57 pages • 1 hour read
Barbara W. TuchmanThe Guns of August
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1962A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 13-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 13 Summary: “Sombre et Meuse”
“On the Western front,” Tuchman writes, “the fifteenth day brought an end to the period of concentration and preliminary attacks. The period of offensive battle began” (206). The French right wing moves into Alsace and Lorraine, where the Germans will attempt to draw them further in. In Belgium, France’s General Lanrezac recognizes that the Germans are attempting to envelop the French, but higher command won’t listen. Finally, after repeated reports of German movement, Joffre gives orders to move some of the troops to meet the German offensive, though Lanrezac thinks it will be too little, too late. The Germans are cutting through villages, fields, and roads, straight toward Lanrezac. However, the German leadership, under Moltke, is cracking, as it lacks communication and fears a French counterattack to the north. To the south, when the French appear to be moving north and therefore out of the enveloping trap, Prince Rupprecht, head of the German Sixth Army, prepares to attack, abandoning previous German plans.
The arrival of the British Expeditionary Force in France does not reassure the French military leaders, despite the cheering crowds. Sir John French does not instill confidence in the French, and lack of communication, as well as stubbornness on the part of each army’s respective leaders, brings about anger and altercations.
Meanwhile, General Joffre gives the command to prepare for the great French offensive. In Belgium, King Albert orders the government and most of the army to retreat to Antwerp as the Germans advance. The German army is unable to capture the Belgian army because of the retreat, and saboteurs cutting telephone lines, blowing up railroads and bridges, and disrupting the flow of supplies slow them down. The Germans reply with assassinations and village burnings all the way to Brussels, which they occupy. In Lorraine, the French army is being counterattacked by Rupprecht, and Joffre is preparing for his offensive into Germany by waiting for the German troops moving north and west to sweep by.
Chapter 14 Summary: “Debacle: Lorraine, Ardennes, Charleroi, Mons”
From August 20-24, four major battles are fought on the Western Front. In Lorraine the French bruise and batter themselves against dug-in German forces, finally retreating from a battle that will ultimately signal the end of the offensive strategy and turn the war to the trenches. The Germans, tasting victory, mount a counteroffensive under Rupprecht.
At the same time, a second major battle begins as Joffre orders an attack through the Ardennes, still thinking of the decisive victory. All along that front, battles erupt in the dark forest. In some places, German machine guns, entrenched, again mow down the advancing French. In other places, the French artillery destroys the Germans, but no matter the victor, bodies pile up. The French believe they have numerical superiority, but it is the opposite, and the French attack breaks.
On the Sambre, a river that runs through Belgium and France, the third major battle has also begun, though it is actually two battles. Because of poor communication, the British and French troops fight two different battles, at Charleroi and Mons, only 35 miles apart. French General Lanrezac is ordered to attack but knows he is outnumbered badly. The Germans, with their big guns, open fire on Belgian troops at Namur. The French reinforce the forts at Namur, though they are still outnumbered. Lanrezac engages Bulow in the Battle of Charleroi, as German General Von Kluck, head of the German First Army, engages the British at Mons. At Charleroi, the French suffer terrible losses, as the Germans have reached it first and dug in. When Lanrezac is forced to fall back, a gap opens between him and the British forces, who are fully engaged at Mons. In fact, all the French forces are in trouble, and Lanrezac orders a general retreat. It is the moment signaling the death of any decisive French victory.
Far to the left, the British are still fighting the Germans over the Mons Canal. As the battle begins, the British, dug in, cut down the German waves with expert fire. However, the Germans finally thin the British enough to force them to fall back. That night, learning of Lanrezac’s retreat, the British withdraw from the battle, though the legends surrounding it will grow in English eyes. In the wake of what will be known as “the Battle of the Frontiers,” the French and British armies are in full retreat and the Germans in full advance.
Chapter 15 Summary: “The Cossacks Are Coming!”
In the east, the Russians are hurrying to put their army in the field, trying to bring all its great resources to bear so it can alleviate the German pressure on France, but this is a difficult task for such a large country. When the first Russian troops finally invade Prussia on August 12, they find a systematic withdrawal from the small villages already underway. Further logistical and supply problems plague the Russians before combat even begins. In East Prussia, the Germans, led by General Hermann von François, are eager to attack. They meet the Russians near Stalluponen in the first battle and defeat them soundly. Still, the Russians advance. Though torn over whether to retreat or engage, Germany, under François, engages. On the right, the Russians suffer heavy losses, but in the center and left, they send the Germans into retreat, resulting in a Russian victory. As Germany falls back, the Russians do not follow. Overextended and cut up, the Russians wait.
