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Haigs Enemy Crown Prince Rupprecht and Germanys War On The Western Front Jonathan Boff Full Chapter PDF
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OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 19/12/17, SPi
H A IG’S EN EMY
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 19/12/17, SPi
1
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 19/12/17, SPi
3
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© Jonathan Boff 2018
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First Edition published in 2018
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OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 19/12/17, SPi
Acknowledgements
I could not have completed this book without the help and support of too
many people to list here. I am immensely grateful, first, for the encourage-
ment and support, moral and practical, that I have received from friends and
colleagues both at the University of Birmingham and within the history
community more broadly. The generosity I have encountered has been
inspiring. Nick Crowson, Elaine Fulton, Sabine Lee, and Corey Ross helped
create the space for me to research this book, and my fellow foot-soldiers in
the War Studies trenches, past and present, kindly took up the teaching slack.
Pete Gray has been a good friend and a sage mentor to whose wisdom
I owe much. Members of the Centre for War Studies, most notably John
Bourne, have offered inspiration and education in equal measure at our
seminars. I am grateful to the participants at a range of seminars and confer-
ences to whom I have presented aspects of this work over the years, for their
comments and suggestions; and to those who took part in the 2014 and
2016 British Army staff rides to the Western Front, from whom I learnt
much. I am especially grateful to Holger Afflerbach, Tony Cowan, Robert
Foley, Markus Pöhlmann, Christian Stachelbeck, and Dave Zabecki, all of
whom shared their expertise in the history of the German military with a
generosity and patience which was humbling to this novice. My students,
inevitably, have taught me the most: I thank them for that and for turning a
job into a joy.
Special thanks to Professors David French, David Stevenson, and Sir
Hew Strachan, who have been especially supportive in multiple ways, most
of them beyond the call of duty.
Without the help of archivists, not much history would get written. I am
grateful to the staffs of the following archives and libraries: in Britain, the
British Library, Imperial War Museum, London Library, National Archives, and
National Army Museum; in Germany, the Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv in
Freiburg im Breisgau, and, in Munich, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
and Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, both Abteilung IV (Kriegsarchiv) and
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 19/12/17, SPi
Contents
List of Illustrations ix
List of Maps xi
Maps xii
Introduction 1
PA RT I. TO WA R 1914
1. Rupprecht’s Road to War 11
2. The Battle of the Frontiers 17
3. The End of the Campaign in Lorraine 27
4. The First Battle of the Somme 35
5. To Ypres 41
PA RT II. T H E A N V I L 1915–16
6. A Difficult Winter 57
7. A Successful Spring 68
8. Further Victories 83
9. Verdun and the Road to the Somme 92
10. Early Days on the Somme 100
11. Rupprecht the General 108
viii Con t e n ts
PA RT I V. Y E A R OF DE F E ATS 1918
19. Planning the Spring Offensives 201
20. Operation MICHAEL 210
21. Operation GEORGETTE and Summer 1918 220
22. The Hundred Days 233
23. Rupprecht on the Run 247
PA RT V. CONCLUSIONS
24. Rupprecht the Field Marshal 257
25. Rupprecht and Politics 269
26. Last Words 277
List of Illustrations
List of Maps
Maps
XXXXX
BR British Army Group
XXXX
Bav Bavarian
Army
XXX
FR French
Corps
Australian and New Zealand
ANZAC Army Corps XX
Division
AUS Australian
German
CAN Canadian
Infantry
Gds Guards
Cavalry
NZ New Zealand
Ter Territorial
Railways
Canals
Sea DENMARK
GREAT
BRITAIN
RUSSIA
Atlantic NETH.
GERMANY
Ocean BEL.
FRANCE AUSTRIA–
SWITZ. HUNGARY
ROMANIA
(1916) Black Sea
AL
SERBIA
UG
ITALY BULGARIA
SPAIN
RT
(1915) MONT.
