Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 The creation of myths after 1945
- 2 British policy and strategy
- 3 British generalship in the two world wars
- 4 At the sharp end: combat experience in the two world wars
- 5 Attrition in the First World War: the naval blockade
- 6 Attrition in the Second World War: The strategic bombing of Germany
- 7 The transformation of war on the Western Front, 1914–1918
- 8 The British Army’s learning process in the Second World War
- 9 After the wars: Britain’s gains and losses
- Appendix
- Select bibliography
- Index
- References
Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 The creation of myths after 1945
- 2 British policy and strategy
- 3 British generalship in the two world wars
- 4 At the sharp end: combat experience in the two world wars
- 5 Attrition in the First World War: the naval blockade
- 6 Attrition in the Second World War: The strategic bombing of Germany
- 7 The transformation of war on the Western Front, 1914–1918
- 8 The British Army’s learning process in the Second World War
- 9 After the wars: Britain’s gains and losses
- Appendix
- Select bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
In ‘A Personal Reflection on the Two World Wars’ John Bourne neatly captures the public’s view of Britain’s contrasting roles in the two conflicts.
The First World War was not really about anything, or not about anything important; the Second World War was about national survival at home and the defeat of a vile tyranny abroad. The First World War was hopelessly mismanaged by incompetent generals…compared with the Second World War generals who understood technology and fought wars of manoeuver that avoided heavy casualties.
Furthermore, he writes, ‘the outcome of the First World War was futile…making another war inevitable; the outcome of the Second World War, sanctified by the discovery of the Nazi death camps, was not only a military but also a moral triumph’.
As regards the experience of combat, the First World War, invariably associated in popular mythology with the horror of the trenches, is imagined as an unending hell on earth whereas the later conflict, being more mobile and with far fewer British casualties, is thought to have been easier, or at least more tolerable.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Britain's Two World Wars against GermanyMyth, Memory and the Distortions of Hindsight, pp. 1 - 7Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014