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How on earth did Wilson ever beat a 'tache like that in 1912?

Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft split the 'tache vote, allowing no-'tache Woodrow Wilson to win.
 
Guess Verdun will always be Verdun, slaughter for the sake of slaughter. Both Napoleon and Moltke the Elder must have turned in their graves over the handling of that 'battle'.

Guess TR as president would mean more American soldiers in Europe, and a lot earlier to boot. They could even be spared Pershings command, as I think TR would prefer his friend Wood to lead the expeditionary force. The fact that Pershing both refused to learn about trench warfare from the British and French and that he threw away hundreds of American lives, ordering assaults on German positions just hours before the armistice make me have a rather low opinion of the mans skill.

Given that Roosevelt raised but was not authorized to send a volunteer division thanks to Wilson, it could very well be that we might see an American commander-in-chief who actually commands troops in the field during his presidency. Failing that, Leonard Wood would be a more likely choice than Pershing. Wood would certainly handle the medical side of trench warfare very well, and that was a shock for all of the combatants. In Pershing's defense, neither the French nor the British particularly cared to learn about trench warfare from the French or the British. They even had a hard time learning about it from the Germans. :p
 
They even had a hard time learning about it from the Germans.
It is always hard to learn from someone with nothing to teach.
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Have any of you read "The Myth of The Great War"? I was very surprised by some of its conclusions that seem to fly in the face of conventional wisdom...

As for TR in the White House again, I think the key is that he won't toss away the Peace! Versailles will be HIS show and the peace will be based upon security and stability. Self Determination be hanged! Forget the League of Nations.... And the High Seas Fleet? He'll DEFINITELY take a personal interest on deciding whether the US gets the bulk or whether HE orders it sunk. (There are no other options with TR here.)

But THAT depends upon his health. I'm hoping he decided to take a tour of the Far East rather than that expedition up the Amazon. That trip probably cost him ten years.
 
Chapter thirty-three: Éirí Amach na Cásca


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During the night of April 15th, 1916, the U-19, a German submarine under the command of Kapitänleutnant Raimund Weissbach (who, in May 1915, was the torpedo officer aboard the U-20 when she sank the Lusitania), surfaced off the west coast of Ireland. Under the cover of darkness, three Irishmen landed. One of them was sir Roger Casement, a Dublin-born former member of the British Colonial Service who had been knighted for his work in exposing the the brutality of the Congo Free State’s regime and thus enjoyed a positive reputation in international circles. Casement had spent the previous year trying to persuade Germany to sponsor and endorse an Irish rebellion but, disillusioned by the lack of support, he was travelling to Ireland to forestall the proposed rising. However, he was soon discovered and arrested. Tried in London for high treason, he was to be hanged at Pentonville Prison, but his death penalty was changed for a life sentence and, eventually, freed with the General amnesty of 1917. He was to be the object of a smear campaign by British authorities, which plagued him until his death - his health had suffered greatly during his time in prison- in 1920 (1).

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Sir Roger Casement on the way to be judged.​

At the same time, a German steamer was to transport some 20,000 captured Russian rifles, 10 machine gun, a million rounds of ammunition and a quantity of explosives to Ireland. Disguised as a Norwegian ship, the Aud, she was to bypass the main British patrol areas. The plan began well and the ship arrived to Ireland but there was finally intercepted and scuttled.

Meanwhile, the Irish nationalist leaders were divided at what to do. While Tom Clarke, Edmund Kent, Patrick Pearse, Joseph Plunkett and Sean MacDermott were committed to the use of force in defiance of Irish Parliamentary Party leader John Redmond’s plea for volunteers for the British Army, Eoin MacNeill was fundamentally opposed to acting rashly, as he thought that rebellion would be unsuccessful. Plunkett had travelled to Germany in April 1915 to join Casement. Casement had gone there from the United States the previous year to try to recruit an "Irish Brigade" from among Irish prisoners of war and secure German support for Irish independence. Together Plunkett and Casement presented a plan which involved a German expeditionary force landing on the west coast of Ireland, while a rising in Dublin diverted the British forces so that the Germans, with the help of local Volunteers, could secure the line of the River Shannon.