(1915)
PO
ALBANIA
OTTOMAN EMPIRE
Mediterranean Sea (1914)
GREECE
(1917)
MOROCCO ALGERIA
Me
use
Compiègne
Aisne
Rouen Soissons
Reims Verdun Metz Lorraine
Ves
ine
ise
le Champagne Morhange
Rh
Se O St
ine Château- Épernay M
Meaux ar Mihiel
Thierry ne Strasbourg
e Nancy
rn
Ma Petit Morin
Meu
Grand Mor
PARIS in Alsace
se
M
ne
os
Sei
ell
e
Epinal
ges
Troyes Freiburg
Vo s
F R A N C E
Mulhouse
Basel
Belfort
LUXEMBOURG 30 kms
30 miles N
e
ell
os
M
Sa
Thionville
rre
XXXX GERMANY
6
Rupprecht
LORRAINE
Metz
St Avold Sarreguemines
XXX
Seille
II
XXX Bav
III Morhange XXX
Bav
XXXX
XXI XXX
2 I
Castelnau Bav
Vic
BASSE
ALSACE
Dieuze Sarrebourg XXX
ine
Toul Lagarde
Rh
Nancy XXX
XV
er
Riv
(-)
XIX
Cirey Strasbourg
Lunéville
Manonviller Vezouze
Badonviller
Charmes
Mo
XXXX
sell
Me
s
e
ntain
urt
FRANCE Épinal
7
he
Heeringen
Mou
XXXX
ges
1
Vos
Dubail Colmar
Thann
Key Mulhouse
International boundary Belfort
Approximate limit of ine
HAUTE r Rh
French advance,
ALSACE Rive
evening 19 August 1914
Montbéliard Basle
Approximate line of
maximum German
advance, SWITZERLAND
s
ub
25 August 1914
Do
© BAT 2016
4. Lorraine 1914
Gommecourt brai
Arra
N Cam
s
Bapaume
Miraumont
Nord
Beaumont-
Hamel
al du
Thiepval
Rive
r So
l
na
mm
Riv
Ca
er
e
ise
tin
Avr
rO
en
e
ve
Qu
Ham Ri
St
Nesle
Roye
10 miles
Montdidier 10 km © BAT 2016
5. Somme 1914
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 19/12/17, SPi
N XXX Forest of
Houthulst XXXX
XXIII Res
4
XX Württemberg
Ypre Canal XXX
89 Ter FR
s—C
XX Bixshcoote Poelcapelle
ines
87 Ter FR Langemarck
XX
Passchendaele
1
Boesinghe Pilckem St
XXX Julien XX Gravenstafel
XXX
Elverdinghe I 2
Zonnebeke Broodseinde
St
Jean
XXVII Res
Vlamertinghe XX XXX
XX
Poperinghe 17 FR
YPRES IV 7 Terhand
Zillebeke
Gheluvelt
XX
Dickebusch
3
Zandvoorde Gheluwe Lys
St Eloi River
MENIN
XX
XXX 2
Wytschaete
Kemmel
Cav Mount XX
Kemmel Wervicq XXX
Messines
1 Comines
V XXXX
XXX
Wulverghem
Neuve
Warneton
XXX IV 6
XX
Eglise Rupprecht
Bailleul 4 I
Ploegsteert
XXX XXX
TOURCOING
Frelinghien
III XIX
Nieppe
ROUBAIX
Armentières
Lys
er
Riv
Bois
Estaires Grenier
Laventie
LILLE
Fromelles
Aubers
Neuve
Chapelle
Festubert Seclin
Givenchy
LA Phalempin
BASSÉE
Key
3 miles British positions on 21 October 1914
3 km British positions on 23 October 1914
© BAT 2016
6. Flanders 1914
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 19/12/17, SPi
Béthune
La
Bas
sée LA BASSÉE
Can Givenchy-lès-
al
la-Bassée
nal
Cuinchy
eule Ca
Haisnes Douvrin
Annequin
Haute D
XXXX Sailly
1 BR
N Haig
Vermelles Hulluch
Noeux-
les-Mines
Mazingarbe
Loos
Hill 70
Grenay
Bully-
les-Mines
ez
Souch
River
Aix
LENS
Lor
ett
e Angres
Spu Notre-Dame
r XXXX de Lorette XXXX
165 m
10 FR 6
d’ Urbal Rupprecht
Ablain- Givenchy-
St Nazaire en-Gohelle
Souchez
V 140 m
Carency
im
y
Vimy
La
Folie
Neuville- Farm
Farbus
Mont- St-Vaast R
River St-Eloi id
Scarp g
e Thélus
e
The
Labyrinth
Bailleul
Écurie Roclincourt
Maroeuil
Anzin
St St
Nicolas Laurent
