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Introduction
Germany was feeling uneasy of the
political pacts which basically France, Russia and Great Britain had made and as
such in a counter move, Germany made pacts with the Austro-Hungarian's and other
Baltic states. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries the crumbling Austro-Hungarian Empire was plagued with continuing internal unrest. The desire of many of the Slavs in the southern provinces to join neighboring Serbia had intensified friction among the empire's Germanic, Magyar, and Slavic peoples.
'Russia had interests in Serbian too.
Great Britain was becoming increasingly alarmed at Germany's obsession of
becoming the main navel might in the world, which Germany saw as a way of increasing
her empire throughout the world like the British had done. Great Britain saw
Germany's increasing navy prowess as a threat to her world trade and possible
embargo of the British isle's should any armed conflict occur between the continental
states which could cripple the county in a short space of time and lead to
submission. 'If Germany control the main Northern sea ports of Europe she could easily
control the seas around Britain'.
Resources
All the major European powers except Britain had conscript armies by 1914. The German army was by far the best trained and equipped, and it was directed by a highly efficient general staff. In the wake of the German victory in the Franco-Prussian War, the other European countries had also attempted to develop efficient staff systems. Moreover, all these general staffs had prepared war and mobilization plans to meet all possible combinations of opponents. The French, whose army was ranked second only to the Germans in overall efficiency, had one basic deficiency: their war plans and all of their military training were focused on the offensive to the total neglect of defensive tactics. The Austrian and Russian army systems were, in general, poor copies of the German and French, respectively. Britain's small volunteer army was well trained, but British war strategy focused on the Royal Navy, the largest sea force in the
world at that time.
The scene was set for War, every
country had some kind of political axe to grind, all it need was the first
domino to be pushed.
The Empire ready for War
The British nation was fed the seeds on hatred for the German nation via the
increasing News paper coverage of the time. Fuel by economic depression and the
very real threat that Germany could affect British trade which would cost thousands
of Jobs and livelihoods. The British public was whipped into a war like
mood confident of a quick victory, which some news paper sources predicting a
victory within 6 months. Many men eagerly signed up for duty in the romantic
notion of a quick glorious victory Frank & Philip Marchington
along with their cousin Philip Marchington enlisted in Hyde, Cheshire and were assigned to the North Staffordshire
Regiment. However, romantic duty soon became conscription as human life was
required and squandered by the Generals & Commanders who in their futile
attempts to breakout of the stalemate of Trench warfare saw only numbers and not
young men they represented.
The Beginning
The assassination of the Austrian
Arch-duke 'Franz Ferdinand' in Sarajevo on 28th of June 1914 by a Serbia terrorist
group proved to be the spark that ignited World War I.
Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Russia being allies of Serbia declared
war on Austria. Germany being an alley of Austria declared war on Russia.
France being in a pact with Russia mobilized her forces and as a result Germany
saw this as a threat & declared war on France on the 3rd of August 1914. Britain
was not military duty bound to back her economic allies France & Russia, and
did not enter into the conflict at this time all-be-it a day later. That's until Germany
marched her army through Neutral Belgium on the 4th of August 1914. The British government decided that it must honor its commitment to defend Belgian neutrality. It declared war on Germany on
the 4th of August 1914.
It quickly involve all the great powers of Europe and eventually most countries of the world, and cost the lives of more than 8 million soldiers.
The German's advanced through
Belgium meeting opposition from the Belgian & French armies. The eastern
front was one of defense at this time. The British Expeditionary Force landed in
France on the 21st of August and moved towards the Belgium front in support of
the French & Belgian's . The Royal
navy succeeded in blockading the German North sea ports and German
Imperial Navy which proved no threat throughout the war, other than u-boat
attacks on supply ships.
It was generally
fought with the entry of Great Britain and her Allies the war would not last
more than 6 months. But a new military tactic was conceived which would reduce
the war to one of attrition. Trench Warfare.
