Lossberg's War

[Robert Dunlop]

Subtitled: The World War I Memoirs of a German Chief of Staff.

Edited and translated by Major General David Zabecki and Lieutenant Colonel Dieter Diedekarken.

 

Fritz von Lossberg will be known to many on this Forum as a key architect and exponent of the 'elastic defence' during the Great War. In truth, the development of German defensive tactics was much more complex and involved many more contributors. Von Lossberg, however, became known as 'der Abwehrloewe' (The Lion of the Defensive) for his role in several major defensive battles, including Champagne, Somme, Arras, and Third Ypres. This book is an English translation of von Lossberg's autobiography, which was published as 'Meine Taetigkeit im Weltkriege 1914-1918' in 1939. I have a copy of the original; the editors/translators have done an excellent job, not only in the quality of the translations but also ensuring that the English flows well and is easy to read. The only exception, which is not unique to this book, are the detailed descriptions of troop movements for example - a problem with the content itself, not the translation. There is a brief introduction from the editors, which provides a brief potted history of von Lossberg's career and additional background. They have added some supplementary materials at the end, including an appendix entitled 'The Prussian/German General Staff System, 1806-1918.

 

The autobiography itself is divided into a prologue and a post-war final chapter, interspersed with separate chapters on each phase of the war: Chief of Staff XIII Corps during the opening months; Division Chief of the General Staff in OHL during von Falkenhayn's command; Chief of the General Staff Third Army (Champagne, 1915); Chief of the General Staff Second Army and then First Army (Somme, 1916); Chief of the General Staff Sixth Army (Arras, 1917); Chief of the General Staff of Army Group Boehn (Spring Offensives, 1918); and finally Chief of the General Staff Army Group Duke Albrecht of Wuerttembeg (to the end of the war). Von Lossberg describes his experiences in the German General Staff before and then during the war.

 

Several things stood out for me:

• A man of relentless energy, who preferred to be near the action and frequently visited the lower command levels during the major defensive battles.
• His insights into and assessments of the various people with whom he worked or came in contact with: the Kaiser; von Falkenhayn, von Hindenburg, and Ludendorff amongst the most well known. It is clear that these assessments are not wholly objective but they are interesting nonetheless.
• His lack of insight into the limitations of the role that he played. I was looking forward to his account of Third Ypres, given that others wrote about von Lossberg's exhaustion as that campaign neared its conclusion. But his account tailed off, by comparison to other chapters. This hinted at the problems but these problems were thrown into sharp relief by the multiple rolling assaults by the Anglo-French-American armies during the last 100 days - he couldn't be everywhere (even presuming that his role had been critical to the other major campaigns in late 1915 through end 1917).

 

This is a book that is best read in a wider context. Jack Sheldon's book 'Fighting the Somme' gives a much more balanced view for example, within which von Lossberg's memoirs of late 1916 can be placed and better understood. The book won't be everyone's cup of tea (the price alone will set you back a year's supply of tea or more) but it is valuable contribution to the historiography of the war. I really enjoyed it.

 

Robert

[phil andrade]

Robert,

 

Please will you tell us what he wrote about the Kaiser ?

 

Just a brief summary, if you wouldn’t mind.

 

Was Lossberg called “ The Fireman of the Western Front “ ?

 

Phil

[AOK4]

Hello,

 

As far as I seem to remember, von Loßberg was not at all a key architect and exponent of the "elastic defense" (at least not as Ludendorff saw "elastic defense"). Unfortunately things are a bit in disorder here so I can't check my things now.

 

It is true that Loßberg's chapter on Third Ypres is unfortunately very brief, making an operational/strategic view on the battle from the German side very difficult (neither the army commander, nor his chief of staff Loßberg, nor any of the other involved corps commanders or their chiefs of staff have left us elaborate memoirs).

 

Jan

 

[Robert Dunlop]

Phil, he was also known as 'The Fireman of the Western Front' too. And Rigoletto by some of his detractors . I will see what I can do re a synopsis of the comments about the Kaiser.

 

Jan, I agree with your point. Indeed, von Lossberg was very much against the concept of giving up ground and then retaking it in the beginning. He was very good at exploiting reverse slope defensive positions (but was definitely not the first to recognise the importance of the reverse slope - this was known before the war).

 

Robert