1918: A Very British Victory by Peter Hart
Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £20
“EVERY man had a grin from ear to ear on his face. Nobody yelled or showed uncontained enthusiasm – everybody just grinned – and I think the cause was that the men couldn’t find words to express themselves. I think of the man who every day has his life in danger and who dreams of home more than heaven itself and suddenly finds that the danger is past and that his return is practically assured, that he has won after personally risking his life. No wonder they couldn’t say much – they simply grinned.”
This recollection, by a captain of the Canadian machine gun corps, on the reaction of his men as they realized what the Armistice meant, is moving beyond words and Peter Hart’s vividly documented history of the final year of the Great War gradually builds towards this climactic relief.
The First World War broke out in August 1914, a few weeks after the assassination of a rather unpopular member of the Austrian royal family. But this unearthed a series of alliances and agreements that dragged all of Europe into the vortex. Whatever was this war about? There’s still no simple answer.
France seethed after her humiliation by Prussia in 1871 and her consequent loss of Alsace and Lorraine. To prevent retaliation from France, Bismarck isolated her from allies by a series of ring alliances. The rapid development of industry in the new unified German Reich began to rival perceived British and European interests. Then came colonial expansion, Anglo-German naval rivalry and a series on international crises in North Africa and the Balkans. A mass of highly inflammable materials awaited an igniting spark eventually provided by an Serb assassin in Sarajevo.
Naturally, they said it would all be over by Christmas. And, of course, it wasn’t. Germany invaded Belgium to get at France and deadly trench warfare dominated the Western Front as each side attempted to break the deadlock with terrible losses. This is epic history. Peter Hart, historian at the Imperial War Museum, drawing on a vast array of evidence, much it new to the public domain, presents a very detailed and convincing chronicle of the final year of that titanic struggle.
The Germans were in greater strength, following the communist revolution that took Russia out of the war. The allies were strengthened by the arrival of American forces. The conflicts of the final year, with unprecedented casualties, dwarf the celebrated battles of Passchendaele and the Somme.
Vivid though this book is, what it tells is beyond belief. The pages have the additional power of so much personal testimony. A captain of the Cheshire regiment said: “We have not had a shave or a wash for six days, nor have I used a knife or fork with my meals. My tunic is badly torn and my trousers have no seat left in them. Yet I am a dandy compared to many of the men: few have got puttees and many have hardly got clothes at all.” After four days of action, the 3,000-strong Wurttemberg regiment had 250 soldiers left. British artillery fire never ceased. No wonder men simply grinned when it all stopped. Peace was simply unbelievable.
But, let us remember, there were those who felt it was fragile. David Lloyd George on the way to the treaty negotiations recorded in his memoirs that we’d better get it right this time or we’d be fighting this war all over again in 20 years time. John Maynard Keynes, who was part of the British diplomatic team at Versailles, indicates in his book on the consequences of the peace of 1919 that the terms Germany was strong-armed into signing laid the seeds for future terrible unrest. And the Daily Herald carried Will Dyson’s classic cartoon showing the Versailles peace-makers – Clemenceau, Lloyd George, Wilson and Orlando – leaving the conference with a child, “Class of 1940”, lurking outside the door, as Clemenceau says: “Curious! I seem to hear a child weeping.” Will we never learn? Apparently, not yet.
Robert Giddings
