Boldly and Faithfully

BOLDLY AND FAITHFULLY, THE JOURNAL: The Official History of the 19th Australian Infantry Battalion, Australian Imperial Force, March 1915-October 1918

Lieutenant Colonel Peter McGuinness, MBE, RFD, ED, (Retd)

1/19 RNSWR Association, Inc, incorporating 2/19 Australian Infantry Battalion AIF Association, 2011, 748pp, $100.00 (incl p&p) from the Association

Lieutenant Colonel McGuinness has compiled an impressive record of the service of the 19th Battalion during the First World War, and of the men who served in the unit. His book is a fine fulfilment of the words with which C.E.W. Bean completed the sixth volume of his Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918:

What these men did nothing can alter now. The good and the bad, the greatness and smallness of their story will stand. Whatever of glory it contains nothing now can lessen. It rises, as it will always rise, above the mists of ages, a monument to great-hearted men; and, for their nation, a possession forever.

The story of the 19th Battalion contains both greatness and smallness, and also much glory; McGuinness has provided an enduring monument to the great-hearted men of the battalion.

McGuinness recorded the story of the 19th Battalion using the daily entries in its official War Diaries which, where necessary and possible, he supplemented by using those of its parent 5th Brigade. This method provides an entry for each day of the battalion’s existence, with a chapter for each month. Supporting documents are included as annexes to the relevant chapters. McGuinness offers comments on the events recorded in the book only occasionally, but he has added a personal touch to the formal records by including alongside each daily War Diary entry extracts from the personal diaries of members of the unit for the same day.

This process provides a soldiers’ eye view of the events recorded more dispassionately by officialdom. It also adds valuable information about the battalion’s activities, which was not usually recorded in detail in the War Diaries. For example, the 19th Battalion was among the last to leave Anzac on the final night of the campaign. An officer who was part of the rear party recorded an interesting description of the final hours in his personal diary, which is quoted in full. Even with our knowledge of the successful outcome, it is easy to understand the increasing tension as the numbers were drawn down, until only ten men remained holding the battalion’s former line.

Two things stand out in McGuinness’ narrative: the manner in which the War Diaries improve as the war progressed, which demonstrates the increasing professionalism of the AIF, and the many days on which little was recorded, which demonstrates how concentrated were the periods when the battalion was in the line. The intelligence and patrol reports included in the War Diary from late 1917 also demonstrate the level of routine activity that took place even in nominally quiet periods on the Western Front

A valuable addition to each chapter is a dedication to one or more soldiers of the battalion. Many of these men died during the war, others had somewhat chequered careers. There is also a short summary of events during the month. Every soldier who died in service during the month has his fate recorded in a footnote. During periods of heavy fighting, these footnotes reinforce the cost of the war. Recommendations for awards are also included in the footnotes

One of the saddest dedications is that for Chapter 41, covering the month of July 1918. The dedication is to Private Thomas George McShane, a musician, music teacher and conductor, who enlisted in September 1917 aged 41. For reasons not made clear in the book, but possibly related to the growing shortage of infantry in the AIF, he became an infantry reinforcement rather than a bandsman, as might have been expected for a man of his age and skills. McShane joined the 19th Battalion on 14 July 1918 after completing his training, and was killed in action only nine days later.

The War Diary and the individual diary entries give us examples of transport methods during the First World War. While rail and road movements are frequent, marching was routine. During the battalion’s approach to the Somme in July 1916, the distances marched are impressive.

The battalion first marched some 36 miles (around 58 kilometres) over three days to a railhead in the Armentières area. After moving to the Amiens area by train, it marched a further 41 miles (about 66 kilometres) from the detraining point to the Pozières battlefield. These approach marches, some 124 kilometres in total, occupied eight days of the period between the commencement of the movement to the Armentières area and the battalion’s arrival near Pozières.

On four other days in this period the battalion’s activities included route marches and ‘short practice marches’. Two other days were occupied with training. A final approach march of two miles (about three kilometres) brought the battalion to the former German trenches near Pozières, where it bivouacked in the old trenches in Sausage Valley for a day.

The extreme variations in activity rates on the Western Front are demonstrated by the high concentration of fatalities in the battalion in two periods, together totalling only three days. The attack on Gird Trench, near Flers, on 14 and 15 November 1916, and the battalion’s participation in the Second Battle of Bullecourt on 3 May 1917, caused the deaths either in action or from wounds of around a quarter of the battalion’s total fatalities during the war. Notably, neither of these periods is among the better known ‘killing’ times of Pozières and Passchendaele, where the casualties occurred over longer periods.

