Blogging The Great War

Foundation For a Revolution

At the beginning of 1917, the outlook for the Russian army on the Eastern Front was pretty bleak. A brief glimmer of hope had shined in the summer and early fall of 1916, when Russian general Aleksei Brusilov had led a highly successful advance on the German lines. The Brusilov Offensive was the high point […]

Weapons Deadlier Than You Can Imagine

In a previous submission, I addressed the inclusion of trench warfare in Warner Brother’s latest superhero film, Wonder Woman. While trench warfare played only a small role in that film, a more central theme was the use of poison gas, specifically a hydrogen-based, rather than sulfur-based, mustard gas (spoiler: Scientificallyy this would not be feasible […]

In The Trenches

In Warner Brother’s latest film release, Wonder Woman, which is set in World War 1, there is a moment halfway through the plot in which the titular hero, Diana Prince, is faced with the bleak hopelessness of trench warfare on the Western Front. Frustrated at the suffering of innocent people around her, she takes action, […]

The Roots of War

In United States history, we know December 7, 1941, as the “date that will live in infamy,” due to the attack on Pearl Harbor. In the context of world history, however, the most infamous date in history is June 28, 1914. This date marked the assassination of the Archduke of Austria-Hungary, the heir to the […]

The Struggle That Decided the Course of History

In July of 1914, in a memorandum written by Helmuth von Moltke, the German Chief of Staff to Germany’s Chancellor at the time, Bethmann Hollweg, von Moltke warned of the coming conflict of World War I that “the leading nations of Europe would tear one another limb from limb … in a struggle that would […]