This is a bit off topic, but . . . . I'd like to mention that one of the most interesting and eyeopening books on WW1 extant is a relatively recent book by John Mosier, entitled "Myth of the Great War."
Mosier's interesting thesis is that most historians have been captive to the British and French wartime propaganda. Like all combatants the official announcements by the Brits and French during the war were nonsense, but oddly, Mosier claims, most historians since have simply swallowed these wartime lies whole. There seems to be much truth in this assertion.
The key point deliberately overlooked by most historians and certainly not widely publicized is that the ratio of deaths on the western front was
between 2 and 3 in Germany's favor. Britain and France lost more men on the western front alone than Germany lost in the entire war fighting
on 3 fronts. The ratio of wounded was even more one sided--about 4 or 5 to 1. The war of attrition that set in after the war of movement was over in Sept. 1914 was won decisively by the Germans. Furthermore, on the western front Germany was never outnumbered by less than 2 to 1.
Never. How could Britain and France have done so badly for so long given that continuous overwhelming advantage?
Germany could have won in 1914; they had victory at their finger tips, but they threw it away, basically through a failure of nerve on von
Moltke's part. They won repeatedly over the next four years, but simply didn't have the strength to put an end to the war. All of their
major offensives were quite successful, but the strength to follow through was not there. Thus, once the American army was in place and
functioning with almost unlimited men and equipment the jig was up.
I strongly recommend Mosier's book to those interested in WW1.
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