A review by abehab
Collision of Empires: The War on the Eastern Front in 1914 by Prit Buttar

4.0

‘’By the end of the war, the conflict had consumed the empires of Germany, Russia and Austria-Hungary. The splintering of these empires created a patchwork of nations, from Finland and Estonia in the north to Yugoslavia in the south, sowing the seeds for conflicts that continued for the rest of the century’’

Contemporary books written about the first world war should have two main objectives in my opinion. The first is to focus on an aspect of the war that hasn't been given an extensive attention to as yet. The second one is to convey information that recently came to light. This book is geared more towards the former than the latter objective. [b:Collision of Empires: The War on the Eastern Front in 1914|18525874|Collision of Empires The War on the Eastern Front in 1914|Prit Buttar|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1408314773l/18525874._SY75_.jpg|26230643], is the first of four books in [a:Prit Buttar|4098424|Prit Buttar|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1629096587p2/4098424.jpg]’s, The Eastern Front Series. It focuses primarily on the major battles of the great war in 1914, that took place in East Prussia, The Russian Poland Salient and Galicia. The study of this front is imperative for understanding the first world war as a whole. The events in the eastern front had profound consequences on the western front, with Germany being an important link between the two fronts.



The main belligerents on the eastern front in 1914 were The German Empire, The Austria-Hungary Empire and The Russian Empire. In contrast to the western front, the war in the east was a highly mobile affair, and it covered huge expanses of land. The Imperial Russian Army was highly hierarchical and was administered by The Stavka. The Tsar sat at the helm of it, and Grand Duke Nikolai (The Tsar's uncle) was its Chief of General Staff. The Austro-Hungarian army (K.U.K) fielded a multi-ethnic army. The dual monarchy had given recognition to eleven official languages under its umbrella. The army was de facto under the command of Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf. The Imperial German Army was the most professional army of all the powers involved. Although Helmuth von Moltke the Younger started out as being the Chief of General Staff, he was replaced by Erich von Falkenhayn after the First Battle of the Marne in the west. Despite that, as far as the Eastern Front in 1914 is concerned, Erich Ludendorff and Paul von Hindenburg were the centre of command.

The first three chapters are dedicated to the military doctrines, cultures and thoughts of the three armies in the decades prior to the war breaking out. These chapters mostly focus on lessons drawn from The Franco-Prussan war (1870-1871), mobilization plans that were under consideration should a war break out, the complex web of alliances in Europe and other important factors that are vital towards understanding pre-1914 Europe. The next chapter deals with the series of interconnected diplomatic and military escalations, generally referred to as ‘’The July Crisis’’. This is the period roughly between the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on 28 June 1914 and The Austria-Hungary declaration of war on Russia on 6 August 1914. The subsequent chapters focus on the battles that took place on the Eastern Front, from the opening battle of Stallupönen to the battle of Łódź. The final two chapters analyse the consequences of a year’s worth of engagements and the expectations of the belligerents for 1915.

I thought the inclusion of the chapter on The Serbian front was an excellent touch. The ‘’quick and clean’’ Balkan war Kaiser Wilhelm II requested of The Austro-Hungarian empire would eventually escalate into a world war. Essential to this escalation was the fact that the K.U.K armies, under Oskar Potiorek, were being held up in Serbia. The failure of the Austro-Hungarian war aims had had huge implications. It emphasized defeating Serbia swiftly and crushing any Slavic rebellion in The Balkans. Failing to accomplish those aims meant that Austria-Hungary couldn’t manoeuvre its armies out of Serbia quick enough to engage Serbia’s powerful ally Russia in Galicia. As such, discussions of The Serbian Front in examining the Eastern Front in 1914, is indispensable.




A major weakness I found with this book is the lack of adequate maps. I had to resort to referring to maps from other resources constantly. When present, the maps on the book are not of much help as an illustration tool. While the lack of maps is certainly a significant shortfall, one of the strengths of the book lies in its abundance of accounts from primary sources such as from commanders (e.g. Conrad and Mackensen), civilians (e.g. Helena Jabłońska’s memoirs from the sieges of Przemyśl), soldiers on the frontlines (e.g. The Hungarian Cavalryman Pál Kelemen) and Journalists (e.g. The notes of the French journalist Henry Barby from the Serbian front).

This is a very thick and technical book. Prit deals at the level of Corps and even at times divisions when describing battles and formations, while most other books choose the army level for analysis. The scope of the book being limited to a single front during a single year of a multi-year war, has allowed for very detailed descriptions of events. Sometimes this might make the presentation a bit dry and give the book a feel of a reference book. So, I can only recommend this book for fellow World War I aficionados out there.