Enduring the Great War: Combat, Morale and Collapse in the German and British Armies, 1914-1918 by Alexander Watson

Enduring the Great War: Combat, Morale and Collapse in the German and British Armies, 1914-1918 Reviews

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  Fidellithy

  A very interesting comparative argument for the defeat of the German army - Watson attributes much agency to the individual's psyche rather than the coercion of institutions. I enjoyed the use of letters, diaries and psychiatric reports as main primary sources in contrast to the usual emphasis on the quantitative and official records. I first found out about this book through the New Books in Military History podcast, where Watson talks about how he had only been learning German for a few months before having to comb through German letters, written in an outdated form of German no less. The sheer number of primary sources and archives gone through in this book is utterly admirable. I haven't read enough WWI literature to ascertain if Watson's individualistic standpoint on the collapse of morale and eventual surrender might be a more thorough perspective as compared to the more conventional arguments, but it is certainly an informative read and alternative take of the war and also pretty easy reading for WWI amateurs.
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  Simon Alford

  A really simple and clear conclusion. Unlike the collapses in the Russian and French Armies, the German collapse was led by their junior officers. The men had had enough, they were physically and mentally exhausted. They waited for the Western Allies to roll over them and then surrendered en masse. No stab in the back, they could do no more. Their attack on the British in March and April had not defeated their enemy, the Germans were crushed by disappointment. The Germans would obey orders, and the orders were surrender.
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  Colin

  This is a thoroughly researched and informative analysis of the British and German forces on the Western Front. It addresses three questions: why they fought for so long; how they coped; and why did they stop fighting. The book draws extensively on primary sources such as letters, diaries, and medical reports.
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  T. Fowler

  This book is a detailed analysis of how the British and German armies managed to continue to be effective in combat throughout the first years of the First World War, and why the German armies collapsed in the final months. Watson digs deeply into primary sources, particularly many German archives where he does an excellent job of gathering together relevant personal letters, army directives, unit reports, etc. He is very thorough in building up his arguments, but this makes the reading a little difficult if you are not interested in such detail. I found one of the biggest problems was that his paragraphs are at least one full page long, sometimes almost two; I was surprised how this makes it hard to concentrate on the flow of ideas. However, I found the effort worthwhile because of the insight he is able to provide about how morale varied during various periods of the war. His conclusion, as I interpret it, is that the German armies' collpase at the end of the war was more a result of what I would call "battle exhaustion" than anything else.
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  Jur

  Looking at the motivations of soldiers, their coping strategies and the role of junior officers. Very promising!