"The David Duff Preservation Society"

No, no, no, I don't mean that I should be preserved!  I am merely inaugurating the opening of a gallery of notables who, in my opinion - and you all know how impeccable my opinion is! - should be immortalised.  I was thinking of this over the past couple of days whilst giggling at the latest folly of the utterly dim, Caroline Lucas MP, our one and only - thank God! - Green Party MP.   I have long enjoyed her interventions in Parliament because she is an attractive lady with a sweet smile and it is such a pity that she obviously possesses no more than three brain cells!  (Mind you, that is probably two more than several other MPs!)  Her latest idea of forming a national coalition government made up entirely of women immediately reduced half the country to giggles, and then reduced the other half, comprising the 'woke' dimwits on the Left who suddenly realised that all the ladies chosen by Ms. Lucas were - SHLOCK-HORROR! - white, not a single coloured among them!  Cue brickbats and insults raining down on poor Ms. Lucas's innocent head.  So, as I said, I had her in mind to be the first of my 'Immortals' but then, this morning, I read Mr. Peter Hitchens's blog!

Again, regular readers will know that I am an avid follower of Mr. Hitchens' weekly column in The Mail on Sunday but for some unknown reason I rarely if ever click on his blog.  This morning I did and nearly leapt to my feet in enthusiasm when I read a (long) post from him on a subject which has fascinated me for years.  The title is as follows: A Review of Paul Lever's 'Berlin Rules' and Fritz Fischer's 'Germany's Aims in the First World War'.  Let me quickly make clear that whilst I am sure Sir Paul Lever's book has considerable merit, especially as he was the former Ambassador to Germany, it is mention of Fritz Fischer's book that instantly switched me on.  I know I have read it, and I am certain that somewhere I have a copy but, alas, my attic library is such a shambles I cannot find it anywhere!  (Note to self: check that 'SoD' didn't nick it!)

Whilst most history is fascinating to a degree, it is the history that is still influencing our times that is riveting! 

Fischer’s publisher’s offices in Hamburg were firebombed, which just goes to show how history can engage the passions when properly tackled. Amazingly, there are still people who insist, despite Fischer’s mounds of archive evidence to the contrary, that the First World War was a collective accident into which Europe sleepwalked. I am amazed how many people still believe this comical absurdity. There was absolutely nothing accidental about the Schlieffen Plan to smash France in weeks, nor about the enormous Krupp siege guns which were revealed to an astonished world, the nuclear weapons of their time, when it became necessary to pulverise the Belgian forts at Liege.

I should add that, from Mr. Hitchens' review, Sir Paul Lever's book looks like a 'Must Buy' not least for its analysis of German power exerted within the so-called 'European Union' which decades ago the late, great Sir Nicholas Ridley described, accurately, as "a German racket".  It was, it is and forever will it remain, so the quicker we get out the better!

ADDITIONAL:  'Drei mal hurra'!  That's German for 'three cheers' because I have found Fischer's book and, of course, my first act must be to apologise to 'SoD' for even hinting that he's a book thief - who him? No, never!  So that's the good news but, alas, the bad news is that it's a paper-back edition nearly 2" thick which makes it heavy to lift, hard for my weedy arthritic fingers to hold the pages apart and the typeface is titchy!  I think I must see if it's available in Kindle format - so much easier!

 

 

Comments

[Whitewall]

David, your title startled me! No doubt YOU should be preserved, I thought. Maybe a light pickling will do the trick.

WW1 was no "sleepwalk" so maybe this "Germany's Aims" will help remove that notion. Germany will always be 'at it' again.

[JK]

https://www.realclearbooks.com/books_of_the_week/2019/06/07/book_of_the_week_land_of_hope_110205.html

Whilst you're at your Kindle bookstore David (er that is it is a regular store allowing dust up yer nose as you rummage through the piles innit?) At any rate David I'd recommend you buy it if only for its first 90 or so pages - I'm only on 71 and just through our Seven Years War, (or as we colonials think it, The French and Indian War).

