The Guns of August (84 page)

“Impossible—too daring”: Lt.-Gen. Kabisch, qtd.
AQ,
July, 1925, 416.

Circumstances of Ludendorff’s appointment: Ludendorff, 49–55.

Circumstances of Hindenburg’s appointment: Hindenburg, 100-03; John Wheeler-Bennett,
Wooden Titan,
New York, 1936, 14–16; Ludwig,
Hindenburg,
Philadelphia, 1935, 83.

Gardener who worked for Frederick the Great: Hindenburg, 8.

Hindenburg and Ludendorff meet: Ludendorff, 55; Hindenburg, 103

Marshall
Was sagst du:
Capt. Henri Carré,
The Real Master of Germany,
qtd. NYT, May 19, 1918.

“A very startled expression”: Hoffmann,
TaT,
253.

French “insist” upon offensive upon Berlin: Paléologue, 102.

“Simple and kindly man”: Knox, 60.

Horses hitched in double harness: Golovin, 183.

Jilinsky’s orders and Samsonov’s protests: Ironside, 126–9.

“A small, gray man,” Knox, 62.

Martos eats the mayor’s dinner: Martos Ms. qtd. Golovin, 188.

Further orders of Jilinsky to Samsonov: Ironside, 134–5.

VII and XIII Corps did not have the same cipher: Golovin, 171

Scholtz “grave but confident”: Hoffmann,
TaT,
261.

Intercept of Samsonov’s orders:
ibid.,
265; Ludendorff, 59.

16. Tannenberg

François refuses to attack without artillery: Hoffmann, 273–5; (all references in this chapter to Hoffmann are to his
Truth About Tannenberg
).

“If the order is given”: François, 228.

Two intercepted Russian messages: Ludendorff, 59; Hoffmann, 265–68. “He kept asking me anxiously”: qtd. Nowak, Introduction to Hoffmann’s
Diaries,
I, 18. Hoffmann’s account of Rennenkampf-Samsonov quarrel, 314; his handing over the messages while cars in motion, 268.

Ludendorff’s fit of nerves: Ludendorff, 58; Hindenburg, 115, 118; Hoffmann, 282.

Tappen’s call from OHL: Hoffmann, 315–16. OHL’s reasons: Tappen, 16–19, 110–111. President of the Prussian Bundesrat: Ludwig, 456. Director of Krupp: Muhlon, 113. Kaiser deeply affected: François, 51. Moltke quoted: Memorandum of 1913, Ritter, 68–9.

Three corps withdrawn from Belgium: Bülow, 64–5; Hansen, 179.

“Advance into the heart of Germany”: Ironside, 133.

“I don’t know how the men bear it”:
ibid.,
130.

Jilinsky’s orders “to meet the enemy retreating from Rennenkampf”:
ibid.,
134.

“To see the enemy where he does not exist”: Golovin, 205;
Poddavki: ibid.,
217.

Samsonov’s orders to VIth Corps: Ironside, 155–7.

“In God’s name”: Agourtine, 34.

Army chiefs’ pessimism quoted by Sazonov: Paléologue, 104.

Description of Stavka: Danilov, 44–46.

Notes of Rennenkampf’s Staff officer: Ironside, 198.

“May be supposed to be retreating to the Vistula”:
ibid.,
200.

Blagovestchensky “lost his head”:
ibid.,
157.

Samsonov and Potovsky see retreat at first hand: Knox, 68–9; “Terribly exhausted”: Ironside, 176.

Samsonov’s orders to General Artomonov:
ibid.,
164.

Battle of Usdau: Ludendorff, 62–3; Hoffmann, 285–89.

Report that François’ Corps beaten: Ludendorff, 62.

Jilinsky’s order, “by moving your left flank”: Ironside, 207.

Ludendorff begs François to “render greatest possible service”: Hoffmann, 305.

Ludendorff “far from satisfied”: Ludendorff, 64.

Mackensen’s messenger receives “far from friendly welcome”: Hoffmann, 310.

