Blogging the Nations at War II

Continuing my efforts to blog, chapter  by chapter,  The Nations at War: A Current History by Willis John Abbot, one of the first books to spark my love of history.

I used this image in my classes to show differences in how combat is portrayed.
Note how the Germans are a mass of menacing grey in the distance, only the
Canadians, heroic and resolute, are individuals on this modern battlefield. Also,
one of the few credited art works in this book, it was painted by W. B. Wollen. p32.

Right away it is obvious that graphic images in this work may not match the text surrounding them.  The opening page of the chapter faces a full page art piece depicting the Battle of Ypres, which will not be discussed in the text until Chapter III.

Each chapter begins with a small picture by its first letter,
often these show anachronistic images of soldiers,
as this image from Chapter II shows "A French Cuirassier", p33.

Each chapter opens with a heading listing the topics it will cover, in this case: THE INVASION OF BELGIUM - DASH UPON PARIS - PLAN OF GERMAN
CAMPAIGN - HEROISM OF BELGIANS - MARVELOUS EFFICIENCY OF GERMANS - FALL OF NAMUR - SIR JOHN FRENCH's RETREAT - GERMAN DEFEAT AT THE MARNE - PARIS SAVED.

Original caption: "The map shows approximately the extent of the
German advance to September 6, 1914. The heavy lines
with arrow-tips show in a general way the main
German advance; the heavily dotted lines, routes of
parallel, but lesser columns. All the territory between
the line touching Antwerp, Ghent, Bruges, and Amiens
and the main line was filled with German troops.
Raiding parties also reached Ostend and Boulogne." p35.

The chapter opens by excoriating the Germans for the invasion of neutral Belgium & Luxemburg, quoting a speech by the German Chancellor: "We are now in a state of necessity, and necessity knows no law! . . . We were compelled to override the just protest of the Luxemburg and Belgian governments. The wrong—I speak openly—that we are committing we will endeavor to make good as soon as our military goal has been reached. Anybody who is threatened, as we are threatened and is fighting for his highest possessions, can have only one thought—how he is to hack his way through." (page 33). It is remarkable how anti-German the book already was in 1915, let alone by 1917 after the United States had entered the war.

The book lays it on pretty thick regarding Belgium, claiming that it "suffered as no
nation has in modern times" and that "No other such record of national self-sacrifice is recorded in history", both dubious claims even in late 1914. (p37)

The German army is described as hyper-efficient throughout the work, "No army of all history ever took the field so splendidly
equipped with new and terrible engines of war as the armies of Germany, and particularly the Army of the Meuse in this

This drawing of a "Uhlan patrol surprised by Belgian armored car"
 wasn't good history but it captivated me as a child, and I still find
it fascinating. I was shocked to discover this was somewhat real!
The Belgians were the first to use armored cars in combat when
they converted civilian vehicles into the Minerva Armored Car and
employed them in 1914! 

campaign. Aeroplanes and dirigibles spied out the way, reported the positions of the enemy, the artillery the range. Motor cars carried soldiers swiftly from point to point and hurried light guns into action; heavily armored, they had their place on the line of battle, and marked with the Red Cross they carried the wounded to places of safety. Rapid-fire guns poured out streams of bullets like water from a hose, and were so compactly built that one could be packed on a horse, or carried on two motorcycles. Siege guns with a range of ten miles, of a calibre and weight never before thought capable of passage along country roads, were dragged by traction engines or by their own motors at a rate of eight miles an hour—guns that twenty years ago would have been useless in any field because of their immobility." (p34)

Many images in the chapter seem to have been chosen to represent this ideal of 'modern' war, but they look quaint and old-fashioned to our eyes. The vast majority of the forces on all sides were infantry, most transported remained drawn by horses, and the major difference between this battlefield and those of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 seems to be the vast number of troops involved.