While this was going on, British intelligence, who knew that some act of rebellion was imminent, had even managed to establish that it would be supported by German arms. Yet British awareness of sedition was not matched by activity: Augustine Birrell, Chief Secretary for Ireland, who had spent much of 1914 and 1915 performing a difficult balancing act between both sides, stuck to his moderate line, refusing to outlaw the Irish Volunteers whilst they in turn plotted against British rule. The Viceroy of Ireland, Lord Wimborne wanted one hundred prominent republican leaders arrested, but Birrell's Under Secretary, Sir Matthew Nathan, dissuaded him from doing so. Therefore, when the Aud was scuttled and Casement arrested, Nathan conferred with Wimborne and proposed him to raid Liberty Hall, headquarters of the Citizen Army, and Volunteer properties at Father Matthew Park and at Kimmage, but Wimborne was insisting on wholesale arrests of the leaders. It was decided to postpone action until after Easter Monday and in the meantime Nathan telegraphed the Chief Secretary, Augustine Birrell, in London seeking his approval. By the time Birrell cabled his reply authorising the action, at noon on Monday 24 April 1916, the Rising had already begun.

Early on Monday morning, April 24, 1916, Volunteers and Citizen Army members took over strongpoints in Dublin city centre and gathered at Liberty Hall, but failed to take Dublin Castle, the centre of British rule in Ireland, although it was lightly guarded; they also failed to take Trinity College, which was located in the heart of the city centre and which was defended by only a handful of armed, unionist students. Fighting broke out in the city almost immediately, and the indiscriminate killing of civilians and officials altered the mood of Dubliners from confusion to hatred for the Volunteers. The British military were caught totally unprepared by the rebellion and their response of the first day was generally uncoordinated.

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British cavalry of the 6th Reserve Cavalry Regiment, the only such unit to retain their horses during the fighting, on patrol in Sackville Street, May 1916.

However, the rebels had failed to take either of Dublin's two main train stations or either of its ports, at Dublin Port and Kingstown. Thus, the British were able to bring in thousands of reinforcements from England and from their garrisons at the Curragh and Belfast. By the end of the week, British strength stood at over 16,000 men. Their firepower was provided by field artillery summoned from their garrison at Athlone which they positioned on the northside of the city at Phibsborough and at Trinity College, and by the patrol vessel Helga, which sailed up the Liffey.

British soldiers and policemen cordoned off the city and began to reduce rebel strongholds with artillery fire. Fighting was extremely fierce in some areas, but the British had an overwhelming preponderance in firepower and bombed the rebels until they forced them to surrender on 29th April. Hundreds of people had been killed thousands were wounded.

The Irish Volunteers also mobilised on Easter Sunday in several places outside of Dublin, but due to countermanding orders, most of them returned home without fighting. In addition, due to the interception of the German arms aboard the Aud, the provincial Volunteer units were very poorly armed, althought there were some armed incidents and fightings in Cork, Ashbourne (where the only large scale engagement outside the city of Dublin took place), Enniscorthy and Galway.

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An armoured car kept the crowd on the move in O’Connell street near the General Post Office, Dublin while a raid for arms was taking place in the vicinity. It was from the steps of the GPO that Patrick Pearse read the proclamation of the Irish republic on Easter Monday 1916. The rebels held the post office for five days.


In the aftermath of the Easter Uprising, 3,430 men and 79 women were arrested, although most were subsequently released. Local authorities in Ireland demanded that the rebels be punished in the severest of ways. The rebel leaders were marched through Dublin to prison, being heckled and berated at by the population. However, while some wanted retribution, others urged restraint. The nationalist politician, John Dillon wrote to John Redmond in London telling him to tell to the government to avoid any wholesale shooting of prisoners. "The wisest course is to execute no one for the present…" as it could change the feelings of the population, which then was against the Sinn Feiners. Redmond told so to Asquith when they met at 10 Downing Street. Asquith agreed on the wisedom of avoiding widespread punishment, but he also knew that this sensible approach would enrage the Unionists. And he needed them for his coalition government. Thus, he decided to make an example of the ring-leaders, a task which was left in the hands of the British Army’s Commander-in-Chief in Ireland, Lieutenant General Sir John Maxwell.

In a series of courts martial beginning on 2 May, ninety people were sentenced to death. Only three of those (Patrick Pearse, Tom Clarke and, Thomas MacDonagh) had their sentences confirmed by Maxwell and were executed by firing squad between 3 May and 12 May, while the others received prison sentences of varying lengths. For a while, Ireland was to remain in peace.