By August 1918, the battalion was routinely around or below 50 percent of its establishment. With the decline in recruitment in Australia, and after further casualties during battles of 31 August at Mont St Quentin and in early October at Beaurevoir, maintaining it in action became impracticable. The remaining men of the 19th Battalion were then distributed among the other battalions of the 5th Brigade. As it happened, the Armistice was signed before the former members of the 19th Battalion went into action with their new units.

This major section of the book provides what is essentially the contemporary record of the activities of the 19th Battalion during the First World War. To this McGuinness has added commentary to give some context, and to explain some diary entries that reflected the limited information available to the soldiers during the war.

While the daily entries provide the skeleton of the story of the 19th Battalion, for me the most impressive and interesting part of the book was the Nominal Roll. Such rolls can be fairly dry, providing little more than a list of names and ranks. This one is not! Having spent some years as a volunteer at the Australian War Memorial, assisting visitors with searches of war records, I can appreciate the magnitude of the task McGuinness undertook to prepare the Nominal Roll. Each personal file had to be opened, read through (often with poor hand writing or faded pages to challenge the researcher), and the events had to be transcribed.

Using this process, McGuinness has compiled (to the extent practicable) a short record of every individual whom he could identify as having served in the 19th Battalion. This record includes not just the name and rank of each man, but also his regimental number, age and occupation on enlistment, whether he was an ‘original’, or in which reinforcement group or from which other unit the soldier joined the 19th Battalion. McGuinness has also included promotions or demotions.

McGuinness then went further in what must have been an exhausting task. Each soldier also has a short outline of his service included in the Nominal Roll. This covers his date of enlistment, which theatres he served in, whether (and how many times) he was wounded, and his final fate. One soldier, 993 Sergeant William Tisdall, an original member of the battalion, was wounded four times. The last occasion proved fatal, and he died from that wound on 30 March 1918. Another, 763 Corporal Peter Fisher, one of two brothers who were also original members of the 19th Battalion (and who had a foster brother serving in the 20th Battalion), was luckier, surviving five wounds to return to Australia in 1919.

Having covered all that, McGuinness then added what I found to be the most interesting parts of the Nominal Roll, its footnotes. These complement those in the main text that record deaths and award recommendations. From these footnotes we learn, for example, that 1017 Private Charles Edward Kingsford-Smith went on to become better known as the pioneer aviator Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith. Another unit member, Second Lieutenant Cecil Patrick Healey, was the only Australian Olympic Gold Medallist who is known to have been killed in action in the AIF during the First World War.

The footnotes to the Nominal Roll include other data of interest to anyone researching family histories. Brothers who served together in the battalion are identified, as are any siblings who served elsewhere in the AIF. In one sad case, two brothers died on successive days in July 1916, at Pozières. After receiving the news, their father applied successfully for the discharge of a third brother, who had been wounded at Pozières less than a month later. In a similar case, after two brothers had died, their mother wrote directly to General Birdwood, seeking the discharge of her third son; Birdwood granted the request. Two other brothers were each wounded twice, in both cases on the same day; happily, they both survived the war.

 Father and son groups and at least one uncle and nephew who served together are also identified, as are some individuals who later served during the Second World War. A number of former members of the battalion who were killed at Fromelles, and were among those recently identified there, are footnoted.

Also in the footnotes, we see the stories of soldiers who enlisted under-age. Number 7144 Private Norman Graham Rann was only 14 years and five months when he enlisted under an assumed name, while 4287 Private George Clarkson was discharged under-age after having served for almost two years! For others, advanced age proved too much for the rigours of battle. The oldest enlistee in the battalion (at 50) was 3925 Private William Oscar Smith; his health failed, and he was discharged medically unfit without seeing significant front line service.

In this multicultural age we might be interested in the personal stories behind Privates Ragnvald Jakob Jensen, Abdul Ganivahoff and Paolo de Bono, DCM, (among others), but their presence in the battalion does not seem to have caused comment at the time. The last recruit posted to the battalion, 7179 Private Charles Bockmelder, was born in Riga, then in Russia, now in Latvia.

There are also records of the battalion’s rogues. Court martials are listed for many individuals, such as 1895 Private James Byron, who spent much of his military career either AWL, awaiting trial, or in detention. The footnote recording his service and charges takes almost two pages of the Nominal Roll! At least two members of the battalion were sentenced to death for desertion, but their sentences were commuted as Australian government policy did not permit application of the death penalty.

