Part 1-1, Popular History, New Unofficial History, Revisionist Viewpoints, Assassinations, European Wars
RamscoopRaider
Donor
Ghastly Victories: The United States in the World Wars
A TL by RamscoopRaider
Part I: The Great War
…Muhamed Mehmedbašić, perhaps the most infamous name in modern history. The one man who more than anything ended the golden age of the Long Nineteenth Century and brought on the horrors of the Twentieth. To be clear there were other assassins, five of them in fact. But Mehmedbašić was the first, and had his bomb missed it is unlikely in the extreme that the other killers would have been able to assassinate the Archduke once on guard.
To be clear Mehmedbašić and the killers did not act alone. They were members of a revolutionary organization known as the Black Hand. An organization that was effectively run by the Chief of Serbian Military Intelligence one Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijević, one of the key figures behind the 1903 May Coup where the Serbian Royal Family and top government officials were slain for being insufficiently nationalistic. One can say that Dimitrijević bore the greater responsibility as the coup he organized pushed Serbia in a direction contrary to that of its recently elected government, and thus put Mehmedbašić in his position.
However, at the end of the day it was Mehmedbašić who threw the bomb that killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Duchess Sophie, Governor General Oskar Potiorek and Lieutenant Colonel Count Franz von Harrach, and thus ended a century of peace, progress and prosperity, ushering in decades of hell…
-Excerpt from A Popular History of the 20th Century, Scholastic American Press: Philadelphia, 1980
…The Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand did not have to spark a general European War, much less a global one. Had Europe reacted as they had to the May Coup, with a general diplomatic isolation of Serbia, rather than quibble over the terms of the July Ultimatum, it was likely Serbia would have backed down and accepted the terms as offered. Had Russia not given Serbia support, despite Serbia rejecting their advice, it would have remained an isolated Austro-Serbian war, had it occurred at all. Had the French not given unconditional assurances to the Russians, even in the case of Serbia being found in the wrong, it is probable the Russians would not have threatened war with Austria-Hungary.
Even at this point the war could have remained a mere European War, as the Balkan Wars had, or the Russo-Turkish or Franco-Prussian Wars, if on a larger scale, had two things not occurred. The Belgians refusing the Germans passage based on a mistaken estimate of the German Siege artillery was the first and guaranteed that the front would bog down into years in the trenches with all the mass bloodletting that entailed.
Secondly was the decision by the United Kingdom to go to war over a scrap of paper. That the government of the time had reasons for it was true, distraction from the ongoing crisis in Ireland and leave the United Kingdom friendless and isolated in Europe. That the war would have been only a temporary fix that would cause tensions to fester in Ireland should have been obvious even then. Furthermore, it was known to the Asquith Cabinet that the resulting war would be long and costly; thus, any victory would of necessity be pyrrhic and leave both sides desperate for friends themselves. Without British Imperial resources it is unlikely the Entente would have lasted past 1916, making for a shorter and much less costly war that would not have laid the groundwork for the destruction of the British Empire nor set the stage for so many horrors to come...
-Excerpt from A New Unofficial History of WWI, Sydney University Press: Sydney, 2010
…Orthodox history since the 1950’s primarily places the blame for the First World War upon Serbia, and to a somewhat lesser degree Russia and France, with Britain blamed for transforming it from a European War to a World War. Austria-Hungary is portrayed as a justifiably aggrieved partner and Germany as a loyal ally with questionable decision making. This viewpoint actively minimizes the evidence that substantial elements in both Austria-Hungary and Germany were actively seeking war, that the Dual Monarchy never seriously considered not going to war with Serbia and that Germany was fully willing to start a general European war.
