For those interested in recent history, I recommend
The First World War by John Keegan. Keegan, who began his career as a journalist, was a military analyst par excellence. One gets to understand the various strategic interactions. The only thing he missed was the importance of something that has been lost in the fog of war and history: An American ruse de guerre that suddenly turned the tide and resulted in the war's ending soon thereafter.
The Americans realized a spy in U.S. field headquarters was relaying secrets to the Germans. So, left in a waste basket was a rumpled copy of an American "battle plan" alleging a coming drive in a certain sector. Sure enough, the Germans began shifting major units from the Saint Mihiel salient to counter the Americans, who then struck that salient when the Germans were weak, and took it.
The Allies had been unable to put a dent in that salient through four years of fighting. So the effect on troop morale was astounding. The German soldiers, who like the European Allied soldiers, were sick of that war, became downcast. How could they be expected to fight the newly arrived Americans, too, who they imagined as a bunch of wild gunslingers of American Western lore? When their officers told them, truthfully, that American troops were not all that fearsome, the German troops laughed at them in derision.
The Americans wanted to keep their offensive going but were overruled by the allied command, which before long let loose a front-wide offensive against the Germans. Allied troop morale was soaring, German in the pits. Hence, one-third of the German army surrendered. Why die in a pointless show of bravery?
This is why Germany immediately sued for peace. Although Communist propaganda undoubtedly had been undermining morale, the biggest factor was the astonishing U.S. victory at Saint Mihiel in September 1918. Hitler's propaganda omitted the most important element in the sudden collapse of Germany.
Two extremely impressive accounts of World War II are by Antony Beevor: Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege: 1942-1943 and D-Day: The Battle for Normandy. Beevor captures the enormity and the ghastliness of the Stalingrad campaign and the Soviet encirclement of Paulus. This turnabout marked Hitler´s end, just as the czar´s mauling of Napoleon's army proved his undoing.
Another little-known fact of history: the Normandy breakout was strongly assisted by British airplanes giving U.S. troops close tactical support, bombing and strafing German tanks at the behest of GI spotters. (American fliers were busy with other work.) Control of the air permitted this lethal combination to overcome the Panzer tank, which heavily over-matched American tanks.
Both of these writers are, by the way, British.
I also recommend Napoleon: A Life by Andrew Roberts, who, while not shrinking from Napoleon's flaws, takes a relatively sympathetic view of the man, a point of view with which I agree. Roberts is yet another British historian and journalist. One can almost hear him whispering perfidious Albion as he writes of the British aristocracy's determination to restore the Bourbons.
The Americans realized a spy in U.S. field headquarters was relaying secrets to the Germans. So, left in a waste basket was a rumpled copy of an American "battle plan" alleging a coming drive in a certain sector. Sure enough, the Germans began shifting major units from the Saint Mihiel salient to counter the Americans, who then struck that salient when the Germans were weak, and took it.
The Allies had been unable to put a dent in that salient through four years of fighting. So the effect on troop morale was astounding. The German soldiers, who like the European Allied soldiers, were sick of that war, became downcast. How could they be expected to fight the newly arrived Americans, too, who they imagined as a bunch of wild gunslingers of American Western lore? When their officers told them, truthfully, that American troops were not all that fearsome, the German troops laughed at them in derision.
The Americans wanted to keep their offensive going but were overruled by the allied command, which before long let loose a front-wide offensive against the Germans. Allied troop morale was soaring, German in the pits. Hence, one-third of the German army surrendered. Why die in a pointless show of bravery?
This is why Germany immediately sued for peace. Although Communist propaganda undoubtedly had been undermining morale, the biggest factor was the astonishing U.S. victory at Saint Mihiel in September 1918. Hitler's propaganda omitted the most important element in the sudden collapse of Germany.
Two extremely impressive accounts of World War II are by Antony Beevor: Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege: 1942-1943 and D-Day: The Battle for Normandy. Beevor captures the enormity and the ghastliness of the Stalingrad campaign and the Soviet encirclement of Paulus. This turnabout marked Hitler´s end, just as the czar´s mauling of Napoleon's army proved his undoing.
Another little-known fact of history: the Normandy breakout was strongly assisted by British airplanes giving U.S. troops close tactical support, bombing and strafing German tanks at the behest of GI spotters. (American fliers were busy with other work.) Control of the air permitted this lethal combination to overcome the Panzer tank, which heavily over-matched American tanks.
Both of these writers are, by the way, British.
I also recommend Napoleon: A Life by Andrew Roberts, who, while not shrinking from Napoleon's flaws, takes a relatively sympathetic view of the man, a point of view with which I agree. Roberts is yet another British historian and journalist. One can almost hear him whispering perfidious Albion as he writes of the British aristocracy's determination to restore the Bourbons.
No comments:
Post a Comment