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The aftermath: after surrendering, Eamon de Valera and Michael Collins wait with the other Irish rebels to be paraded through the streets (2)


(1) Call me a silly sod -mmmh, bad election of words, methinks-, but I couldn't hang poor sir Roger. Ok, ok, Pip et Trekkie: he was a bloody traitor who had some failed bussiness with our beloved Kaiser Billy, but I wasn't in the mood for making a martyr of him. And after all, the Black Diaries are there for anyone to make a fuss about it (Wilde revisited).
(2) Yikes! How the Hell did the Sinn Feinners were trashed if they had Snape and Qui-Gon Jinn in their side? Amateurs, if you ask me... :D




@quaazi: Well, there you have a joke, to cheer you up! And the Brits won thism time, for Beckham's sake!

@Enewald: time will come when everybody will get dry. Even in Finland.

@El Pip: Come on, Pip. Do you dare to suggest that British generals have something to learn from those... those... those... Froggies?!?!?!?! :D And what is even worse! Dougie Haig failing to notice the pros and cons of a good planning? Be optimist, man! :D.

About letting Germany to keep Belgium... well, I haven't asked the Belgians, but they don't look to cheerful at the idea...
Are we sure that just letting Germany kee

@TheExecuter: Don't panick. We have "Daddy" Plummer and many competent officers. We just luck enough heavy guns and tanks. :D

And the only peace treaty that Germany will offer us to be accepted must be written in Billy's skull!!!!:D

@El Pip (2): I can tell you that the Blockade is going worse for Austria Hungary than fro Germany, which is not in a quite good shape -therefore, I'm afraid that Ukraine is going to be their next target at once...

@Nathan Madien: Only if they do properly and without resembling a mob. Remember, they are Germans. They couldn't trake a tain station without buying the tickets first. :D

@Davout: Ballots rigged, for sure. :D

Did this post answer your question?

@quaazi: Mmmh, a volunteer to police Dublin, methinks... :D

@FlyingDutchie: Not really. There was a purpose in the battle in both sides, even if there was not too much cunning deployed in the fighthings. About TR: you're right about quantity...

@Nathan Madien: That makes sense...

@c0d5579: Interesting options, indeed... We shall see...

@KiMaSa:" You can conquer Hell if you throw enough souls there" seems to be the motto of some generals. Oh, Mireau, nice to see you... :p About TR: If his health is good enough and his son doesn't get killed, we shall see.
 
What's the difference between the three options?

Darn it. I forgot to explain them...

The first one (Grant minor concessions: no conscription in Ireland):

-1 in manpower in Galway, Dublin and Cork, +5% dissent.

The second one (No compromise with traitors!):

+15% dissent

The third one (Grant major concessions):

- Cork, Galway, Sligo, Letterkenny and Dublin are not longer British national provinces and supply stockplie changed by -1500


Thus, I opted for the second one. Why? The first one would kill the Conscription Crisis of 1918, which would, in its turn, cut in half the fun of the Spring Offensives. Anyway, I didn't know then that the Kaiser had differents plans for 1918... Dirty cunning bastard. Furthermore, I wasn't to allow any member of the Empire to miss his chance to go to the Trenches :D The third one was clearly asking for more Troubles and it wasn't absolutely out of any reasonable mind -had Asquith proposed that, the Unionists wouldn't be the only ones to want to rip his bollocks off, then to fry them gently in red wine and stuff them up his arse until he vomits out of his mouth.

So, I went to devastate my construction queue (dirty bastards... couldn't create a more ueueue word, could you cheeky Britons?!?!?!) as it was the less painful of it all -after all, the battleships asking to be built were already f*****.
 
Have any of you read "The Myth of The Great War"? I was very surprised by some of its conclusions that seem to fly in the face of conventional wisdom...
I'd never heard of it so looked it up on Amazon. The reviews were not exactly positive. The general gist was that it was a badly researched and wildly inaccurate book written by a bitter author with an axe to grind about Britain and an inexplicable believe that the American Expeditionary Force won the war single handedly.

On that basis I'm not surprised the conclusions fly in the face of conventional wisdom. :D

Kurty - How exactly do you smear Casement? What can you accuse him of that's worse than what he did? All I can imagine is things like "He was a traitor AND he was cruel to kittens". Is that what you were thinking?
 
I'd never heard of it so looked it up on Amazon. The reviews were not exactly positive. The general gist was that it was a badly researched and wildly inaccurate book written by a bitter author with an axe to grind about Britain and an inexplicable believe that the American Expeditionary Force won the war single handedly.

