一战的致命错觉

choi

亚当·霍西斯柴德, 殖民战争带给一战的致命错觉. 纽约时报中文网, July 30, 2014 (观点)(available now)
cn.nytimes.com/opinion/20140730/c30hochschild/

, which is translated from

Adam Hochschild, Colonial Folly, European Suicide; Imperialism, lopsided battles and blood bath of World War I. New York Times, July 29, 2014 (op-ed).

My comment:
(a) The German surname Hochschild signifies “a fighter or soldier, variant of Hauschild (see Hauschild). Hoch reflects a Frankish dialect form of hauen ‘to hit.”
(i) The German surname Hauschild means “a ferocious soldier: literally, ‘hack the shield,’ from Middle High German houw (imperative of houwen ‘to chop or hack’) + den (accusative form of the definite article) + schilt ‘shield.’”
(ii) hauen (v):
“1. (transitive, colloquial) to beat; to hit (someone); to spank
* * *
3. (transitive) to chop; to chop down; to cut; to whittle; to hew”
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hauen

(b) “ONE hundred years ago today, Austro-Hungarian artillery and gunboats on the Danube began shelling Serbia — the first shots”

Serbian Campaign of World War I
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serbian_Campaign_of_World_War_I
("The Serbian Campaign started on July 28, 1914, when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia and her artillery shelled Belgrade the following day. On August 12 the Austro-Hungarian armies crossed the border, the Drina River (see map)")

(c) “A close look at the siege of Petersburg, Va, in the American Civil War, for instance, would have provided a lesson in trench warfare — and a sense of what it meant to be under fire from an early ancestor of the machine gun, the Gatling gun.”
(i) Petersburg, Virginia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petersburg,_Virginia
(population in 2010 census: 32,420; located on the Appomattox River and 23 miles (37 km) south of the state capital of Richmond)

Quote: “During the American Civil War, because of the railroad network, Petersburg was key to Union plans to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond. The city saw nine months of trench warfare during the 1864-65 Siege of Petersburg [qv]. Battlefield sites are throughout the city and surrounding areas, partly preserved as Petersburg National Battlefield.

(ii) If you view Google map:

James River, Virginia Road Trip.
maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=210287185467566828282.000472c3098ec18190e1c&dg=feature

, you will see Richmond (on the James river) near the left margin, to whose south is Petersburg (on Appomattox River, which was named after an Indian tribe). The Appomattox River (which can not be discerned at this scale, but can after zooming in) flows northeasterly to drain into James River at Hopewell (downstream of Richmond along James River).
(iii) Gatling gun
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gatling_gun
(invented by Dr Richard Gatling [an American]; In service 1862-1911)

(d) “In 1914 Europe had not had a major war in more than 40 years”

Franco-Prussian War (July 19, 1870- May 10, 1871)
(e) “Another veteran of that campaign [to suppress the anti-Western Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900] — and of military service in Indochina and Algeria — was Robert Nivelle, later the French commander on the Western Front and the leader of a 1917 offensive that left 120,000 French soldiers dead or wounded and sparked a mutiny.

Robert Nivelle
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Nivelle
(1856-1924; section 2.6 Nivelle Offensive: Crown Prince Wilhe[l]m of German Empire, son of Wilhelm II)
(f) “In 1898, for example, a whole panoply of British officers (including Winston Churchill [but led by Lord Kitchener]) who would later fight in Europe were on hand for a battle at Omdurman, in Sudan. The 50,000 Sudanese they faced were armed only with spears, swords and antiquated rifles. In a few hours, the six Maxim machine guns of the far smaller Anglo-Egyptian force fired half a million bullets, leaving nearly 11,000 Sudanese dead and some 16,000 wounded, many fatally. The battle determined the outcome of a war in less than a day.”

Omdurman
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omdurman
(the largest city [2008 population: 2,395,159] in Sudan and Khartoum State, lying on the western banks of the River Nile, opposite the capital, Khartoum [2008 population: 639,598)

(f) “Yet another illusion on both sides in 1914 was that a key force would be the cavalry.”
(i) cavalry
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavalry
(section 2.10 19th century: (Crimean War, American Civil War, and Franco-Prussian War)

Quoting introduction: “The mobility and shock value of the cavalry was greatly appreciated and exploited in armed forces in the Ancient and Middle Ages; some forces were mostly cavalry, particularly in nomadic societies of Asia, notably the Mongol armies. In Europe cavalry became increasingly armoured (heavy), and eventually became known for the mounted knights. During the 17th century cavalry in Europe lost most of its armor, ineffective against the muskets and cannon which were coming into use, and by the mid-19th century armor had mainly fallen into disuse

(ii) Compare
Pickett's Charge
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickett's_Charge
(an infantry assault; Approximately 12,500 men in nine infantry brigades advanced over open fields for three-quarters of a mile under heavy Union artillery and rifle fire; over 50% casualties)

(g) “The commander and the chief of staff of the cavalry involved [in Boer War] — then close friends, later bitter rivals — were John French and Douglas Haig. A decade and a half later, the two would be successive British commanders on the Western Front. * * * None of the many military observers in the [Second] Boer War seemed to notice that one simple defensive measure could have stopped the great charge at Kimberley dead: barbed wire.”
(i) Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Haig,_1st_Earl_Haig
(1861-1928; British; Cavalry played a leading role in [Second Boer War (1899-1902)], including the relief of Kimberley (Feb 15, 1900), which featured a spectacular British cavalry charge at Klip Drift)
(ii) barbed wire
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbed_wire

(h) One can not blame colonial wars. Both sides in American Civil War thought the war would end in no time. And Japan believed China would fall in three months.