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Fire and Movement: The British Expeditionary Force and the Campaign of 1914, by Peter Hart
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The dramatic opening weeks of the Great War passed into legend long before the conflict ended. The British Expeditionary Force fought a mesmerizing campaign, outnumbered and outflanked but courageous and skillful, holding the line against impossible odds, sacrificing themselves to stop the last great German offensive of 1914. A remarkable story of high hopes and crushing disappointment, the campaign contains moments of sheer horror and nerve-shattering excitement; pathos and comic relief; occasional cowardice and much selfless courage--all culminating in the climax of the First Battle of Ypres.
And yet, as Peter Hart shows in this gripping and revisionary look at the war's first year, for too long the British part in the 1914 campaigns has been veiled in layers of self-congratulatory myth: a tale of poor unprepared Britain, reliant on the peerless class of her regular soldiers to bolster the rabble of the unreliable French Army and defeat the teeming hordes of German troops. But the reality of those early months is in fact far more complex--and ultimately, Hart argues, far more powerful than the standard triumphalist narrative.
Fire and Movement places the British role in 1914 into a proper historical context, incorporating the personal experiences of the men who were present on the front lines. The British regulars were indeed skillful soldiers, but as Hart reveals, they also lacked practice in many of the required disciplines of modern warfare, and the inexperience of officers led to severe mistakes. Hart also provides a more accurate portrait of the German Army they faced--not the caricature of hordes of automatons, but the reality of a well-trained and superlatively equipped force that outfought the BEF in the early battles--and allows readers to come to a full appreciation of the role of the French Army, without whom the Marne never would have been won.
Ultimately Fire and Movement shows the story of the 1914 campaigns to be an epic tale, and one which needs no embellishment. Through the voices and recollections of the soldiers who were there, Hart strips away the myth to offer a clear-eyed account of the remarkable early days of the Great War.
- Sales Rank: #875719 in Books
- Published on: 2014-11-03
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 6.50" h x 1.70" w x 9.10" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 496 pages
Review
"Dispelling close-held myths, Hart presents extracts from diaries and letters by soldiers and officers for an in-the-moment account... A focused, organized, evenhanded work of research." --Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
Peter Hart is Oral Historian of the Imperial War Museum in London. He is the author of The Great War: A Combat History of the First World War; Gallipoli; The Somme: The Darkest Hour on the Western Front; and 1918: A Very British Victory.
Most helpful customer reviews
21 of 23 people found the following review helpful.
Major reassessment of 1914's opening campaigns
By Robert Massey
My nine-year-old son wanted to know why Peter Hart's latest book is called `Fire and Movement'. Well, I explained, this was how the British army commanders expected the war to be fought in 1914, with overwhelming fire followed up by fast infantry assault; this was the `spirit of the offensive'. What actually happened was very different. How and why it was different it is the purpose of this book to explain. By this point, my boy had wisely decided to carry out some assaults of his own on creepers and straying animals while playing Minecraft, leaving me to ponder the difficult tasks this work has to achieve. First, it has to consider the role of the British Expeditionary Force against the 1914 backdrop of the vastly greater armies of France and Germany - and against the differing reputations of those two forces. Secondly, it has to assess the quality of the BEF's achievements in their own terms, and to ask serious questions about whether the near-legendary status of the BEF in some quarters and accounts is well merited. Revisionism is a Hart forte, so the prospects were good.
The opening chapters allow Hart to challenge a number of commonly held and hindsight-driven ideas about the British army's weaponry and tactics, including the roles of cavalry, machine guns and artillery; this overview will interest all readers with an interest in how the British commanders expected any forthcoming war to be fought. It is on the road to Mons, however, that the book really hits its stride, as the BEF's 4 divisions joined the larger Belgian Army deployment (7 divisions) and the enormous French Army (75 divisions in total) against German forces of 79 divisions - not that this was just about numbers, but the statistics cannot be ignored either. The Schlieffen Plan pitted the French Third and Fourth Armies against the German forces in the Ardennes, and the resultant Battle of the Frontiers brings us to one of this book's key themes: the immense scale of French losses. It is estimated that the French army suffered 27,000 dead on 22 August alone, nearly half as much again as British fatalities on I July 1916 on the Somme. To be fair, I heard Max Hastings refer to this French sacrifice in a recent talk, but even so the scale of their losses at the Battle of the Frontiers alone should serve to challenge some modern popular myths about our ally's courage and commitment. Why is the Battle of the Frontiers so little known in Britain in 2014? By contrast, British casualties at Mons were 1600 and Zuber argues for German losses of 2000, putting into perspective the relative degree of suffering experienced in these early engagements of the Great War.
