THE GUNS OF AUGUST

He was the brother of the Habsburg Emperor, Franz Josef, the last emperor of Austria, who reigned for nearly 70 years.

Ferdinand had married a commoner, Sophie, with whom he was very much in love.

But in Ferdinand's capacity as Commander in Chief of the Austro-Hungarian armed forces, Sophie was assured that she would be shown the deepest respect when she took these tours with him.

In 1914, when the Germans drove on Liege, waves of Prussian grunts, in classic dense line formation, were mown down literally day after day until the Krupp der Dicke Bertha mortars arrived to demolish the Belgian forts.

In his single volume history of the war for American Heritage, S. L. A. Marshall states his belief that Falkenhayn, in 1915, launched the incredible slaughter of Verdun in the despairing and deluded belief that the slaughter would bring his superiors to their senses.

Question:

Didn't the assassins attempt suicide, but failed? I seem to recall their attempt to do themselves in was rather ludicrous.

Franz Ferdinand was Franz Josef's nephew, not his brother. And Franz Josef wasn't the last Habsburg emperor: that was Karl I, who succeeded to the twin thrones of Austria-Hungary upon Franz Josef's death in 1916. -- and Ferdinand's wife, Sophie von Chotek, wasn't a commoner: she was a member of the lower nobility (a countess) with a rather venerable lineage (the Choteks had been nobles since the sixteenth century). The marriage, nevertheless, was morganatic because Sophie was not descended from a ruling house.

Franz Ferdinand was not the commander-in-chief of the Austro-Hungarian armed forces. Franz Josef, as emperor-king, was commander-in-chief. The chief of the army's general staff, Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, was commander of the army.

The "Big Bertha" wasn't a mortar, it was a long-range artillery piece.

I certainly hope that Marshall didn't write that Falkenhayn launched the battle of Verdun in 1915: the battle was fought in 1916. And it is pretty well understood that Falkenhayn's purpose in Verdun was to "bleed the enemy white." It wasn't designed to bring his superiors to their senses (at that point, Falkenhayn's only superior was Kaiser Wilhelm), it was designed to cripple the French army, drive France to sue for peace, and isolate Great Britain.

This is what i have read in other sources, and whether or not you'll forgive, i'll stick with the authority of others absent a certainty of the authority with which you write. After all, i'm sure you apply the same standard to what i write. As Archduke, Ferdinand held the command capacity by long Habsburg tradition--and he was the Inspector General, and as such, had control of the Kaiserliches und Königliches Armee, but to simply describe him as commander is more likely to communicate his importance to the non-specialist. When Friedrich II faced Austrian armies, their nominal commander was the Archduke Karl, even though the functional commander was Daun or Traun or Lacey. I see nothing wrong with having written as i did.

How very petty is your quibble.

I refer you to The Guns of Krupp. I don't have it hand, but i recall that this is how Manchester describes these guns.

Edit: "Up until that time, no soldier had been aware of the existence of the 42 centimeter mortars." From German Deserter's War Experience, 1917. This one of the 162 hits i got when i typed "42 centimeter mortar" in the Google search window.

As for your contradiction of Marshall, i'll take his interpretation over yours.

As for my language about his superiors, i was surprised to learn that you consider that the Chief of the Imperial Staff to have been equal or superior to the Imperial Chancellor, the Foreign Minister and the host of public officials and party leaders such as Ebert and Erzbergert, who all would have been concerned in any decision to negotiate an end to the war. My slack description is not a justification for your rejection out of hand of Marshall's thesis. Given Marshall's credentials, i'll stick with what he writes.

I did find out that princip took cyanide, but it made him throw up. There were twenty two conspirators, The Black Hand. (often wondered where that term came from). I still can't find any info on the others, however.

A mortar is a muzzle loaded weapon.

The big bertha's were howitzers.

Same concept but breech loaded.

Setanta wrote:

How very petty is your quibble.

Mind if I use that? One meets with so many petty quibblers on this board, one finds oneself in frequent need of a devastating retort.

. . . may I also plagiarize "how petty is your quibble", doggy? . . .

And these gentleman are doing what?