More guns of August - Richard Sale

"A reader responded to my first ramble on Barbara Tuchman’s Guns of August by saying, with a sense of defiant assertion, that the book is a masterpiece of the first class. But I wholeheartedly agree. It is historical writing of the first order. Please remember that what occasioned my remarks was a reader who said the book rendered a first class account of the crisis of 1914, and that is the one thing the book does not do, masterpiece that it is. In any case, what it lacks is a power of historical analysis."  Sale

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Comments

[William R. Cumming]

Thanks again Richard for covering some old and new issues in your thoughtful pieces.

WWI was also a phone and telegraph war and WWII a radio war. Artillery barrage techniques often disrupted communications on all sides.

And not sure if the French Generals really almost always stayed 40 miles from the front. But may well have stayed out of artillery range.

[Ken Halliwell]

While it's true that wireless communication technology was in its early period during WWI, it's well established that wireless-telegraph communication technology was used during the war.

During WWII, wireless communication technology (voice and telegraph) was fairly mature and used extensively. But perhaps more importantly, in the 1930's and 1940's RADAR technology was developed. RADAR and it's passive cousin HFDF were used widely during WWII -- some claim they saved the day for the allies. So, in terms of wireless technology, I'd say that WWII was a RADAR and HFDF war.

[John]

R.S. - Very interesting and informative, added comments. Thank you.

[mbrenner]

What do you think of the newly issued book:July 1914?

[Hank Foresman]

Mr. Sale stated: "I want to thank those readers who pointed out that it was Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated and not the Emperor Franz Josef, who had died earlier. Every school boy is taught that, but it is botching up the bedrock facts like that that makes you sound like an idiot."

Actually Emperor Franz Joseph lived until 1916. Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the heir to the Austrian throne because Emperor Franz Joseph son had committed suicide and Franz Ferdinand father declined to become the Archduke in favor of his son. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Joseph_I_of_Austria or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archduke_Franz_Ferdinand_of_Austria while one should always take wikipedia with a grain of salt, a cross check with other resources shows that the basic facts of both Franz Joseph and Franz Ferdinand are correct.

[William R. Cumming]

I hope Max Hastings does not overlook John Eisenhower's terrific book on the mobilization of the US in WWI!

2 million men [admittedly many untrained until tutored by the British and French and armed] in the 17 months post declaration of War Against Germany early in 1917!

That book documents why however skillfully or lacking in skill of its leaders, the USA was a world power after the WWI!

[YT]

子曰：以不教民戰，是謂棄之。

Confucius said: To send the common people to war untrained is to throw them away.

[William R. Cumming]

Thanks Ken!