“He took with him to his grave”: Golovin, 254.

Samsonov’s farewell to Knox: Knox, 73–4.

“You alone will save us”: Martos Ms., qtd. Golovin, 263.

Martos’ and Kliouev’s corps starving: Kliouev, 245; Knox, 80.

Capture of Martos and meeting with Hindenburg and Ludendorff: Martos Ms., qtd. Golovin, 294, 327.

“The Czar trusted me” and Samsonov’s death: Potovsky Ms., qtd. Golovin, 301; Knox, 82, 88.

Prisoners and casualties: François, 243–45.

General von Morgen at Neidenberg: François, 240.

“I will hear their cries”: Blücher, 37.

Marshes a myth: Ludendorff, 68; François (245) also calls it a “legend.”

“One of the great victories”: Hoffmann,
Diaries,
I, 41. Naming the battle Tannenberg: Hoffman, 312; Ludendorff, 68. “Strain on my nerves”:
ibid.

Ludendorff would go personally to inquire for intercepts: Dupont, 9.

“We had an ally”: Hoffmann,
Diaries,
I, 41. Tappen (108) also acknowledges that the detailed knowledge of Russian movements obtained from the intercepts “greatly facilitated” German command decisions in East Prussia.

“This is where the Field Marshall slept”: qtd. De Weerd, 80. Hoffmann remained on the Eastern Front throughout the war, eventually succeeding Ludendorff as Chief of Staff on that front and conducting the German side of the negotiations at Brest-Litovsk. He appears as General Wilhelm Clauss, the central character of Arnold Zweig’s novel
The Crowning of a King,
N.Y., 1938.

Disgrace of Rennenkampf and Jilinsky: Gurko, 83; Golovin, 386.

“Firm conviction that the war was lost”: Golovin,
Army,
24.

Ministers’ Memorandum urging peace: Richard Charques,
The Twilight of Imperial Russia,
New York, 1959, 216.

“We are happy to have made such sacrifices”: Knox, 90; Paléologue, 106.

17. The Flames of Louvain

The quotations on these pages, with three exceptions, are taken from the books by the persons quoted, listed under S
OURCES
, as follows: Verhaeren,
Dedicace,
unpaged; Cobb, 176–7; Bethmann-Hollweg, 95; Shaw, 37; Bridges, 73; Bergson (Chevalier), 24; McKenna, 158; Claus Clausewitz, I, 5. The statement by Thomas Mann is from his “Reflections of a Nonpolitical Man,” 1917, qtd. Hans Kohn,
The Mind of Germany,
New York, 1960, 253–5. H. G. Wells is quoted from NYT, August 5, 3:1. “I’m a’goin’ to fight the bloody Belgiums” is from Peel, 21.

Placards signed by Bülow: facsimile in Gibson, 324.

Massacre at Andenne, Seilles, Tamines: Apart from Belgian sources, the most complete firsthand record of these events is that of the American Minister, Mr. Whitlock, in his chapters w, “Dinant”; xxxi, “Namur, Andenne and Elsewhere”; xxxii, “Tamines”; and xxxiii,
“Man Hat Gechossen.”
For estimated total of civilians shot in August, see
Encyc. Brit.,
14th ed., article “Belgium.”

10 hostages from each street in Namur: Sutherland, 45.

Bloem on hostages: 34.

Cobb watched from a window: 104.

Visé: NYT from Maestricht, August 25, 2:2; Whitlock, 198.

Hausen on Dinant: 167–70. 612 dead: Gibson, 329. For description of Dinant after the destruction, Cobb, 409–10.

Quotations on these pages are from the works of the persons cited, as follows: Wetterlé, 231; Kluck, 29; Ludendorff, 37; Crown Prince,
War Experiences,
41–2, 50; Bloem, 28, 32, 20, Blücher, 16, 26.

Goethe: qtd. Arnold Zweig,
Crowning of a King,
N.Y., 1938, 306.

“That’s the French for you”: Cobb, 269.

Riderless horse sets off panic at Louvain: Whitlock, 152.

