ABSTRACT
For many in our own epoch, the Third Battle of Ypres, more commonly referred to as Passchendaele, has come to epitomize World War One. It signifies the mud and squalor of the trenches, the courage of the rank-and-file soldiers, the stupidity of the High Command, and the futile sacrifice of life in a conflict that was, according to one of its leading historians, both ‘tragic and unnecessary’.1 Such a perspective would not have been adopted by those living at the time of the conflict, and is potentially misleading. Of course, there is no denying the horrors of trench warfare. However, it should also be recognized that there was little alternative; that trenches saved lives; and that fluid and mobile warfare exposed men to the greatest hazards, with a consequent rise in casualties.2 The focus on the Western Front is understandable, given that it so profoundly marked the French and British psyche, and is to some degree justifiable, given that it was so decisive to the final outcome. Yet it distracts attention from the fact that the conflict was a global one, with many fronts. The Central Powers (Germany and Austria-Hungary) were joined by Turkey in November 1914 and Bulgaria in September the following year. Ranged against them were the members of the Entente, initially comprising France, Britain and Russia, who were joined by Japan (August 1914), Italy (May 1915), Portugal (March 1916), Romania (August 1916) and Greece (June 1917). The USA entered the war in April 1917, though it was never technically an ally of the Entente, and insisted upon being called a co-belligerent ‘Associated Power’. China, too, joined the war in 1917, as did some South American states. And as much of the globe comprised colonies of the Western powers, they too came into the conflict on the coat-tails of the original belligerents. The focus on the Western Front also underplays the contribution of sailors and airmen, as well as the impact of the conflict on civilians and their role in its outcome. Finally, any suggestion that the war was futile neglects both the principles that inspired
so many of those who fought, and the tenacity with which they were held; while the contrast between maps of Europe in 1914 and in 1919 confirms that this was emphatically not a war without results. This chapter grapples with a number of these issues, by looking at the military dimensions of the conflict, its broader impact especially on the home fronts, and some of its longer-term results.
