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| An American WW1 food aid poster. |
We have seen in the previous post how the political fortunes of
Italy and Austria lurched in Autumn 1916, with the former's successes, and the
latter's loss of her venerated Emperor, Franz Joseph. Overall, late 1916 was
marked by frantic political activity in all combatant nations, although perhaps
the highest profile outcome was the resignation of the British Prime minister,
Asquith. Small wonder that the upheavals from the great battles and actions of
1916 - Verdun, Trentino, Jutland, Brusilov, Somme and Roumania - led to major
political changes.
The civil populations of all involved nations were suffering along
with the front line combatants, albeit in insidious or less direct ways. In
Russia the build up to the momentous events of 1917 was not yet apparent to the
wider world, absorbed as each party was with its own local problems. Starving
civilians in the streets of Constantinople fulminated against their leaders and
the pact with the hated German overlords. The Ottoman empire, under pressure
from every direction seemed only to be surviving because of the incoherence of
the Entente powers' plans to destroy it (and of course the German materiel
support and expertise so much resented by the Turkish population). Across the
Atlantic, President Woodrow Wilson, securely in charge, was nevertheless having
to perform a more complex dance to protect his country's neutrality.
This post looks at the fall of the Government in Britain, and the
changes taking place concurrently in France and Germany. There is much more to
come later from the Russian and Ottoman Empires.
The German people were entering a winter of hardship
that would lead to more desperate actions by their rulers. The 'turnip' winter
of 1916-17 started early and ended late. Shortages of food and other
commodities worsened steadily as the North Sea blockade tightened after the
Battle of Jutland. The Army and Navy leadership clamoured for unrestricted U
boat warfare to fight back and impose some starvation on the British people,
but the political wing - still led by Bethmann-Hollweg - retained the Kaiser's ear
to warn against the near certain consequence of the USA entering the war.
Falkenhayn and Mackensen's over-running of Roumania brought a boost to public
morale, and also the great hope of copious oil and cereals supplies. In the
event, virtually no oil or corn made their way to the civil population of
Germany (or Austria). Hindenburg demanded more men and resources to feed the
military beast, and large numbers of men were seized from occupied lands,
particularly Belgium and Poland, as slave labourers. Instability worsened.
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| General Robert Nivelle. His men's recapture of Fort Douaumont at Verdun in late 1916 made him a hero |
France, into the third year of German occupation of
its north eastern lands, was a desperately unhappy nation. Briand remained as
Prime Minister - more because other candidates had tried and failed than he was
viewed as effective. The French had achieved greater gains than the British at
the Somme, but still had incurred heavy losses. Verdun was something of a
two-edged sword. The continuing defiance and piecemeal victories were a
national inspiration, but the unceasing demands of the campaign were wearing
down the army and the people. In summer, Petain had put General Robert
Nivelle in charge of the Verdun battle, with General Charles Mangin as his
'vigorous' right hand man. Alternately known as Mangin the Hero and Mangin
the Butcher, Mangin was at the reckless end of the courage spectrum. He
spared neither himself nor the men under his command.
(see Verdun 7, due next month). Nivelle was an
ambitious man and an aggressive tactician, and he was in the right place at the
right time to benefit from the dramatic fate of Joffre. After lengthy
parliamentary debate, Briand gained support for a smaller war committee, and
its surprise first act in mid December was to replace Joffre with Nivelle as
supreme commander of the Western Front. Joffre, the greatest presence on the
Western Front for the whole of the war to date was already hors de
combat following a motor accident in November. His popularity and
influence had waned to the point where it was expedient to sideline him -
scapegoating him, implicitly, for the failure to break the German lines.
Nivelle's aggressive plans for 1917 advances found favour with the new War
Committee, and he was promoted over the more conservative Petain to the top
job. It would prove to be a bad decision.
In London the parliament was as unhappy as that in
Paris. Since the Coalition government formed in mid 1915 there had been party
political tensions within it, particularly over the issue of conscription.
There had been major tensions in late 1915 between the "pro" (led
by Churchill, Lloyd George and Lord Curzon) and "anti" (Asquith and
Kitchener) factions. The compromise had been the Lord Derby plan**. The Derby
Scheme did not prevent another manpower crisis developing in the spring, and by
now the power of the newspapers was heaping added pressure on the government
over this and other war related issues including air raids and rising prices.
Churchill, ever willing to use the press for his own arguments, sounds
disingenuous in his description of the popular press fight back against
government censorship "thus after a brief but total eclipse, the sun of
newspaper power began in ... 1915 to glow with unprecedented and ever
increasing heat". ......"Lord Northcliff, armed with the solemn
prestige of the Times in the one hand and the ubiquity of the Daily Mail
in the other, aspired to exercise a commanding influence on events".
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| David Lloyd George. Britain's first presidential style premier. |
At this time the press was critical of the government for
interfering with the military conduct of the war, and holding it responsible
for the failures of Kut, Gallipoli, Roumania and the high cost of the Somme
battle for little gain. Lloyd George took advantage of this to launch his own
campaign for leadership, although his aim was to have much greater political
control over the Generals. He was incensed that his role on the war committee
was limited by the authority of CIGS Sir William Robertson (Kitchener’s
successor). He pressurised Asquith to relinquish chairmanship of the war
committee in his favour. When Asquith refused, and following further political machinations, Lloyd George resigned on 4th December. With uproar in the
press, Asquith himself resigned the next day, recommending to the King that he
invite Bonar Law, leader of the Conservatives, to form a government. Bonar Law, in turn, informed the King that in his view only Lloyd George could form a united
government to lead the country. This was ironic, since by now Lloyd George’s
only senior ally in the Coalition was Churchill – and he was out of office. Nevertheless, on
7th December, David Lloyd George became Prime Minister. His
first major task was to form a cohesive cabinet that could retain all party
support. To this end he persuaded Bonar Law to become Foreign Secretary,
bringing the grudging support of the Conservatives and Unionists behind him.
And in this way Herbert Asquith and Edward Grey, the two most senior members
of government since 1908, were suddenly gone. Lloyd George would prove to be a Prime Minister like no other to date.
**In
this scheme eligible men registered but were not called up until necessary; single
men would be called up before married men. Those registered wore armbands so
they would not be vilified as objectors or cowards. The scheme was complex to
administer, and produced insufficient volunteers for projected needs, and in
January 1916 a watered down Conscription bill was passed.