Luttwitz, “A dreadful thing has occurred”:
ibid.

Richard Harding Davis: qtd. Mark Sullivan,
Our Times,
V, 29; Arno Dosch in
World’s Work,
Oct. and Nov., 1914.

Gibson at Louvain: 154–172.

Monseigneur de Becker: Whitlock, 160.

Rotterdam Courant
and other papers quoted: NYT, August 30.

German Foreign Office quoted:
ibid.,
August 31.

King Albert quoted: Poincaré, III, 166.

Kriegsbrauch
quoted: 52.

Belgium “supreme issue”: Wile,
Assault,
115. “Precipitant”: Mark Sullivan,
loc. cit.

Erzberger quoted: 23.

Kaiser’s telegram: NYT, Sept. 11.

Manifesto of the 93 intellectuals: text in
Literary Digest,
Oct. 24, 1914.

Bethmann’s reply to Wilson: NYT, September 18, 1:4

“No convictions but only appetites”: Wetterlé, 144.

Bethmann on Erzberger’s bright ideas: Bülow, III, 235.

Erzberger’s Memorandum: Among others to whom Erzberger sent it was Grand Admiral von Tirpitz, who published it after the war in his
Politische Dokumente,
Hamburg, 1926, III, 68–73. See also Karl Epstein,
Matthias Erzberger,
Princeton, 1959, chap. v.

“Largest human fact since the French Revolution”: Frank H. Simonds in “1914—the End of an era,”
New Republic,
Jan. 2, 1915.

18. Blue Water, Blockade, and the Great Neutral

Sources used for this chapter only:

Baker, Ray Stannard,
Woodrow Wilson, Life and Letters,
Vol. V, N.Y., Doubleday, Doran, 1935

Consett, Rear-Admiral Montagu,
The Triumph of the Unarmed Forces, 1914–18,
London, Williams and Norgate, 1923

Guichard, Lieut. Louis,
The Naval Blockade, 1914–18,
tr. N.Y., Appleton, 1930

House, Edward M.,
The Intimate Papers,
ed. Charles Seymour, Vol. I, Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1926

Page, Walter Hines,
Life and Letters,
Vol. I, ed. Burton J. Hendrick, London, Heinemann 1923

Parmelee, Maurice,
Blockade and Sea Power,
N.Y., Crowell, 1924

Puleston, Captain William (USN),
High Command in the World War,
N.Y., Scribner’s, 1934

Salter, J. A.
Allied Shipping Control,
Oxford U.P., 1921

Siney, Marion C.,
The Allied Blockade of Germany,
1914–16,
Univ. of Michigan Press, 1957

Spring-Rice, Sir Cecil,
Letters and Friendships,
ed. Stephen Gwynn, Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1929.

“Luxury Fleet”: Churchill, 103.

Invasion “impracticable”: Fisher,
Letters,
II, 504. Report of the “Invasion Committee” of the CID in 1912: Churchill, 158.

“Interruption of our trade”: qtd. Custance, 104. Trade and tonnage figures: Fayle, 6, 15.

“Whole principle of naval fighting”: Fisher,
Memories,
197.

“Germany’s future is on the water”: Kurenberg, 129.

Navy League slogans: Wile,
Men Around the Kaiser,
145–6.

“Extreme psychological tension”
et seq.:
Churchill, 276.

Jellicoe opened telegram marked “Secret”:
DNB,
Jellicoe.

Jellicoe “to be Nelson”: Fisher,
Letters,
II, 416; III, 33.

“Greatest anxiety confronting me”: Jellicoe, 92. His chaps. IV and V; “Declaration of War” and “Submarine and Mine Menace in the North Sea” describe this anxiety feelingly on every page.

“Infected area”: Corbett, 79.

“Could have been a seal”:
ibid.,
67.

“Markedly superior”: Churchill, 261.

“Strongest incentives to action”:
ibid.,
276.

“Extraordinary silence”:
ibid.,
278.

“Kept secret even from me”: Tirpitz, II, 87.

