The Great War
Published on 14 Oct 2017The mountains along the Italian front made for one of the most brutal and unforgiving battlefields of the World War 1, and the soldiers who fought here were tougher and more resilient than most. The Italian Alpini and the Austro-Hungarian Alpenjäger and Kaiserschützen who fought in the Dolomites waged different versions of mountain warfare, but both were subject to the harsh conditions of the peaks.
October 15, 2017
The Edge of the Abyss – Mountain Warfare On The Italian Front I THE GREAT WAR Special
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October 13, 2017
Operation Albion – Passchendaele Drowns In Mud I THE GREAT WAR Week 168
The Great War
Published on 12 Oct 2017The situation for the German Army on the Western Front looks grim, but in the East they have the upper hand and this week begin to put pressure on the Russians in Operation Albion – an amphibious landing operation in the Estonian archipelago. At the same time, the battlefield at Passchendaele is turning into a muddy swamp.
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October 10, 2017
Evolution Of British Battle Tanks In WW1 I THE GREAT WAR Special
The Great War
Published on 9 Oct 2017Support the Tank Museum: https://www.patreon.com/tankmuseum
Tank Museum on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/TheTankMuseumIndy talks to Tank Museum curator David Willey about the evolution of the British Tank during World War 1. From the early beginnings with prototypes like Little Willie and the first deployed Mark I to later versions like the famous Mark IV, the Mark V and lesser known tanks like the Mark IX, Mark V** or Mark VIII “Liberty Tank”.
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October 8, 2017
Electricity – Wright Brothers – Hip Firing MGs I OUT OF THE TRENCHES
The Great War
Published on 7 Oct 2017Chair of Wisdom Time! This week we talk about the advancements of electricity during the war, the Wright brothers patent wars and hip/shoulder firing MGs. Oh and Italian Spiderman.
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October 6, 2017
Sabotage In The Desert – Battle of Broodseinde I THE GREAT WAR Week 167
The Great War
Published on 5 Oct 2017While the regular British forces were advancing towards Jerusalem and Baghdad, T.E. Lawrence and the Arab Revolt were causing havoc behind the lines. This week 100 years ago, they were continuing to attack the important Hejaz railway which was one of the vital supply routes for the Ottoman Army. On October 4, the Battle of Broodseinde was fought near Ypres and the costly British victory there caused real headaches for German general Erich Ludendorff.
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October 3, 2017
Between Gulasch Barons and Defending Neutrality – Denmark in WW1 I THE GREAT WAR Special
The Great War
Published on 2 Oct 2017Denmark, Germany’s northern neighbour, declared neutrality when World War 1 broke out. But after the defeat against Germany in the 19th century, they were still worried and readied their defences. At the same time Germany’s hunger for supplies created a new rich elite which were called Gulasch Barons. 30,000 Danes also fought for Germany since they lived in a territory previously belonging to Denmark.
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October 1, 2017
Recap Of Our Trip To Italy and Slovenia I THE GREAT WAR
The Great War
Published on 30 Sep 2017Kobarid Museum: http://kobariski-muzej.si
Walk of Peace: http://www.potmiru.si/eng/
Lagazuoi: https://www.altabadia.org/en/summer-holidays/trekking-hiking/open-air-museum-lagazuoi-5-torri-1.html
Vittorio Veneto: http://www.museivittorioveneto.gov.it/en/museo_della_battaglia.html
La Baita: http://bit.ly/LaBaitaColDiLana
Indy and Flo make you jealous by telling you what you missed when we all went to Slovenia and Italy last week.
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September 29, 2017
Battle of Polygon Wood – Betrayal At The Italian Front I THE GREAT WAR Week 166
The Great War
Published on 28 Sep 2017The British and Australian forces under Sir Herbert Plumer continue to advance at Passchendaele. Plumer’s new tactic comes with a high price in men and material but it also gets results. German flying ace Werner Voss fights his last legendary fight and on the Italian Front, some Austro-Hungarian officers want to end the war sooner than later – and not in their countries’ favour.
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September 26, 2017
Serbian Uniforms of World War 1 I THE GREAT WAR Special
The Great War
Published on 25 Sep 2017Serbia was already fighting in World War 1 before it actually spiralled into a global conflict, it had even already seen two wars in 1912 and 1913, so equipping the Serbian Army was a challenge right from the start.
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September 24, 2017
Why Was Haig Still in Command? I OUT OF THE TRENCHES
The Great War
Published on 23 Sep 2017
Ask your questions here: http://outofthetrenches.thegreatwar.tvIn this week’s OOTT episode we talk about Douglas Haig, the trenches on the British Islands and silencers.
