Book review - Thomas Weber - Hitler's First War

Thomas Weber - Hitler's First War: Adolf Hitler, the Men of the List Regiment, and the First World War 

 

„Hitler’s First War“ is a unique study on Hitler’s life, the study that wasn’t here before. Many of his biographers were telling the Hitler’s story, focusing on his rise to power and the Nazi era. 

The only Hitler's photo that appeared in the official history of the List Regiment, published in 1932.

The book written by Thomas Weber is much different than the works we knew. First of all, the book is a result of a hard work inside the archives, analyzing the documents that no one has seen before. Secondly, Weber is trying to find the answer on the one of the most important questions of the modern history – what did „create“ Hitler as a politician and a leader?

It seems this question was already answered many times, as most Hitler’s biographers said that it was his military service during the Great War that turned him into a politician and the leader. The result of Weber’s work shows us a different picture. 

The book is divided into two parts; the first one is focused on the details of Hitler’s military service and the history of his regiment. Thomas Weber painted a picture of List Regiment and this picture was based on the deep study of the archive documents. The average German regiment, consisted largely of conscripts, not enthusiastic volunteers – on the contrary to the popular myth. What is worth to note, there were many Jews in the List Regiment including the artist Albert Weisberger. 

 Hitler (x) and other runners from his regiment in Fournes, 1915.

Hitler’s military career was much different from the widely known stories and rumors – as Weber points in the book, many of them were created after the Great War by German propaganda. Adolf Hitler started his career as the mere private and finally was promoted to a corporal. That’s true, certainly. Not so known fact is that he was promoted just after the very first battle of List Regiment (during the first Ypres, 28-31 October 1914 – Hitler was promoted on 3rd November), and the reason were the heavy casualties in the battle – almost all survived soldiers were promoted. And this was the end of his service at the front line and the end of his military career: he was not promoted again until the end of the war. One of the reasons was that Hitler didn’t want to be promoted, as it could cost him the loosing of relatively safe post of the regiment’s runner.

Weber is analyzing his post as the runner, comparing it to the other posts among the regiment’s non-commissioned officers. The conclusion is as expected – what Hitler considered as „the front line“, was a safe post in the opinion of the soldiers from the real first line.

The second part of Weber’s book is telling us the story of the post-war years. With Hitler’s rise to the power in the background, Weber is showing us how Nazi propaganda (and Hitler himself) worked on creating the image we know now – a heroic soldier of the Great War who became a leader of powerful Third Reich. Weber describes this as „Hitler’s second war“ – the war against his former brothers in arms from the List Regiment, who could tell the world the real story of corporal Adolf Hitler.

 One of Hitler's paintings - The priory in Messines, December 1914.

Weber’s work is really a masterpiece, as most of his conclusions are based on the documents found in the archives. There is no point of re-writing his book here, this book is a real „must-read“ for anyone interesting in the Great War. You can find many interesting facts in there, including the story of Hitler’s Iron Cross, his wounds, the ways he spent the time on leave, how the famous photo (taken in the day the war was declared) was created and his relationship with other soldiers in the regiment.

(JD)

Book review - Simon Jones - Underground Warfare 1914 1918

Simon Jones - Underground Warfare 1914-1918

Underground mine and explosion - this was one of the most feared words in the trenches of the Great War. The troops were more or less aware of the dangers they met – enemy bullets, artillery fire, bayonet, weather and disasters. All this was a daily routine on the front  - but being buried alive by the underground explosion that came without any warning? This was something really horrible, especially that soldiers were trying to hide in their dug-outs, looking for some moments of quiet and relaxation from the hell above. Underground warfare made those shelters as dangerous as staying out of the trenches during the artillery fire.

A tunnel, leading to the Christchurch cavern beneath Arras, France

This is not surprising that the information „there are the miners underground“ was one of the most feared ones – as most of the troops could only imagine how close the enemy miners were and they could only guess if the explosives were ready to detonate.

Sometimes they could see the spectaculars explosions made by their own miners – like the volcanos they were erupting along the enemy lines, spreading death and destruction.

One of the preserved tunnels (Wikipedia)

„Underground Warfare 1914-1918“ is a detailed study about the underground warfare in the Great War. The book is full of personal memoirs and reminiscences, which help him to tell us the story of this not so known part of the conflict. The war is not divided in two parts – the troops „over the top“ and the miners „underground“. Jones managed to describe the connections between both of them; he shows us how the development of the underground warfare was depending on the general situation on the front. As an addition, we can often read what the troops were thinking about the miners and their works.

The book takes us through the evolution of the underground warfare, starting with old concepts from the 18th century and the necessary change of those ideas in the face of the new type of the conflicts. The chapters are:

1 - Military Mining before 1914

2 - Mining Operations 1914 - early 1915

3 - French Mining Sectors: Carency, Oise, Les Eparges and Vauquois

4 - British Mining Operations 1915 - early 1916

5 - Hohenzollern and St Eloi 1916

6 - The Somme 1916

7 - Vimy, Arras and Messines 1917

8 - Miners and Technology

9 - Tunnels and the Infantry Attack

10 - Underground Accommodation and Communications

11 – Conclusion

 One of the British tunnels (Guardian)

Jones is trying to answer some important questions – were there any attempts to move the troops under the enemy lines? Were the underground dug-outs the best solution to survive the hard times at the front line? Why underground warfare was not as effective as it was expected to be?

 One of the drawings from the book.

Just the few examples but I hope you would learn from this book as I did. The book is also full of diagrams, maps and instructions helping us to understand the underground warfare, the conditions the miners met underground and their equipment and techniques. There are also a few photographs in the book.