McGuinness has used the 19th Battalion Honour Roll which is in the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Memorial Church of St Luke, Clovelly, NSW on the dust jacket of the book. Even in this, his research has been indefatigable. He has checked and provided corrections to the Honour Roll where necessary (in 74 footnotes). He has also identified 20 men who were inadvertently omitted from the Honour Roll, and has listed their names to ensure that all of the men who died in the service of the 19th Australian Infantry Battalion, Australian Imperial Force, are remembered.

The maps provided are particularly useful, as they follow the First World War grid reference system used in the text, rather than the modern system.

This is not a book for the casual reader, but it rewards careful study. It provides in usable form the contemporary record of the activities of the 19th Battalion between March 1915 and October 1918. Libraries could usefully keep copies in their reference sections, while its carefully researched Nominal Roll would be a valuable resource for family history and genealogy societies.

JOHN DONOVAN

Broken Nation: Australians in the Great War

BROKEN NATION: Australians in the Great War

Joan Beaumont

Allen & Unwin, 2013, 628pp, $55.00

Professor Beaumont has written a broad narrative history of Australia’s part in the Great War. Though it seems aimed principally at the general reader, it is fully referenced, enabling interested readers to delve deeper into the subject. The manner in which she links events in Australia with events overseas at around the same time is particularly useful. The book is well produced, and places events in their correct context. For example, the reality that the Charge at The Nek supported the Australian/New Zealand attack on Sari Bair Ridge, not the British landing at Suvla Bay (as was suggested in the film Gallipoli) is highlighted.

Professor Beaumont writes about the Great War with an understanding of the ethos of the times, acknowledging, for example, the influence of their Christian culture on the attitudes of many soldiers serving in ‘Palestine … so steeped in biblical history’. Some ‘post-modernisms’ do come through, though in an era of multiculturalism in which dual loyalties are celebrated it seems strange to criticise, even implicitly, those who in 1915 considered themselves to be both Australians and ‘sons of the Empire’.

The discussion of the conscription referenda and the long-term problems they caused for Australian society is particularly well set out, as are the racial issues that underlay much of the ‘No’ case. However, Professor Beaumont does not highlight that the demand for conscription arose at least in part because the AIF was expanded beyond Australia’s capacity to maintain on a voluntary basis. It became a force larger than the Canadian Expeditionary Force, which drew on a population more than 50 percent higher than Australia’s. The reality of over-expansion is demonstrated by Figure 5.1, comparing enlistments against battle casualties between 1916 and 1918, and by the frequent references to battle fatigue and over-used units.

Professor Beaumont notes that each of Australia’s five infantry divisions chose to construct its memorial at the site of a victory (however bloody), rather than to commemorate its losses in unsuccessful battles like Fromelles or Bullecourt. This is in keeping of the self-image of the First AIF, as an ultimately victorious force. Indeed, one such memorial (to the 2nd Division at Mont St Quentin) was so aggressively triumphal that the invading Germans destroyed it when they occupied France during World War II. As Professor Beaumont notes, the AIF was a force that did not see itself as the victim of circumstances!

As is common among historians, the Versailles Treaty is criticised for its draconian terms, quoting Keynes’ attack on it as a ‘Carthaginian peace’. Perhaps, but a German victory might have brought harsher terms upon the Allies, given the example of Brest-Litovsk. As an example, had the British Empire lost to Germany in that era of colonial ‘trade-offs’, claims might have been made against Australia, which had nearby pre-war German colonial possessions.

Perhaps inevitably in a volume of this size there are typos, including Mansurian Lakes, Steel’s Post, Anthill (probably appropriate for the Bullant), and 260,544 British deaths at Gallipoli. Actual errors have also crept in: there were 66, not 40, Australian Victoria Crosses awarded during the war; the figure of 40,000 Australian deaths in 1917 seems high, perhaps it is the cumulative total to then; the battalions of the 1st Division and the 4th Brigade were split during the expansion of the AIF in 1916, but not those of the 2nd Division. There is also some confusion about unit designations in places; the map on page 366, for example, has the 4th and 12th Light Horse Brigades charging at Beersheba!

JOHN DONOVAN

Conducting Counterinsurgency

CONDUCTING COUNTERINSURGENCY: Reconstruction Task Force 4 in Afghanistan

David Connery, David Cran and David Evered

Big Sky Publishing, 2013, 159pp

ISBN 9781921941771 (pbk.)

