PomoChristian

Maybe its because I’m reading Jack Granatstein’s Who Killed Canadian History right now, but Elizabeth May’s comment on WWI struck a nerve:

was reminded immediately of one of my father’s stories (he is a dedicated amateur historian). In the lead up to the German assaults in the First World War, the military strategists realized they should attack to the west. But it was too late. “All the trains are all pointing east” was the reply. In those days re-directing engines with cars all organized (with military precision) was not something that could be quickly shifted.

Now, far be it for me to deign that the Goracle’s northern franchisee might be wrong, but I’m pretty sure this is wrong on so many levels she should be sent back to grade 9 to retake History class (although given Granatstein’s book, I’m not sure they even cover history anymore in Nova Scotia). Here’s what’s wrong:

The military strategists didn’t ‘realize’ they should attack the west at the last minute. After the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, which the Prussians won (and really led to the formation of Germany as a modern nation state), the Germans worried about their central position in the continent stuck between two larger powers who were both hostile to them (Russia and France). So, their general staff, starting with Von Moltke the Elder and ending with Von Moltke the Younger devised plans of attack designed to quickly neutralize on side, then turn on the other, allowing them to essentially fight each power one at a time in sequence. They designed their entire train system, which was state of the art at the time, to accomodate this goal. They made their reserve system allow for soldiers to be called up incredibly quickly (within hours, and deployed in days), put on trains and sent to the front weeks before a slow mobilizing nation like Russia could be credibly able to engage them. This plan, formalized by Alfred Von Schlieffen involved using a massive force in the west against France, quickly defeating them, and then turning on Russia. The plan was later modified by Von Moltke the Younger in 1906 to put a slightly larger force in the East, and slightly less in the West.

So, May’s wrong that the decided at the last minute to attack the west, the whole point of the plan was to beat the west first. There was no debate around how many soldiers were in what theatres, there was no ‘the trains were all facing east’ moment because a) 90% of the trains were already heading west, and b) there was no attempt to modify the plan at the last minute. Lastly, the German train system was designed to allow such a switch even if such an attempt were to be made. So, basically the whole analogy is wrong.

Now, I know this is being nitpicky, but I just find it appalling when people with pretensions of national leadership show such an incredible lack of knowledge about history in general, and especially something which is typically covered in grade 9 or 10 history at most schools in Canada. I remember learning about the Schlieffen plan in Grade 10 history, so its not exactly advanced level stuff. Although, I guess I shouldn’t really be surprised that a global warming alarmist is making up history on the fly,

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