Antwerp
British marines, sent to assist the Belgian army, retreated from Antwerp after its capture by the Germans in October 1914. They were unable to prevent the strategic Channel ports from falling into German control. The landing of the marines during the "race to the sea" following the First Battle of the Marne marked the only time that British amphibious power was deployed on the western
front. The port was ineffective for the Germans due to British naval might.
Trench Warfare.
The Somme & Ypres
The Battles of the Somme were two encounters fought along the Somme River in northwestern France during World War I.
The First Battle of the Somme, between the 24 June to the 13th of November
1916.
The Allies' long-standing plans to attack the Central Powers were delayed when the Germans launched
an offensive at Verdun on the 21 Feb 1916 in an attempt to breach the French line. On
the 1st of July, following a week-long artillery barrage, the Allies finally began their attack on the highly fortified German line along the Somme; they now had the secondary purpose of relieving the pressure on Verdun. The British, under Field Marshal Sir Douglas
Haig, played the leading role, with a smaller French force to their right. Only small gains were made on the first day of battle, and the British suffered 60,000 casualties, including 19,000 dead; it was the greatest one-day loss in the history of the British army.
Throughout the summer and autumn, the British continued a series of limited attacks, including the last large-scale use of horse cavalry in Western Europe. The British also used tanks for the first time in battle, although not very effectively. The battle ended in a deadlock. Little land had changed hands; the campaign had succeeded only in the objective of relieving Verdun. The cost was enormous: the British lost 420,000 men; the French lost 195,000; German casualties were about 600,000.
The Second Battle of the Somme, between the 21st of March to the 5th of
April 1918
In early 1918, German general Erich Ludendorff opened the Second Battle of the Somme, also known as the Somme Offensive. His purpose was to breach the Allied line before American reinforcements could arrive. German shock troops struck along a
60-mile front and succeeded in rolling back the Allies as much as 40 miles. It was the Germans' first major breakthrough since the early days of the war.
Haig failed to get support from the French forces under General Henri
Petain, who were occupied with the defense of Paris, and the Allies assigned General Ferdinand
Foch the task of co -orderinating the Allied efforts. Foch immediately sent French reserves to the Somme, and the German drive lost momentum. Like the First Battle of the Somme, the second was fought at enormous cost: the British suffered 163,000 casualties and the French, 77,000; German losses were almost as high as those of the Allies.
The Battles of Ypres
First Battle
(October 30-November 24, 1914) The first battle at Ypres took
place when outnumbered British, French, and Belgian troops resisted a German
offensive aimed at the French ports of Calais and Dunkirk on the English
Channel. The offensive, potentially disastrous to the Allied cause, was finally
stemmed after 34 days of heavy fighting. The battle resulted in fixed military
positions, initiating the long period of trench warfare on the western front.
The strength of the British Expeditionary Force was reduced from 100,000 to
50,000 in this battle alone.
Second Battle
(April 22-May 25, 1915) The second battle ensued when the
Germans carried out an experiment with a new military weapon, poisonous chlorine
gas. After five weeks of fighting, a stalemate had been reached, and the Germans
brought the battle to an end. German losses totaled about 35,000 officers and
men; Allied casualties were in the region of 60,000.
Third Battle
(July 31-November 10, 1917) Known also as the Passchendaele
campaign, the third battle of Ypres was precipitated by a massive British
offensive directed against enemy installations, and designed to break through to
the Belgian coast. In its initial phase the operation succeeded brilliantly. On
June 7, 1917, British forces took the strategically important village of
Messines, the heights of which commanded miles of German-occupied territory. The
second phase of the offensive (took place between the 31st July to the 10th of
November, proved disastrous, however.
Prolonged rainfall and heavy Allied bombardment had transformed the battlefield
into a swamp, and the Germans, operating from concrete pillboxes, took a heavy
toll of Allied troops with mustard gas and machine-gun fire. The mud killed many
a loaded infantry man who strayed from the duck boarding on the trenches, a
fully kitted up soldiers kit bag would weigh no less than 60lbs.