This paper does not set out to absolve the Entente of any blame for the emergence of the First World War, what this paper does intend is to allocate the responsibility in a more unbiased manner. This paper will further show how biases stemming from later periods have influenced Orthodox Historians to take the viewpoints they have…
-Excerpt from Revisionist Viewpoints in History Volume XXX, University of California Press: Berkley, 2020
…The assassination of Franz Ferdinand is one of the more famous assassinations and an example of what this book calls a mixed success. Franz Ferdinand was killed because it was feared that if he took the throne, he would reform Austria-Hungary in a way that would accommodate its South Slavic ethnicities better. As the Black Hand and Serbian government wanted the South Slavs to revolt against Austria-Hungary and join a South Slavic state, Serbian dominated naturally, killing him would avoid this. In that they succeeded at their primary goal, Franz Ferdinand never got the chance to reform the Austro-Hungarian state.
One the other hand they almost totally screwed things up. By using a bomb, they made the death of the Archduke, who was wearing a bullet resistant silk vest, more likely. But at the same time, it increased collateral damage, while killing the Governor General of Bosnia certainly advanced their cause, killing the Archduke’s Wife, especially in such a graphic manner, vastly increased the backlash to the assassination. That backlash increased the chances of Serbia being rendered unable to take leadership of a South Slavic State, and very nearly did. As the plotters could not have predicted anything beyond Austria-Hungary is likely to go to war to avenge the death of the heir to their throne, using such a messy method was probably not the optimal choice…
-Excerpt from A History of Assassination, American Youth Press, New York, 2001
…The Average American over the course of their education spends about two months on the World War One, a month in high school and a month in middle school. Those who go to college for a bachelors degree will generally spend two weeks on it in addition to that. Most of this is, understandably devoted to American entry and participation in the war, with minimal time devoted towards the rest of the conflict.
About the rest of the war what the average American more or less knows is this. That a Serbian backed terrorist bombed Archduke Ferdinand’s Limo on June 28th, 1914, killing him, his wife and two other guys. Austria attacked Serbia in revenge, Serbia ran to Russia for help, Austria ran to Germany and Russia ran to France. Then Germany goes through Belgium to attack France, bringing in Britain, the Turks join in because the British stole their Battleships, the Italians get bribed to fight the Austrians and everybody is killing each other in trenches until the US is forced to join in come 1917. A massive semi accurate oversimplification at best. I am going to try and accurately fill in the rest of the picture so whoever reading this will not sound like a total ignoramus if they talk about World War One to a foreigner…
…Serbia, despite very probably starting this whole mess was totally unprepared for fighting a European Great Power in 1914. They had little artillery, even less ammunition for it and could not even equip their soldiers with actual boots. That their most experienced commander from the Balkan Wars, Marshal Radomir Putnik, was in Austria-Hungary at the time and interned was merely icing on the cake.
Despite this they launched the first major attack. The Austrians while enormously angry with the Serbs for the whole assassination of their crown prince thing, were pragmatic enough to realize that defending against Russia took priority over revenge and limited themselves to bombardments, skirmishes and a slow advance. The Serbians however were under enormous pressure by the Russians and French to attack the Austro-Hungarians and tie down troops that would otherwise be transferred to fight Russia.
By August 25th, the Serbians could no longer resist the pressure and their 1st and 2nd armies attacked the Austrian 5th Army in an attempt to stop the 2nd Army being transferred to the front against Russia in Galicia. It was a failure in all regards, it burnt up their artillery ammunition reserves, did not manage to significantly damage 5th Army and did nothing to 2nd army’s withdrawal timetable. On September Archduke Eugene in command of the Austrian troops launched a counterattack with his 6th Army that smashed the Serbian 3rd Army and forced it to withdraw. Serbian reluctance to retreat led to their 2nd and 1st armies suffering severe casualties before being forced to withdraw into the hills by September 11th.
The situation then deteriorated into the sort of trench warfare that WWI was famous for. The Austrians having actual waterproof boots for their men and sufficient artillery ammunition did much better. On November 2nd, the Austrians then launched another attack, the Serbians stubbornly resisted but were driven back. By November 15th Belgrade was threatened and elements of the Army wanted to abandon it, but no one had the political clout to convince the government of that. Thus, the Serbs were forced to fight the Austrians head on without the supplies or ammunition to do so. They lasted 10 days before they were forced to withdraw and abandon Belgrade. The Austrians entered the city on the 30th of November and paused to let their supply lines catch up. At this point the Serbs finally received artillery ammunition from the French but they were in no position to do anything with it.
