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Dimitri
Dimitri is on page 54 of 592 of Pyrrhic Victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War
By prudently keeping away from the border, the French Army had succeeded in letting the Germans put themselves in the wrong to the eyes of the world opinion while presenting their own smooth mobilisation as a peace assurance towards the domestic press.
May 24, 2018 05:30AM Add a comment
Pyrrhic Victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War

Dimitri
Dimitri is on page 47 of 592 of Pyrrhic Victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War
Notwithstanding the commonly accepted notion that France entered the war amidst an outpouring of enthousiasm, they entered the war more with determination to defend their national territory. War aims including the liberation of Alsace were only defined ca. July 1916 (??!!).
May 24, 2018 05:29AM Add a comment
Pyrrhic Victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War

Dimitri
Dimitri is on page 419 of 738 of Warsaw 1944: The Fateful Uprising
Quote: "The beauty built up through centuries of Polish history was burning to ashes before our bloodshot eyes... the slenderness of the 14th century Cathedral of St. John... and the polychrome of the Ancient Market place...I cried in helpless rage."
May 24, 2018 04:25AM Add a comment
Warsaw 1944: The Fateful Uprising

Dimitri
Dimitri is on page 418 of 738 of Warsaw 1944: The Fateful Uprising
Anecdote: on 28 August 2012 a gigantic shell was found in a construction site in central Warsaw. A 'large chunk of the city' was evacuated as it was carefully disarmed. It was the shell from a Karl Mörser Gerät, a weapon which still has the power to terrorize nearly 70 years on.
May 24, 2018 04:24AM Add a comment
Warsaw 1944: The Fateful Uprising

Dimitri
Dimitri is on page 364 of 738 of Warsaw 1944: The Fateful Uprising
One gruesome feature of the cemetery fight at Wola was the impossibility to move unseen through the sewers, a common tactic dating back to Stalingrad. These were impassibly filled up with the corpses of the former inhabitants of the nearby Jewish Ghetto who had fought to the death the previous year.
May 24, 2018 04:20AM Add a comment
Warsaw 1944: The Fateful Uprising

Dimitri
Dimitri is on page 363 of 738 of Warsaw 1944: The Fateful Uprising
Life in the Old Town continued as before, an incredulous feature of the whole Uprising that baffled refugees from Wola & Ochota.
Allied drops from Brindisi 1300 km away because Stalin withheld the use of Soviet territory, were but a drop in the sea for the underequipped AK.
With the governor in the palaca besieged, Dirlewanger & the SS pushed on through the old Wola cemeteries by 10 August.
May 24, 2018 04:18AM Add a comment
Warsaw 1944: The Fateful Uprising

Dimitri
Dimitri is on page 355 of 738 of Warsaw 1944: The Fateful Uprising
Postscript on the Kaminski's Roma Brigade: the titular commander himself was executed, most of his men were wiped out in a large AK attack on the outskirts of town and the survivors were welcomed with open gulags after the war.
May 24, 2018 04:15AM Add a comment
Warsaw 1944: The Fateful Uprising

Dimitri
Dimitri is on page 317 of 738 of Warsaw 1944: The Fateful Uprising
8 days of static plunder left RONA with a large number of civilians on their hands.The establishment of a literal concentration camp in the Zieleniak Market can be seen as an early symptom of a shift in German policy. Notwithstanding Hitler's apocalyptic Warsaw Order or Erich Von Dem Bach's humanitarian defence at Nuremberg, bitter experience had shown it was infeasible to dispose of an entire city population.
May 24, 2018 04:13AM Add a comment
Warsaw 1944: The Fateful Uprising

Dimitri
Dimitri is on page 316 of 738 of Warsaw 1944: The Fateful Uprising
The Kaminski unleashed its own orgy of violence on the fashionable Ochota district, with an outspoken taste for alcohol & loot that did much to slow its progress towards the nearest Poniatowski bridge to a crawl, much to the displeasure of the Waffen SS command which had to use the regular Galacia Division to storm the AK redoubts at Kalinska and Wawelska.
May 24, 2018 04:10AM Add a comment
Warsaw 1944: The Fateful Uprising

Dimitri
Dimitri is on page 310 of 738 of Warsaw 1944: The Fateful Uprising
The Kaminski or RONA brigade of Slav collaborators had by contrast graduated cum laude against Soviet partisans on the territory occupied by Army Group Centre, escaping the wrath of Bagration around Minsk in the nick of time, to be incorporated into the Waffen SS.
May 24, 2018 04:07AM Add a comment
Warsaw 1944: The Fateful Uprising