After months of
bitter fighting in deep mud, Canadian infantrymen captured the ruined village of
Passchendaele. At this point the Allied command halted the offensive. Allied
troops had pushed the German lines back only 8 km (5 mi); each side suffered
over 250,000 casualties.
The Battle
of Vimy Ridge
The battle for
Vimy Ridge was one of many battles fought by the allies in the Arras region.
Know as the Third Battle of Arras it was a major victory in securing a strategic
site.
This is where John Douglas Marchington fought and died serving in
the Canadian Expeditionary Force alongside his cousins.
The plan was to
capture the high ground of Vimy ridge, in support of a major offensive at Ypres.
Capturing this strategic point would prevent the Germans counter-attacking from
the Arras region. The battle was fought on the 9th April 1917. The
British Expeditionary Force, which consisted of mainly Canadians led the attack
and stormed the ridge after explosives had been laid under the ridge via tunnels
and detonated. They where successful in capturing the Ridge by morning
the next day. Further gains where made at Gavrell & Guemappe in April &
May. These battles cost many lives but strengthened the allies position around
Arras and made for a power base for future offensive attacks..
The beginning of the end
The Allied situation at the beginning of 1918 was grim. The major Allied offensives of
Nivelle began on the 9th of April 1917 had
failed costing hundreds of thousands of lives one being Frank Marchington,
who lost his life going over the top at Flanders in May 1917 his brother
Philip Marchington survived the big push. This attack was planned to take pressure off the French lines
who's forces were at physical & mental breakdown. The
German's new the attacking allies were coming and planned for it by retreating
back to a more defensive position, yet the French & British went ahead. Two weeks later the be-legal battle worn French
troops came to the end of their physical and mental resources and were mutinying
out of sheer frustration of their commanders willingness to sacrifice untold
numbers of their men in what was obviously a battle that could not be worn and
should have not took place due to some very poor military planning.
The Marchington's of the Canadian Expeditionary force which included John Douglas Marchington
who a year earlier lost his
life in the battle Vimy ridge fighting along side his family. John Douglas Marchington's death while tragic, served to secure
a strategic of defense ridge, and a point which would become valuable in the later
stages of the war to cover the big advancement of late 1918.
Russia had collapsed and signed a peace treaty with the Germans & central
powers in December 1917, and Italy was on the verge of collapse. The German U-boat campaign still threatened the maritime supply route from the United States. Many months would pass before American soldiers could bolster depleted Allied manpower. Both Britain and France were on the
defensive but their supply lines were intact & holding.
However the Central Powers were in a far worse state. They were being strangled by the
Powerful British naval blockade. Austria was at the end of its resources; Turkey and Bulgaria were wobbling; the burden of the war fell more and more heavily on
Germany, and the cracks were beginning to show. Hindenburg and Ludendorff
'Germany's military leaders, had established a virtual military dictatorship in Germany and exercised almost as much authority over the subservient governments of Austria, Bulgaria, and Turkey.
The last push
With the injection of fresh troops from
America the Allies were able to deploy there division more affectively. Many
British and French front line troops where rested. The Allies installed a supreme
command after the French failed to reinforce the British at Flanders which
resulted in Harold Marchington and Benjamin Marchington loosing their lives,
after retreating some 10 miles from a massive German offensive, the French
choose to leave their reserves 10 miles outside of Paris to protect the capital,
instead of supporting the British line. The British were only just holding off
the advance at great cost and as such on the 3rd of April the Allied Supreme War Council, meeting at Beauvais, appointed Ferdinand FOCH as the Allied commander in chief. Immediately he began to send reserves to aid the British
and stem the advancing Germans & central powers. The Supreme Council lead to
better tactical organization and deployment. The armies of the Allies were
rested and as such came back to the front fresh. Better equipment in the air and
on land help to slowly but surely weaken the resolve of the Germans &
central power forces. In September of 1918 the Allies instigated a big
push 'a Break out of the trenches' this was well planed with the use of the new
technology of the day. In a combined attack on all fronts aircraft bombed and peppered
the front and rear lines massive bombardments of artillery rained on the German
lines which was followed with the arrival of tanks under the cover of artillery
followed with the infantry under the cover of the tanks and aircraft all set in tandem as one
advancing force. By the beginning of October the German's & central
powers lines crack and fell apart. The end was insight.