This situation would last through the winter when one key factor changed. Bulgaria, who as mentioned in previous chapters lost land to Serbia not long ago, decided to throw its lot in with the Central Powers following the victory at the Masurian Lakes in February 1915. They promised Bulgaria slightly over half of Serbia, as well as security guarantees against Romania and Greece and a war loan. The Entente offered certain territorial gains if Bulgaria remained neutral, but that required Serbian and Greek cooperation, which did not look to be forthcoming, as well as an Entente victory over the Ottomans.
On April 12th, the Bulgarians declared war and attacked with two field Armies into Southern Serbia. This near instantly cut the Serbian line of supply and forced them to withdraw to the Kosovo Plain to avoid encirclement. The Bulgarians pursued enthusiastically, the Austrians with caution as not to divert resources from the upcoming Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive. By June 1st the Serbians had withdrawn to Kosovo and were left with three choices, seek terms, fight to the death or withdraw over the Korab mountains and fight from exile.
The Serbians chose the latter and over two months they marched over the mountains into the anarchy of northern Albania, before reaching the Adriatic and hopefully waiting Entente ships with supplies. During this period, the Montenegrin Army fought a brief rearguard action to cover the Serbian retreat, before surrendering to the Austrians. Over 50,000 Serbs died on the march to the sea, from disease, hunger, bandit attacks and pursuing Central Powers forces. Still more died when on arrival at the coast there were no supplies or ships waiting for several weeks. Eventually supplies and ships would be sent and 150,000 Serbs, mostly soldiers were evacuated, primarily to the Greek island of Corfu that was occupied by the Entente. These soldiers would later serve on the…
-Excerpt from European Wars for Americans, Harper & Brothers, New York, 2004
Well my first attempt at a TL up to the standards of Post 1900 rather than ASB. Updates will hopefully be on Sundays but I make no promises, Tomorrows Pen still has priority
A TL by RamscoopRaider
Part I: The Great War
…Muhamed Mehmedbašić, perhaps the most infamous name in modern history. The one man who more than anything ended the golden age of the Long Nineteenth Century and brought on the horrors of the Twentieth. To be clear there were other assassins, five of them in fact. But Mehmedbašić was the first, and had his bomb missed it is unlikely in the extreme that the other killers would have been able to assassinate the Archduke once on guard.
To be clear Mehmedbašić and the killers did not act alone. They were members of a revolutionary organization known as the Black Hand. An organization that was effectively run by the Chief of Serbian Military Intelligence one Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijević, one of the key figures behind the 1903 May Coup where the Serbian Royal Family and top government officials were slain for being insufficiently nationalistic. One can say that Dimitrijević bore the greater responsibility as the coup he organized pushed Serbia in a direction contrary to that of its recently elected government, and thus put Mehmedbašić in his position.
However, at the end of the day it was Mehmedbašić who threw the bomb that killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Duchess Sophie, Governor General Oskar Potiorek and Lieutenant Colonel Count Franz von Harrach, and thus ended a century of peace, progress and prosperity, ushering in decades of hell…
-Excerpt from A Popular History of the 20th Century, Scholastic American Press: Philadelphia, 1980
…The Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand did not have to spark a general European War, much less a global one. Had Europe reacted as they had to the May Coup, with a general diplomatic isolation of Serbia, rather than quibble over the terms of the July Ultimatum, it was likely Serbia would have backed down and accepted the terms as offered. Had Russia not given Serbia support, despite Serbia rejecting their advice, it would have remained an isolated Austro-Serbian war, had it occurred at all. Had the French not given unconditional assurances to the Russians, even in the case of Serbia being found in the wrong, it is probable the Russians would not have threatened war with Austria-Hungary.
