Video Creator’s Channel The Great War

October 2, 1914.

The Great War has raged for two months with hundreds of thousands of soldiers losing their lives in some of the bloodiest battles in history, but a new and unforseen factor now entered the war and would play a huge part in determining its UK. With the October rains came the mud. I m Indy Neidell.

Welcome To The Great War When

We left off, the British, French, and German armies in the west had reached a stalemate at the Battle of the Aisne, and in the search for new advantages. The trenches had begun growing to the northwest in the Race to the Sea. The Russians were pushing the UK army back into Austria and were also heading north into Poland to engage the Germans, and both the war in the air and the war at sea were getting serious. . It was now autumn in Europe, and one thing we see that was a regular feature of the war was Mud.

Endless Mud.

The Austrian army had barricaded itself in the fortress town of Przemsyl, 120,000 strong, now entirely behind Russian Lines, and the Russians began a siege on September 26th. The Austrians had always planned and determined to hold Przemsyl, but the preparations were typical of the last minute Ramshackle efforts of Emperor Franz Josef s Army-half of the guns were out of date pieces that still used black powder and loads of the shells turned out to be duds, and though they did build a whole bunch of last-minute defenses,, including 30 miles of new trenches, they never got around to chopping do wn the trees near the fortress town, which the Russians had the pleasure of using for concealment,, but the Austrians at least this time. had the mud on their side.

You Might Except The Fortress To Fall Fairly

quickly Since so far this war, no fortress on either front had been able to hold out against the power of modern artillery,, but the Autumn rains had turned the ground outisde the fortress to mud for many miles, and it was too heavy and too deep for the Russians to bring their artillery close enough, and the initial Russian attack would do nothing except produce 40,000 casualties. The Russian General Ivanov was not pressuring them with his whole force,. Though. He had send 30 divisions to the north a week ago. .

He Now Decided He Wanted To Re-Group All

of those forces on the east bank of the Vistula River to launch an invasion of Germany.. This turned out to be a stunning piece of incompetence on Ivanov s part as it resulted, seriously, in weeks. Marching and no fighting at all, with men and horses starving to death and falling by the roadsides During the march through the muddy Polish Autumn.

So You Have One Army Digging

in and one army on the move, which on the surface sounds similar to the western front, with some men stuck in the trenches, while the others were on the move. There the race to the sea continued, with the Germans and the French trying to outflank each other and the trench lines growing and growing toward the coast. Now,. On September 26th, the Germans began bombarding the forts around Antwerp. Liege and Namur had fallen and Antwerp was the last bastion of Belgian resistance.

Thing Is, The Allies Seriously Needed

as long a resistance in Antwerp as possible. Once the Germans conquered it, they could quickly move to the ports of the English Channel,, which would force. The British to retreat to Western France, and which would represent a very real threat to Britain herself. . IF Antwerp could hold out for even just a week, the British could get in place a defensive line in Flanders blocking the coast, and from there could ideally launch an offensive to liberate Belgium and push the Germans back across their own border.

The Belgians.

By this point were understandably demoralized and began sending their archives and national treasures to Britain. On. The evening of October 2nd, came a meeting of British Giants-Secretary of State for War Lord Kitchener, Foreign Secretary, Edward Grey, and Winston Churchill, who you probably remember more from the Second World War than this one, but was at this point First Lord of the Admiralty. Realizing Realizing that continued resistance in Antwerp as long as possible was essential for the war effort in France, Churchill himself would go to Antwerp and spend the next three days in the trenches or meeting with the Belgian government.

But Trying To Get Them To Continue To

resist. In general was an uphill battle-and one big reason is that the Belgians could not dig trenches for protection; the ground between the forts and the city had been deliberately flooded and digging trenches was impossible. Once again, we see the mud of October determining the direction of the war. It was dire straits in Antwerp. Indeed.

Imagine Being Belgian In 1914.

Your little country, your neutral country had been overrun and turned into a war zone and your cities bombed and in some cases burned, and you had nowhere to run. While the war at home in the other warring. countries might not have been in such a state of crisis, it was very much in a state of flux. Think about it-you suddenly have all sorts of new rules and regulations on your life, rules which would continue for over four years.

