A hundred years ago, the
First World War was reaching its crisis. Though we tend to think of the war in
terms of stalemate and attrition, the war was a complex web of human activities
and human choices that seemed anything but static to most of the millions of
participants. An illustration of this idea, in the broadest sense, can be seen
in trends and events during the first half of 1917, just one hundred years ago.
Taken as as a whole, the first six months of 1917 represents a startling shift
in the shape of the war. As the fine historian René Albrecht-Carrié put it, the
deeper forces emerged. The huge battles of 1916 and the resulting alterations
in the size and scope of the state in all belligerent societies combined with
profound events in international affairs--above all, American entry--to create an
entirely new dynamic of a war that is still not done with shaping the future. As
evidence, we might contemplate briefly just some of the changing components.
Since 1914, the war had
been fought on many fronts besides the vast Eastern and Western Fronts. To add
to these, in August 1916, Romania's entry into the war opened a new war
front
involving forces from Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Russia, as well
Romania. As the commander of Germany's army, Paul von Hindenburg, sized things
up just before Romania joined the war, "It is certain that so relatively small a state as Romania had never
before been given a role so important, and, indeed, so decisive for the history
of the world at so favorable a moment." Romania came in on the side of
Entente shortly thereafter but faced disaster. Combined Austro-Hungarian,
Bulgarian, and German forces handed the Romanian army defeat after defeat until
the front stabilized in January 1917. But much of Romania was now in the hands
of the Central Powers, and the Romanian army had lost a large part of its army,
certainly the majority of the 300,000 military deaths (and an equal number of
civilian deaths) the country would suffer before the end of the war. Still,
Romania's contribution no doubt helped substantially in delaying Entente
collapse on many other fronts.
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| Romanian 105mm howitzers at the Battle of Mărăști, 1917 |
In Russia, the strains of the
vast 1916 Brusilov Offensive had depleted Russian, Austro-Hungarian, and other
armies in numbers that prefigured the Eastern Front battles of the Second World
War. The 1916 Russian offensive was counted as a victory, but it was a Phyrric
one. The half a million Russian casualties it cost brought the Russian wartime
total to almost six million killed, wounded, or missing soldiers by early 1917.
Russian industry still produced shells, but the economy was increasingly a
shambles. Corruption was rife. The famous and sordid dynamic of Nicholas,
Alexandra, and Rasputin had weakened the war effort both in perception and in
reality. The murder of Rasputin on December 30, 1917, did little to reverse
this weakening. The relationship between the parliament (the Duma) and the High
Command (headed by the Tsar) worsened. Famine threatened in many areas. Mutinies
and desertions were increasing drastically by early 1917. It was in this
context and at this moment that crowds poured into the streets of Petrograd,
starting a chain of events which ended with the February Revolution and the
abdication of the Tsar in March. The new
Provisional Government pledged itself
to continue the war effort, but observers in all countries had
doubts--especially since the Russian Caucasus army facing the Turks had disintegrated
the moment the news of the February Revolution reached it. On the other hand, strategists
of the Central Powers began to revive their early visions of a victory in
Russia followed by a concentration of forces in the West. To many German
leaders it now seemed possible to achieve a delayed and attenuated version of
the failed Schlieffen Plan at long last.
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| Students and soldiers firing on police in Petrograd during the February Revolution |
It was on the heels of
these events that the United States declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917. Of
course, the United States had been neutral in the official sense before April 6.
But in fact, American loans, goods, and shipping had been a major component of
Allied war-making since 1915. Equally important, the United States as a
"neutral" had impacted the shape of German naval policy and the
maintenance of the British Blockade of Germany by means of Woodrow Wilson's
pressure on the Germans to curtail their policy of unrestricted submarine
warfare.
From April to June 1918, the
exact nature of the American contribution was yet to be worked out, but it was
immediately evident that without the hindrances of official neutrality, the
efforts the Americans would be crucial, if they materialized in time.
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| Robert Nivelle in 1916 |
And even the promise of
American intervention came none too soon for the Entente powers. The French
launched the murderous "Nivelle Offensive" in the center of the
Western Front three days after American entry. Nivelle had managed to sell to
Allied leaders an updated theory of offensive-mindedness with the promise of a
total victory against the Germans in France within a few days. The
method--throwing away Henri Petain's proven system, "artillery conquers,
infantry holds"--was, simply, one furious attack after another. The result
was the "French Mutinies." Beginning in early May, frontline soldiers
in many, perhaps half, of French divisions simply refused to go over the top in
these suicidal attacks. Desertions grew, but for the most part, French poilus disobeyed orders and held their
positions instead of charging across No Man's Land to attack impregnable German
positions. Self-preservation by means of "informal truces" had meant
survival throughout the war for many soldiers in all armies, but this
widespread mutiny represented something far more serious. Further, in Italy, a
Nivelle-like offensive on the Isonzo Front produced a similar plunge in morale,
with desertions and mutinies beginning in June 1917. Likewise, the failure of
the Russian Kerensky Offensive of
June 1917 reignited the wave of mutinies in
the Russian army, rendering it incapable of further offensive operations. As
for Britain, a sizeable mutiny at the brutal British training base at Etaples
would break out in September 1917, with much less effect on the front itself. Still,
Allied leaders were faced with the irony of an enormous diplomatic victory in
the form of American entry--but potential Entente military collapse before the
United States could mobilize.
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| The ruined village of Soupir, one of many such in the wake of the Nivelle Offensive |
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| Artillery preparation for the Canadian attack at Vimy Ridge |
It is true that the
Entente had some important successes during the first half of 1917, almost all
of them by British and Empire units. The Arras Campaign (in particular the Canadian assault at Vimy
Ridge and the Messines battle in the Ypres sector) made gains that were large
by Western Front standards. But these victories were local, and in their
primary mission (to divert Germans from the larger Nivelle offensive)
unsuccessful. They never came close to any breakthrough, and the Germans would
recapture much of the gained territory in 1918.
Finally, the specter of a collapse
of Entente fighting morale in 1917 took shape as all the home fronts (Entente
and Central Powers alike) developed fissures, above all in the vital area of
war production. The sheer pressure of manpower shortages in the face of
accelerating munitions needs had led to increasing hours, dangerous working
conditions, food shortages, and government repression of many kinds in the
munitions factories of all the countries involved. Strikes had occurred in the
workforces of all belligerent societies since 1915, but now strikes skyrocketed
everywhere in extent, intensity, and violence. Again, these social fractures
affected all belligerents, but since the Entente governments were
simultaneously facing exhaustion and mutiny on so many fronts, the situation
was indeed dire.
Under these conditions the
entry and war mobilization of the United States, the fourth most populous
country on the globe and the world's strongest economy, could hardly be
anything but pivotal after June 1917.