The central chapters of the book play to Hart's great strengths as a military historian, portraying the sheer chaos of the retreat from Mons in uncompromising detail straight from the first-hand accounts of the men who were there, drawn mostly from the peerless archives of the Imperial War Museum's sound archives, diaries and letters. This facility with the building blocks of history, the sources themselves, extends to Hart's account of the intensive and often heated discussions between the respective commanders. At one key encounter, Joffre appeals passionately to history and to the honour of England in requesting British assistance at the Marne. Sir John French somewhat tepidly agrees, according to Joffre's own account. Hart allows the extract to conclude: `Tea, which was already prepared, was then served.' Thus the preliminaries for a battle which, Peter Hart argues here, changed the fate of the world.
One aspect of the Great War familiar to many readers will be trench conditions, but Chapter 13 gives us a salutary reminder of the reality of 1914 trench life. Sandbags, barbed wire, duckboards and parapets were present but on nothing like the scale of later trenches: these first attempts were shallow and shocking. What had begun as a war of anticipated `Fire and Movement' had degenerated into stagnation and slaughter. Into this carnage, decisively, came the Indian Corps, and there are fascinating descriptions of the reactions their arrival provoked among British and German troops. Hart finds plenty of evidence for the Christmas truce, in some sections of the line at least, but more for practical than sentimental reasons. The dead could be buried, defences rebuilt and exercise taken, but whether that included football matches between Germans and British is very doubtful.
The BEF, concludes Hart in this timely reassessment of their influence and importance, were `a tokenistic contribution' in a battle of giants. They won the respect of their German adversaries, and none should today deny their courage and flexibility in the face of the chaos of the opening weeks of the war, especially given the poor quality of the their leadership by Sir John French. But it would be foolish to see them as the saviours of France: that role belongs to Foch, Joffre and the French armies.
If you want to know why Germany didn't win the Great War, this book will offer you a persuasive reading of events. The Battle of the Marne essentially made it near-impossible for Germany to win the war they had started. It changed history. `Fire and Movement' challenges the outdated stereotypes of retreating Frenchmen, infallible German soldiers and bungling British commanders by offering a nuanced retelling of complex engagements with clarity and sympathy. Drawn from a plethora of sources from the time and informed by the latest research, Peter Hart's latest book gives you a thought-provoking and questioning account of 1914. My nine-year-old has a treat in store when he's older.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful.
A great read and frank assessment
By Robbo
With the avalanche of books on the Great War currently descending on booksellers, buyers have a bewildering choice from which to purchase something. Peter Hart’s Fire and Movement: The British Expeditionary Force and the Campaign of 1914 is one well worth buying. Hart has established himself as a respected historian on the Great War. His books are never dry academic tomes. Pitched at the general reading public and Great War buffs alike, they deliver a clear, engaging and easy to read narrative, interspersed with analysis, and laced with chunks of quotes from participants that add colour and substance to the incidents he relates.
In Fire and Movement he covers a subject that is largely forgotten, and ignored in the myriad of books and documentaries that agonise over the sacrifice and catastrophe of the Great War. While the sub title indicates it is primarily about the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), that “contemptible little army’ that fought so gallantly, and contributed much during the first five months of the war, Hart also includes his assessment of and accounts from German participants who fought opposite the Tommies. In doing so, he convincingly overturns some of the myths that abound about both armies. Thus at the opening Battle of Mons we see the fighting unfolding between the 4th Royal Fusiliers and the 4th Middlesex and their opponents of the German 84th Regiment, and learn how an oft quoted British soldier’s view of what happened to the German infantrymen opposite him was mistaken, and has distorted perceptions ever since.
This is no hyperbolic glorification of a BEF that outshone all other armies, a feature we see too often about the AIF, now referred to pejoratively as Anzackery. Hart’s analysis is balanced and fair, and he presents an objective view that highlights the strengths and weaknesses, the successes and failures, and mistakes of the BEF and their German foes.