This is the second in the Army History Unit’s Australian Military History Series, which has been added to the Campaign Series and the Combat Support Series of short, well illustrated, books on aspects of Australian military history. All three series provide excellent introductions to the Army’s history. Some are genuine ‘condensed books’, being edited versions of full-length books, aimed at a different readership.

The authors (all named David, can Goliath be far away?) use ‘the experience of Reconstruction Task Force 4 (RTF4) … as the basis for … analysis’ of the principles of counterinsurgency. They do not claim that the operations of RTF4 were ‘textbook examples’ of those principles, but ‘emphasise the value of the principles … in understanding responses to the insurgency’. They have succeeded admirably in this aim.

After detailing the principles of counterinsurgency and providing a summary of the Australian military commitment to Afghanistan, the authors discuss the principles as they were applied by RTF4. These are discussed in three chapters, each covering a group of principles.

One chapter covers the political aspects of counterinsurgency. The differences between Afghan and Western societies are emphasised, leading into a discussion of the major cultural issues that faced RTF4. Members of the task force had to work at the local level, discovering quickly that the influence and relevance of the national government were limited.

The local population actively resisted some developments desired by the central government (such as new police stations, which they saw as means to enforce taxation, rather than elements in an impartial rule of law). Members of RTF4 found aligning funding to local needs was essential to avoid waste of money and effort, but experienced frustration when the definition of ‘need’ was set by the central government, or even by authorities outside Afghanistan.

The waste of a million Euro on a failed solar lighting system was an example of poor alignment between local needs and the ambitions of some aid organisations, as were hospital latrines built in a location locals did not consider appropriate. The batteries installed for the lighting system failed in the extreme climate, while the latrines were demolished once payment was made!

An important chapter emphasises that counterinsurgency is not primarily a military activity, but requires a comprehensive approach. RTF4 members saw weaknesses here, one commenting that ‘coalition partners weren’t working together for a common aim’. The final chapter on counterinsurgency principles focuses on the reality that insurgents exist among the people. RTF4 noted that when the Taliban were not receiving support, they could blend back in, re-starting active operations once conditions became more favourable. This made assessment of progress difficult.

Physically and morally isolating the insurgents is essential, but was not a primary role of RFT4, which built infrastructure to support the Afghan government, while providing its own security. Construction funds, however, could be used to attract potential insurgents to take up regular employment on construction projects. For this approach to work, a balanced force is required, under the mantra ‘Clear, hold, build’.

The key lesson in this book is the need to temper theory (the principles of counterinsurgency) with reality (the physical, cultural and military environment in which counterinsurgents are operating). Without this, the probability is that the counterinsurgency will not be successful.

Two interesting aspects of this book are the comfort that the Army has with using unit-level combined arms task forces, and the degree of integration of female soldiers into units that, if not in the forefront of battle, are deployed into areas where the probability of face-to-face combat exists.

JOHN DONOVAN

Lonesome Pine: The Bloody Ridge

LONESOME PINE The Bloody Ridge

Simon Cameron

Big Sky Publishing, 2013, 176pp

ISBN 9781922132307 (paperback)

Simon Cameron’s book on the Battle for Lone Pine in August 1915 will appeal to a readership seeking descriptions of the detailed events during the battle, and of the personal experiences of the soldiers there. However, the battle is also placed in its wider context, as a diversionary element of the last Allied attempt to resolve the Gallipoli impasse by offensive action.

Cameron describes clearly the debilitated state of the men of the 1st Division before the attack. The similarly debilitated state of the men in the brigades making the main attack from ANZAC on Chunuk Bair and Hill 971 probably contributed significantly to the failure on Sari Bair, for which Lone Pine was a diversion.

The descriptions of the attack and defence of Lone Pine are well set out. When they are linked with the many maps, it is easy to gain a clear picture of events. Cameron’s use of anecdotes also gives a good sense of how the battle affected the individual participants on both sides. Cameron records the part played in the battle by the Ottoman Major Zeki Bey, who later helped Bean to understand the course of the battle from the Ottoman side when Bean was researching his Official History.

Personalities such as Chaplain McKenzie, said to have buried some 450 men at Lone Pine, are featured, as are men who rose to fame in the Second World War, such as Leslie Morshead and Iven Mackay. The delightfully named Lieutenant Everard Digges La Touche (an ordained minister with a PhD from Trinity College, Dublin, who had originally enlisted as a private soldier) features briefly, before being killed. More junior soldiers are not neglected.