River
Scarp
e
ARRAS
Feuchy
Danville
Tilloy
Key
Allied front lines at start of
Beaurains
Second Battle of Artois
Allied front lines by 5 miles
13 October 1915 5 km © BAT 2016
7. Artois 1915
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 19/12/17, SPi
Gommecourt 5 miles
XXXX 5 km
Hébuterne
3
Allenby
3
Serre
N
XXXX XXX
Res XIV BAPAUME
Res XXX XXXX
Stein
Beaumont-Hamel Gd Res
Warlencourt 1
Butte de Marschall
St-Pierre-
Warlencourt Below
XXXX Divion
Le Sars
Courcelette Le Transloy
Res Gueudecourt XXX
Gough Thiepval
Martinpuich XXII
High Wood
Lesboeufs Res
Pozières Kirchbach
Res Bazentin
XXXX Wood
Delville Morval Sailly-
Ovillers Wood
Sallisel
4 Longueval Leuze
Wood St-Pierre-Vaast
La-Boisselle Trones
Wood Wood
Mametz Wood
ALBERT Montauban
Fricourt Combles
Bernafay
Mametz Wood Rancourt
Bouchavesnes XXX
Maricourt XXVII
XXXX Res
cre BEF X Fas-
An
XX bender
4 XX FR Curlu Cléry
le
To La
Rawlinson
rtil
Mt St
Quentin
Bray-sur- Frise
Feuilleres Halles
Somme
PÉRONNE
Cappy
Somme Flaucourt
XXXX Fontaine- Becquincourt
Lès-Cappy 6 FR Barleux
6 XXXX XXX
Fayolle 10 FR Belloy
Proyart XVII
Foucaucourt Estrées Fleck
Berny Villers-
XXXX Soyécourt Carbonnel
Deniécourt
10 Genermont
Micheler Vermandovillers
Som
Ablaincourt
me
Key XXXX
Pressoir
Front Line on:
1 July 1916 Lihons
Chaulnes 2
10 July 1916 Gallwitz
28 August 1916 XXX
30 September 1916 IX
Chilly Quast
31 October 1916
15 November 1916
XXXX Army boundary
XXXXX BEF/French army
boundary Nesle
© BAT 2016
8. Somme 1916
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 19/12/17, SPi
XXX XX
N Key
6 LENS Front line: 9 April 1917
I Liéven
XXX Front line: 27 May 1917
XX I Bav
Res XXXX Army boundary
Lor XX
ette 79 Res
Méricourt
Spu 24
r The Pimple
Souchez Hill 119
XXXX XX Givenchy Drocourt
4 CAN
Hill Vimy Acheville
1 XX
145 XX
DOUAI
Horne 3 CAN
Fresnoy
XX 1 Bav Res Quiéry
XXX Farbus Arleux
2 CAN
Vi
m
XX
CAN Oppy
yR
idg
1 CAN
Bailleul pe
e
1
car
XX
X rS
XXX 3
XX
e
Marœuil
51 XX Gavrelle Riv
14 Bav
XXX 34
XX
Vitry XXXX
XVII 9
XX Athies Fampoux 6
Rœux
15 Falkenhausen
XXX XX XXX
ARRAS XX
Sailly
12 Feuchy
VI IX Res sée
XX
11
Monchy-le- en
3
erS
XXXX XX Tilloy XX Preux Riv
14
17 Res
3 XX
Guémappe
Allenby 56
Wancourt Dury
Neuville Vis
Wailly Héninel
XX
St Martin CAM
Ficheux 30 XX Fontaine BRA
XX I
l
Hendecourt
jeu
18 Res
Co
XX
XXX 220 Cagnicourt
Boyelles
er
Riencourt
Riv
21
Croisilles
VII Bullecourt
XX
Adinfer 62 elle
XX
Quéant nd
3 X iro
rH
XX XXX Ecoust 4 e
AUS Riv
Ayette X 5 Noreuil
V
Ervillers
Mory Lagnicourt
Vaulx- Boursies
Ablainzeville Vrauqcourt XXX
Morchies
XXXX I ANZAC
Beugnâtre Doignies
5
Beaumetz
Gough BAPAUME
5 miles
5 km © BAT 2016
9. Arras 1917
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 19/12/17, SPi
Key
N St
Forest of Houthulst
Allied Lines:
ee
nb XX Morning 31 July 1917
ee
k Evening 31 July 1917
2 Gd Res
20 September 1917
7 December 1917
Yes-
ER DE
Ypre
E X MU
Koekuit
N
PP X X IX
XX
s Ca
Bro
D
YP
enb