Meanwhile, the Germans prepare to fall back to prepared defenses as the second Russian army nears, but retreat is not an option in German eyes, and the commander who suggests it, Prittwitz, is replaced. The German army restructures and prepares to meet the second Russian army, which is attempting to coordinate a pincers movement with the first, all while France implores them to hurry and draw pressure from the Western Front. Between Orlau and Frankenau, another battle erupts. It is indecisive, with heavy loss of life on both sides, and the Germans retreat further. An interrupted missive that evening causes the Germans to decide to attack the Russian forces full-on.
Chapters 13-15 Analysis
Though both Germany and France attempt to hold hard to their plans for a quick offensive, both must make changes. The German offensive is slowed by the Belgian army and the Belgian fort at Liège and must adjust. It is also slowed by Belgian saboteurs who cut phone lines and blow up bridges and railways. Joffre still sees a quick victory, but Lanrezac fears the sweeping German right wing, and so Joffre must move troops to meet it.
Tuchman thus states several times that the Battle of the Frontiers, the collective name for the four battles fought between August 20-24, signals an end to the idea of a decisive victory that both countries had hoped to achieve. The truth is, however, it signals the end only for France and Britain. Germany, after its route through Belgium only a few days behind schedule, still believes in its eventual decisive victory. Tuchman’s focus on France and Britain’s failed hopes is in keeping with the work’s pro-Allied perspective, but it also speaks to the dawning realization of how different WWI would prove from prior conflicts. The Battle of the Frontiers marks the end of outdated ideas of war and the beginning of war of a new kind. After the defeats, France adopts strategies of artillery and airplanes. The Germans have brought bigger and bigger guns, so France adopts a defensive war.
These early days can be described as mistrustful. The French don’t trust the British Expeditionary Force, while the BEF wishes to remain autonomous. The Germans don’t trust the Belgians and assassinate them in each little village. The generals from every army don’t trust generals from other armies, and many don’t trust the men they serve with. They also don’t trust their own eyes, frequently reporting what isn’t there, such as when German scouts report the BEF landing near Belgium when in fact it lands farther away, and when Joffre doesn’t trust Lanrezac’s reports about German numbers near Meuse.
This atmosphere of suspicion and the decisions it prompts continues to develop themes of The Ripple Effects of Individual Actions and The Courage of Ordinary Soldiers Versus the Military Machine. The great French losses might not have occurred if French generals had listened to reconnaissance reports instead of disbelieving them. Communications—not just the cutting of telephone lines or garbled radio transmissions, but collecting data and analyzing it with an open mind, instead of adhering to a plan seemingly set in stone—again become key. Top brass routinely ignores or disbelieves reports from frontline generals. Generals ignore or disbelieve reports from scouts. France ignores warnings about the great, sweeping German right wing. All of it points to a breakdown in communication, something exemplified by an instance when French and British officers cannot even speak each other’s languages and therefore cannot communicate. These failures have far-reaching consequences: The Germans will occupy Belgium and parts of Northern France, giving them control of the industrial power of both countries, of manufacturing, of iron mines, of coal, and of other resources in the area. All this, along with French resolve against the German occupation, will extend the war, as will the French falling to the defensive.
Similar issues with supplies and communications impact the Eastern Front. The Russians, owing to the size of the country and the distances that must be traveled, as well as poor infrastructure, cannot keep the army supplied or communications open. The lack of food, transportation, and communication keeps its troops from operating at full capacity.
Germany, on the other hand, has leadership problems. As has happened in almost every other chapter, German command is constantly replacing leaders it feels are inadequate, irresolute, or incredulous of authority. Retreat, in the German mind, is unacceptable, as it will not only throw off their timetable but will also announce to the world that Germany is not invincible. Germany still believes it should rule the world, and any sign that it is not superior must be dealt with harshly. So it restructures and replaces and prepares to meet the Russians.
Finally, the first days of the war see the first atrocities: Germany burns villages and assassinates village leaders. The withdrawing French trash the houses they have quartered in so the Germans cannot have them. Thousands or tens of thousands of Belgians flee their homes, carrying with them what they can. One American correspondent describes the carnage of the war: “A rag doll lying on the road with its head squashed flat by the wheel of a gun carriage seemed […] a symbol of Belgium’s fate in the war” (228). For Tuchman, that fate is not just Belgium’s but the whole of Europe’s.
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