Even at this point the war could have remained a mere European War, as the Balkan Wars had, or the Russo-Turkish or Franco-Prussian Wars, if on a larger scale, had two things not occurred. The Belgians refusing the Germans passage based on a mistaken estimate of the German Siege artillery was the first and guaranteed that the front would bog down into years in the trenches with all the mass bloodletting that entailed.
Secondly was the decision by the United Kingdom to go to war over a scrap of paper. That the government of the time had reasons for it was true, distraction from the ongoing crisis in Ireland and leave the United Kingdom friendless and isolated in Europe. That the war would have been only a temporary fix that would cause tensions to fester in Ireland should have been obvious even then. Furthermore, it was known to the Asquith Cabinet that the resulting war would be long and costly; thus, any victory would of necessity be pyrrhic and leave both sides desperate for friends themselves. Without British Imperial resources it is unlikely the Entente would have lasted past 1916, making for a shorter and much less costly war that would not have laid the groundwork for the destruction of the British Empire nor set the stage for so many horrors to come...
-Excerpt from A New Unofficial History of WWI, Sydney University Press: Sydney, 2010
…Orthodox history since the 1950’s primarily places the blame for the First World War upon Serbia, and to a somewhat lesser degree Russia and France, with Britain blamed for transforming it from a European War to a World War. Austria-Hungary is portrayed as a justifiably aggrieved partner and Germany as a loyal ally with questionable decision making. This viewpoint actively minimizes the evidence that substantial elements in both Austria-Hungary and Germany were actively seeking war, that the Dual Monarchy never seriously considered not going to war with Serbia and that Germany was fully willing to start a general European war.
This paper does not set out to absolve the Entente of any blame for the emergence of the First World War, what this paper does intend is to allocate the responsibility in a more unbiased manner. This paper will further show how biases stemming from later periods have influenced Orthodox Historians to take the viewpoints they have…
-Excerpt from Revisionist Viewpoints in History Volume XXX, University of California Press: Berkley, 2020
…The assassination of Franz Ferdinand is one of the more famous assassinations and an example of what this book calls a mixed success. Franz Ferdinand was killed because it was feared that if he took the throne, he would reform Austria-Hungary in a way that would accommodate its South Slavic ethnicities better. As the Black Hand and Serbian government wanted the South Slavs to revolt against Austria-Hungary and join a South Slavic state, Serbian dominated naturally, killing him would avoid this. In that they succeeded at their primary goal, Franz Ferdinand never got the chance to reform the Austro-Hungarian state.
One the other hand they almost totally screwed things up. By using a bomb, they made the death of the Archduke, who was wearing a bullet resistant silk vest, more likely. But at the same time, it increased collateral damage, while killing the Governor General of Bosnia certainly advanced their cause, killing the Archduke’s Wife, especially in such a graphic manner, vastly increased the backlash to the assassination. That backlash increased the chances of Serbia being rendered unable to take leadership of a South Slavic State, and very nearly did. As the plotters could not have predicted anything beyond Austria-Hungary is likely to go to war to avenge the death of the heir to their throne, using such a messy method was probably not the optimal choice…
-Excerpt from A History of Assassination, American Youth Press, New York, 2001
…The Average American over the course of their education spends about two months on the World War One, a month in high school and a month in middle school. Those who go to college for a bachelors degree will generally spend two weeks on it in addition to that. Most of this is, understandably devoted to American entry and participation in the war, with minimal time devoted towards the rest of the conflict.
About the rest of the war what the average American more or less knows is this. That a Serbian backed terrorist bombed Archduke Ferdinand’s Limo on June 28th, 1914, killing him, his wife and two other guys. Austria attacked Serbia in revenge, Serbia ran to Russia for help, Austria ran to Germany and Russia ran to France. Then Germany goes through Belgium to attack France, bringing in Britain, the Turks join in because the British stole their Battleships, the Italians get bribed to fight the Austrians and everybody is killing each other in trenches until the US is forced to join in come 1917. A massive semi accurate oversimplification at best. I am going to try and accurately fill in the rest of the picture so whoever reading this will not sound like a total ignoramus if they talk about World War One to a foreigner…
…Serbia, despite very probably starting this whole mess was totally unprepared for fighting a European Great Power in 1914. They had little artillery, even less ammunition for it and could not even equip their soldiers with actual boots. That their most experienced commander from the Balkan Wars, Marshal Radomir Putnik, was in Austria-Hungary at the time and interned was merely icing on the cake.