On that basis I'm not surprised the conclusions fly in the face of conventional wisdom. :D



Kurty - How exactly do you smear Casement? What can you accuse him of that's worse than what he did? All I can imagine is things like "He was a traitor AND he was cruel to kittens". Is that what you were thinking?

A pity that.. But not unexpected. Frankly there is nothing wrong about challenging conventional wisdom but if you do then you need to have your subject covered tight as a drum. I WOULD have liked to believe some of the book's assertions but just because an assertion appeals does not make it fact. Thanks... Any suggestions on a more balanced look at the war?
 
I'd never heard of it so looked it up on Amazon. The reviews were not exactly positive. The general gist was that it was a badly researched and wildly inaccurate book written by a bitter author with an axe to grind about Britain and an inexplicable believe that the American Expeditionary Force won the war single handedly.

On that basis I'm not surprised the conclusions fly in the face of conventional wisdom. :D

Of course, his implications on the statistics of the dead are interesting...but I thought he over-emphasized the US involvement a bit. Of course the US units would perform better...they were fighting an opposing army that was rapidly losing the will to continue fighting...that had suffered huge losses in trained personnel in the early 1918 offensive, and was suffering from equipment shortages relative to the Allies.

Basically, the US showed up and accelerated the Allies victory...we did not cause it. If anything, our greatest contribution to the war was our continued industrial support from 1914.

The best points of the book are his discussion of German strategy on the Western Front 1915-1917, where he discusses the rationale for the German strategic movement of reserves with respect to the various Allied offensives. THAT was interesting reading.
 
So we'll have an Irish ulcer for Britain to deal with. Will be interesting to look at its outcome, yet I think only extreme concessions or extreme bloodshed can save Ireland for the Empire.
 
Basically, the US showed up and accelerated the Allies victory...we did not cause it. If anything, our greatest contribution to the war was our continued industrial support from 1914.

I agree. America's biggest role in WW1 was providing the Allies with financial and industrial support. The American economy boomed during this time because we loaned the Allies plenty of money in which to buy our war products. Our military helped, but it wasn't the "we won the war all by ourselves" force.

Of course, this is all real-world. I haven't play this WW1 game, but if it is like WW2 in terms of bad AI and a strong USA player, the results might vary.
 
Chapter thirty-four: From Russia to the Somme.


While preparing for the "Big Push", both London and Paris agreed that their efforts would be futile without Russia doing its bit. However, the Russian Army was hampered by an excruciating shortage of small arms and artillery that the country’s war effort could not provide. Units were compelled to train with one rifle for every five men -or with brooms and forks- and soon companies were reformed with two platoons armed and two platoons unarmed. Worse still, the Russians were struggling in the production of artillery, in terms of both quality and quantity. To rectify this, the Russian government created a central War Industries Committe, under the liberal Guchkov from June 1915 to coordinate the supply of materials and orders to big companies. Output of weapons rose from 43,000 tons in 1913 to 400,000 tons in 1916. Futhermore, they apointed Lord Kitchener as their agent in the ordering of shells, small arms ammunition, machine guns and rifles from British and American firms. A Russian purchasing committee was established in the War Office to transfer orders from overworked British factories to American companies. However, the Ministry of Munitions did the same, and soon Kitchener and Lloyd George found themselves in competition with each other. While there was an international commitee to coordinate, in theory, the Allied purchases, in fact it had no power due to the mutual "friendly" mistrust between the allies, plus the needs of each nation's armed forces.

Thus, even if British and French were eager to help Russia, reality dictated otherwise. When the Russian government made a request for the delivery of 1,200 4.8-inch guns, Lloyd George, the Munitions Minister offered 300 4.5-inch guns instead. General Robertson, wanting to arm the British Expeditionary Force as handsomely as possible, thought that a figure of 300 was outrageous. However, the expansion of the Russian war industry could not be sustained, as it was founded from coal and iron reserves and maintained by cutbacks in civilian requirements. Even worse, as the industrial output began to drop in late 1916, Allied imports were never able to reach Russia in sufficient quantities to alter the overall picture.

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A M1902 7.62 cm Putilov gun, which was the standard Russian field gun during the Great War. Despite the shell shortages, this gun was able to enhace its excellent reputation in the battlefield.

