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 16-18Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 16 Summary: “Tannenberg”
As the German army maneuvers its troops for a second decisive battle against the Russian army, a phone call from German army headquarters proposes sending reinforcements. Attempting to stir up anti-Russian feelings, the German government sends refugees from the front to several German cities and “[s]ucceed[s] in frightening itself” (293). Still suffering from a lack of supplies and now exhausted, the Russian armies need rest but are ordered to attack. Behind the lines, the Russian leaders are pessimistic not just about this battle but also about the war. Due to poor communication that causes poor planning, General Samsonov’s Russian 1st Corps is beaten soundly by German artillery at Usdau.
Unlike during other battles, however, the Russians are not beaten in a single day; the rest of the Russian forces are still attacking. For three days, the battle surges back and forth along a front of 40 miles. As the Germans come closer to victory, it becomes clear that reinforcements in the form of the 1st Army, led by General Rennenkampf, will not reach Samsonov in time. With his flanks turned, Samsonov cuts communications with the rear command, orders a general retreat, and rides into battle. The Russian retreat is a disaster, with men floundering through swamps and forests and the Germans coming inexorably closer. In the end, the Russian 2nd Army is obliterated. The entire Eastern Front is in defeat. However, the Russians accomplish two things: In a separate battle, the Russian army destroys the Austro-Hungarian army and manages to pull two divisions from the Western Front.
Chapter 17 Summary: “The Flames of Louvain”
Tuchman explains that at the beginning of the war, a sense of hope exists. Germany sees the war as a chance to exert its dominance and rule the world. Some in France believe that although the war will require a terrible sacrifice, out of it will come “the rejuvenation and enlargement of France, the moral regeneration of Europe” (313). National hatred of Germany has not yet taken hold. The change—the hatred of Germany by all nations—begins in Belgium as the Germans shoot Belgian civilians and burn villages. The Germans convince themselves not only that the Belgian civilians fighting back but that they are doing so under orders, and so the German terror campaign increases; in one village, the Germans murder 612 Belgian civilians.
On August 25, the burning of Louvain begins. Though historical inquiries fall short in determining who fires first, Tuchman says it does not matter: The burning of Louvain is “a gesture of German might before the world” (319). The result of the burning is that all countries become more adamant in their war goals. France, Britain, and Russia sign the Pact of London, stating that they will not seek separate agreements with Germany. The rest of the world, reading of the atrocities in the newspaper, hardens its will against Germany, and Germany in turn hardens its resolve, understanding that it must fight to the end: “The more the Allies declared their purpose to be the defeat of German militarism and the Hohenzollerns, the more Germany declared its undying oath not to lay down arms short of total victory” (322). The stalemate of the trench warfare to come is the physical manifestation of this stalemate of resolve.
Chapter 18 Summary: “Blue Water, Blockade, and the Great Neutral”
In the North Atlantic, the British fleet takes no chances with its naval superiority. Its ships patrol far from contested waters, dock far to the north of its patrol areas, and generally fret over the German fleet. Germany, for its part, adopts a strategy of defense. Its role, the kaiser concludes, is to act as a potential constant danger, forcing the enemy to remain on guard. Germany thinks England might potentially enter into a separate peace agreement with her, and so the German fleet is kept as a caution. Russia is seen as a bigger threat, able to disrupt German supply lines in the Baltic.
While England attempts to blockade Germany from afar, an argument over trade routes begins with the United States. None of the countries anticipate a long war, nor how German U-boats will eventually attack goods headed for England. Though United States President Woodrow Wilson wants to remain neutral, British control of the seas directs more and more US trade toward the Allies. The British engage and soundly defeat the Germans once, which causes them to stay in their ports. Germany will later take to attacking the shipping lanes in U-boats, which will eventually cause the United States to enter the war on the side of the Allies.
Chapters 16-18 Analysis
Though focused on Russia, Chapter 16 reveals The Guns of August’s comparative disinterest in the war’s Eastern Front. For example, the chapter only mentions in passing that the Russians wound the Austro-Hungarian army so badly that it will not recover. For Tuchman, the episode is most significant for its impact on the Western Front. The Russian war effort begins to do what it is “supposed” to do: It pulls two German divisions to the Eastern Front, and these divisions will be absent from the Battle of the Marne, a significant German loss. Moreover, although the Russians lose the Battle of Tannenberg decisively, their 2nd Army destroyed and much of the rest of it in shambles, Tuchman suggests that Russia is much larger than any of the other countries and able to recoup its losses more easily: “[The] Russians, in the knowledge of inexhaustible supplies of manpower, are accustomed to accepting gigantic fatalities with comparative calm” (309).
Nevertheless, Tuchman’s accounts of the war’s Eastern and Western Fronts are similar in their emphasis on The Ripple Effects of Individual Actions and The Courage of Ordinary Soldiers Versus the Military Machine. A major point of the chapter is, once again, communications. The real hero of the Battle of Tannenberg is the German interception of Russian wireless communications. Russia, because of the great pressure from France, rushes ahead of its supply lines and is forced to rely on wireless communication. Oftentimes, Russian messages are sent “wireless,” or without a direct line, which means they must be sent “open.” The Germans often intercept them. In one instance, they intercept a Russian message detailing its army’s exact movement. Russian armies not only don’t know where the Germans are as they head into a major battle that will determine the next few years of fighting on the Eastern Front, but each army doesn’t know where its allies are.
This lack of supplies further hinders the Russian army. The men are exhausted. They have no food. Because of the lack of communication, men often march one way and then must march another when orders change. The chapter ends with Russians floundering through the swamps, being mowed down or taken captive by Germans—another example of troops suffering because of their leaders’ incompetence.
The title of the following chapter, “The Flames of Louvain,” refers to the burning of the Belgian city, but it also refers metaphorically to the outcome of those flames. France still has hope that something good will come of the war. Germany does as well, though its idea of the good that will come is German superiority and rule. The hope of both countries, as well as the hope of a quick end to the war, burns in the flames of Louvain. For Tuchman, the most significant casualty is Germany’s reputation: The burning of Louvain and the shooting of civilians, which Germany sees as retaliation for Belgian attacks, is not seen by the rest of the world in the same light, and so the other countries of the harden their resolve to wipe out the German army. Tuchman is sympathetic to the Allied point of view, quoting French writer Romain Rolland asking, “Are you descendants of Goethe or Atilla the Hun?” (321), of his former friend and fellow writer Gerhart Hauptman.
As a result of British sea policy and German atrocities, the United States shifts its loyalties more and more to the side of the Allies. An affinity already exists between the United States and these nations:
Economic ties develop where there is a basis of long-founded cultural ties, and economic interests where there is national interest. American trade with England and France had always been greater than with Germany and Austria, and the effect of the blockade was to exaggerate an existing condition, not create an artificial one. Trade follows not only a nation’s flag but its natural sympathies (338).
Though Wilson wants to keep America neutral because he believes it will win more glory on the national stage by becoming an arbiter of peace, his letters to the Allies show his sympathies. Tuchman also describes America’s economic interests. As England controls the seas, American trade with Germany drops to almost nothing while trade with England soars, drawing the United States even closer to England and the Allies. When England engages the German fleet in a decisive victory and Germany withdraws its fleet even farther from battle, it will eventually attempt to disrupt shipping lanes by attacking American merchant ships. The affinity that exists between England and America and the attack on its ships will dissolve American neutrality.
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