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Title: Elite 97: The Kaiser's Warlords by Ronald Pawly, Patrice Courcelle ISBN: 1-84176-558-9 Publisher: Osprey Pub Co Pub. Date: November, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (1 review)
Rating: 4
Summary: Good but Doesn't Go Much Beyond Surface Detail
Comment: Ronald Pawly, normally a Napoleonic historian, turns his attention to German military commanders in the First World War in Osprey's Elite #97. This volume is a useful summary for readers interested in the First World War and supplements other Osprey volumes on that war in the Campaign and Men-at-Arms series. Overall, Pawly's volume hits the highlights, but is certainly not intended to be comprehensive.
The Kaiser's Warlords begins with an interesting 7-page summary of the German General Staff on the eve of the First World War and its profound influence on the development of the German officer corps. Indeed, this introductory section is possible the best part of the volume. Pawly then provides a 14-page summary of the major campaigns of the war; unfortunately, this section was overly long and one wonders why with the existence of entire Osprey Essential Histories volumes that cover this same ground the author did not merely insert a 2-page chronology of major events. It is clear that this over-blown section detracts significantly from the space available to actually cover the German commanders. The heart of the volume is a series of biographies of 21 senior German officers, plus the Kaiser. In fact, the Kaiser - who Pawly admits had virtually no command influence over the German armies in the First World War - gets far too much biographical coverage and even three of 24 color plates! The other biographies cover the better-known German commanders, including: the Crown Prince; Crown Prince Rupprecht; the von Below brothers; von Bülow; von Eichorn; von Rothmaler; von Falkenhayn; von Francois; von Gallwitz; von Hindenburg; von Hutier; von Kluck; von Sanders; Ludendorff; von Mackensen; von der Marwitz; von Moltke; and von Woyrsch. The author also covers several other offices - not mentioned in the biographical section - in the color plate commentaries and in black and white photographs. These additional officers include naval leaders Tirpitz and von Spee (Hipper and Scheer would have been better choices), and several of the more obscure army-level commanders. Throughout the volume, the author also provides considerable information on the uniforms and insignia of German general officers in the First World War.
The author succeeds in getting the highlights right, but it does not seem that he dug much beyond surface details. Pawly notes that Otto von Below was probably the best German field commander of the war, that Emil von Eichorn was the only German general to be killed in the war (he was assassinated by Ukrainians) and that Oskar von Hutier received credit for developing the new infiltration and short bombardment tactics. However, Pawly seems to make no effort at analysis and little effort to paint these officers as little more than general staff-trained ciphers. In terms of analysis, Pawly might have noted that these officers were rather elderly (the average age of the 21 profiled was almost 59 years old in 1914, and 6 of 21 were over 65 at the start of the war) and that only 10 of 21 had pre-war combat experience. Unlike the French, British and Russian officers, many of whom had seen combat in the past 9-14 years, von Falkenhayn was the only senior German who had seen action in the 20th Century (the Boxer Rebellion) and the rest had not seen action in 43 years since the Franco-Prussian War. Pawly might also have noticed that only 5 of the 21 officers profiled were non-infantry (4 cavalry, 1 artillery) and only 4 of 21 were Catholic, which probably bred a great deal of orthodoxy in thinking. Readers might consider contrasting this ultra-orthodoxy with the much greater degree of diversity in the German officer Corps of the Second World War, where signal officers (Guderian), aviators (Kesselring) and even former enlisted men were allowed to command Hitler's armies. Indeed, Pawly's compact little study depicts the Kaiser's commanders as military professionals par excellence on the one hand, but also subtly casts doubt on their ability to understand the new face of war any better than their opponents. The fact that only a single German general died in action in the First World War - as opposed to dozens in the Second World War - certainly emphasizes that this was a far different breed of officer who led German armies in 1914-1918. While von Mackensen was one of the few to display some panache, none came close to the "lead from the front style" of generals like Rommel, Guderian or Model thirty years later. Despite the popular tendency to caricature British generals in the First World War as "donkeys," it is possible that Pawly's thin volume might help readers to appreciate that "chateau generalship" and ossified leadership affected both sides.
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Title: The Austro-Hungarian Forces in World War I (2) 1916-18 by Peter Jung, Darko Pavlovic ISBN: 1841765953 Publisher: Osprey Pub Co Pub. Date: December, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The German Army in World War I, 1914-15 (Men at Arms, 394) by Nigel Thomas, Gerry Embleton ISBN: 1841765651 Publisher: Osprey Pub Co Pub. Date: August, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The British Army in World War I: The Western Front 1914-16 by Mike Chappell ISBN: 1841763993 Publisher: Osprey Pub Co Pub. Date: October, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Italian Arditi: Elite Assault Troops 1917-20 (Warrior, 87) by Angelol. Pirocchi, Velimir Vuksic, Angelo Pirocchi ISBN: 1841766860 Publisher: Osprey Pub Co Pub. Date: April, 2004 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: British Artillery 1914 - 1918: Field Artillery (New Vanguard, 94) by Dale Clarke, Brian Delf ISBN: 1841766887 Publisher: Osprey Pub Co Pub. Date: March, 2004 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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