This book is really worth reading, highly recommended.
(JD)

Book review - Walter Karjus – The Red Baron, Manfred von Richtofen

 

Walter Karjus –  The Red Baron, Manfred von Richtofen

This is a short book, with 100 pages only – but in my opinion the best book about Manfred von Richthofen I have ever read.

The book has eight chapters, each one is a short single story:

- The triplane: the story about the 80th Richthofen’s victory. This is all what most people know about the WW1 in the air. The red triplane, a famous pilot in the cockpit and hopeless British (or French) pilots who cannot escape their fate. The stereotype in its pure shape. A very good introduction to the story about this legendary pilot. 

The second part of this chapter is more serious, telling us about the Dreidecker, how it was created and used in combat. With some words about Richthofen added.

- Jasta: the story of WW1 aviation in brief – from the very beginning, then the first duels, looking for the perfect fighter plane idea, the troubles with synchronizer, the change from 1-to-1 duels to formations of dozens of aircrafts. The reason why German Jastas were created. This story ends with the Boelcke’s dead.

- Ritter Manfred von Richthofen: The one and only, unique and legendary. Why? What makes Richtofen an iconic symbol of the Great War? Author is trying to answer all such questions and in my opinion he is doing it right. The story ends in the moment Richtofen became the commander of the very first Jagdgeschwader.

- A lone warrior, Werner Voss: a short break in the main story, but also very interesting. There were many other aces among German pilots, but the author decided to tell us about Voss. It was a very good choice and the moment was perfectly chosen – remember that the previous capitol ends with the creation of Jagdgeschwaders. Voss was a lone warrior, a perfect fighter but without the traits of a leader. „Only the whitebeard or philosopher can afford to be a loner. Voss wasn’t a philosopher, so that’s why he didn’t become a whitebeard“. The era of lone fighters in the sky has gone away and Voss has gone away in the same time. 

- Anatomy of the fight: each and every fighter has his own tactics and dogfight technics. Here are some of them: Mc’Cudden, Ball, Guynemer… 

- The Flying Circus: the period from June 1917 to April 1918. All those frantic battles in the sky, but told with the background details. 

- I’ll tell you how the Red Baron died: 21st April 1918 hour by hour. The Requiem. 

- Pour le Merite: a kind of psychological study on the pilots, their behavior, traits and limitations. Many interesting details from their life and service.

At the end there are two appendices: a list of Richthofen’s air victories and the detailed study on his planes. Camouflage, marking, what was red and when. Really a perfect work.

The book is really interesting, written in the way one reads it with pleasure. The language used in it is very specific, full of irony and sometimes sarcasm. The author mentions many myths from the era and is proving them wrong in the ironical way. There is no pathos, we can see that the pilots were ordinary men, with their strengths and disadvantages, and many times with their kinks.

A short example of the style it is written:

„11th Squadron was in the permanent status of rearmament. The pilots didn’t manage to get familiar with their nice Sopwith Pups, when new child of wonder from Thomas Sopwith factory has arrived, the already known Triplane. However Brown has preferred Pup. I know this sounds as a shocking, maybe even infantile statement, but this was the custom in those days. The squadrons seemed to be a piece of Byzantine craftsmanship mosaic. Someone wants to fly Nieuport, Brown preferred Pup, someone else preferred Triplane. Let’s imagine today the pilot who wants to fly F-16 instead of MiGs received by his squadron.“
 

And last but not least – there is a riddle. Who is the author of this book? Walther Karjus* as written on the cover? Or someone else? 

Karjus couldn’t write the second part of the book, for sure. Especially the last chapter which was written by the contemporary author for sure. The owner of the copyright is Witold Chrzanowski, probably the Polish historian by that name. The only problem is that Chrzanowski had written many books but all of them are about the early times: ancient Rome and Slavic history. 

Is Chrzanowski just an editor of the material somehow left by Karjus? But there is no „translated from …“ description in the book. Probably this is a book written by Chrzanowski who didn’t want to give himself a bad name by publishing a story from the Great War, especially written with a sense of humor.

Karjus was a pilot in Jasta 11 and Jasta 75. He was a valiant observer who had been badly wounded and had lost his right arm. Fitted with a prosthetic device he became a pilot and then flying instructor. One confirmed air victory on 21 October 1918.

(JD)

Book review - Terence Zuber, The Real German War Plan

Terence Zuber, The Real German War Plan 1904-14

Terence Zuber is something of a controversial figure regarding WW1 and the Schlieffen Plan.

He makes a series of bold statements concerning the plan (or lack of) and criticises several historians such as Holger Herwig and Anniker Mombauer.

Schlieffen as Chief of the General Staff in 1904-1905 played 3 separate war games and the battles took place in German or Belgian territory and there is no evidence Schlieffen played an outright offensive against France or Russia.

The 'classic' Schlieffen plan actually has written on it that it was intended for a one front war against France only! Even for this he calls for 96 divisions, 24 more than Germany actually had.

Schlieffen's planning over his tenure appeared to be to use Germany's interior position to mass against troops on one front and then use superior tactics to achieve a victory. Of course, this could not continue for ever.

There is nothing in the literature to suggest that the campaign in the west would be concluded in 6 weeks.

The map everyone knows is a combination of the Schlieffen plan map of 1905 and the events of 1914. The 1st army was intended to act as a flank guard and not to march around Paris. Furthermore, Schlieffen felt the Germans would be halted on the Oise and the Aisne.
(ES)