The First World War by Martin Gilbert

Author:Martin Gilbert [Gilbert, Martin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, General, World War I
ISBN: 9780805076172
Google: 4povVJ-jkCoC
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
Published: 2004-02-29T13:00:00+00:00

15

War on every front

AUGUST — DECEMBER 1916

A new war front was about to open. Since July 1914, Roumania had tenaciously preserved its neutrality, while allowing German and Austrian military supplies and personnel to pass through her territory on their way to sustain the Turkish war effort against the Allies. On 18 August 1916 the Roumanian Government decide to take advantage of what it hoped would be the continuing Russian success against Austria. That day a secret treaty was signed between the Allies and Roumania, whereby Roumania would acquire three long-sought-after pieces of territory: the Austro-Hungarian province of Transylvania up to the river Theiss, the province of Bukovina up to the river Pruth, and the Banat region in its entirety.

Nine days later, on August 27, a new war zone opened: Roumania, its dreams of expansion now gratified, at least on paper, declared war on Austria. That day Roumanian troops crossed the Austro-Hungarian border into Transylvania. King Ferdinand, a German by blood, told the Roumanian Crown Council that day: ‘Now that I have conquered the Hohenzollern who was in me, I fear no one.’

Another Hohenzollern, the German Kaiser, momentarily panicked as Roumanian troops advanced into the heartland of the Hapsburg Empire, telling those closest to him: ‘The war is lost.’ The Central Powers were confronted by Russia’s continuing advance in the east, by daily British pressure on the Somme, and by Roumania’s belligerency. On August 28, in an attempt to strengthen Germany’s war-making capacities, the Kaiser replaced his Chief of the General Staff, General Falkenhayn, by Field Marshal Hindenburg. Appointed as Hindenburg’s deputy, Ludendorff was given a new and impressive-sounding title, that of First Quartermaster-General.

Hindenburg and Ludendorff were summoned to the Kaiser on August 29 to learn of their elevation. They urged him to begin unrestricted submarine warfare without delay, irrespective of the effect that it might have on the United States or the Scandinavian countries. That same day, Hindenburg also wrote to the Minister of War insisting that munitions production must be doubled, and artillery and machine-gun production trebled, by the spring of 1917.

Within two weeks, with the creation of a Supreme War Command, Hindenburg obtained effective command of all the armies of the Central Powers. This was agreed at a conference with the Kaiser at which the Turkish War Minister, Enver Pasha, and the Bulgarian Tsar Ferdinand were present. To strengthen the Salonica Front, Enver had already sent a Turkish Division, 12,000 strong, to take over the Drama-Kavalla sector of the Bulgarian line. German troops were also serving on the Salonica Front: in an attempt to seize a small village held by the Germans, British troops captured seventy German soldiers.

The Central Powers, despite the many war zones in which they were engaged, and despite the bloodletting on the Somme, remained in the ascendant. The Kaiser’s panic had been unnecessary. Roumania’s advances in Transylvania against the Austrians, advances which might have greatly assisted the Russian forces in the Carpathians, were short-lived. On September 1 the Bulgarians declared war on their Balkan neighbour and prepared to join the German army gathering to attack across the Danube from the south.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.