Dimitri
Dimitri is on page 306 of 738 of Warsaw 1944: The Fateful Uprising
It's a small comfort that in its clashes with AK strongholds, the Dirlewanger brigade had to replenish 2712 casualties of its own, with often reluctant replacements, who hadn't been through the brutal Banditenkrieg school but were kept in line by the threat of exemplary execution.
May 24, 2018 04:05AM Add a comment
Warsaw 1944: The Fateful Uprising

Dimitri
Dimitri is on page 170 of 436 of Nothing Less Than War: A New History of America's Entry into World War I
The Kaiser made a poignant remark about the whole U-boat rules controversy which is often obscured in British & American books: "Sending millions of shells and cartridges to England and her Allies to kill and maim 1000s of German soldiers is not inhuman because profitable"
May 24, 2018 03:11AM Add a comment
Nothing Less Than War: A New History of America's Entry into World War I

Dimitri
Dimitri is on page 170 of 436 of Nothing Less Than War: A New History of America's Entry into World War I
German Foreign Minster Van Jagow complied on 4.5.16 with the "Sussex Note" on cruiser rules, but not on humanitarian grounds. Taking on a new enemy was unwise during the Verdun deadlock & Somme threat. The small U-boat fleet (43 strong and 9 under construction), patrolling at 25% capacity, was better off without rules.
May 24, 2018 03:02AM Add a comment
Nothing Less Than War: A New History of America's Entry into World War I

Dimitri
Dimitri is on page 170 of 436 of Nothing Less Than War: A New History of America's Entry into World War I
Lansing's impractical (cowardly?) proposal provoked intense debate in Congress, for example; could the Federal government prohibit U.S. citizens from boarding Britain's armed passenger ships for their own safety? By April 18, Wilson threatened to 'severe diplomatic relations' over the unrestricted U-boats after a new series of sunken spats involving Americans. Couldn't the ships be given the benefit of the doubt ?
May 24, 2018 02:57AM Add a comment
Nothing Less Than War: A New History of America's Entry into World War I

Dimitri
Dimitri is on page 170 of 436 of Nothing Less Than War: A New History of America's Entry into World War I
the British practice of arming her merchant/passenger ships to opportunistically hunt U-boats raised new questions within U.S. diplomacy. Could these still travel to America, visit its ports, Were these armaments defensive? Germany refused to distinguish the fine points. R.Lansing proposed on 7.1.16 to see all non-military vessels disarmed in return for scrupulously adhered cruiser rules.
Yes, the honour system (!)
May 22, 2018 06:46AM Add a comment
Nothing Less Than War: A New History of America's Entry into World War I

Dimitri
Dimitri is on page 154 of 436 of Nothing Less Than War: A New History of America's Entry into World War I
Within months (1916) the U.S. found itself involved in far greater debates. The nation experienced outright sabotage efforts, a major diplomatic proposal to strip belligerent merchant ships of their arms, a full-scale Congressional rebellion over the right of American passengers to travel on [these ships] & the sinking of a British passenger in the Channel, a matter that brought the U.S. to the brink of war.
May 22, 2018 06:35AM Add a comment
Nothing Less Than War: A New History of America's Entry into World War I

Dimitri
Dimitri is on page 270 of 738 of Warsaw 1944: The Fateful Uprising
The worst experience of war I've ever read...

One victim of SS mass executions was the heavily pregnant Wanda Lurie, She lay hidden among the bodies for 2 days when she felt the child move in her womb. Her 3 other children had been murdered by headshot before her eyes. She decided she had to survive so that one child might live.
May 22, 2018 05:35AM Add a comment
Warsaw 1944: The Fateful Uprising

Dimitri
Dimitri is on page 46 of 592 of Pyrrhic Victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War
"the artillery doesn't prepare attacks, it supports them. To force an adversary out of his cover its necessary to attack with the infantry." illustrates glaringly how tactics catered to the mobile ideal. Development of heavy artillery simply never overcame a minefield of political objections. Heresy, like the 'wasteful' first line use of reserves from France's smaller demographic base,
May 22, 2018 05:13AM Add a comment
Pyrrhic Victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War

Dimitri
Dimitri is on page 38 of 592 of Pyrrhic Victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War
...to the limit and commit all reserve units to a frontline role in order to have sufficient numbers to steamroll two armies over the Meuse. In common with all beligerents, their idea of worst case scenario "long war on two front" stretched under a year; they stocked ammo & mobilized their industry accordingly...
May 22, 2018 05:05AM Add a comment
Pyrrhic Victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War

Dimitri
Dimitri is on page 38 of 592 of Pyrrhic Victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War
It's seldom appreciated how similar Plan XVII is to the factual deployment of the Belgian army: in strict adherence to its neutrality status, positioned near the geographical of Brussels to see who would cross first. The French suffered less political constraint but neither did they heed all the little birds carrying morsels of info on the Reichswehr which was prepared to thin the East to
May 22, 2018 04:52AM Add a comment
Pyrrhic Victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War