E
Bixschoote eek
PP
50 Res
nal
RU
RU
G
G
XXXX Steenstraat
Lizerne XX Poelcappelle
1 FR 111 Langemarck
Anthoine Het Sas
1 FR XX Stroom
St
X beek
XXX Passchendaele
ee
Pilckem
nb
5 Gds Kerselaere XX
XX
ee
Boesinghe Kitchener’s
k
Wood Gravenstafel 221
3 Gd St
XXX XX Julien
XX Tyne Cot
XIV 38
Elverdinghe 23 XX
XX
51 XX 235
Broodseinde
XXX 39
Wieltje XXXX
XVII Zonnebeke
Frezenberg
Brielen
St
XX 4
Jean 55 von Arnim
XXXX XXX
XX
XX
Potijze
Vlamertinghe 15
5 XIX 38
Westhoek Polygon
Gough XX Wood
8 Becelaere
YPRES Hooge
Zillebeke XX Sanctuary
Lake Wood XX Veldhoek
30
GRU
Zillebeke GRPPE
52 Res UPP X X YPER
X
GheluveltEW X N
XXX YTS
53 18 CH
XX AET
II Klein Herenthage XX E
Zillebeke Woods Me
24 nin
119 Roa
d
Dickebusch Shrewsbury
XX Kruiseecke
Vormezeele Forest
Dickebusch
Lake XX 22 Res
5 XXX
XXXX Zandvoorde
2 St Eloi 41
X
XX
XX
Vierstraat 19 Hollebeke
XXX 12
XX
IX
Oosttaverne 10 Bav
XX Houthem
Wytschaete XX
37
Kemmel Yp
XX re 207
s-
Mount XXXX 18 Res Ca Com
Kemmel na in
l e s
2 Garde-Dieu
Messines Gapaard COMINES
Plumer
Wulverghem XX
ys
3 AUS er L
River Douve XXX Riv
I I ANZAC GRUPPE
XX
Warneton WYTSCHAETE
Neuve Eglise Hill 63 NZ XXX
GRUPPE LILLE
2500 yds
Ploegsteert Wood © BAT 2016
2500 m
Inchy
Mœuvres Fontaine-
Notre-Dame XXXX
XX Cantaing 2
XX
XXX
56 20 LW Graincourt
um e XIII
Bapa
XX
36 Flesquières Rumilly
Marcoing
Hermies Masniéres
Havrincourt Ribécourt
XX Crèvecœur
l
na
54
d
Ca
or
XX
N
du
l
62 Trescault na
XX Ca
tin
XX en
Havrincourt 9 Res Qu
St
Wood 51 XX
XXX 6 La
IV Vacquerie
Metz-en- III XX
IV
Couture 20
XX Banteux
Gonnelieu
29
Gouzeaucourt XX
12
XXXX
XXX III Villers-
3 Gauche VII Guislain
Wood
Byng III
Epéhy Vendhuille
Key
British front 20 November 1917
British gains 20 November 1917
Lines of Hindenburg/
Siegfriedstellung position
Limit of British advance 5 miles
5 km
XXX Corps boundary © BAT 2016
XXXX 6
XX N
6 XX17
Lens Quast R Scarpe
XXXX
Vimy Douai
1
Horne 1 XXXX
XXXX
3 17
Below
e
eld
ARRAS
ch
Sensee
RS
Canal
17 XXX
X 2 XXXX
Croisilles CAMBRAI
2
Marwitz
Doullens Flesquières
XXXX Masnières
3 Bapaume
Byng Gouzeaucourt
R Ancre
Miraumont Ytres
St Q
Villers-
du N al
ord
Can
St-Pierre Guislain
uent
Vaast
Albert Wood
in Ca
2
XX
Bray XX 18 XXXX
nal
Sailly-
Laurette PÉRONNE
AMIENS 18
3 Bellenglise Hutier
XXXX Hamel
4 Villers-
XXXX Bretonneux Tertry
4 Beauvois
Rawlinson Chaulnes ST QUENTIN
RS
BEF
om
XXXXX
Rouy-
me
Moreuil
FR le-Grand
St Simon
Nesle Cr
Ham oz
at
Roye Ca
na
R Avre l
rre
R Se
ye
R No
Cantigny Montdidier
Chauny La Fère
XXXX
3 FR
Humbert Barisis XXXX
Noyon
7
Boehn
e
Key R
R Ois
Ai
let
Start line 21 March 1918 te
23 March 1918
27 March 1918
Final position 5 April 1918 25 miles
25 km
XXXX Army boundary © BAT 2016
Key XXXX
Forest of Staden
German Lines: 4
Yse
Houthulst
r-Yp
9 April 1918 Sixt von Armin
res
10 April 1918 XXXX
Can
11 April 1918
al
12 April 1918 BE
25 April 1918 Albert Steenstraat
Poelcappelle
Formations shown at time of initial assault.