Original Caption: "An Impromptu Registration. Refugees from Antwerp writing their names and addresses on a fence to let their friends know their whereabouts." (p41)

Most of the images in this chapter continue the theme of training and mobilization from Chapter I, and there are a lot of images of men marching (probably one of the easier images for photojournalists of the day to obtain.).

Other images highlight the refugees fleeing the Germn invasion, as well as some images of the defense of Belgium and France.

Descriptions continue of the German actions in Belgium, especially, "War has never been

more remorseless. In every town and village prominent men were seized as hostages and were relentlessly put to death if any citizen, maddened by the destruction of his property or insults offered to his womenkind, dared to attack the aggressors. The story of German atrocities in Belgium is not to be told here." (p42)

"All  that was left from the disaster. This dog cart and its 
contents were all that a once prosperous family saved from 
ruin." (p40) The images of dog carts really shocked me as a kid.
 The idea of dogs as draft animals was so foreign, outside of sleds!

Nonetheless, he includes a lengthy description the German taking of Louvain, Belgium by American writer  Richard Harding Davis, culminating in this chilling description: "Outside the station in the

public square the people of Louvain passed in an unending procession, women bareheaded, weeping, men carrying the children asleep on their shoulders, all hemmed in by the shadowy army of gray wolves. Once they were halted, and among them were marched a line of men. They well knew their fellow townsmen. These were on the way to be shot. And better to point the moral an officer halted

"On the road to safety. The dog is much used as a draught animal in 
Belgium, and many refugees were fortunate enough to get dog carts 
in which to escape." (p48)

both processions and, climbing to a cart, explained why the men were to die. He warned others not
to bring down upon themselves a like vengeance.
               As those being led to spend the night in the fields looked across to those marked for death they saw old friends, neighbors of long standing, men of their own household. The officer bellowing at them from the cart was illuminated by the headlights of an automobile. He looked like an actor held in a spotlight on a darkened stage.

"These are the real dogs of war. The Belgians use them to draw 

batteries  of Lewis guns." (p61) I would love to have this 

as a miniature for World War I Belgian forces!

               It was all like a scene upon the stage, so unreal, so inhuman, you felt it could not be true; that the curtain of fire, purring and crackling and sending up sparks to meet the kind, calm stars, was only a painted backdrop; that the reports of rifles from the dark rooms came from blank cartridges; and that these trembling shopkeepers and peasants ringed in bayonets would not in a few minutes really die, but that they themselves and their homes would be restored to their wives and children." (p46)

"Photograph taken amid bursting shells. This picture was taken under fire. The soldiers in the trenches were Belgians. (p50) I doubt this is truly under fire, as the soldiers all clearly staring at the camera, but it might be just before some action.

The chapter describes the German offensive falling short just outside Paris, but does praise the German commander for the disciplined retreat after the Marne, "In ultimate history it is not improbable that the fame of Von Kluck will rest quite as securely on his successful retreat from the Marne as upon his almost unopposed march upon Pans. The former was by far the more difficult test of his generalship. Caught between the hammer and anvil, outnumbered, with the morale of his army sorely suffering by the sudden transition from enthusiastic advance to precipitate retreat, he yet saved his army from the destruction which for a time seemed imminent."

"Desperate stand of British artillery against odds. During the Battle of Mons a German battery of ten guns surprised 
Battery L, Royal Horse Artillery, and killed most of its horses and men before it could get into action." (p59)
I believe this refers to the Affair of Néry, though it is a rather fanciful description of that fight, which was larger then described.

The chapter ends with a chronology of the period covered, from the start of the German invasion in early August through to French recapture of Rheims on 14 September. I loved these chronologies as a kid, because the chapters and pictures tended to flit about, and it was difficult, even with the maps, to always be clear on what was happening. Chronologies are a map of time, they made it so much easier to follow the tale, and I'm certain their inclusions in this book really inspired my love of chronologies, even today. Indeed, establishing a solid chronology is still one of my first steps when I set out to write a historical work.

All views in this blog are my own and represent the views of no other person, organization, or institution.