A Higher Form of Killing (49 page)

 
“The army . . . the world.”: J. Gerard,
My Four Years in Germany
, p. 64.

 
“quite spontaneously . . . convoy.”: Quoted J. Keegan,
The First World War
, p. 82.

 
“with flags . . . souls.”: Quoted, ibid., p. 81.

 
“not ashamed . . . such times.”: Quoted, ibid.

 
The magnificent Moorish-style synagogue in Oranienstrasse, inaugurated in 1866, was attacked by the Nazis on Crystal Night in 1938 and badly damaged by Allied bombing raids but has been rebuilt and restored.

 
“a holy . . . justice.”: Quoted H. Strachan,
The First World War
, vol. 1, p. 116.

 
“The Church . . . holy war.”: Quoted ibid.

 
“I have . . . fond.”: Elizabeth Owen, quoted M. Arthur,
Forgotten Voices of the Great War
, p. 15. (This is a compendium from taped interviews held in the Imperial War Museum.)

 
“We were . . . term].”: Private Godfrey Buxton quoted ibid., p. 16.

 
“You will . . . trees.”: Quoted Tuchman,
August 1914
, p. 123.

CHAPTER FIVE—“THE WORST OF CONTRABANDS”

But . . . “Mitteleuropa.”: The quotes about Germany’s war aims are from Fischer,
Germany’s Aims in the First World War
, p. 105.

 
“elimination . . . politics.”: Ibid., p. 108. Historians continue to debate how far such views, most of which were almost impossible to reconcile with the requirement for waging a “just war,” and in particular those of von Bethmann Hollweg, had underlain Germany’s strategic maneuverings in the years leading up to the First World War and in particular during the Sarajevo crisis, and how far they were opportunistic, stemming from the sudden and joyous anticipation of winning the place in the European sun they craved and deserved. The balance of opinion is now, perhaps correctly, tending toward the war aims having been long held, even if Sarajevo provoked a European-wide conflict none were looking for at the time it broke out.

 
“Germany’s . . . materials.”: Ibid., p. 109.

 
“against . . . use them.”: Quoted, C. Tansill,
America Goes to War
,
p. 18.

“As if . . . flash . . . the issue . . . law.”: Ibid., p. 24.

“republic . . . disputes.”: Quoted J. Dos Passos,
Mr. Wilson’s War
, p. 12.

 
“like writing on ice . . . a jellyfish . . . party politics.”: Quoted R. Gregory,
Walter Hines Page
, p. 101.

 
“I can . . . suffering.”: Quoted Dos Passos,
Mr. Wilson’s War
, p. 98.

 
“My hope . . . purpose.”: Wilson to Grey, quoted R. S. Baker,
Woodrow Wilson— Life and Letters
, vol. 5, pp. 55–56.

 
“reap . . . doing it.”: Remarks to a press conference, given in full in A. S. Link, ed.,
The Papers of Woodrow Wilson
, vol. 30, p. 332.

 
“neutral . . . action . . . speak . . . peace . . . play . . . mediator.”: These remarks are from President Wilson’s address to the American people, ibid., p. 394.

 
“interpreted . . . people.”: Fischer,
Germany’s Aims in the First World War
, p. 119.

 
“We shall . . . have done!”: Quoted Gilbert,
The First World War
, p. 43.

 
“the greatest . . . vengeance.”: Asquith, reported
Times
,
September 5, 1914.

 
“We may . . . felons.’ ”: Dean of Peterborough, ibid., September 16, 1914.

 
“if it had . . . swept away.”:
Keegan,
The First World War
, p. 93.

 
“essential . . . operations.”: The U.S. request for compliance with the Declaration of London and the UK response are in
US Foreign Relations 1914
, pp. 215–16 and 281–20 respectively.

 
“the maximum . . . United States”: Viscount Grey,
Twenty-five Years
, vol. 2, p. 103.

 
“escaped disaster . . . pure good luck . . . necessary . . . waged.”: Quoted Bailey and Ryan,
The Lusitania Disaster
, p. 29.

