Thirteen Days

[RodB]

Been reading above, covering the political events leading up to hostilities. He seems to blame mainly the Austrians, and especially Berchtold, for being so obsessed by their determination to destroy Serbia, that they ignored the evidence that Russia could not stay out if that happened : they thought that with the blank cheque they'd got from Germany they could do whatever they liked, and ignored the major war that would result.

Ponting presents Bethmann Hollweg as realising too late what the Austrians intended, and by the time he tried to restrain Austria Russia had already started mobilizing. He presents the Kaiser as wanting Austria to "stop at Belgrade" and that the Germans were effectively deceived by the Austrians as to their real intentions. Austra ignored German requests for moderation. German ambassador Tschirsky apparently didn't do much to control the Austrians and didn't apparently tell all he knew to Berlin either.

He presents Grey as being too slow to realize that the Germans thought Britain would remain neutral in all circumstances, and by the time he let them know the real score it was too late.

He presents the French as being pretty gung-ho in urging Russia to stand up aggressively to Austria.

Final straw was when Sazonov panicked into ordering full Russian mobilization, when at that time Austria had not yet invaded Serbia, and a stiff warning would have sufficed. Germany's war plan was effectivly activated by Russian mobilization, and then nothing could stop it.

So the culprets in descending order : Berchtold, Tschirsky, Sazonov, Bethmann Hollweg, Grey.

Any opinions out there ?

Rod

[armourersergeant]

Rod,

I read a book by George malcolm Thomson called 'The Twelve Days' which seems to be about the same story and the impression i had was that all sides, perhaps except the Austrains, thought that War would be averted and left it to others to sort out.(simplistic summary but you get the drift)

The Austrians gave an unacceptable ultimatum to the Serbs and they bent over back wards to accomidate and even then the Austro invaded. War at any price it seemed to me.

there were some in the back ground in Germany i seem to recall that were also working to create war but most did not seem to want it.

If you put the title in you will see we discussed this topic under the heading of the above mentioned book, I think!

regards

Arm.