Food shortages wrecked the fragile social truce in urban districts. From late 1915 there were conscription riots in several cities and civilian disillusion spread to the largely peasant armies as the draft was widened. Jobs were plentiful but wages were low, laboru reform was abandoned and prices rocketed, along with rents and there were shortages of food and fuel, which were to result, in autumn 1915, in sporadic food rationing, starting with the introduction of sugar cards in Moscow, wich only helped to inflate prices in the thriving black market.

aderelictRussianPoplavko-Jefferybeingby-passedbyadvancingGermantroops.jpg

A derelict Russian Poplavko-Jeffery armoured car is by-passed by advancing German troops.​

To make things worse, Prime Minister Goremyking was replaced by Stürmer, a protégé of the Tsarina Alexandra and Raspution, with a reputation of being a German spy, which was a false rumour and fuelled widespread resentment against the Tsarina, whose machinations with ultraconservatives secured the dismissal of war minister Polivanov in March 1916 (after a contrived quarrel with the starets) and Sazonovo in July. Trying to solve their ignorance over Russian needs, No 10 decided to send Lord Kitchener and Lloyd George to visit Russia on a diplomatic mission. However, Lloyd George was engaged with his new Ministry and so it was decided to send Kitchener alone. Thus, amidst torrential rain and boarded the cruiser Hampshire and left Scapa Flow. Shortly before 1930 hrs the same day, while en route to the Russian port of Arkhangelsk during a Force 9 gale, Hampshire struck a mine laid by the newly-launched German U-boat U-75 (commanded by Curt Beitzen) and sank west of the Orkney Islands. Kitchener, his staff, and 643 of the crew of 655 were drowned or died of exposure. Many more were apalled by his death, but many more felt a great relief, specially among the British government. C. P. Scott, editor of the The Manchester Guardian, is said to have remarked that "as for the old man, he could not have done better than to have gone down, as he was a great impediment lately."

Lord_Kitchener_AWM_A03547.jpg

Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener KG, KP, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, ADC, PC (24 June 1850 – 5 June 1916)


***

Well, I promise. The following chapter will bring us to the battlefield. So, those who love blood, mud and shrapnell can begin to ready themselves for the incoming onslaught, I promise.

Also, I felt tempted not to kill Kitchener, but I had the odd feeling that I could get court-martialled and executed in one single stroke and, furthermore, I had already introduced many butterflies (and a few more to come) to keep deying tha crazy thing called Fate.

@quaazi: Yes, a victory is a victoria, after all. Isn't it?:wacko:

@Enewald: A sensible explanation, perhaps...

@El Pip: Neither did I. As far as I have seen, the book has been quite trashed by the critics. Furthermore the claim that the AEF won the war single handedly reminds me of those who defend that Haig was a sheer strategic genius.

How exactly do you smear Casement? The Black Diaries, in fact... Things like "He was a traitor AND loved boys!!!!". This is what happened in OTL.

@TheExecuter: Don't worry. When the Yanks are finally in this war, you'll notice them. The German will notice them, too. Even the Yeti will notice them :p

And true, without the US industrial output, the war could have gone the other way round...

@FlyingDutchie: Well, not for the moment. The Irish are quite calm, as there have been no massive reprisals. But, in due time and due course, concessions will be needed...

@Nathan Maddien: In this recreation of the Great War, I can tell you something: there came a moment when I shouted: "come on, you, Yanks, there's a war waiting for you!" Trust me, I *sigh* did that...
 
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Dammit Kurt I TOLD you not to put Kitchener on a Russian vacation cruise way back at the beginning of this thing! :p
 
There goes the most impressive 'stace of the Empire...
 
A pity that.. But not unexpected. Frankly there is nothing wrong about challenging conventional wisdom but if you do then you need to have your subject covered tight as a drum. I WOULD have liked to believe some of the book's assertions but just because an assertion appeals does not make it fact. Thanks... Any suggestions on a more balanced look at the war?
Slightly delayed, but anyhow:

If you want a fair and balanced look at the First World War, I suggest you read Tommy: The British Soldier on the Western Front by Richard Holmes. As the name suggests, it is primarily concerned with the life of a British soldier during the war, but there is also an extensive section on popular myths associated with the war that Holmes attempts to rectify. You'd be surprised at just how much fiction has become so ingrained in the popular imagination that we assume it to be fact.

I'd definitely recommend giving it a read.