Despite this they launched the first major attack. The Austrians while enormously angry with the Serbs for the whole assassination of their crown prince thing, were pragmatic enough to realize that defending against Russia took priority over revenge and limited themselves to bombardments, skirmishes and a slow advance. The Serbians however were under enormous pressure by the Russians and French to attack the Austro-Hungarians and tie down troops that would otherwise be transferred to fight Russia.
By August 25th, the Serbians could no longer resist the pressure and their 1st and 2nd armies attacked the Austrian 5th Army in an attempt to stop the 2nd Army being transferred to the front against Russia in Galicia. It was a failure in all regards, it burnt up their artillery ammunition reserves, did not manage to significantly damage 5th Army and did nothing to 2nd army’s withdrawal timetable. On September Archduke Eugene in command of the Austrian troops launched a counterattack with his 6th Army that smashed the Serbian 3rd Army and forced it to withdraw. Serbian reluctance to retreat led to their 2nd and 1st armies suffering severe casualties before being forced to withdraw into the hills by September 11th.
The situation then deteriorated into the sort of trench warfare that WWI was famous for. The Austrians having actual waterproof boots for their men and sufficient artillery ammunition did much better. On November 2nd, the Austrians then launched another attack, the Serbians stubbornly resisted but were driven back. By November 15th Belgrade was threatened and elements of the Army wanted to abandon it, but no one had the political clout to convince the government of that. Thus, the Serbs were forced to fight the Austrians head on without the supplies or ammunition to do so. They lasted 10 days before they were forced to withdraw and abandon Belgrade. The Austrians entered the city on the 30th of November and paused to let their supply lines catch up. At this point the Serbs finally received artillery ammunition from the French but they were in no position to do anything with it.
This situation would last through the winter when one key factor changed. Bulgaria, who as mentioned in previous chapters lost land to Serbia not long ago, decided to throw its lot in with the Central Powers following the victory at the Masurian Lakes in February 1915. They promised Bulgaria slightly over half of Serbia, as well as security guarantees against Romania and Greece and a war loan. The Entente offered certain territorial gains if Bulgaria remained neutral, but that required Serbian and Greek cooperation, which did not look to be forthcoming, as well as an Entente victory over the Ottomans.
On April 12th, the Bulgarians declared war and attacked with two field Armies into Southern Serbia. This near instantly cut the Serbian line of supply and forced them to withdraw to the Kosovo Plain to avoid encirclement. The Bulgarians pursued enthusiastically, the Austrians with caution as not to divert resources from the upcoming Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive. By June 1st the Serbians had withdrawn to Kosovo and were left with three choices, seek terms, fight to the death or withdraw over the Korab mountains and fight from exile.
The Serbians chose the latter and over two months they marched over the mountains into the anarchy of northern Albania, before reaching the Adriatic and hopefully waiting Entente ships with supplies. During this period, the Montenegrin Army fought a brief rearguard action to cover the Serbian retreat, before surrendering to the Austrians. Over 50,000 Serbs died on the march to the sea, from disease, hunger, bandit attacks and pursuing Central Powers forces. Still more died when on arrival at the coast there were no supplies or ships waiting for several weeks. Eventually supplies and ships would be sent and 150,000 Serbs, mostly soldiers were evacuated, primarily to the Greek island of Corfu that was occupied by the Entente. These soldiers would later serve on the…
-Excerpt from European Wars for Americans, Harper & Brothers, New York, 2004
Well my first attempt at a TL up to the standards of Post 1900 rather than ASB. Updates will hopefully be on Sundays but I make no promises, Tomorrows Pen still has priority