Langemarck
Passchendaele
3 miles N
3 kms GIA
BEL XXX
XX F
N BE
Vlamertinghe
YPRES
Poperinghe
Hooge Becelaere
Gheluvelt
Dickebusch
Steenvoorde
Scherpenberg
Godewaersvelde
Yp
res
La Clytte
–C
Mont des Mont
Wytschaete
om
Cats Rouge Kemmel
ine
XXXX Locre Mount COMINES
sC
Mont Kemmel
an
Noir Dranoutre
2 BR
al
Messines
Plumer Wulverghem
Caëstra
Strazeel
4
HAZEBROUCK XXXX
6
Steenwerck
ARMENTIERES
Forest of Vierhouck Bac-St-
Nieppe Maur
2
Neuf-Berquin
Lys
XXXX
er
1
Riv
Estaires
Fleurbaix Bois-
Merville Grenier
St Venant
Radinghem
Fromelles
Robecq Aubers
Vieille Chapelle
Neuve Chapelle XXXX
Fournes
Locon 6
XXXX Hinges
l
na
Quast
Ca
1 BR
le
Lil
Horne
Don
Festubert
aB
Aire-L assée Ca
BÉTHUNE nal
Givenchy La
Bassée
Cuinchy
© BAT 2016
XXXX Courtrai N
Ypres Menin
2
XXXX
Hazebrouck BELGIUM
4
XXXX Roubaix
He sitio
8 Aug
Po
Armentieres
rm n
XXXX
an
9 Sept Lille Tournai
n
5
XXXX
Béthune
6 Mons
XXXX e
a rp re
Lens
XX
XX Sc mb
Sa
1 Valenciennes
30 Aug Maubeuge
Douai
XXXX Forest of
9 Sept Mormal
Arras
17
XXXX Le
Cambrai
25 Cateau
3 Aug Havrincourt
Bapaume Avesnes
XXXX
XX XXXX
XX
4 Épehy
Albert 2 Guise Oise
Péronne
Amiens
F R A N C E
Som
9 XX
18 XX St
me
Montdidier 22 Sissonne
XX
21 Aug
8 Aug Aug 9 Sept 7
XXXX
e
XXXX Aisne Aisn 1
Compiègne
XXXX
3 FR se
Oi Soissons Vesle
10 FR
Reims
Key
Wotan Line
e Épernay
Hindenburg/Siegfried Line Château- Marn
Thierry
Armistice Line 11 November
30 miles
XXXX Army boundary 30 km © BAT 2016
Introduction
C rown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria first came alive for me a few years
ago. I was working on a book about the last few months of the war on
the Western Front and had gone to Munich to explore the archives of the
Bavarian army. These somehow escaped the Second World War firebombs
which destroyed many of the Prussian records and as a result constitute one
of the best sources for information on the German army during the First
World War. On the last day of my trip, as I was idly flicking through a folder
of apparently random documents, one sheet of paper caught my eye. It was
a passport, issued by the Dutch embassy in German-occupied Brussels,
allowing the Marquis de Villalobar and his party to enter the Netherlands
on 12 November 1918. What was it doing in the personal files of Crown
Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria?
I already knew a little about Rupprecht. I knew, for instance, that he
served as one of Germany’s most senior generals between 1914 and 1918
and spent most of the war fighting against the ‘tommies’ of the British
Expeditionary Force (BEF), leading the German Sixth Army, and later an
army group of one and a half million men, in famous battles such as Ypres,
the Somme, and Passchendaele.1 It was Rupprecht’s men who launched
Germany’s last-gasp offensives in March 1918, and when they failed it was
his army group that felt much of the weight of Allied counter-attacks dur-
ing the so-called ‘Hundred Days’ campaign in August–November 1918.
Rupprecht’s closest British counterpart and most consistent enemy was
probably Sir Douglas Haig. Like Rupprecht, Haig rose to command an army
group: the BEF; and everywhere Haig and the BEF turned from October
1914 on, Rupprecht and his men were in the way. A good parallel from
the Second World War might be the mythical rivalry between Bernard
Montgomery and Erwin Rommel, although Haig and Rupprecht, who
never met and were in no sense personal rivals, would have despised any
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 18/12/17, SPi
2 I n t roduct ion
I n t roduct ion3
4 I n t roduct ion
I n t roduct ion5
The ‘learning curve’ idea captures the central truth that the British army
of 1918 was certainly more effective than it had been even a year or two
previously. It is not without problems, however, largely stemming from
exploring the BEF in isolation without sufficient comparative research into
the French and German armies. This is understandable given the mass of
detail involved in the study of just one army, much less three, even before
taking into account the language barrier. Nonetheless, this risks making
British learning look exceptional. Also, it can exaggerate the British achieve-
ment by ascribing too much of the BEF’s success to its learning curve and
taking insufficient account of any deterioration in the German army. One
of my core contentions here is that it is a mistake to see the war as a one-
sided (British) struggle to learn a new way of fighting and break the stalemate.
Although the front was deadlocked for much of the war, it was so only
because there was a continuous dynamic of push and pull, measure and
counter-measure, between the two sides. This produced a deceptively stable
equilibrium. This book argues that the battlefield defeat of the German
army in 1918 was at least as much the result of the Germans getting worse
as it was of the British getting better. It therefore challenges us to revise our
views of the BEF, which was neither a collection of ‘butchers and bunglers’
nor an institution made up exclusively of forward-thinking quick learners,
but somewhere between the two.
So, Rupprecht’s war enables us to see the war and the armies which fought
it in a fresh way. It also prompts us to think again about the relationship
between the First World War, modernity, and the agency of the individual.
One of the things that first attracted me to Rupprecht was that he seemed to
stand for a generation which was destroyed by the events of 1914–18. By the
time the war finished, his eldest son and many of his friends were dead. He
had lost his throne and, instead of leading a triumphant homecoming parade,
he sneaked back into Bavaria incognito. The threat of trial for war crimes
hung over his head for years. Never again would he enjoy true power or
influence. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s he watched as political violence
convulsed his fatherland. Under Hitler, he lost his home, his family, and
nearly his life. Like the cosmopolitan aristocrats of central Europe so vividly
evoked in Patrick Leigh Fermor’s travel books, Rupprecht can be seen as one
of the many relics of a bygone age swept away by the tsunami of modernity.11
How far does such a romantic picture correspond to reality, though?
