN THE CENTRAL POWERS IN DECLARING A DIVERSIONARY WAR ON AMERICA. THE ZIMMERMAN TELEGRAM WAS LEAKED. WILSON, WHO HAD EARLIER DECLARED THAT AMERICA WAS TOO PROUD TO FIGHT, WAS NOW FORCED TO ACT DECISIVELY.

THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS FORMALIZED A DECLARATION OF WAR AGAINST GERMANY AND THE CENTRAL POWERS ON APRIL 6, 1917. THE UNITED STATES, HOWEVER, WAS UNPREPARED FOR WAR. AMERICANS HAD NOT ENGAGED IN A MAJOR CONFLICT IN OVER 50 YEARS. IT HAD ONLY A SMALL MILITARY FORCE, RANKED 17^TH IN THE WORLD, NOWHERE NEAR AS LARGE AS THE HUGE ARMIES OF THE EUROPEAN POWERS.

ONCE COMMITTED, AMERICA QUICKLY ORGANIZED ITS EXTRAORDINARY CAPACITY FOR INDUSTRIAL POPULATION AND BEGAN DRAFT REGISTRATION. THE FIRST MILITARY UNITS FORMED THE AEF – THE AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE – UNTER THE LEADERSHIP OF GENERAL JOHN J. “BLACK JACK” PERSHING. HIS AMERICAN CONSCRIPTS, CALLED DOUGHBOYS, WOULD BRING RENEWED HOPE TO THE EXHAUSTED ALLIES.

IN THE PREVIOUS THREE YEARS, BOTH THE ALLIED AND CENTRAL POWERS HAD BOGGED DOWN INTO ENTRENCHED, STALEMATED WARFARE. BY 1917, THE NUMBER OF WAR DEAD REACHED STAGGERING LEVELS. BATTLEFIELDS HAD BECOME HUMAN MEAT GRINDERS IN WHICH A GENERATION OF YOUNG MEN WAS SLAUGHTERED WITHOUT SIGNIFICANT TACTICAL GAIN. ON AVERAGE, 5,600 MEN DIED EVERY SINGLE DAY OF THIS TERRIBLE CONFLICT.

LIVES WERE LOST – LITERALLY LOST – IN BATTLES FOUGHT AT PLACES LIKE VERDUN, THE SOMME, GALLIPOLI, AND YPRES {E-PRA} … OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE’S ONE MILLION DEAD BY THE END OF THE WAR, THE BODIES OF OVER 500,000 WERE NEVER FOUND OR, IF FOUND, NOT IDENTIFIED. FRANCE SUFFERED 1,700,000 KILLED, OF WHICH HALF, LIKEWISE, WERE EITHER NOT FOUND OR NOT IDENTIFIED. THEY DIED ANONYMOUSLY, BUT NOT WITHOUT PU RPOSE.

IT WAS INTO THIS BREECH THAT GENERAL PERSHING AND HIS US TROOPS ARRIVED. THE AMERICANS WERE UNTESTED. THE FRENCH AND BRITISH HIGH COMMANDS WANTED TO REPLACE THEIR OWN ATTRITED DIVISIONS WITH FRESH US MANPOWER. PERSHING INSISTED ON STRICT UNITY OF COMMAND. WE WOULD ONLY FIGHT, HE INSISTED, UNDER US LEADERSHIP. PERSHING REFUSED TO ALLOW THE ALLIES TO USE AMERICAN TROOPS AS CANNON FODDER IN ATTACKS THAT COULD NOT SUCCEED.

AMERICAN TROOPS WERE DIFFERENT. THEY STOOD OUT. AND THEY FOUGHT WITH SPIRIT AND TENACITY. FRENCH TROOPS WITHDRAWING THROUGH AN AMERICAN POSITION SUGGESTED TO MARINE CAPTAIN LLOYD WILLIAMS THAT HE AND HIS MEN SHOULD RETREAT AS WELL. “RETREAT?” ANSWERED CAPTAIN WILLIAMS. “HELL, WE JUST GOT HERE!”

AND INDEED THEY HAD. AMERICANS LIKE ARMY AIR ACES CAPTAIN EDDIE RICKENBACKER AND LIEUTENANT FRANK LULE, INFANTRYMENT SERGEANT ALVIN YORK AND MARINE SERGEANT DAN DALY ACHIEVED NEWS HEADLINES FOR THEIR EXPLOITS. IT WAS NOT HYPE. HARDENED GERMAN TROOPS AT ST. MIHIEL, CHATEAU THIERRY, BELLEAU WOODS AND THE ARGONNE FOREST WOULD SWEAR THAT THESE AMERICANS FOUGHT LIKE “HOUNDS FROM HELL”.

