CAS HI 284 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Chocolate Cake, Christmas Truce
Document Summary
The short war delusion - every nation believed that the war would be short, victory would be brought by christmas. Politicians and the public expected nothing but short, quick wars. Last major war in europe had ended in waterloo almost 100 years ago. At first there were rapid advances by millions of troops sped up by the railways. One schlieffen plan and other plans failed, armies stagnated and slowed down. Trenches prevented flanks, trenches stretched for thousands of miles, and movement ceased. East was more mobile, west was trenched down. Diseased ditches, unburied dead, and trench rats. First million die by christmas of 1914, 10 million will die by the end of the war. Men were chronically exhausted, could only sleep for increments of 2 hours max. 3 weeks before christmas, pope benedict had called upon the nation for peace and goodwill during a christmas ceasefire. Ignored by every major government and told to mind his own pews.
