Читать книгу A Concise Chronicle of Events of the Great War - R. P. P. Rowe - Страница 3

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I trust that this chronicle of the chief events of the war will prove a useful and an interesting record. It has been decided to omit maps, because their inclusion within bounds less than cumbersome would prove practically worthless. The number of towns, as opposed to villages, which were definitely connected with the war is surprisingly small, and their locality is known to nearly every one. The great majority of places which the war has brought into prominence are villages so small that they are marked only in maps of an exceptionally large scale. What is required, therefore, for adequate study of the topography of the war, is either a moderate number of maps of great size or a far larger and confusing number less bulky but each covering only a small area. As the inclusion of either would necessitate a detached and cumbrous volume, I have in its absence taken pains to indicate accurately the position of every place whose locality might be unfamiliar.

In the following pages the names given to the battles, and the dates on which they began and ended, are from sources either official or authoritative. The same may be said of the strategical or tactical aims or results which I have in some cases noted—particularly in 1918.

As appendices I have chosen the four documents most closely connected with the outbreak of the war (the Austrian ultimatum to Serbia, Serbia's reply, and Germany's declarations of war on Russia and France), President Wilson's 'Fourteen Points,' and the chief instruments in the restoration of peace, i.e. the terms of Armistice with the Central Powers and the Treaty of Versailles. The text of this last is so long, and concerned with so many small matters of detail, that I have thought it best to represent it by a short summary of its main provisions. An exception has, however, been made in the case of its very important Military, Naval, and Aerial Clauses, which are given in the fuller form of the official précis.

In cross-references, where no year is given the reference is to the same year as the entry referenced.

I am indebted to Mr. AD L. Cary, Librarian of the Royal United Service Institution, for an introduction to certain valuable records not readily accessible. I have also to thank the Librarian of the Admiralty for his assistance in connection with the dates of various naval incidents.

R. P. P. Rowe.