The Guns of August

The Guns of August (1962) is a history by Barbara Tuchman dramatising the crisis and events of the first 30 days of World War I. Beginning on July 28, 1914, The Guns of August plays out the cataclysm of events that lead to Continental War, as well as the strategies behind the war which would lead to inevitable stalemate.

In the early days of August 1914 Germany was in a state of massive mobilisation. Their plan, years in the making, was to sweep in a giant arc across Europe and, by the end of the month, descend on Paris, the heart of their longtime enemy. It it this single month that would spell out the future of Humanity.

Tuchman covers the two major theatres of war, the Western front and the Russian Eastern front. Some events covered include the search for the German battlecruiser Goeben by Allied forces in the Mediterranean. The Goeben finally took refuge in the Dardanelles while Turkey was still neutral and thus precipitated its entry into the War on the side of Germany.

Invasion of Belgium

Tuchman carefully analyses the events which led to the outbreak of war, and we are left with a picture of inevitability. Germany, imagining itself betrayed and enveloped by European alliances, had been preparing war plans for over 10 years. France was always Germany?s target. When the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, was assassinated by a Bosnian Serb youth, a complex series of alliances triggered continental war, but the net result was that Germany marched on France. Moving 7 armies within the tight confines of Europe required plenty of space, and Germany planned to violate Belgium's neutrality to move its troops towards Paris. It therefore came about that the opening battles of the war were on Belgium soil against Belgium cities. Tuchman describes the Battle of Liege, where the Germans used their huge siege guns against the city?s forts, and then the march through Belgium. The Germans did not expect Belgian resistance, but when they came under sniper fire in village after village, the Germans instituted a policy of reprisals against the civilian population. Reports of mass executions in village squares became common, but the event that shocked the world was the burning of Louvain, where the Germans laid waste to the entire city. This event was a wake up call to the world and signaled the beginning of a long brutal war.

Battle on the French Border

As they crossed the Belgium frontier into France, the German armies were engaged by 7 French armies and 2 British divisions known as the British Expeditionary Force. The Battle of the Borders was brutal, and the Allies were forced to slowly retreat under the German onslaught until finally the Germans were within 40 miles of Paris. The city was preparing for siege and possibly complete destruction, the government had fled south, and when 2 divisions of reserves arrived they were rushed to the front by the city?s fleet of 600 taxi cabs. Tuchman carefully introduces us to all the key players, the Allied commanders of the French and British and the German commanders. With her characteristic attention to detail we learn of their personalities, strengths and weaknesses. Many of the names are unfamiliar: Joffre was the French General, Lord Kitchener the British War Minister, and Kluck led the final sweep of the German forces towards Paris. But some of the names are more familiar: a young soldier named De Gaulle fought for France, and Winston Churchill was Lord of the British Admiralty.

War in France

As the German armies marched towards Paris, a gape developed as one flank moved swiftly, while the other was bogged down with French resistance. The Allies saw an opportunity to counter attack and started to muster all available troops. The British BEF, sensing a catastrophe, promptly began retreating, with the intention of reaching the channel ports and going home. It took pleas from both the French and British to convince Field Marshal Sir John French to return his troops to battle in France?s darkest hour. He agreed with tears streaming down his face. In the subsequent attack, the Germans were forced back north to the line of the river Somme, with both sides suffering terrible losses, and the BEF was virtually annihilated. While Paris had been saved, the war took a new image and both sides settled into a defensive trench system that cut across France west to east along the Somme. This became known as the Western Front and was to consume a generation of young men over the next 4 years.

Analysis

Tuchman tells all this in well researched detail, and avoids drawing conclusions. She focuses on key moments - as when Joffre convinces Field Marshal Sir John French to return the BEF to battle, or the state of Paris preparing for siege. She describes the conditions of the soldiers under forced march - dirty, tired, bloody and hungry. She describes the Generals dining on quail and taking tea while conducting the business of war - issuing orders, tracking troop movements and even hiring and firing field commanders. Tuchman humanizes the events, and therefore helps us understand them. Wisely, she offers very little analysis, following the Iceberg principle of giving you the 10% of the book, the cold hard facts. You must interpret the other 90% and use your own imagination to perceive the effects and reasons of how a war, planned so well, could fail so horribly.