Cameron makes the case that Lone Pine was a success because the Australians held part of the ridge after the attack (but not the part overlooking The Cup, in which the Ottoman forces concentrated for counter-attacks), and that significant Ottoman forces (‘three regiments from the reserves of the northern group’) were sent to Lone Pine, and thus were unavailable to counter the attacks further north.

As a simple statement this might be true, but in the absence of success on Sari Bair, success at Lone Pine was nugatory. Even Cameron concedes that the ‘ground itself offered little advantage … since [it] … did not [provide] a commanding view of Owen’s Gully and Legge Valley’. The new Australian position was a salient vulnerable to fire from three sides.

Bean records some 2277 Australian casualties at Lone Pine during the battle, of whom Cameron estimates around 900 died during or in the immediate aftermath of the battle, with more succumbing in later years. To quote one of Rome’s many enemies, Pyrrus of Epirus, after a particularly bloody victory over Roman forces, ‘One more such victory and we are lost’.

Cameron’s account of the origin of the name of the battle site as ‘Lonesome Pine’, from a pre-war music hall melody, is interesting. I had always assumed that the name was based on the single Aleppo pine tree that once grew on the ridge, however, the contemporary evidence that Cameron quotes clearly indicates the then-widespread use of Lonesome Pine, which was later shortened. Bean even used the name in an early report on the battle.

The maps are generally useful aids to comprehension. That said, it is unfortunate that Map 1 has the key reversed, so that the feint attacks are shown as the principal objectives, and the principal objectives as the feints. Fortunately, the adjacent text clarifies the issue. Leslie Morshead also has his name occasionally spelled incorrectly as ‘Morsehead’ or as ‘Moreshead’.

JOHN DONOVAN

The Landing at ANZAC 1915

THE LANDING AT ANZAC 1915

Chris Roberts

Big Sky Publishing, 2013, 192pp, $19.95

ISBN 9781922132208 (pbk.)

Chris Roberts’ book had an extended gestation, starting as an Army Staff College paper in 1978, and developing via articles in the Journal of the Australian War Memorial and Wartime. The wait, however, has been worthwhile.

Roberts has provided a clear description of the landing at Anzac and its immediate aftermath, concentrating on the first day. He has resolved some misconceptions about the landing (to the extent that these can be resolved definitively at this remove). The issue of Ottoman artillery, however, remains unclear, with markedly different accounts in this book and Peter Williams’ The Battle of ANZAC Ridge (AMHP, 2007).

Roberts describes the limited training received by pre-war members of the Australian citizen forces (and the New Zealand equivalent, the Territorial Force). RMC Duntroon, founded in 1910, was intended to provide professionally trained officers for both nations, but the short time available before the war restricted its immediate effectiveness. He compares the rushed training of the AIF with the systematic training provided to Australian soldiers preparing for deployment to Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s.

Roberts discusses the actions of the principal leaders of the ANZAC: half of the eight brigade commanders and above were British regulars, Bridges was an Australian regular, who had partially completed training at the Canadian RMC, the other three were Australian citizen soldiers. The battalion commanders were all citizen soldiers. Apart from Johnston of the NZ Brigade, who was ill, the influence of most of the more senior officers on the battle, including Johnston’s replacement ‘Hooky’ Walker, another British regular, was negative.

Sinclair-Maclagan made the fatal decision to change the plan soon after the landing, without referring to Bridges. McCay accepted this change, deferring to the regular soldier. Sinclair-MacLagan’s ‘actions, rather than the misplaced landing’, destroyed the plan. Bridges let this decision stand, and Godley later supported Bridges’ recommendation to evacuate the force. Birdwood supported them, and the force was saved only by Hamilton’s refusal to consider evacuation. Walker sent the Auckland Battalion by a roundabout route to Baby 700, ‘seriously affect[ing] their eventual deployment’. MacLaurin remained on the beach, and Monash did not come ashore until 26 April, neither having any impact on 25 April.

Some battalion commanders, including Braund, Weir and Elliott, performed well, others ‘lost control of their units’, collapsed under the strain, or were simply ineffective. In contrast, Roberts shows that many of the junior soldiers and officers fought hard, despite their limited training, often showing a higher level of discipline, resolution, and initiative than their seniors. While stragglers did drift back to Anzac Cove, others held their ground, often unto death.

Roberts explains satisfactorily the misplaced landing and incorrect reports of Ottoman machine guns opposing the landing. In the latter case, inexperienced soldiers probably confused rapid rifle fire for machine guns, a common error. Further confusion came from the fire of Maxim guns mounted on the steamboats towing the landing boats.