As I recall our discussions through the decade we've been at this (yes David, ol' JK has been on here the better part of a decade larnin' you) through 'Dearieme' (remember him?) expounding on his 'Farmer George' theory of why there's now a US separate from the UK; I don't consider my larnin' you to the fullest can be quite complete until you've spent at least as much time as I in this here book I'm telling you abouts pages (er, Kindle does have pages dudn't it?)

Buy the book David! Yes yes I know the cover looks like its a textbook however David it's anything but!

[David Duff]

Thanks, JK, I read the reviews and I am intrigued. Of course, it will have to wait until I refight my way through German history first but if I can order it on Kindle then it can wait patiently until then. I was intrigued with this comment by one reviewer:

"One might quibble that McClay is rather too generous to the tyrant Henry VIII and rather too harsh toward conservative stalwart and failed presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, but overall the tone is just right."

[JK]

Yes that comment is somewhat intriguing David.

Don't reckon the reviewer maybe mixed up his Cromwells do you?

No surely not. That'd be another of those 'Coincidence Thingys' probably making it impossible for you to further your understanding Frau Merkel and Associates more keenly.

[JK]

Bob?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/philadelphia-police-shooting-standoff-ends-with-suspect-taken-into-custody-multiple-officers-wounded-live-updates/ar-AAFOjul?li=BBnb7Kz

Reckon this one'll be one of those that quickly disappears down that proverbial 'memory hole'?

Ever recall my mentioning 'a lot could be done simply by enforcing laws that are already on the books'?

Money quote from that above: "identified him as Maurice Hill, 36 — a Philadelphia man with a lengthy history of gun convictions and of resisting attempts to bring him to justice."

[JK]

Yo David?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lumphanan

I dint nae know your Will uz homaging a Scot - Cain't say I ever read mention o' it on thisear blogly.

[Glesga]

Whitewall, Germany will always be at it again and blame the usual suspects! Us and anyone else.

[David Duff]

JK, I don't think "homaging a Scot" was the first thing on Will's mind!

[Malcolm Pollack]

The only sleepwalkers were the sovereigns themselves, in particular Wilhelm and Franz Josef. Their immediate subordinates were wide awake, and burning with ambitions -- while the only one who might have managed to tamp down the crisis had just been assassinated.

[David Duff]

Malcolm,
"Their immediate subordinates were wide awake, and burning with ambitions".

None more so than von Schlieffen!

[Malcolm Pollack]

And Conrad von Hötzendorf.

But yes, an axiom of von Schlieffen's plan made war inevitable as soon as there was mobilization either to East or West; it assumed that it would be fatal for Germany to fight two fronts at once, so it had to strike first.

A doomsday machine.

[David Duff]

Thanks, Malcolm, "Conrad von Hötzendorf" is a new name to me.

Also, perhaps you would like to venture a guess as to whether or not von Schlieffen's plan would have succeeded if he had been there to implement it?

[JK]

Kein Operationsplan reicht mit einiger Sicherheit über das erste Zusammentreffen mit der feindlichen Hauptmacht hinaus.

You're welcome.

[Malcolm Pollack]

"Also, perhaps you would like to venture a guess as to whether or not von Schlieffen's plan would have succeeded if he had been there to implement it?"

Above my pay-grade, that one. But you could put the blame on Moltke, for diverting some of the attacking troops east to defend against Russia, or Kluck and Bülow, who agreed (without authorization) to move Kluck's troops to the east of Paris, rather than completing the encirclement as Schlieffen had planned.

A good analysis is in this wonderful book, A World Undone.

[Malcolm Pollack]

Very apt, JK. That quote, usually rendered in English as "no battle-plan survives initial contact with the enemy", is from the great Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke -- whose son, a lesser man by far, was the one I mentioned just above.

I think Moltke senior would have stuck to Schlieffen's plan. The area west of Paris, where Schlieffen wanted the German right hand to strike, was more lightly defended than where Kluck's men ended up. The encirclement might well have worked, and France would likely have surrendered in short order.

[David Duff]

Yes, Malcolm, I'm with you in thinking that Schlieffen's plan executed by the man himself would probably have succeeded and after all, I was a Corporal - substantive, mind!