Sir Hew Strachan's lecture - one point

[centurion]

Just got back from the first of the Birmingham University WW1 Studies centennial lecture series given by Prof Sir Hew Strachan. Very enjoyable but densly packed so I'm hoping someone better at notes than me will produce a précis. However one point in the Q&A session which was interesting (amongst many) and has a contemporary relevance was about atrocities in East Prussia and Belgium (and elsewhere) in 1914 which members might wish to ponder. He made the point about many German troops both officers and men n Belgium having been inculcated with stories about Francs Tier from 1871 and being a] inexperienced b] in a very scary situation and c] having out run their own supply system and desperate for food so prone to plunder (and not tender of those peasants who resisted) so that the result may well have been atrocities but he made the interesting observation that the real stupidities (my language not his) were the way in which the high command closed ranks and a] ignored reports b] denied reports or c] justified such actions under "military necessity" and took no action.

[squirrel]

The Advance from Mons 1914 by Walter Bloem is worth a read regarding the mind set of the German Army at the time with regard to Farnc Tireurs.

[cdr]

The problem of the atrocities is very, very tricky. Sir Hew Strachan seems to accept the arguments of Kramer and Horne in their important study of this topic.

I can readily follow his points a) inexperienced and b. scary situation (the German army was not expecting any resistance from Belgium (pralinenarmee)If

you read German regimental histories you frequently find that units were issued with coins to pay for provisions in Belgium.

I have a problem with c) outrun supply system. This does not explain the fact that there were executions and the destruction of villages from the very start of the invasion. (eg in Visé)

A nice example of the approach by German high command is the way in which the suicide of general von Bulow in early august was blamed on a franc-tireur attack

Carl

[centurion]

The problem of the atrocities is very, very tricky. Sir Hew Strachan seems to accept the arguments of Kramer and Horne in their important study of this topic.

I can readily follow his points a) inexperienced and b. scary situation (the German army was not expecting any resistance from Belgium (pralinenarmee)If

you read German regimental histories you frequently find that units were issued with coins to pay for provisions in Belgium.

I have a problem with c) outrun supply system. This does not explain the fact that there were executions and the destruction of villages from the very start of the invasion. (eg in Visé)

A nice example of the approach by German high command is the way in which the suicide of general von Bulow in early august was blamed on a franc-tireur attack

Carl

Out run supplies certainly happened and there are German soldiers accounts of this. It wasn't suggested that this explains all atrocities just some.