Commencing with a study of the sweeping doctrinal and structural changes in the British Army following the Boer War, Hart takes the reader on the journey from mobilisation to the opening Battles of Mons and the Great Retreat, and culminates with the BEF’s greatest test, the gigantic First Battle of Ypres, where the old British Army was largely destroyed in a successful and bitterly fought defence that ended the war of manoeuvre, and set the stage for the great catastrophe of trench warfare. It ends with an interesting account of the famous Christmas truce. Reading this book one gains a real �feeling for what the participants�experienced, and at the same time gets a clear understanding of the events as they unfolded in an un-emotive but absorbing narrative.
In a short epilogue Hart reviews the performance of both the British and the Germans, making well judged comments, including the parsimony of a British government, which before the war was unwilling to fund an army they were so ready to commit to a continental commitment. He debunks the view the BEF were the arbiters of the destiny of 1914, and notes that British pride in the very real achievements of the BEF should not be allowed to slip into the denigration of the efforts of other armies - a comment that some shallow Australian writers would do well to observe.
Overall, this is an excellent book which provides an engaging account of the British Army’s contribution to the campaign of 1914, and of their German opponents. It deserves a place on the ‘good reads list’. I recommended it for a friend’s Christmas present, and he thoroughly enjoyed it.
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful.
A very worthwhile reassessment of 1914 Campaign in the West
By Chefdevergue
Peter Hart makes it clear, quite early on in his narrative, that what he describes as "self-congratulatory" myth-making and "vainglorious bluster" too often pervades British historiography when it comes to Britain's wars. Hart feels that this actually detracts from the true heroism shown by the men of the British Expeditionary Force in 1914, and also unfairly gives short shrift to both the Belgians and the French who fought along the BEF in a desperate struggle for survival.
If you don't care for massive amounts of block-quotations, sometimes filling more than a page, then you may find this book to be something of a chore. Early and often, Hart uses quotations from letters, diaries, and official reports to bolster his narrative. It takes some getting used to. But Hart has done his research, and the source material he uses always enhances the story, and vividly illustrates what was happening in the field and in the trenches.
Hart necessarily has to provide some background to the conflict, and this is the only part of the book which was a little tedious for me. Once the actual conflict begins, the narrative is brisk and engaging. For slightly more than 3 months in 1914, the armies on the Western Front were highly mobile and the lines were fluid, before the 1st Battle of Ypres brought about a stalemate which would last much of the next 4 years. Hart expertly describes the tactical decisions and failures which allowed the BEF to survive the onslaught, and which ultimately doomed the German Empire.
A major bone of contention for Hart is the failure of many British historians to give the French armies the credit which they deserve. He makes it clear that the pivotal victory at the 1st Battle of the Marne must be credited to Joffre above and beyond anyone else, and that the BEF, while performing well in the battle, did so in spite of the best attempts at incompetent leadership by their high command, which ultimately made their decisions only because Joffre was riding herd on them. But Hart also highlights German incompetence, without which Joffre might never have had the opportunity to make the brilliant tactical decisions which he did.
This is because Hart has another bone of contention, that being the myth of the invincible German war machine. Of course, it makes sense, from the British perspective, to portray the Germans as perfectly-trained and unstoppable, because it makes the victories against them in 1914 all that much more improbable and heroic. But of course the reality was that while the Germans were certainly better-trained and equipped, there were frequent failures at the command level (poor communication, failure to use aerial reconnaissance properly), and of course at the highest levels of command, it never occurred to anyone to have a "Plan B" in place, just in case the Schlieffen didn't work the way it was supposed to.
Once the 1st Battle of Ypres had consigned the Western Front to a trench-based war of attrition, Hart does a good job describing how the BEF began making the transition from a campaign of almost non-stop movement to one where they were mired in trenches for weeks on end. He also provides a fascinating account of the Christmas Truce, confirming some of the legends while dispelling others, and giving a more clear perspective on how the combatants felt about it --- how, in fact, most of them were quite prepared to go back to killing each other within days of Christmas and that the truce should not be construed as an anti-war statement.
This is a valuable contribution to the historical literature, and is highly recommended.
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