Saturday, October 10, 2009

"They shudder, and it is forgotten"

Gilbert, Martin. The First World War, (Holt: New York, 1994) pp. 301 – 473.
Part 2: War, desertion, mutiny (April-July 1917)

I tried to pick out all the fronts identified in this section of the reading, which are the following:

Western Front; Salonica Front; Monastir Front; Eastern Front; Italian Front. While the Italian, Western and Eastern Fronts are uniform in reference, other fronts seem to go by different names. For instance, the Macedonian Front, the Balkan Front, Mesopotamian Front et al. Is there an authoritative source on this?

This section of the reading mainly focuses on the following:
  1. The conflict of interests in Russia between the Bolsheviks and the Provisional Government on participation in the war, culminating with the begrudging agreement by the Petrograd Soviet to support the Provisional Government in continuing the war effort. 
  2. The various desertions and mutinies which began to pervade the front lines (particularly besetting the French and Russian troops), along with Petain’s management of the defections and attempt to restore or force morale one way or another. 
  3. The long anticipated arrival of the first American troops in May of 1917. 
* Also note introduction of the convoy system in May to mitigate the damages caused by unrestricted submarine warfare.

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