The First World War

[Jared]

I'm looking for a book on WW1. The First World War has become a bit of a fascination for me over the last couple of years, and I've read several histories on the war. There's one thing that always bothers me, they almost all really gloss over the events of 1918. I mean, they hit the main points, the German offensives in the Spring, their eventual stalling, the Allied counterattack (commonly referred to as the 100 Days Offensive), the Germans revolting/suing for peace, the Armistice.

I'm just looking for something more in depth on the final year so I can learn more about it. I don't care if the whole book is just about 1918 and doesn't cover 1914-1917.

Any suggestions?

[JodyH]

Not a book but check out the Dan Carlin Hardcore History podcast series "Blueprint for Armageddon".

[MDS]

Not a book but check out the Dan Carlin Hardcore History podcast series "Blueprint for Armageddon".

+1

[Joe in PNG]

The only book I can recall that deals with 1918 in more depth is Les Carlyon's "The Great War", but that's more of an Aussie Digger's view of that last year.

[walker2713]

Of course there have been several worthwhile books written about how the war began, but I'm not aware of any that focus solely on the last year of that conflict.

You might take a look at "1919: Six Months That Changed the World" by Margaret MacMilan....

That would at least cover the end of the war, the "peace" and in what sense the seeds of WWII were sown there.

It's on my Amazon wishlist, but just haven't gotten around to it.

Just a thought.....

http://www.amazon.com/Paris-1919-Mon...&keywords=1919

[idahojess]

WWI -- particularly America's involvement, has something I've enjoyed reading about. Since America's involvement was most heavy in 1918 -- these might be good, if you haven't read them:
Yanks by John Eisenhower (son of Dwight).
Suddenly we didn't want to die: memoirs of WWI marine Elton E Mackin.
The last of the doughboys : the forgotten generation and their forgotten world war Rubin, Richard.
Ace of Aces: the life of Eddie Rickenbacker H Paul Jeffers.

[NickA]

Adding to Jody's suggestion, scroll to the bottom of this page for the books Dan used to research his series. Maybe one of them will fit the bill.

http://www.dancarlin.com/home-hh-54/

[Jared]

I'll definitely try that guy's podcast. I own and have read a few of the books he lists as source materiel.

My interest isn't entirely based on 1918 being the main year of American involvement. Rather, its rooted in a question I asked my history teacher in high school. We were covering the war, and after days of lecture covering all the trench slaughter with neither side gaining the upper hand, when we got to the armistice I asked how the Allies had managed to win. His answer was that both sides were exglhausted and that the Central Powers had simply cried uncle first. I wasn't really satisfied with that then, and finally, now in my thirties, I decided to find the answer. So I started reading and watching documentaries and trying to really understand that war. It's been equal parts shocking and frustrating at times. I have a much better understanding now than I did 2 years ago, but there's so much about that last Allied push that just gets glossed over again and again. I mean, I found a book called 3 Armies on the Somme, totally dedicated to that tragedy in 1916, but there were two more Battles of the Somme in 1918. Other than Wikipedia, I haven't found much about those. There's other factors besides the final Allied offensive for sure (notably the British blockade) that had a hand in the final outcome.

I also understand that the Allies were using some different tactics at that point, and I'd really like to learn how they were finally able to break the stalemate.

[Joe in PNG]

I'll definitely try that guy's podcast. I own and have read a few of the books he lists as source materiel.

My interest isn't entirely based on 1918 being the main year of American involvement. Rather, its rooted in a question I asked my history teacher in high school. We were covering the war, and after days of lecture covering all the trench slaughter with neither side gaining the upper hand, when we got to the armistice I asked how the Allies had managed to win. His answer was that both sides were exglhausted and that the Central Powers had simply cried uncle first. I wasn't really satisfied with that then, and finally, now in my thirties, I decided to find the answer. So I started reading and watching documentaries and trying to really understand that war. It's been equal parts shocking and frustrating at times. I have a much better understanding now than I did 2 years ago, but there's so much about that last Allied push that just gets glossed over again and again. I mean, I found a book called 3 Armies on the Somme, totally dedicated to that tragedy in 1916, but there were two more Battles of the Somme in 1918. Other than Wikipedia, I haven't found much about those. There's other factors besides the final Allied offensive for sure (notably the British blockade) that had a hand in the final outcome.

I also understand that the Allies were using some different tactics at that point, and I'd really like to learn how they were finally able to break the stalemate.

Check into some of the stuff on John Monash.

[john c]

For me, the key to understanding WWI is to realize that, after 1915, it was primarily an artillery battle/war. Battle hinged on how much heavy metal could be brought down on opposing forces, without exposing your own batteries to overwhelming counter battery fire. Huge effort was made to capture key ground to move up artillery batteries in order to gain local superiority. This didn't work so well, and the end result was attrition battles.

By 1918, Germany was exhausted, and spent militarily and materially. Ludendorf's spring offensive, using storm troop (pre Blitzkreig) tactics, had failed at huge cost. The Allies had come up to speed with production, and the US was flooding in men. The last 100 days was the application of true combined arms battle on the Allies part (the coordination of artillery, infantry, tanks, and tactical aircraft; this was the second aspect of Blitzkrieg) caused the German army to fall apart, and start surrendering on a huge scale. Armistice came on 11/11/18, just before the entire German army collapsed. In fact, Pershing said that if he had had 7 more days, he would have had the entire German army in the bag, but as it was, the German army marched home able to say they had not been defeated.

One aspect that isn't mentioned much about trench warfare is the exhaustion. Contemporary accounts mention the troops slept about 4 hours a night for the entire time they were in the trenches (which rotated something like 15 days in the trenches, and 7 days in billets behind the lines). Observers report that all the soldiers and officers seemed to move in slow motion due to exhaustion. Fresh US troops fought extremely well, and added fresh vigor that the Germans couldn't match.

Finally, the German home front was facing starvation by 1918. The country had mobilized all it resources, and couldn't field more troops to make up for the continuing losses.