HELL WAS A WORD OFTEN USED TO DESCRIBE CONDITIONS AT THE FRONT, WHERE THOUSANDS OF ARTILLERY SHELLS CHURCHED UP THE EARTH AND DENUDED FORESTS, WHERE MEN LIVED IN DEEP TRENCHES FILLED WITH WATER, AND WHERE INFLUENZA TOOK MORE AMERICAN LIVES THAN ENEMY BULLETS.

BY JULY 1918, OVER 1,000,000 AMERICAN TROOPS HAD DISEMBARED IN FRANCE, WITH 20,000 TONS OF SUPPLIES OFF-LOADED IN FRENCH PORTS EVERY DAY. WITH THE US NAVY MAINTAINING AN UNBROKEN LOGISTICAL PIPELINE, THE BALANCE OF THE WAR BEGAN TO TIP IN FAVOR OF THE ALLIES. IT WAS NOW CLEAR THAT GERMANY AND THE CENTRAL POWERS COULD NOT WIN. THEY COULD NOT REPLACE THEIR MANPOWER RESERVES AND THEIR INDUSTRIAL CAPACITY WAS DRAINED.

THE ALLIED ARMIES PUSHED FORWARD RELENTLESSLY, GAINING MOMENTUM. THERE WOULD BE NO LET UP, NO PAUSE TO ALLOW THE GERMANS TIME TO RECONSTITUTE THEIR FORCES DURING THE NEXT HUNDRED DAYS. AMERICAN FORCES OPENED LARGE GAPS IN GERMAN DEFENSES. THE GERMAN ARMIES RECEDED, FINDING THEMSELVES WITH THEIR BACKS TO THE MEUSE RIVER.

THE END WAS NEAR. THE WAR HAD ALREADY COST GERMANY 2,000,000 DEAD. THE GERMAN ECONOMY WAS COLLAPSING UNDER THE STRAIN. OF THE CENTRAL POWERS, GERMANY NOW STOOD ALONE. ON NOVEMBER 9^TH, 1918, KAISER WILHELM WAS FORCED TO ABDICATE. A NEW GERMAN REPUBLIC FORMED TO NEGOTIATE THE END OF HOSTILITIES.

TWO DAYS LATER, AN ARMISTICE WAS DECLARED ON THE 11^TH HOUR OF NOVMEBER 11THS, 1918 – THE DAY WE NOW COMMEMORATE EACH YEAR AS VETERANS DAY. BATTLE LINES ACROSS EUROPE FELL EERILY SILENT. THE WAR ENDED. ACT I WAS OVER, AND THE CURTAIN FELL FOR IN INTERMISSION THAT WOULD LAST NEARLY TWENTY YEARS.

THE ALLIES HAD WON THE WAR, BUT WERE DESTINED TO LOSE THE PEACE.

BY AGREEING TO A MILITARY ARMISTICE, GERMANY HAD IN FACT SURRENDERED UNCONDITIONALLY. NO PLACE WAS SET AT THE CONFERENCE TABLE IN VERSAILLES FOR THE DEFEATED POWER. THE TREATY WOULD BE A DICTATED PEACE, SIGNED ON JUNE 28^TH, 1919 – 5 YEARS TO THE DAY THAT THOSE TWO PISTOL SHOTS RANG OUT IN SARAJEVO.

THE VERSAILLES TREATY EXACTED HARSH AND HUMILIATING TERMS, INCLUDING LOSS OF TERRITORY AND ONEROUS FINANCIAL REPARATIONS. THE TREATY’S BIGGEST FAILURE WAS THAT ITS DISARMAMENT PROVISIONS DID NOT GO FAR ENOUGH TO ENABLE THE VICTORS TO ENFORCE THEIR OWN TERMS.

THE CURTAIN WOULD RISE AGAIN FOR ACT II – AN EVEN MORE HORRIFIC, SECOND ACT.

NATIONALISTIC POWERS – NAZI GERMANY, FASCIST ITALY, AND, IN THE PACIFIC, A RISING MILITARISTIC JAPAN – WOULD EMERGE UNCHECKED WHILE THE REST OF THE WORLD SLEPT. WORLD WAR I – THE “WAR TO END ALL WARS” – THE FINAL GRAND ILLUSION – WAS TO BE A PRELUDE TO ANOTHER, LARGER GLOBAL WAR.

AND AMERICANS, ONCE AGAIN, WOULD FIND THEMSELVES “OVER THERE”.