Figure 1.--German youth becane eligible for military service at age 17 years. Before the War, they were generally not conscripted until age 20 years when they became part of a year class. By the final year of the War, because of the terrible losses, the Aamy was calling up year classes 2 1/2 years early. That ment that they were feeding 16-year olds into the World war I meet grinder. Often the younger boys by 1917 were sent to the realtively quiet Eastern Front to release older more experienced me, but this was not always the case. This boy had his portrait taken before being sent to the front. Notice the flowers on his jacket.

Imperial Germany was built around the Prussian state. Some wiuld say that the foubding Prussian state was buolt around the country's army. This means the institutions of Imperial Germany were formed around Prussia, both the Prussian state and Prussian Army. This included the Imperial German Army. The Prussian Army had a long, storied reputation in European military history. Prussia was a relatively small, poor state compared to the other European powers. Prussia did not have the capability of fighting long, drawnout wars with the major powers. The Prussian strategy was to naintain a highly profesional standing army. This made the Prussians extremely valuable allies, especially in the opening phase of war. The Prissian Army in connection with this situation developed a reputation for rapid movement and discipline. This was the mainstay in Prussian military doctrine. The Prussians developed a military doctrine of a rapid war of movement to close with and defeat enemy armies by concetrating forces before the adversary was fully prepared. The Prussian Arny became the core of the new Imperail German Army. And when the new kaiser, Wilhelm II, ignored Bismarck and allowed the Reinsurance Treaty with Tsarist Russia to lapse. The German Army soon found itself confronted with the a possible two-front war. The Imperial Germany Army's sollution to this conumdrum was to devise a plan for a quick vicory and short war--the Schiliffen Plan. Germany had the strongest and best organized army. It also had the most efficent reserve force and organization to rapidly mobilize reserve forces through an efficent railway system. Germany had the industrial power to effectively equip its army, including heavy weapons. There were several specialized units, such as artillery, calvalry, engineers, military police, pioneers/sappers, and others. Germany's industial capacity, however, was not as great as that of Britain and France combined. And the Germans lacked many important raw materials. The German Army, like the Prussian Army, before it was committed to a war of movement and gaining early victories by concentrating forces at critical points. What is unclear to us is what happened in the Army's High Command that led to the attrocities committed by the Germany Army in Belgium. Kaiser was also building a new German Navy to challenge the long dominant British Royal Navy. Admirl Tirpitz did not believe that a German Navy could ever defeat the British Royal Navy, but he believed that it could pose enough of a risk to disuade the British from involvement in an alliance against Germany. In fact, it porimarily served to change German attitudes toward Germany. And the primary achievement of the U-boat force was to draw America into the War.

Background

Imperial Germany was built around the Prussian state. Some wiuld say that the foubding Prussian state was buolt around the country's army. This means the institutions of Imperial Germany were formed around Prussia, both the Prussian state and Prussian Army. This included the Imperial German Army. The Prussian Army had a long, storied reputation in European military history. Prussia was a relatively small, poor state compared to the other European powers. Prussia did not have the capability of fighting long, drawnout wars with the major powers. The Prussian strategy was to naintain a highly profesional standing army. This made the Prussians extremely valuable allies, especially in the opening phase of war. The Prissian Army in connection with this situation developed a reputation for rapid movement and discipline. This was the mainstay in Prussian military doctrine. The Prussians developed a military doctrine of a rapid war of movement to close with and defeat enemy armies by concetrating forces before the adversary was fully prepared. This was not only a posibility, but a liklihood when Germany faced only one major enemy.

World War I

The Imperial German Army was without doubt the most powerful army in the world. It could have easily defeated any other army in Europe. But Germayn as a result of Kaiser Wilhelm's disaterous diplomacy forced the German Army to fight three great powers (Britain, France), and Russia) and ultimately the United States. Defeating France as in the Franco-Prussian War was a very different matter than defaeting the milkitary forces of four great powers. The Kaiser did negoitiate alliances, but the countries that stood with the Germans proved weak alles, adding manpower, but no industrial power to the alliance which meant that the Gerams had to supply them with weapons and supplies. And the manpower added did not have the same fighting spiri as the Germans. And there were elements in both the Austrian and Ottoman Empires that rather than support the empires, saw it as an opportunity to dismember it.

Imperial German Army

The Prussian Arny became the core of the new Imperial German Army. And when the new kaiser, Wilhelm II, ignored Bismarck and allowed the Reinsurance Treaty with Tsarist Russia to lapse. The German Army soon found itself confronted with the a possible two-front war. The Imperial Germany Army's sollution to this conumdrum was to devise a plan for a quick vicory and short war--the Schiliffen Plan. Germany had the strongest and best organized army. It also had the most efficent reserve force and organization to rapidly mobilize reserve forces through an efficent railway system. Germany had the industrial power to effectively equip its army, including heavy weapons. There were several specialized units, such as artillery, calvalry, engineers, military police, pioneers/sappers, and others. These specialized units were no different than the other major combatants, although Russia was junable to create an artillery arm or supply its armies as well as the Germans. Germany's industial capacity, however, was not as great as that of Britain and France combined. This meant that in preparation for a war, Germany could well equip its army, but its ability to continue to supply its army or feed its people in a long drawn-out struggle was a different matter. One specialized unit was created by the Germans during the War and unique to then--the Sturmtruppen (Strormtroops). They were shock troops meaning assault groups organized during the wunter of 1914-15. They were develope to conduct small unit assults against the Allied trenches that were blockinbg major offensives. Building on the successes, the Grmans organized assult units for larger scale attack (Soring-Summer 1915). They were the core of a new fishing nthods devloped by the German Arm -- Stosstrupoptaktik. [Cardona] The inability of the German Army to win the war in the early hase of the war was more disterous than it sounds. The Germans launched the war with many weakness, chief of them was the need to import many vital important raw materials to supply its inustry nd food to feeed its army and civilians. The German Army, like the Prussian Army, before it was committed to a war of movement and gaining early victories by concentrating forces at critical points. What is unclear to us is what happened in the Army's High Command that led to the attrocities committed by the Germany Army in Belgium. ASnd only the generocity of the American people prevented Belgium from starving. Without American Belgian Relief, the German Army would have been responsible for mass starvation in Belgium.

