World War I in 100 Objects - Hardcover

Doyle, Peter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0142181595 ISBN 13: 9780142181591

Publisher: Plume, 2014

Synopsis

World War I in 100 Objects by Peter Doyle is a dynamic social history and perfect gift for history lovers.

General readers and history buffs alike have made bestsellers of books like A History of the World in 100 Objects. In that tradition, this handsome commemorative volume gives a unique perspective on one of the most pivotal and volatile events of modern history.

In World War I in 100 Objects, military historian Peter Doyle shares a fascinating collection of items, from patriotic badges worn by British citizens to field equipment developed by the United States. Beautifully photographed, each item is accompanied by the unique story it tells about the war, its strategy, its innovations, and the people who fought it.

About this title

About the Author:

Peter Doyle is a military historian and geologist, specializing in battlefield terrain. He is currently Visiting Professor at University College London.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

British recruiting posters issued as cigarette cards.

100 Objects

THE OUTCOME OF the Great War of 1914–18 has shaped the world we live in, yet it is difficult to understand. One hundred years after this cataclysmic episode erupted from the confines of “a little problem in the Balkans,” it continues to both shock and fascinate in equal measure. The war that followed it, ignited from its dying embers—though both complex and grandiose in scale—can at least be reduced and distilled into a crusade against evil, of the rights of human beings to escape bondage and repression. These concepts are more complex in the Great War, discussion of which still promotes argument and dissent.

For example, while most of us are at ease with the idea of an armada of landing craft dispatching its living cargo onto the beaches of Normandy on D-day, June 6, 1944, few of us really understand the motivations behind the landings at Gallipoli on April 25, 1915. And it is difficult for us to escape from the present and consider the past with a wholly objective viewpoint; typically, we have difficulty coming to terms with the sheer number of casualties from this terrible war. So while the Allied dead from El Alamein are around 2,350, those from the first day of the Somme are 19,240. The reason why the scale of suffering on the battlefield should be so high is still something with which people have difficulty coming to terms.

At a personal level, one of the advantages we have in considering the Second World War is that we perhaps have more sympathy with the time frame. Things seem reasonably familiar to us. With the creation of the Jazz Age came the development of modernism—houses were sleeker, their contents functional, their residents’ lives not a million miles away from our own. Images of London high streets in 1940 differ dramatically from those of 1910; there are fewer horses, a greater number of motor vehicles, more garish shop signs, and fewer uniformed people. And it helps that we have a direct connection with people who lived through rationing, the formation of the welfare state, the era of make do and mend, and the chirpy voices of chipper radio comedians and music hall stars. But when we peer at films of the imperial powers in the run-up to the Great War, it is difficult for us to make a direct comparison of our lives with those of our forebears. The everyday life of the average citizen seems so different, with its class structures and food and clothing that are so different to our own; the average person in the street seems so remote to us. And our direct connection with those who lived during the Great War is very nearly extinguished—the few people still around who were alive at the time were too young to understand its significance and are now perhaps too old to recall with understanding that life, so remote 100 years on.

But the Great War has left us with a rich legacy of writing, art, music, and poetry. This legacy allows us to perceive what life was like during the period. By their nature, many of these records present a very particular view of the war, one informed by the natural antiwar reaction of that generation. Much of the writing from participants in the Great War that appeared in the fertile ten-year period after the war is disillusioned with it, distanced from its purpose, disassociated with the ideals that led people to join the forces and serve their country.

For many today, jaundiced with conflict and high ideals, the idea of mass recruitment to fight “for King and Country” seems alien. Seeking to understand the lives of our families, to connect with their experiences, is how many people now connect with the past that is the First World War. In many cases, their starting points are the creased photographs, the fading postcards, and the tarnished medals. In the United Kingdom, soldiers, sailors, and airmen were awarded campaign medals that, fortunately, were named. This act of naming allows the narrative of both the medal group and the person who was awarded it to be interpreted and read. Each campaign medal is essentially the same yet ultimately different. This fact, coupled with the availability of records through archives and the Internet, allows family historians to unlock the stories of their objects and the actions of their forebears.

