ABSTRACT
The whole driving force and purpose of the fighting men, including hundreds of thousands who joined the forces voluntarily in Britain before conscription, was national. The Austrians and Hungarians started the war to protect their countries against rebellion and intrigue by the South Slavs. The Serbs, for just the opposite reason, soon found themselves fighting for their lives to defend their fatherland. The British were brought into war by an appeal to national honour, namely that they could not let Belgium and France down; but in reality a feeling of national self-defence was just as strong on our side of the Channel as on the other, and more than ever so when German submarines were sinking our ships by the score. The war started with Germany fighting on two fronts. In the East an immense Russian army, mobilized more quickly than the German General Staff anticipated, poured into East Prussia and another into Austrian Galicia.