The issue of Ottoman artillery support remains unclear. Roberts and Williams come to different totals of Ottoman artillery pieces available by the evening of 25 April (44 for Williams, 16, increasing during the night to 32, for Roberts). By the end of 26 April they have similar totals (44 for Williams, 40 for Roberts, the difference probably being the guns at Gaba Tepe and behind Palamutlu Ridge, apparently not counted by Roberts). On balance, Roberts seems more likely to be correct. Given the difficulties of moving artillery into the broken terrain, not all those guns present might have been brought into action.

There is some confusion in the book between the Ottoman 2/27th and 2/57th Battalions, with the latter seemingly the battalion that slipped from First Ridge down to the beach near Fisherman’s Hut, although the former, the original defenders of the Anzac Cove/Gaba Tepe area, sometimes appears in that position. Also, the 1/27th is referred to in one map caption (but not on the map) as being on Baby 700, when the 1/57th seems intended.

A minor point, Major Henry Bennett of the 6th Battalion is more commonly known by his middle name, Gordon.

JOHN DONOVAN

Note for Readers

Note for Readers

The previous 61 posts are the reviews I wrote before the end of 2012.  Future posts will depend on when I receive books to review, but I hope that I will be able to post up to four of five reviews each year.  Please keep visiting, as I cannot forecast when reviews might be posted.

John Donovan

Avoiding Armageddon

AVOIDING ARMAGEDDON: From the Great War to the Fall of France 1918-40

Jeremy Black

Bloomsbury, 2012, 304pp

ISBN: 978-1-4411-5713-3

Professor Jeremy Black has written a very interesting book. Unfortunately, his writing style buries the analysis in complex sentences and paragraphs.

Black presents a strong argument for parallels between the present day and the period between the two World Wars, with low-level conflicts underway around the world during both periods. Statesmen between the wars would not have found credible the idea that the ‘war to end all wars’ had achieved that Utopian objective. From 1919 until 1939, internal and international conflicts were endemic in the vast area between the Rhine and the Pacific Ocean, and south to North Africa and the Indian Ocean. In Latin America, as well as internal conflicts, the Chaco War was a major international conflict.

As Black demonstrates, using the Second World War to judge the correctness or otherwise of British military policies between the wars ignores reality. For most of the period British forces were focussed on events in British colonies, or on protecting those colonies from attack, not on a resurgent Germany or an aggressive Japan. The Indian Army, for example, which was criticised by reformers between the wars, performed the tasks required of it effectively.

Black shows that ‘as the number of “players” in [a] conflict rose, the notions of a clear-cut definition of military forces, and of war as the prerogative of the state, were put under severe strain’, as now. The objectives of specific conflicts, and the actual opposing sides, were often obscure. This is familiar now, as is the importance of tribalism in Afghanistan.

The correct balance in armies between men and machines was not as clear between the wars as hindsight might suggest, nor was the appropriate balance between protection, firepower and mobility. The end of dominance by the battleship was not obvious when carrier aircraft were flimsy biplanes. Claims by air power enthusiasts between the wars were not borne out by events, and military power remained hostage to economic fortune. Lessons from the Great War experience aimed to ensure that another major war would not be fought like the Great War, not that there would never be another world war.

As Black reminds us, Hitler was a political failure in the 1920s, with the 1923 Munich putsch being promptly suppressed. In the 1920s Germany was planning against a Polish invasion, not to conquer Europe. The Soviet Union was contained, and France was the dominant land power in Europe. The British, Dutch and French empires retained control of their territories, largely using locally recruited forces. The Islamic world then, as now, caused much difficulty.

Reviewing the early campaigns of the Second World War, Black concludes that the German forces were not prepared for a blitzkrieg in 1939, but learned from the Polish campaign. The German Army remained largely dependent on railways and draught animals for mobility, and infantry and artillery provided essential support to its armoured spearhead. The quality of German tactical and operational leadership was not matched by strategic acumen at the highest level, and early German success owed much to errors by Poland, France and Britain. Given time and experience, other armies learned to defeat blitzkrieg tactics.

Black concludes that ‘variety and unpredictability, the importance of the Far East, and the significance of civil wars’, major themes between the World Wars, are again important. In this context, he sees the rise of China complementing the development of China’s modern identity in the civil and international conflicts of the 1920s and 1930s. Black sees parallels between the issues facing Britain then and those facing the US now, including difficulties with allies and the influence of ‘small wars’ on military development.

JOHN DONOVAN