Graham darby historian biography of christopher

The Great War

To mark the 80th anniversary of the ending of First World War, Graham Darby provides a timely reconsideration of why the conflict went on for so long and why the Central Powers lost.

'Home before the leaves fall and 'Over by Christmas' were just two of the misconceptions harboured by contemporaries in 1914.

Perhaps knowledge of the American Civil War (1861-5), with its gatling guns and trench warfare, should made people less optimistic. Yet German strategy depended entirely on the quick victory and one of the great misconceptions that led to this catastrophe was this false assumption by the German government that it could still win the war quickly in the year of 1914.

The decision-makers in Berlin – von Moltke, Bethmann Hollweg, von Jagow, von Falkenhayn, and of course the Kaiser – were all of' the opinion that Germany was surrounded by hostile powers, that Germany's position was slipping and that by 1917, when Russia's Great Military Progr