Imperial German Navy

The Imperial German Navy (Kaiserliche Marine) has a very limited history. Prussia was a countrywith a large army, but virtually no naval tradition. The German Navy was created at the time of the formation of the German Empire around the Kingsom of Prussia and the Hohezolern monarchy (1871). The Imperial Navy was formed from the small Prussian Navy and Norddeutsche Bundesmarine which primarily was a kind of coast guard. Kaiser Wilhelm I was uniterested in the Navy. This changed with the accension of his son, Kaiser Wilhem II (1888). The new Kaiser was the son of British Princess Royal Victoria. Wilhelm was often taken to visit his Grandmother, Queen Victoria and on several occassions the dutifully imporessed little boy witnessed Royal Navy vessels and fleet reviews. As Kaiser he wanted a fleet if his own. Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz (1849–1930) provided the rationel for building one. Tirpitz was inflluenced by the naval theories of American strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan. Tirpitz's own naval stateggy for Germany was based on risk theoiry. He argued that while Germany could not build a fleet as large as the Royal Navy, it could bulld a fleet that could create a suficient element of risk that Britain would hesitate to go to war with Germany rather than risk damage to the Fleet. Because of the imortance of the Royal Navy in maintaiing the Empire, Tirpitz argued that Britain would avoid confronting Germany on the Continent. The Kaiser bought Tripitz's argument, especially after dismissing the cautious Chancellor Bismarck. As a result, he devoted substantial resources in building a German High Seas Fleet. It was a mistake of mounumental proportions. The Kaiser's boorish behavior might have been excepted, but building a Highseas Fleet to challenge the Royal Navy shook the British establishment to the core. And Germany quickly shocked in the public mind from a histotric ally to Britain's principal foreign threat, laying the ground work for a raprochment with France. The result was a naval arms race of historic proportions. The battleship was the super weapon of the early-20th century. And they were enormously expensive. The Japanese victory at Tsushima demonstrated the importance of bigun battleships (1905). And the British launching of HMS Dreadnought rendered all existing battleships obsolete (1906). Rather then disuade Tripitz, he saw Dreadnought as Germany's great naval opportunity. It provided Germany the opportunity by rendering all existing battle ships obsolete, to build a fleet that could challenge the Royal Navy. The resulting Imperial Navy would be by the time of World War I one of the greatest maritime forces in the world, second only to the Royal Navy. The ships of the Imperial Navy were designated SMS, for 'Seiner Majestät Schiff' (His Majesty's Ship). The German built the second most important highseas fleet with ships every bit as good if not marginally better than the British ships. The German Navy included mostly modern ships because their construction prgram was reltively recent. The German crews despite the lack of a naval tradition were well trained and highly motivated. Their very existence, however, meant that Britain could not allow Germany to occupy the Low Countries. Thus when the Germans invaded neutral Belgium (August 1914), Britain immediately declared war and dispatched the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) to assist the Belgian Army. The German surface navy proved ineffective during World War I. The geography of Germany with coasts located on the Baltic and North Sea meant that invariably the British and Germans would confront each other in the North Sea. The only major naval engagement, the Battle of Jutland (1916), was indecisive tatically although the Germanms did more damage to the British than the British did to the Germans. But as the Royal Navy blockade was left in tact, Jutland was a strategic victory for the Royal Navy. The German High Seas Fleet woukd never again sally out in force. The Germans after Jutland would greatly expand their small submarine (U-boat) fleet. It posed a major threat to the British supply system, but because of Tirpitz's focus on big-gun surface ships, the U-boat fleet was very small. And while the U-boats threatened British commerce, their major accomplishment was to bring the United states into the War. And the American infantry woulkd ptoive to be the principal factor in the Allied victory (1918). The Imperial Navy was largely destroyed at Scapa Flow in 1919 by its own officers, after Germany's defeat.

German Air Corps

Germany gave considerable emphasis to Zeppelins before the War. Thus the Germans did not give as much attention to fixed wing aircraft as either the British and French. The Germans had 230 aircraft at the onset of the War, but only about 180 were of any real use (1914). The Germans were slower than the Allies in synchronizing firing through propellers. The Germans began deploying the Fokker E.I. (August 1915). It had a "synchronization gear" (commonly called an "interrupter gear") which enabled the pilot to fire his machine gun through the propeller without hitting the blades. This gave the Germans an important advantage over other Allied aircraft. The Fokker E.I and successors, the Eindecker ("Monoplane"). This allowed the Germans to join battle on the Western Front with some success. The Germans were this able to achieved air superiority (Late-1915). This curtailed Allied aerial reconnaissance flights. The first German aces began to pileup notable kills. The first German ace was Max Immelmann.

Sources

Cardona, Ricardo Recio. Sturmtruppen: WW I German Stormtroopers, 1914-1918 (2014), 216p.

Created: 4:32 AM 10/4/2015
Last updated: 4:32 AM 10/4/2015