Golden Age
on Kaiser’s bed-table: Peter Green,
Kenneth Grahame,
N.Y., 1959, 291.

Kaiser read Mahan: Kurenberg, 126.

“Bring the English to their senses”
et seq.:
Ludwig, 423.

Navy Law of 1900 quoted: Hurd,
German Fleet,
183–4.

Kaiser’s “darlings”: Bülow, I, 198.

Tirpitz’s squeaky voice: Wetterlé, 218. Müller’s characteristics: Ludwig, 465.

Ingenohl took a “defensive view”: Tirpitz, II, 91. “I need no Chief”: Ludwig, 466.

“I have ordered a defensive attitude”: Ludwig, 465.

Tirpitz’s request for control, reason for not resigning, and “My position is dreadful”: Tirpitz, II, 118–20, 219–20, 223.

“Passage of the Atlantic is safe”: Corbett, 54.

London Conference, Mahan, Declaration: Halévy, 223; Puleston, 130; Siney, 11; Salter, 98–99.

U.S. requested adherence and British reply: Secretary Bryan to Ambassador Page,
U.S. For. Rel.,
1914,
215–16, 218–20.

CID proposed continuous voyage be “rigorously applied”: Siney, 12.

Order in Council of August 20:
ibid.,
ff.; Parmelee, 37; Guichard, 17.

Spring-Rice quoted:
U.S. For Rel., 1914,
234.

“All sorts of odds and ends”: Asquith, II, 33.

“Don’t bother me with economics”: qtd. L. Farago, ed.
Axis Grand Strategy,
N.Y., 1942, 499.

“To secure the maximum blockade”: Grey, II, 103.

America “stands ready to help” and “permanent glory”: Baker, 2–3.

“Neutral in fact” and further quotations in this paragraph:
ibid.,
18, 24–5, 73.

U.S. trade figures: Arthur S. Link,
American Epoch,
N.Y., 1955, 177. Footnote on hidden trade: Consett,
passim,
and figures in
Encyc. Brit.,
14th ed., article “Blockade.”

“A government can be neutral”: Page, 361.

Wilson to Grey: Baker, 55–6.

“Utter condemnation”:
ibid.,
62; “Felt deeply the destruction of Louvain”: House, 293; “In the most solemn way”: Spring-Rice, 223.

“This outrage upon humanity”:
Lansing Papers,
I, 29–30.

“I am afraid something will happen”: Baker, 74.

“Enthusiasm of the first fight”: Tirpitz, II, 91. “Awkward embarrassments”: Churchill, 331–35.

Kaiser’s orders after the battle: Tirpitz, II, 93. What Tirpitz wrote afterward: to Admiral von Pohl, Sept. 16 and Oct. 1, Tirpitz, II, 95–7.

19. Retreat

General Order No. 2:
AF,
I, II, 21; Joffre, 189–90.

A night of “anguish and horror”: Libermann, 37–50.

“We left Blombay” and further incidents of French retreat quoted from soldiers’ diaries: Hanotaux, V, 221–22; VII, 212, 268; VIII, 76–8.

“Corporals, not commanders”: Tanant.

“Sorry to go without a fight”: Hanotaux, VIII, 76.

Ministers in “consternation” and “panic”: Poincaré, III, 92; Messimy, 364. Events and discussions in Paris during August 25–27 and all direct quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from the following sources: Poincaré, III, 89–99 and 118; Gallieni’s
Mémoires,
20–21, supplemented by his
Carnets,
17–22, 39–46; Hirschauer, 59–63; and above all from Messimy’s helpfully outspoken if confusingly arranged
Souvenirs,
Part Three, Chap. IV, “Nomination de Gallieni comme Gouverneur Militaire de Paris,” 206–228; Chap. V, “Le Gouvernement et le G.Q.G.,” 229–265 and the last part of Chap. VII, “Le Ministère de la Guerre en Août 1914,” the paragraphs entitled, “La panique parlementaire,” “la journée du 25 Août” and “la journée du 26 Août,” pp. 364–375.