“the worst . . . things”: Letter from Bryan to Wilson, August 10, 1914, Bryan Correspondence.

 
“inconsistent . . . neutrality.”: Ibid.

 
“A greater . . . country.”: Letter from J. P. Morgan to H. White, June 5, 1914, White Correspondence.

 
“meticulous, metallic and mousy.”: J. Daniels,
The Wilson Era
,
vol. 1,
The Years of Peace, 1910–1917
,
p. 441.

 
“An arrangement . . . money . . . not . . . Government”: “A Memorandum Written by R. Lansing at 9.30 P.M., October 23, 1914 of a Conversation with President Wilson at 8.30 P.M. That Evening,” Lansing Papers and Link,
The Papers of Woodrow Wilson
,
vol. 31, p. 219.

 
Figures on British imports from the United States are from Strachan,
The First World War
, p. 963.

 
“I have . . . Germany.”: Gerard,
My Four Years in Germany
, p. 155.

 
“contrary . . . arsenal.”: Tirpitz’s
Memoirs
, vol. 2, p. 392.

 
“The sabotage . . . matériel . . . suitable . . . sabotage.”: Quoted in R. Doerries’s foreword to Rintelen,
The Dark Invader
,
p. xv. The consensus is that German agents caused the explosion that destroyed the Black Tom plant, although some suggest that Irish nationalists might have been involved.

 
“Lord Fisher . . . rug”: Quoted in J. Morris,
Fisher’s Face
,
p. 202. Fisher succeeded Prince Louis of Battenberg, father of the future Lord Mountbatten, who had retired despite his royal connections, in part due to suspicion of his German name and antecedents. One critic had denounced him as “a German—he has German property and German servants and should not therefore occupy his present position.”

 
“I’m exceeding busy . . . I’ve just . . . accordingly.”: Letter from Fisher to Lord Remant, November 5, 1914, Fisher Collection, Churchill College, Cambridge.

 
“The Miraculous . . . Fishes”: Quoted P. Beesley,
Room 40
, p. 22.

CHAPTER SIX—“ENGLAND WILL BURN”

 
“the greatest donkey” . . . “the greatest . . . century . . . the Conqueror . . . Air.”: Quoted Dudley,
Monsters of the Purple Twilight
, pp. 15–16.

“disappointment . . . dismay . . . There . . . portend?”: Quoted H. G. Castle,
Fire over England
, p. 18.

 
“imagine . . . Britain . . . afford . . . airships.”: Kapitän von Pustau quoted Dudley,
Monsters
,
p. 21.

“we could . . . cars . . . At . . . flames.”: Future zeppelin commander von Buttlar quoted Dudley,
Monsters
, p. 70.

 
“within . . . Calais.”: H. G. Wells,
Daily Mail
, June 27, 1909.

 
“the little . . . immunity”: H. G. Wells,
Daily Mail
, July 25 1909.

 
“a useless . . . fad.”: Quoted A. P. Hyde,
The First Blitz
, p. 19.

“There is . . . cavalry.”: Ibid., p. 16.

 
Lurid . . . Knightsbridge.”: Dr. Karl Graves,
The Secrets of the German War Office
, pp. 176–77.

“I believed . . . monsters . . . to restrict . . . airplanes.”: Quoted Massie,
Castles of Steel
, pp. 362–63.

“As I . . . shed.”: Quoted Dudley,
Monsters
, p. 28

“the English . . . reason . . . not . . . old woman . . . if one . . . sight of”: Von Tirpitz,
My Memoirs
, vol. 2, p. 487 and p. 502.

 
“all that . . . city.”: Ibid., p. 502.

 
“should leave . . . this end.”: Quoted Dudley,
Monsters
, p. 34

 
“lukewarm flabbiness”: Von Tirpitz,
My Memoirs
, vol. 2, p. 502.

 
“carrying . . . considerable.”: W. S. Churchill,
World Crisis
1915, pp. 62–63.

 
“London . . . bombed.”: Quoted Dudley,
Monsters
, p. 34.

 
“two bright . . . apart”: Quoted K. Poolman,
Zeppelins over England
, p. 39.