As one writer has put it, “Objects hold within themselves the worlds of their creators.” They represent a time capsule, a direct link with the time in which they were made. But they are also mute witnesses to events, recording devices that might allow a clearer understanding of a time or event—if only we can read them. Each object has a story, a unique narrative that is there to be interpreted, to be read. For many of the objects associated with war, that narrative is plain to see: machine guns were intended to kill, gas masks to protect. But like any story, there are subtexts—the suitability of these objects for the job at hand and the value that was placed on them by their user or captor. While objects in a pristine state might tell of storage and disengagement, others with wear relate to us that they were there—soldiers’ equipment with regimental numbers, spoons sharpened to take on more than one role, abandoned and excavated objects found on the battlefield. Each of these allows us to explore a narrative of their creation but also of their subsequent use.

As Nick Saunders and Paul Cornish have put it, “The objects of the Great War have a curious and unique character. More than any other kind of matter they seem to exist in a seemingly infinite number of . . . worlds simultaneously, and so can appear as worthless trash, cherished heirloom, historical artefact, memory item or commercially valuable souvenir.” The objects selected for this book fall into one or all of these categories.

The basis for the book is an examination of surviving objects and the interpretation of their individual narratives. The number of objects selected—100—is an arbitrary one and constraining; there are so many objects to choose from, each of which would add to the patchwork of our understanding. The objects had to be extant: on public display, in a national museum or local collection or dug from the ground from an archaeological investigation. They had to be individual—in my view, it was not good enough to be generic—as each individual object has its own story to relate. Scale and rarity were not significant factors. While some, like the Douaumont Ossuary or the Loos football, are unique, others, such as the Adrian helmet or Mills grenade, are common. But the discussion relates directly to the object illustrated.

Can an exploration of 100 objects be sufficient to bind together a coherent story of the tumultuous episodes of 1914 to 1918? It is a hard task, and the selection of the objects was difficult (though guided by the principles set out above). I had to cover the many fronts, nations, and phases of the war, the war on land and in the air, the war on the home front. But what can be achieved is an examination of the high points, of way markers that allow us to connect directly with the events and times of this war. And that is why this book is set out in the manner it is.

The book opens with “Nations to War,” the descent of the European nations into war, examining rivalries, arms races, and imperial ambitions. With almost 10 million military deaths and 21 million wounded, the next section deals with “The Soldier,” followed later by “War at Sea, in the Air.” “First Moves 1914” examines the developing war in northern Europe in the last quarter of 1914 and considers the descent into the static warfare that typifies the Great War. The next section, “Developing Trench Warfare,” examines the peculiarity of the war in the trenches. “The War Deepens and Expands” and “Plumbing New Depths” both consider the phenomenon of industrial slaughter on the Great War battlefield, and the means by which the trench deadlock was broken. The war on the home front, and the aftermath of the conflict, are examined in “At Home.”

Nations to War

1

Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s car

Country of origin: Austria-Hungary

Date of construction: 1911

Location: Heeresgeschicht-liches Museum, Vienna, Austria

IN 1914, THE world descended into a war that would see over 16 million people killed and would be fought on four continents. Yet, when war came, it was perhaps expected. Since the later part of the nineteenth century, the relationship between the most powerful nations of continental Europe—France and Germany—had been a difficult one. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71 had ended with France roundly beaten by the Prussians and had precipitated the end of the rule of Napoleon III and the proclamation of the Third Republic. With the termination of this war came the unification of the German states and the loss of the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, a loss that would be viewed with great bitterness by the French. Elsewhere in Europe, old empires were crumbling and contracting.

In the Balkans, the complex ethnicity of the region led to tensions and the creation of the “Balkan Powder Keg” in the wake of the slowly crumbling integrities of the Hapsburg and Ottoman empires. The disintegration of these edifices had created new states—Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, and Greece among them—each jockeying, aggressively, for position in the new world order. And it was the tension created by the Austro-Hungarian annexation of the former Ottoman province of Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1908 that created the tensions between Serbia and Austria-Hungary that would violently erupt into world war after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian imperial throne, in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914.

