This Day in World War 1 History: AUGUST 21, 1914 : BATTLES OF THE FRONTIERS FOUGHT NEAR ARDENNES AND CHARLEROI

On this day in 1914, the second and third of what will be four “Battles of the Frontiers” fought between German and Allied forces on the Western Front during a four-day period in August 1914 begin near Ardennes and Charleroi in northern France.

During the first month of the Great War, with Germany advancing on France through Belgium, cutting a wide swath of violence on its way, French Commander in Chief Joseph Joffre pushed his 1st and 2nd Armies into the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine—forfeited to Germany after the Franco-Prussian War in 1871—against the German left wing. Joffre left the French 5th Army to counter the German right flank, which was swinging down north of the Meuse River, and sent his 3rd and 4th Armies to attack in the forests of Ardennes, where French army headquarters believed the enemy was relatively weak. Though German forces entered and occupied the Belgian capital city, Brussels, on August 20, French morale was strong, and Joffre remarked to his minister of war, Adolphe Messimy, that night: “There is reason to await with confidence the development of operations.”

In fact, the German 4th and 5th Armies were pushing into the Ardennes as well, and on the foggy morning of August 21, French and German troops clashed in the second of four bloody confrontations that would collectively become known as the Battles of the Frontiers. (The first had occurred the day before, in Lorraine, when the French 1st and 2nd Armies were battered by the Germans at Sarrebourg and Morhange and forced to retreat.) At Ardennes, the French threw themselves forward with bayonets in a classic offensive maneuver—in accordance with their Plan 17 strategy, the French were convinced their glorious élan, or spirit, would carry them inexorably to victory. Instead, they came face to face with the superior artillery and entrenched machine guns of the Germans, and were brutally mown down in great numbers.

On the same day, August 21, the French 5th Army, commanded by General Charles Lanrezac clashed with General Karl von Bulow’s 2nd German Army in the Battle of Charleroi, located to the north near the junction of the Sambre and Meuse rivers. The 5th Army, due to be supported by the newly arrived 100,000 soldiers of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF)—the largest number the tiny, professionally trained British army could send at the beginning of the war—instead had to fight alone, as a British delay and poor relations between Lanrezac and the BEF’s commander, Sir John French, resulted in the British and French fighting two separate battles simultaneously—the Battle of Charleroi and the Battle of Mons, the fourth of the Battles of the Frontiers, which began on August 23—instead of fighting together as planned, to the detriment of both armies.

Over the course of the next three days, French, German and British forces would confront the strength of modern firepower for the first time, and all were shocked and devastated by its effects. In terms of numbers engaged and number of losses suffered over a comparable period of combat, the Battles of the Frontiers would remain the greatest struggles of World War I. More importantly, as a result of its convincing defeat of the French forces over those four days, Germany began consolidating its eventual hold on Belgium and northern France, which would give it control of the majority of the industrial power of both nations—coal, iron ore, factories, railroads and rivers—and give it the confidence to pursue its goal of victory to the bitter end.

Article Details:

August 21, 1914 : Battles of the Frontiers fought near Ardennes and Charleroi

• Author

  History.com Staff

• Website Name

  History.com

• Year Published

  2009

• Title

  August 21, 1914 : Battles of the Frontiers fought near Ardennes and Charleroi

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  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/battles-of-the-frontiers-fought-near-ardennes-and-charleroi

• Access Date

  August 21, 2015

• Publisher

  A+E Networks

This Day in World War 1 History: AUGUST 20, 1932 : GERMAN ARTIST UNVEILS MONUMENT HONORING SOLDIERS KILLED IN WORLD WAR I

On this day in 1932, in Flanders, Belgium, the German artist Kathe Kollwitz unveils the monument she created to memorialize her son, Peter, along with the hundreds of thousands of other soldiers killed on the battlefields of the Western Front during World War I.

Born in 1867 in Koningsberg, East Prussia, Kollwitz was schooled privately and sent to study art in Berlin, an unusually progressive education for a woman in the 1880s. Influenced by Realist artists and writers including Max Klinger and Emile Zola, as well as the works of Edvard Munch, Kollwitz became known for her drafting and printmaking skills, as well as for the dark subject matter of her work, which chronicled scenes from the poverty-ridden lives of working-class people in Germany in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Her work before the beginning of World War I included drawings with such titles as Homeless, Waiting for the Drunkard and Unemployment.

Soon after the Great War began in the summer of 1914, Kollwitz’s 19-year-old son Peter enlisted voluntarily as a soldier in the German army. He was killed in battle on October 22, 1914, on the Western Front, at Diksmuide, Belgium. This personal tragedy in Kollwitz’s life was reflected in her art, along with her political ideology and strong social conscience—by 1910 she had become a committed socialist. Over the war years, Kollwitz produced a series of drawings exploring the war’s impact, with titles like Widows and Orphans, Killed in Action and The Survivors. In 1917, with World War I in full swing, Kollwitz celebrated her 50th birthday with an exhibition at the Berlin gallery owned by the internationally known art dealer Paul Cassirer.

Kollwitz’s memorial to her son Peter was dedicated on August 20, 1932, at the German military cemetery near Vladslo in Flanders, Belgium. The grieving Kollwitz had worked for years to create the monument, struggling to reconcile her hatred for the war and mistrust of its leadership with the desire to honor her son’s sacrifice for the cause. Entitled The Parents, the statue depicts an elderly couple kneeling before the grave of their son. It bears no date or signature.

Kollwitz continued her support of German and international socialism in the post-war years, and was eventually punished for her outspoken political beliefs. She became the first woman elected to the Prussian Academy of Arts but was forced to resign after Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist (Nazi) Party rose to power in 1933. Three years later the Nazis classified Kollwitz’s art—like that of so many others during that period—as “degenerate,” and barred her from exhibiting her work. Kollwitz’s husband Karl died in 1940; in 1942, her grandson, also named Peter, was killed at the Russian front during World War II. Her own home, and much of her work, was destroyed by Allied bombs the following year, and Kollwitz was evacuated from Berlin to Moritzburg, near Dresden.

“In days to come people will hardly understand this age,” Kollwitz wrote during her time in Moritzburg. “What a difference between now and 1914…People have been transformed so that they have this capacity for endurance….Worst of all is that every war already carries within the war which will answer it. Every war is answered by a new war, until everything, everything is smashed.” She died on April 22, 1945, just two weeks before World War II ended. As she wrote in her final letter: “War accompanies me to the end.”

Article Details:

August 20, 1932 : German artist unveils monument honoring soldiers killed in World War I

• Author

  History.com Staff

• Website Name

  History.com

• Year Published

  2009

• Title

  August 20, 1932 : German artist unveils monument honoring soldiers killed in World War I

• URL

  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/german-artist-unveils-monument-honoring-soldiers-killed-in-world-war-i

• Access Date

  August 20, 2015

• Publisher

  A+E Networks