Seeing Rupprecht as a victim fits neatly into popular perceptions of both
the First World War and modernity itself. Most of us first encounter the war
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6 I n t roduct ion
at school, through poets such as Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon. The
worm’s-eye view they offer inevitably drains meaning from the existence of
the soldiers they depict. Unable to discern the larger patterns which make
sense of their lives—and deaths—of course the war seems bewildering and
futile. These poets were keen to reject what they saw as the twee conserva-
tive pastoralism of Edwardian Britain and so they eagerly highlighted the
impersonal, the mechanical, and the modern in ways which have further
influenced our view of the war. In Owen’s poem, the Western Front is
where, amid the monstrous clamour of modern industrial warfare, ‘doomed
youth’ are herded to their deaths with all the passivity of cattle. Similarly, it
is a mark of the insignificance of the individual in All Quiet on the Western
Front that the novel’s ironic title derives from the official bulletin issued on
the day its everyman hero dies. In other self-consciously modern depictions
of the war, such as C. R. W. Nevinson’s painting ‘La Mitrailleuse’, soldiers
have lost their humanity altogether. Flesh and steel fuse into war-fighting
machines. The fact that we concentrate our commemorations today on
memorials to those who were killed, not those who survived, only rein-
forces the victimhood motif. Also, to view the participants as victims rather
than agents has the advantage of being psychologically easier on us.12 The
victimhood we ascribe to the soldiers of the First World War is, therefore,
multi-faceted: it combines inevitable and pointless death with a sense of
alienation from a modern world increasingly dominated by the machine,
where humans have shrunk to insignificance and have no control over their
own destiny. For all the efforts of some historians to correct it, this percep-
tion of the ordinary soldier as victim remains firmly dug in.13
Even if it is correct that ‘the soldier in the trenches can be characterized
as the victim of modern warfare par excellence’, does that apply equally to all?
Were there active subjects, as well as passive objects, on the First World War
battlefield? To whom can we ascribe moral responsibility?14 Was Rupprecht
entirely caught up by forces he could neither understand nor control? Did
he conform to the romantic stereotype? Or was what happened to him the
consequence of his own decisions?15
The sources this book draws on are mostly new to an English-speaking
audience. I have worked through a range of archival collections, primarily
in Germany. First, Crown Prince Rupprecht kept a war diary, which is pre-
served in the Bavarian Household Privy Archive in Munich. It extends to
4,197 handwritten pages and was mainly put together as the war went on.
There are two exceptions: he reconstructed the first few months of 1914
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I n t roduct ion7
from notes over the following winter, and he also had to re-write the last
week of the war, having burned the original pages before going on the run.
This manuscript diary is full of detail, not only about what was going on in
his sector but also about the wider war. The entry for a typical day, 1 October
1917, for example, covers: his tactical and logistical situation (one page); an
intelligence report concerning a recent top-level Anglo-French meeting to
discuss offensive plans (another page); diplomatic developments (one page);
and the domestic situations in Britain, France, Russia, and the United States
of America (nearly six pages). During the 1920s Rupprecht’s generalship in
August and September 1914 attracted criticism in the early volumes of the
German official history. The retired staff officers at the Reichsarchiv in
Potsdam who were compiling it blamed errors he made for the failure of
the Schlieffen Plan. To put his side in the long-running controversy which
ensued, Rupprecht decided to publish a version of his diaries. He asked
some of his former staff officers to read and check the manuscript, which
was then edited down to a quarter of its original length and published in
three volumes in 1929. Much of the material cut out was repetitive or, like
the sometimes lengthy domestic and foreign press summaries Rupprecht
used to write up, not relevant. On the whole, the published diary maintains
the sense of the original closely, although on occasion Rupprecht was unable
to resist tweaking it to make himself look better, as we shall see. He also
toned down, or left out completely, some of his criticisms of individuals.
Some historians have drawn on the published diary, but few have bothered
with the manuscript version, or with other unpublished papers including
Rupprecht’s correspondence with his family, friends, and politicians.16
Another major source was the official records of the formations Rupprecht
led: Sixth Army and Army Group Crown Prince Rupprecht. These are held
in the Bavarian State War Archive, also in Munich, and cover most aspects
of both day-to-day operations and longer-range policy in considerable
detail.17 They relate not only to Bavarian formations but also to all those
under his command, so they give us a broad view across the German army.