Death notice of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

Franz Ferdinand was shot with his wife, Sophie, on the streets of Sarajevo while traveling in this 1911 Gräff and Stift Double Phaeton open car, today preserved in the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum in Vienna. Car manufacturers Gräff and Stift had been in business since 1904 and had made a name for themselves as the manufacturers of luxurious models; but with the killing of Franz Ferdinand, their most notable vehicle instantly became one of the most infamous in history. This impressive four-cylinder 32hp black car, the property of Lieutenant Colonel Count Franz von Harrach, the archduke’s bodyguard, had been deemed a suitable vehicle for members of the Hapsburg imperial family to be seen in. Today, it remains one of the most important artifacts of the war, representative of both the opulence of antebellum imperial Europe and the tragedy of the spark that ignited the powder keg of world conflict. Its single bullet hole, to the rear of the car, was the first of many bullets to be fired over the next four years. Yet the event could have been so very different.

With orders to travel to Bosnia at the command of Emperor Franz Josef, the archduke was to review the military maneuvers and visit the city of Sarajevo to open the State Museum with his wife, Sophie. Neither was to know that the “Black Hand,” a group committed to freeing Bosnia from Hapsburg rule and joining with Serbia, had targeted them for assassination. Arriving at Sarajevo on the morning of June 28, 1914, the royal couple transferred to the open-topped Double Phaeton car. Traveling as part of a motorcade of six, the third car was the archduke’s; the first car, due to a misunderstanding, was carrying the security officers. Only Colonel Harrach was there to secure the safety of the archduke and his wife. Inspecting the military barracks early on in the day, Franz Ferdinand was en route to the town hall when, at 10:10 a.m., the Black Hand threw a bomb at the car. It bounced off and rolled under the vehicle behind, disabling it and wounding its occupants. Severely shaken, the archduke and his wife went on to the town hall to attend a brief reception; after just over thirty minutes, they left to visit those wounded in the earlier attack. This proved to be a deadly mistake.

In a state of confusion, the driver of the archduke’s car took a wrong turn into Franz Josef Street. Reversing, he stalled the car. Gavrilo Princip, a nineteen-year-old member of the Black Hand, grasped his opportunity, firing his pistol twice. The first bullet mortally wounded Archduke Ferdinand in the jugular vein; the second hit Duchess Sophie in the stomach. As he was driven to the governor’s residence, and nearing the point of death, Franz Ferdinand’s thoughts were for his wife and children and for the perhaps millions of men who would be killed as a consequence. Princip was captured, tried, and sentenced to twenty years in prison. He died in captivity.

The assassin’s bullet became known as “the shot that was heard around the world.” Identifying Serbia with the actions of the Black Hand and bolstered by an expression of support from Germany, the Austro-Hungarians issued an ultimatum to their neighbor—a reminder of an earlier agreement between them to live with the Austrian annexation of Bosnia. The “July Ultimatum” required the Serbs to suppress all publications that “incite hatred and contempt of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy” and remove such materials from schoolbooks and public works. It demanded the removal from public office of all those deemed negative to the Hapsburgs. And it required direct action against the plotters and the acceptance of Austrian involvement in the investigations. On this last point, the Serbs, backed by their Russian allies, balked. War was to follow. The Austrians declared war against the Serbs at 11:00 a.m. on July 28, 1914. Another famous phrase, attributed to the British foreign minister Sir Edward Grey, aptly noted, “The lamps are going out all over Europe.”

2

The two kaisers: Kriegs-Erinnerungs-Karte

Country of origin: Germany

Date of printing: 1914

Location: Private collection

Durch dick und dünn, Durch not und tod

Through thick and thin, through hardship and death

 

THE TWO EMPERORS, Wilhelm II of Germany and Franz Josef I of Austria-Hungary, were totemic figures in their respective countries and were pivotal in directing the war in its early stages. This Kriegs-Erinnerungs-Karte (War-Memorial-Card) was sent on October 9, 1914, from Alfred Klieber in Leipzig to Adolf Albrecht, a grenadier of the Ersatz Battalion, Reserve Grenadier Regiment 100, who was in the hospital. Though its personal message of greetings was anodyne, its visual message was plain: that come what may, the two autocratic emperors would tough out the storm that had been created since the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, in 1914. With the Austrian declaration of war on Serbia and the mobilization of Russian support of its ally, the path for the German Empire was clear: it would have to put into action the Schlieffen Plan, which would ensure that a much-dreaded long war on two fronts would be prevented. With the German states effectively sandwiched between the vise-jaws of France and Russia, fighting a war simultaneously against ...

About this edition

• Publisher: Plume
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0142181595
• ISBN 13: 9780142181591
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352