by James Holmes
Today—the eleventh hr of the eleventh twenty-four hr catamenia of the eleventh month—marks the centennial of the armistice terminal the First World War. Your humble correspondent traveled to Kansas City, Missouri, finally calendar week to offering remarks equally constituent of “1918: Crucible of Conflict,” the centennial symposium at the National World War I Museum too Memorial. After 2 days of listening to learned commentators concur forth almost sundry dimensions of the war, the armistice, too the interregnum betwixt the footing wars, it’s clear the Great War all the same casts a long cultural shadow. Bottom line: history matters. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 partial or garbled agreement of history agency whatsoever guidance nosotros distill from it is partial or garbled equally well.
Faulty guidance is a existent prospect. Ask the homo on the street what the state of war was about, too inward all likelihood he’ll respond amongst something almost trench warfare. Soldiers huddled inward muddy, pitiable trenches nether constant artillery bombardment stand upwards for the dominant icon of World War I. And that comprises a major constituent of the storey for sure. But why does our cultural retention obsess over trench warfare inward France? The obvious argue for Americans is because that’s where American doughboys fought from 1917–1918. That was our war.
We tend to stress the combined bomber offensive against Nazi Germany, the landings inward North Africa, Italy, too Normandy, too other American spheres of endeavor inward World War II spell scanting the horrific too arguably decisive fighting betwixt High German too Soviet armies. In the same vein it’s natural to retrieve what our soldiers, sailors, too airmen did inward the Great War. These were sons too daughters of America.
It besides makes feel to concentrate on French Republic because the West is where the guns of August rang out inward 1914 too where the Great War ended inward Nov 1918. The High German Army’s “Schlieffen Plan“ sent legions careening through Kingdom of Belgium into French Republic earlier the offensive stagnated nether stiffer-than-expected French too British resistance. The static fighting that constitutes the lore of World War I ensued. During the leap of 1918 the High German Army launched a serial of titanic offensives inward hopes of breaking a French Army that verged on mutiny or driving the British Expeditionary Force into the ocean earlier the USA could intervene inward force. And French Republic is where the Allies at finally amassed plenty combat ability to puncture High German lines at multiple points at the same time—letting them pause through too compel Berlin to consent to the armistice nosotros retrieve today. Beginnings too endings imprint themselves on the pop mind.
And too so there’s the cultural dimension. French Republic witnessed feats of heroism that helped forge the U.S. Army too Marine Corps into what they are today. Legendary figures such equally General John J. Pershing made their names on the Western Front. Legendary figures from subsequent U.S. history—Harry S. Truman, George S. Patton, Douglas MacArthur—made their debuts equally junior officers. At the Battle of Belleau Wood inward May-June 1918, American soldiers too marines blunted a High German spearhead aimed at Paris—and helped laid upwards the footing for the Allied counteroffensive too victory. “Retreat, hell! We merely got here,” proclaimed i ornery marine when urged to retreat earlier the High German onslaught. Try non pumping your fist at that present of bravado.
Furthermore, think almost all the marvelous cultural artifacts that came out of the Great War. The verse of British soldiers Rupert Brooke too Wilfred Owen ranks amidst the finest state of war poetry—heck, the finest poetry, total stop—ever written. There’s an elegiac lineament to the life stories of Brooke too Owen: both cruel inward armed forces service, Brooke toward the war’s outset too Owen close its end. In a feel their stories brand literary bookends for the state of war inward France. In 1915 Canadian officeholder Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae composed “In Flemish region Fields,” a verse form that remains a staple of Veterans’ Day observances a century hence, later on presiding over the funeral of a fallen comrade. Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front is a testimonial from a High German perspective to the horrors seen inward France. Such relics bring drama—and drama makes lasting pop memories.
Powerful testaments to trench combat obscure accounts of other theaters. Even contemporary pop culture—think the early on seasons of Downton Abbey—reinforces the Western bias inward our memories of World War I. Not fifty-fifty the eloquence of Ernest Hemingway, whose Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 Farewell to Arms is laid inward Italy rather than France, tin lavatory fully counteract that bias. There’s something melancholy almost hurling men against fire—sending soldiers over the top into murderous machine-gun too artillery burn downwardly too barbed wire—that continues to beguile.
Without taking anything away from the monumental literature, visual arts, too music commemorating the fighting inward France, though, it’s crucial to retrieve that entrenched combat inward the West is far from the whole storey of the Great War. The state of war of motility that High German commanders hoped to phase inward French Republic truly happened to the East, for example. Why? Because the sheer physical scale of western Russian Federation rendered heavily armed perimeter defence forcefulness impractical. In the West the Allies too Central Powers could dig inward because French Republic is a relatively compact province bracketed yesteryear the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, too Pyrenees Mountains. It was a unopen organization yesteryear contrast to the opened upwards organization that is Russia. Had armies attempted perimeter defence forcefulness inward the East, their lines would receive got been so long that no regular army could champaign plenty troops or weaponry to guard them.
Germany’s defeat of the Russian Army coupled amongst revolution inward Russian Federation prompted that province to conclude an armistice too exit the state of war via the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Its divergence liberated High German commanders to transfer troops westward, mounting their leap 1918 offensives amongst heavy numerical superiority over demoralized French too British armies. (U.S. forces inward Europe remained inward preparation until that summer.) The Allies tried opening a southerly maritime road at Gallipoli inward 1915, amongst disastrous results. The Great War saw bitter mount warfare betwixt Italy too Austria-Hungary. British too French forces campaigned inward the Middle East, where the open, apartment terrain sometimes permitted cavalry charges to succeed. The desert theatre made Englishman T. E. Lawrence “Lawrence of Arabia”—and spurred Lawrence to write i of the slap-up treatises on irregular warfare. Nippon scooped upwards High German colonies inward the Pacific too China, helping laid the phase for the Pacific theatre of World War II.
And on too on. Do these non-Western theaters affair today? Yes. Contemporary endeavors prevarication downstream of culture, too the Great War has acquire constituent of the cultural retention for all of the onetime combatant states. How they empathize their yesteryear shapes how they send themselves now. For instance, essay quest an Australian almost the Great War; you’re to a greater extent than probable to notice yourself regaled amongst tales of the “ANZAC”—Australia/New Zealand—expeditionary forcefulness at Gallipoli than stories almost trenches spanning France. This is Australia’s founding legend. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 Russian or Italian would receive got a unlike sentiment from an American, Briton, or Frenchman.
Supposed lessons from a conflict are graven on the minds of the generation that fought it, on the children of the combatants, too to lesser extent on their grandchildren. After that they operate yesteryear into mutual memory, helping contain a laid of axioms almost the footing too how the lodge should aid acquire by it. Historical lessons preclude for sure political too strategic options inward hereafter controversies spell prodding a lodge too its leadership toward others. Ergo, it behooves posterity to compile equally comprehensive an agreement of bygone events equally possible—helping us acquire accurate lessons from those events.
False lessons of history could beget bad decisions inward the hither too now, spell wise lessons bolster our chances to excel. History isn’t merely of antiquarian involvement on this centennial day. It’s essential to executing unusual policy too strategy well.
James Holmes is J. C. Wylie Chair of Maritime Strategy at the Naval War College too coauthor of Red Star over the Pacific (second edition due out side yesteryear side month). The views voiced hither are his alone.
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