[C19fan]

New book, taking advantage of German military archives that became available after the Berlin Wall fell, on the First Battle of the Marne. Bit more gentle on Moltke the Younger than other books. I find the interesting opinions of Kluck. Some blame him for not sweeping around Paris but others give him tremendous credit for almost pulling off a great victory when the French threw a new army, transported by taxis, from Paris on his flank. Of course one of the great ifs is what would of happened if Germany won the battle and ended the war then. Would the European civilization that was at its heights not committed suicide in the trenches.

[2banana]

More than 610,000 men were killed and wounded during the month-long campaign—two-thirds the number of casualties suffered by the U.S. in the whole of World War II.

For those who like to call the French "Chess eating surrender monkeys" (including me) - the French fought hard and well and many units were completely wiped out in this battle. Maybe some of these same genes still linger in the French population today...

[Skooz]

Good gravy, now I have yet another book added to my Amazon.com wish list.