The Germans
requesting an armistice on the 6th of October 1918. Which was denied by the Allies at
first until the German government resigned and elected other leaders to negotiate
surrender terms. In the mean time inspired by the communists the German High
Seas Fleet mutinied on the 29th of October.
Revolts flared inside of Germany and a new socialist government took
power and proclaimed itself a republic on the 9th of November. The emperor fled to the Netherlands the next
day. On the 11th of November 1918 the German's and her allies signed a surrender agreement
and as such at 11am on the that day Hostilities ceased. The war was over.
Summing up
The main cause of the ending of hostilities was one of endurance. In a nut
shell the allies had cut of of all sources of supplies to the German armies and
the civilian population of Germany with their affective sea blockade of the north sea and
the Mediterranean sea ports. Which prompted the German high command to concede
defeat. The German lines on the front where cracking but the battle fields of western France
& Belgium where not conceded and neither side had gained any significant
ground over the four years of hostilities. The war was merely a pattern of
offence & defense by both sides who cancelled themselves out. 'Stale mate'.
Many lives where lost in futile advances which served only to warn the enemy
that their counterparts were still there ready and willing to fight. Many soldiers
going to the front for the second or third time 'bleated like sheep', mocking themselves
and their Commanders in-sensational desires for small moral boosting victories
which resulted in disastrous casualties.
Starvation and moral
erosion where the true weapons of this war. A battle of attrition fought on a
Globe scale.
The Cost
The British Empire Forces sent c.9 million men into action of which just short
of a million were killed in direct action. c. 2 million were wounded.
The
total cost to the Allies Forces being; c. 42 million sent into action of which c.
5
million were killed in direct action. c. 13 million were wounded. 3 million
civilians were killed.
Germany and her Allies sent c. 22 million men into battle of which c. 3 million were
killed in direct action. c. 8 million wounded. 3 million civilians were killed.
The grand total being: 65 million men sent into action.
8 million were killed in direct action.
21 million were wounded.
6 million civilians were killed
Of the wounded, its estimated that at least 25% of these died through their
wounds or diseases
attributed to the conditions of war.
The cost in money is mentioned in many History books
but in mentioning the cost would be profoundly in appropriate and insignificant
to the amount of human lose & suffering endured by the people who where
directly affect by this conflict.
By R P. Marchington
I have no data for the number of Marchington's serving in the war as yet
but hope to have a full list in due time commemorating the battles in which they
took part in. Only four Marchington's lost their lives in the First World War;
- that was four to
many.
World War Two 1939-1945
Lt-Commander T S Marchington, RNR. Australia.
Surrender of the Japanese Forces at Balikpapan.
In the Balikpapan area, under the control of the General Officer Commanding
7th Division (Maj-General E J Milford), the whole of the Japanese forces in
Dutch Borneo, led by a naval officer, Vice-Admiral Kamada, complied with the
surrender orders on 8 September. Representatives of all the Allied services
operating in Balikpapan were aboard the Australian frigate HMAS Burdekin at the
rendezvous fifty miles north of Balikpapan, off the mouth of the Mahakam River
delta. The Japanese emissaries arrived on time, passed between the lines of the
cutlass party and stood before the official table. General Milford, accompanied
by the commander of the Burdekin, Lt-Commander T S Marchington, RNR, walked
briskly to the table, returned the salutes of the staff officers, turned and
faced the Japanese. The Japanese stood rigidly to attention in their dirty
jungle uniforms and saluted the leader of the men who had helped to bring about
their defeat. The Japanese Admiral intimated that he understood and was prepared
to accept the surrender terms. He was ordered to sign the document and to place
his sheathed sword on it in token of surrender.
Source taken from an Australian World War web site.
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