Stories of the Forgotten Heroes

1914

During a hot summer day in June 1914, Gavrilo Princip entered the annals of history with his daring assassination attempt against Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his pregnant wife in the streets of Sarajevo. Sponsored by a secret Serb Organisation by the name of Black Hand, the first attempt during the day proved to be a disappointing failure. It was only by accident that the heir to the Empire of Austria-Hungary would expire in the deadly summer plot, thus setting in motion the events which would come to a head in the form of the First World War. Most thought in the first days of the July Crisis that the issue was to be one constrained only to the Balkans, with no opportunity to expand throughout the Old Continent, but that proved to be a serious miscalculation on the part of all the actors involved. Thus the Powderkeg of Europe exploded.

The fairly recent Austrian annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina had been a strenuous affair based on somewhat dubious reasoning on their part, creating a contention point between them and the volatile Serbs. Being the only empire without a colonial policy, their foreign policy had shifted by the end of the 19th century towards expanding in Europe and the opportunity came as the ailing Ottomans lost their foothold in Europe, at the hand of the various Slavic nations which lived in the peninsula. Benefiting from Russian support, the Kingdoms of Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, and Greece defeated the Turks in various wars, expanding the national borders with the aim of incorporating their people, and risking the ire of the powerful political actors in the process. The Austro-Hungarian Empire entered Bosnia after the Congress of Berlin, claiming that the occupation was for the protection and wellbeing of all the peoples of the region until a new state could be founded. Unwilling to surrender the land as they had agreed upon, the Austrians formed the Condominium of Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1908, leading to the Bosnian Crisis. By compromising, peace had been secured, but it was only a matter of time until things came to a head.

In 1914, the old Central European empire could claim as a stalwart ally only its northern neighbor, the German Empire, mostly due to Wilhlem's II Foreign Policy. Despite being part of the Central Powers, both the Kingdom of Romania in its East and Italy in its South patiently waited for the opportunity to free the regions from what they saw as a foreign occupation. In the Balkans, the Kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro had entered the Russian sphere of influence based on the brotherly doctrine of Pan-Slavism and their common faith with Serbia even creating a Yugoslav irredentist version. The fact that Tsarist Russia presented itself as the protector of all Orthodox nations put the vast empire on a collision course with its one-time ally, with deadly consequences. Most Austrians remembered the Russian intervention in 1848 in aid of their Empire when the fires of revolution had spread with such fury that it engulfed them. The Hungarians were more than happy to raise in revolt and recreate the Crown of St Stephen as an independent state, with the Austrian army incapable of calming the revolutionaries. Thus, Russia intervened and quelled the conflict, afraid that if it would succeed it would spread to their Empire. What truly shifted the Russian foreign policy towards the Austro-Hungarians was the Crimean War. Unwilling to help the Russians against the Ottoman Coalition, the relationship soured, which further worsened with the victory of the joint Russian-Romanian forces in the Bulgarian War of Independence. It was only a matter of time until the powder keg exploded.

The King of the small Kingdom of Serbia had on his desk, the ultimatum that Vienna had sent them. The Austrians, sure of their military capacity and alliances, approved a devious document which they further sent to the Serbs. The terms were mostly acceptable but for some clauses which would render his nation a vassal of the Habsburgs such as allowing the Habsburg police to make investigations and arrest the people they thought had had a hand in the assassination of the Archduke. Conflicted about the choice they would have to take, they sent a telegram to the Russians which advised them to let the deadline expire since their Empire will fight alongside Serbia if a war would come to their borders. Serbia began in earnest to mobilize its armed forces, and the Austrians reciprocated. As a consequence, Tsarist Russia declared its mobilization, thus bringing the German Empire into the fray. The last to mobilize were the French, but it did not take long and the fires of war erupted.

The rallying cries the young recruits had been heard yelling through the streets like "To Berlin/Paris" and "By Christmas, we will all be home" proved to be a veiled lie. Unfortunately, as the recent Second Boer War had shown the World, the way wars were fought had completely changed. It was no longer possible to have vast movements of armies on the battlefield, reminiscent of Napoleonic Warfare. The American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War of Unification laid the foundations of the modern war that the belligerents would fight in. Trenches became the new form of the defensive line, whilst the artillery gained a defensive capacity in addition to its old role. Despite being limited in number at the start of the war, the LMGs would become a symbol for this war, just like the gas masks.

The British Empire will join the Entente soon after the invasion of Belgium, to which they were a guarantor of independence, with the Japanese quickly invading the German port in China of Tsingtao, thus making the war truly global. The Ottomans, hoping to restore some of its prestige and hopeful of destroying the British and French influence will become part of the Central Powers with deadly consequences which affect the world today.

The last moment of humanity in this inhuman war would come in the form of the Christmas Truce. Despite happening mostly on the Western Front, between Franco-British troops and the German counterparts, there were some signs of it also on the Eastern Front, mainly due to grisly wolf attacks. Soldiers would exchange rations and packages, and play football whilst trying to bridge the gap which had formed between the belligerents. Many Germans had been working in London and other large cities before the war, so they knew how to speak English, whilst British students had frequented the University circuit that Germany offered. The commanders looked in horror at this display of fraternization, ending the Truce, never to occur throughout the war again.

Lastly, it is important to note that in the end, this war represents all the ambitions and aspirations of the military leaders of the time. The conflict did not start in a vacuum, militarism and nationalism played a very important role in setting up the scene for the Great War. This can be seen especially later in the War when units from all the armies revolted and even deserted, but this is a matter for a different chapter altogether.