THE EMERGENCE OF TOTAL WAR Carl von Clausewitz

THE EMERGENCE OF “TOTAL” WAR Carl von Clausewitz prophesied the emergence of “total war, ” but most historians regard the First World War as the first “total war” for these four reasons: 1. Economic: industrial warfare by huge conscript armies demanded the reorganization of the whole economy. 2. Psychological: combat became utterly terrifying, with a killing zone over 5 miles deep; “shell shock” became a major source of casualties. 3. Social psychological: massive propaganda campaigns demonized the enemy in each country. 4. Ethical: hunger blockades, bombardments, and antipartisan actions broke down the distinction between combatants & noncombatants. In 1916 combat reached maximum intensity in the Battles of Verdun & the Somme, and the Brusilov Offensive….

“Dogfight between German & French Aircraft near Reims” (1914)

Lieutenant Warneford shoots down a Zeppelin over Brussels on June 7, 1915, to earn the Victoria Cross

“British DH 4 Biplanes Attacking German Fokker Triplanes”

Manfred von Richthofen, the “Red Baron, ” cavalry officer & top fighter ace of the Great War with 80 confirmed kills Hermann Göring took command after the Red Baron was killed in April 1918

German soldiers wearing improvised gas masks, 1915: A dampened cloth could help with chlorine gas, but not mustard

Improved gas masks for man and beast, and the German army’s new steel helmet, 1916

General Erich von Falkenhayn chose the fortress complex of Verdun as the battlefield on which to “bleed France white” in February 1916

The Verdun complex before the battle

The Germans fired 80, 000 heavy artillery shells at Fort Douaumont on February 21, 1916, but their initial advance was on too narrow a front….

French machine gunners in Fort Vaux await the German assault

German troops in the lunar landscape before Fort Douaumont, spring 1916

The French “Sacred Road, ” Verdun, 8 April 1916

British troops cheer for the press photographer on June 28, 1916, as Douglas Haig prepared to launch an offensive on the Somme

Haig resolved to attack on a very broad front on July 1 but did not have enough heavy artillery to cripple German defenses. The British lost 20, 000 killed & 40, 000 wounded on the first day of this bungled offensive but doggedly renewed their attacks until November.

Artist’s rendering of the German line on the Somme, July 1, 1916. The British bombardment destroyed only a handful of the German dugouts….

John Nash, “Over the Top” (Cambrai, 1917): Of 80 men in Nash’s company, 68 were killed or wounded within 15 minutes.

French 400 -mm railway gun, Battle of the Somme, 1916 British Mark I tank in history’s first tank assault, Battle of the Somme, September 15, 1916. These early tanks only drove at 2 -3 m. p. h.

A trench funeral, Verdun, December 1916, administered by a soldier-priest

The French commander at Verdun & his protegé: Philippe Pétain (1856 -1951) & Charles de Gaulle (1890 -1970)

French troops recapture Fort Vaux, 2 November 1916: Each side lost well over 300, 000 men killed at Verdun

DAVID LLOYD GEORGE (1863 -1945), former Radical Liberal, founded the Ministry of Munitions in 1915 and a new all-party coalition government in December 1916 Arthur James Balfour, Conservative Prime Minister, 1902 -05, Foreign Secretary, 1916 -19

Kaiser Wilhelm II and the new heads of the Supreme Army Command, Hindenburg & Ludendorff, 1916/17 The “Hindenburg Program” included labor conscription and unrestricted U-Boot warfare

Russia’s “Brusilov Offensive” (June-September 1916) induced Romania to join the Allies

Russian soldiers inspect the Austrian dead: The Brusilov Offensive captured 400, 000 enemy soldiers and inflicted one million casualties. --But the tsarist government failed to create an effective war economy General Alexei Brusilov (1853 -1926) later accepted a commission in the Red Army

“Step Into Your Place, ” Great Britain, 1915

Lord Kitchener, “Your Country Needs You”

E. Kealey, “Women of Britain Say – GO!” Great Britain, 1915

“Red Cross or Iron Cross, ” (Great Britain, 1914/15)

“The Kiss of the Alsatian” (anonymous colorized postcard from 1914)

“German Atrocities” (France, 1915)

“This will make room for our colonists, ” cartoon by the Belgian, Louis Raemaekers, 1914

Edwin Blashfield, (Untitled), USA, 1918

“Atrocities in Kalisch” (Russia, 1914)

“The Great European War: The Great Battle of the Russian Hero with the German Serpent, ” Russia, 1915/16

“The German Antichrist, ” Russia, 1914/15

“The German Barbarians” in occupied Belgium (Germany, 1916) “Any desire for vengeance against such innocent blood, Is far removed from this thoughts, his heart is so good. ”

“’We Barbarians!’” (Germany, 1916): German propaganda was made by bureaucrats rather than advertising executives and featured statistics on Germany’s literacy rate, social programs, and spending on schools

Hindenburg: “Buy War Bonds: Times Are Hard, but Victory Is Certain, ” Germany, 1917

“Destroy This Mad Brute” (USA, 1917): A commentary on the resort to unrestricted UBoot warfare. The spread of such hateful stereotypes helps to explain why proposals to hold a peace conference by Pope Benedict XV in 1915 and President Wilson in 1916 gained no serious consideration