The after-action reports compiled by units at all levels after battle, in an
effort to learn lessons for next time, proved particularly valuable. These
papers were supplemented by other official documents from the federal
military archives in Freiburg-im-Breisgau, where any surviving records
from Potsdam are stored, along with other private papers belonging to
Rupprecht’s associates and subordinates. Published primary sources include
the fourteen-volume German official history, Der Weltkrieg, the Bavarian
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8 I n t roduct ion
official history, Die Bayern im Großen Kriege 1914–1918, the series of battle
monographs compiled by the Reichsarchiv between the wars, German regi-
mental histories and officers’ memoirs, and, of course, the voluminous
French and British official histories.18
This book is divided into five Parts. The first four tell the story of
Rupprecht’s war from the beginning through to the end. Seeing the Western
Front through German eyes in this way invites us to review existing, largely
British, narratives of the battles fought there. We will discover, for instance,
that battles which loom large in British military history sometimes hardly
even feature as footnotes in the German equivalent. This also enables us to
explore some of the broader themes already mentioned. Prominent among
these is how the character of warfare evolved and the different armies adapted
to change. Many chapters conclude with a section on this strand. Another
recurring theme is the nature of command on the First World War battlefield.
Such themes help explain both the war’s outcome and the underlying
strengths and weaknesses of the forces fighting it. The fifth and final Part
assesses Rupprecht as military commander and political actor and offers
answers to some of the questions raised in this Introduction. An Appendix
on military terminology seeks to guide readers who want help telling the
difference between a corporal and a colonel or a company and a corps.
The war which emerges from this book is one of radical and dynamic
change where the ability to out-think your enemy was just as important as
being able to out-muscle him. It took both sides time and immense effort
to adapt to the new ways of war, not least because every time they came
close to an answer, the enemy changed the question. Eventually, however,
the German army was dragged down by its inherent weaknesses and fell
behind in the race to adapt.The results were disastrous. Sometimes Rupprecht
and his colleagues were constrained in the choices they could make, but the
decisions they took were nonetheless too often poor. The First World War
was not just a war of bodies and a war of machines: it was a war of brains,
too. The Germans lost all three.
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PaRt I
To war 1914
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1
Rupprecht’s Road to War
12 To Wa r 1914
Bavaria retained deep cultural roots in its agrarian past. Seventy per cent
of the population was Catholic, with 28 per cent Protestant. In Prussia, the
religious proportions were almost exactly reversed. At the risk of generaliza-
tion, Bavaria remained relatively agricultural, Catholic, and conservative
even as Germany as a whole was becoming increasingly urban, Protestant,
and socially progressive. Even her conservatism, founded in the values of the
smallholder farmer, was very different from the Junker- and industrialist-
dominated conservatism of the imperial ruling class. All these differences,
new and old, created fault-lines which divided Bavaria and Prussia. Even in
peacetime, the relationship between the two was not always easy. Prussians
tended to treat Bavarians with condescension, while the latter were prickly
about anything which seemed to be eroding their rights and privileges. As
we shall see, wartime only made these tensions worse.3
Rupprecht later complained that his childhood was a strict one and to
modern eyes his upbringing seems indeed to have been harsh. It is not clear
that it was particularly so by the royal standards of the time, however. As a
young child he saw his parents only at mealtimes, had lessons daily from
eight a.m. until five p.m., and was frequently beaten, both by his short-
tempered father and by his tutor. In the finest tradition of German royalty,
his relationship with his father remained difficult throughout his life. It is
perhaps telling also that he reacted against the religious atmosphere of home
in later life: at least as a young man his Catholicism did not go much beyond
observing the proprieties. At thirteen he became the first member of the
Bavarian royal family to be educated at a public school. He graduated from
high school in 1886 and was commissioned into the Regiment of Foot
Guards. He later also spent time serving in artillery and cavalry regiments.
He seems to have enjoyed to the full the relative freedom of life in the sub-
alterns’ mess, as well as the perks of being a young royal prince. Alongside
his military duties he spent several terms studying at universities in Munich
and Berlin. He also began his public career. For instance, he attended Kaiser
Wilhelm I’s funeral in March 1888.
When fully grown, Rupprecht was rather taller than average, at five feet
ten inches. He took immaculate care over his appearance and carried him-
self with the upright bearing of the natural athlete. In his youth he had
enjoyed swimming and skating and throughout his life remained a devotee
of physical exercise and gymnastics. Well into middle age he could sit down
on the ground and get up again without using his hands or arms. He was a
keen sportsman, in the old, aristocratic sense: nothing so vulgar or English
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14 To Wa r 1914
as team games for him. Instead he enjoyed game birds and hunting, both in
the Alps and abroad. In India he killed a tiger from the back of a moving
elephant with his second shot. Like most members of the upper classes of
the time, he rode often. Even during wartime, a daily ride remained part of
his exercise regime.4
In 1891, while serving in the 1st Heavy Cavalry Regiment, Rupprecht
began going to lectures at the Bavarian War College (Kriegsakademie),
where officers hoping to join the elite General Staff underwent three years
of intensive training. He attended some of the classes but was excused the
strenuous exams. The aim, after all, was not to produce a professional staff
officer, but to teach him command and leadership. In 1893 he was promoted
to command a squadron as Captain (Rittmeister). He rose rapidly through
the ranks until in 1900 he was promoted to Major-General (Generalmajor)
in charge of the 7th Infantry Brigade at Bamberg. In 1904, as a Lieutenant-
General (Generalleutnant) he became General Officer Commanding (GOC)
the 1st Division and soon thereafter took over the 1st Bavarian Corps. He
was promoted to full General (General der Infanterie) in 1906. He seems to
have taken his military duties seriously and to have been a respected and
able commander of men.