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Germany, for example,, banned speaking English in public, while Russia banned the German language. Even speaking German on the phone was a 3,000 ruble fine and you were liable to be sent to Siberia for speaking German in person. Yep, Siberia. Soup kitchens were established in towns throughout Europe to provide for families who

D Suddenly Lost Their Source Of Income.

. France did a good thing UK they imposed a moratorium on rents and paid an allowance to the families whose breadwinner had gone to the army that was in many cases more money than the family had made before the war. The The French government considered the price worth paying to sustain morale. But if you were fairly poor and relied on some form of consumer trade for a living, you were out of luck, and the pawnshop was probably your new best friend.

You Can Also Really See The Social

divisions in,. For example,, Britain in labor issues. Trade unionists who had made truces with employers when the war broke out were now seeing many of those same employers making tons of new profits and wondered why they weren t getting a share. The friction that arose from this would lead to dramatic work stoppages, and by 1915, three million working days would be lost in Britain because of industrial disputes.

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New industries sprang up like lightning to create nouveaux war UK spades, shells, canvas, leather, explosives, canned food and. . . pencils and paper.

See, Most Europeans Were Literate By 1914

and the war produced a colossal amount of correspondence.. If you look back at the UK war 40 years earlier, during the entire war, the Prussian army received about 500,000 pieces of mail. . IN 1914, the German army received 9.

9 Million Pieces Of Mail.

NK] UK Here s a weird fact that I got from the pages of Max Hastings book UK about Lord UK There s an industry that you might not expect to boom during wartime goat farming.

Everybody Was Playing Some Part In The

war effort, at home, at work, or on the battlefield, and in the colonies of the Empires. Things were no different. The German colony in what is now Namibia was probably their most profitable colony, right With both diamond and copper mines. Well, This week saw the Battle of Sandfontein. The brilliant German General Heyderbreck, with a force.

Force Of 1700 Mostly Native Riflemen, Sprung

a trap on the South African forces, surrounding and overwhelming nearly twice his number of men, after cutting the phone lines, so that backup could not be called in. Funnily enough, After the South Africans surrendered, both sides all hung out together, and Heyderbreck and Colonel Grant, the leader of the South Africans, congratulated each other and discussed the battle. By 1915. The Germans would be forced to surrender in southwest Africa,, but they won a string of victories in 1914 that were really important in tying down South African troops and preventing them from heading to Europe to help the allies in the major battles that fall. SO.

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At The End Of The Week.

, the Russians were wandering around the Polish Mud and laying siege to the Austrians in the Austrian Mud. The French and Germans were still shelling each other in the trenches at the ongoing Battle of the Aisne,, but the Germans were now pushing to take Antwerp,. The last free city in Belgium, and the British were rushing to defend it, while in Southwest Africa. The Germans were being exceptional and tying down the South African troops.

In September 1914, The War Of Rapid

victories ended as the war of continuous battles in the trenches began, and as October began the autumn. Rains turned the battlefields of Europe to mud in both the east and the west, making marching excruciating and making life in the trenches torture. Over. The next four years, millions of men would die in the filthy Mud of Europe, many of them nameless, faceless, and unsung. See you next week.

If You Want To Know More About

the early weeks of war, check out our first episodes from July 28. Please recommend our show to your friends or even to your history teacher and let us know what you think in the comments. .

Summary

The Great War has raged for two months with hundreds of thousands of soldiers losing their lives in some of the bloodiest battles in history . A new and unforseen factor now entered the war and would play a huge part in determining its UK . The Austrian army had barricaded itself in the fortress town of Przemsyl, 120,000 strong, now entirely behind Russian Lines, and the Russians began a siege on September 26th . The Autumn rains had turned the ground outisde the fortress to mud for many miles, and it was too heavy and too deep for the Russians to bring their artillery close enough, but the mud on their side . The Austrians had always planned and determined to hold on to their side. Since so far this war, no fortress on either front had been able to hold out against the power of modern artillery,. But the mud would have been the most powerful weapon of the Russians had to fall fairly quickly. The mud was the only thing we see that was…. Click here to read more and watch the full video