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September 22, 2017
British Advance At Passchendaele I THE GREAT WAR Week 165
The Great War
Published on 21 Sep 2017Herbert Plumer had a cunning plan to crack the German defences at Passchendaele, he would “bite and hold” only small pieces of the German Hindenburg Line instead of aiming for the big breakthrough. It was still a costly tactic but it achieved results and the Germans under Ruprecht, Crown Prince of Bavaria, were worried.
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September 19, 2017
The Merchant of Death – Basil Zaharoff I WHO DID WHAT IN WW1?
The Great War
Published on 18 Sep 2017For arms dealers like Basil Zaharoff, the late 19th and early 20th century was a time of never ending business opportunities, the great European powers modernised their armies drastically and conflicts like the Russo-Japanese War or the Balkan Wars meant that weapons of all kinds were always in demand. But no other man knew how to influence and profit from the warring nations like “The Merchant of Death” – Basil Zaharoff.
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September 17, 2017
Mercenaries – War of the Pacific – Russian WW1 Remembrance I OUT OF THE TRENCHES
The Great War
Published on 16 Sep 2017It’s time for another episodes from the chair of wisdom, this week we talk about mercenaries in the war, the influence of the War of the Pacific and Russian WW1 war graves.
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September 16, 2017
Moral and philosophical conflict in Wilhelmine Germany
At Samizdata, Paul Marks looks at intra-German conflicts that were played out during and after the First World War:
The conflict between German Generals Falkenhayn and Ludendorff was over a lot more than military policy – indeed Falkenhayn made some horrible mistakes in military tactics, for example allowing himself to be pushed into continuing the Verdun offensive much longer than he intended (at least much longer than he later claimed had been his original intention), and insisting that General Fritz Von Below recapture any position he lost to the British in the Somme offensive – an order that led to terrible German casualties.
The conflict may have been presented as a military one (between the “Westerner” Falkenhayn and the “Easterner” Lundendorff ) over whether to concentrate German military resources in the West or the East – but it was really a lot more than a dispute over military policy. Nor was it really a dispute over the form of government – as neither Falkenhayn or Ludendorff was a democrat. It was fundamentally a MORAL (ethical) dispute.
General Lundendorff had absorbed (even more than Kaiser Wilhelm II had) the moral relativism and historicism that had become fashionable in the German elite in the decades running up to the First World War – ideas that can be traced all the way back to (in their different ways) such philosophers as Hegel and (far more) Fichte, whereas General Falkenhayn still clung to concepts of universal justice (morality) and rejected such things as the extermination or enslavement of whole races, and the destruction of historic civilisations such as that of Russia. Lundendorff, and those who thought like him, regarded Falkenhayn as hopelessly reactionary – for example thinking in terms of making peace with Russia on terms favourable to Germany, rather than destroying Russia and using the population as slaves. In the Middle East Falkenhayn came to hear of the Ottoman Turk plan to destroy the Jews (as the Armenian Christians had been destroyed), and he was horrified by the plan and worked to frustrate it. Advanced and Progressive thinkers, such as Ludnedorff, had great contempt for Reactionaries such as Falkenhayn who did not realise that ideas of universal justice and personal honour were “myths” only believed in by silly schoolgirls. Falkenhayn even took Christianity seriously, to Lundendorff this was clearly the mark of an inferior and uneducated mind. And Falkenhayn, for his part, came to think that his country (the Germany that he so loved) was under the influence of monsters – although while their plans to exterminate or enslave whole races and to control (in utter tyranny) every aspect of peacetime (not just wartime) life remained theoretical, he never had to make the final break.
The conflict continued into the next generation. Famously Admiral Canaris (head of German military intelligence) became an enemy of the National Socialists – not because he was a believer in a democratic form of government, but because he believed that the Nazis were a moral outrage violating the most basic principles of universal truth and justice. But the point of view in Germany opposed to men such as Admiral Canaris. the point of view that made itself felt in such things as the German Declaration of War upon France in 1914 – a pack of lies, and (perhaps more importantly) a deliberately OBVIOUS pack of lies (in order to make a philosophical point – as the President of France, a philosopher, noticed at once), had long had nothing but contempt for the very idea of universal objective truth and justice.
I’d always thought that the rise of Fascism and Communism in the 1920s was primarily due to the political chaos and material privations suffered by German citizens through the latter stages of WW1 and continuing through the Versailles Treaty negotiations. Paul shows that the groundwork for both strains of totalitarian thought were already well underway even before the catastrophe of 1914. Of course, as I think I illustrated in the origins of WW1 posts, nothing about the situation in Europe at that time was simple or straight-forward.
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September 15, 2017
Attempted Military Coup in Russia – The Kornilov Affair I THE GREAT WAR Week 164
Published on 14 Sep 2017
The situation in Russia further escalates as Lavr Kornilov attempts to gain complete power with a military coup. The result is a disaster for him and thousands of armed Bolsheviks in the streets of Petrograd.
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