Away from his military career, Rupprecht was well travelled. Italy proved
a special and enduring love. He went there almost every year of his adult
life. He knew most of Europe well but had also journeyed extensively
around the Mediterranean and Middle East, Asia, and America. He even
wrote travel books. Some of his travel, of course, was for royal business.
For example, in 1911 he attended the coronation of King George V, writing
to an artist friend:
Time and again I admired the English race and its unique culture. The
celebrations were great, but also absolutely exhausting. It is extraordinary how
England is on the one hand so modern yet on the other so exceedingly con-
servative. I wished you could see the coronation in Westminster Abbey with
me, the picture was so artistic, a real symphony of colours.5
He was a man of culture and taste. Although his reading was ‘intense and
critical’ and he enjoyed music (but not Wagner), his passion was for art. He
earned a reputation as a connoisseur and many of his friends were artists or
collectors. His first enthusiasm was for the Italian Renaissance, but he was a
keen patron also of modern artists.
His private life can only be described as tragic. After a playboy youth,
Rupprecht decided that, once he passed his thirtieth birthday, it was time to
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16 To Wa r 1914
2
The Battle of the Frontiers
18 To Wa r 1914
20–19355
“The love story that is dragged in does not add to the credibility of
the tale. If the volume is not an authentic record of the journey it
pretends to chronicle, the deception is inexcusable. This does not
mean that the book is a waste of time. On the contrary, it is a
triumph of accuracy and readability. It lifts the curtain upon a most
interesting scene and shows us a fairly typical American
commonwealth at a definite stage of development.”
“He has covered the field in outline sufficient for the lay reader,
and with an authority that will make this one of the lasting records of
the war.”
19–19152
Reviewed by C. G. Fenwick
“Mr Partridge has given to the public a book which doubtless will
be, as it deserves to be, widely read.”
20–9285
Nature stories for young children. The author calls them “hexapod
stories,” for they are all about six-footed insects, butterflies, bees,
grasshoppers and the like. The titles are: Van, the sleepy butterfly,
who was awakened by a January thaw; Old Bumble; The strange
house of Cecid Cido Domy; Poly, the Easter butterfly; Jumping Jack;
Nata, the nymph; Lampy’s Fourth o’ July; Carol; Ann Gusti’s circus;
Gryl, the little black minstrel; Luna’s Thanksgiving; Keti-Abbot, the
littlest Christmas guest. A word to the teacher follows and there are
notes, with references to other books. The pictures are by Robert J.
Sim.
20–15946
20–3200
“In ‘Education in war and peace,’ the author makes an appeal for a
united effort by physicians, psychologists, and educators to search
out and develop appropriately the basic instincts and deep emotional
undercurrents which have so much to do in shaping personality,
determining character, and controlling conduct. The current
tendency to try to ‘compensate for personal inadequacy in facing the
real problems of life’ by various forms of ‘wishful thinking’ is
examined and illustrated.”—Survey
20–11891
20–19443
20–17895
20–11150
Reviewed by A. C. Freeman
20–10538
Reviewed by H: L. West
“It is hard to tell which impresses one most in reading this book—
the author’s sincerity or his thoroughness. The book is very valuable
and intensely interesting.” C. W. T.
“Mr Payne’s treatment of the press in the years before the Civil war
is much the more satisfactory because, while involving little original
research, it deals out information suggestively. The last part of the
book is intelligent in general outlines, but is a brief and inadequate
summary and seems less frank in comment. The appendices are
somewhat haphazard.”
20–19929
“Told with a simple and natural beauty of language fitting for such
a theme. Incidentally it gives a graphic picture of revolutionary and
pre-revolutionary days.”
20–18768
The narrator of the story found Eli as an old man in his cottage,
Beulah, on the downs, where he spends his last days carving fiddles,
and surrounded by the few treasures he had garnered from his
wanderings over the earth. He had always been a rare character, this
shepherd, with a rich inner life. Early in life he had married a mate
worthy of him, but it was a short happiness, and then the young
widower took to wandering. For some eight years he followed the sea
and saw many lands. Then it was surveying and ranching in Canada
where an old Chinese cook instructed him in the wisdom of
Confucius and Lao Tsu, but with failing health he turned his steps
once more to England. At Beulah cottage, lonely to the last, but
emanating a silent influence for good over the neighborhood, he
ended his days in peace.