Dimitri
Dimitri is on page 37 of 592 of Pyrrhic Victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War
Joffre, originally the biggest integrator of "outrance" until 1913, stretched the French deployment westwards: a defensive stand in Lorraine coupled with a limited counterattack into Belgium became a possibility in 1914. Plan XVII was no strategic blueprint but merely a flexible deployment that allowed him to go full throttle on the Vosges or parry a German invasion of Belgium in whatever strength it came.
May 22, 2018 04:40AM Add a comment
Pyrrhic Victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War

Dimitri
Dimitri is on page 36 of 592 of Pyrrhic Victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War
Key question pertained to number of German corps & role of their reserve formations. Consensus remained that even the enlarged German army couldn't possibly combine a proper defence of Lorraine and East Prussia with a deep intrusion into Belgium without overextending itself dangerously.
May 22, 2018 04:34AM Add a comment
Pyrrhic Victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War

Dimitri
Dimitri is on page 35 of 592 of Pyrrhic Victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War
The right bank of the Muse offered sufficient space even after the 1912 enlargement of the German army. Within the Belgian government & Army existed a widespread idea to offer token resistance to limited intrusion before pulling back to the National Redoubt Antwerp to fullfill its neutrality obligation.
May 22, 2018 04:32AM Add a comment
Pyrrhic Victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War

Dimitri
Dimitri is on page 30 of 592 of Pyrrhic Victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War
Doughty identifies influence by the political culture of the Third Republic in Republic in the transition to a mass conscript army under two newly established conseils supérieures. Given the events in the autumn of 1870,when the fight went from the Empire into Gambetta’s people at arms, this is quite obvious.
May 22, 2018 04:28AM Add a comment
Pyrrhic Victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War

Dimitri
Dimitri is on page 10 of 592 of Pyrrhic Victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War
So in actuality, French strategy anno 1914 was a combo of initial defence, followed by counter attack. The infamous Plan XVII was sounder than it looks, with 5 armies occupying a central arch position & a 6th in reserve to extend EITHER flank.
May 22, 2018 04:20AM Add a comment
Pyrrhic Victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War

Dimitri
Dimitri is on page 10 of 592 of Pyrrhic Victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War
the cult of the offensive was only cultivated as soon as 2 conditions were met; the completion of a fortress line to secure the new border & an alliance with Russia to end the isolation in which the Second Empire had perished.

Next, the railway network was crucial in the formulation of concentration plans & the eventual shift of French forces into the path of the German right wing, foreseen as early as 1892.
May 22, 2018 03:18AM Add a comment
Pyrrhic Victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War

Dimitri
Dimitri is on page 130 of 436 of Nothing Less Than War: A New History of America's Entry into World War I
American newspapers cannily summarized the lukewarm German apology to their 125 countrymen perished with the Lusitania under the headline “Sorry, but I’ll do it again”. It put the blame on Britain’s complicated cargo practices. Its not an easy decision to make on the spot for a U-boat captain when the Lusitania carries ammunition or another liner ships mules “from Armenia” to France together with U.S. Negro handlers.
May 22, 2018 03:10AM Add a comment
Nothing Less Than War: A New History of America's Entry into World War I

Dimitri
Dimitri is on page 110 of 436 of Nothing Less Than War: A New History of America's Entry into World War I
The sinking of the Lusitania on 7 may 1915 is potrayed as the 9/11 of 14-18 but in actuality in only sparked two diplomatic “Lusitania” notes by Wilson that made Germany secretly forbid its U-boats to attack large passenger liners under any flag. The rest of the discussion between him and Foreign Minister von Jagow about rules was little more than wad-throwing.
May 21, 2018 11:30PM Add a comment
Nothing Less Than War: A New History of America's Entry into World War I

Dimitri
Dimitri is on page 10 of 592 of Pyrrhic Victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War
Today's popular perception of pre-war strategy remains in one word, oblivion: blind adherence to the Offensive as prophesied by the flamboyant colonel Grandmaison & the older legacy of Du Picq, with a blind eye towards the German envelopment through Belgium. wrong on both counts !
May 18, 2018 08:00AM Add a comment
Pyrrhic Victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War

Dimitri
Dimitri is on page 158 of 316 of German Strategy and the Path to Verdun: Erich von Falkenhayn and the Development of Attrition, 1870-1916
One cannot improve on John Terraine's witty recap:
"Joffre's authority never wavered. His stature shrank in defeat."
May 18, 2018 07:58AM Add a comment
German Strategy and the Path to Verdun: Erich von Falkenhayn and the Development of Attrition, 1870-1916

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