Coalition Strategy and the End of the First World War: The Supreme War Council and War Planning, 19171918 [Hardcover]

This exploration of Allied war plans for 19181919 uncovers how the Supreme War Council became a successful mechanism for coalition war.Allied political and military leadership had been planning for, and expecting, the First World War to continue into 1919. In this exploration of Allied war plans for 19181919, Meighen McCrae uncovers how the Supreme War Council became a successful mechanism for coalition war.Allied political and military leadership had been planning for, and expecting, the First World War to continue into 1919. In this exploration of Allied war plans for 19181919, Meighen McCrae uncovers how the Supreme War Council became a successful mechanism for coalition war.When the Germans requested an armistice in October 1918, it was a shock to the Allied political and military leadership. They had been expecting, and planning for, the war to continue into 1919, the year they hoped to achieve a complete military victory over the Central Powers. Meighen McCrae illuminates how, throughout this planning process, the Supreme War Council evolved to become the predominant mechanism for coalition war-making. She analyses the Council's role in the formulation of an Allied strategy for 19181919 across the various theatres of war and compares the perspectives of the British, French, Americans and Italians. In doing so we learn how, in an early example of modern alliance warfare, the Supreme War Council had to coordinate national needs with coalition ones.Introduction; 1. The Supreme War Council; 2. Offensive action in the Balkans?; 3. Eliminate the Ottoman Empire?; 4. Maintaining the Italians  the role of the Italian theatre in creating an Allied strategy; 5. The role of the Franco-Belgian front in determining an Allied policy for 1919; 6. Building a bridge to France: the role of resources in creating an Allied strategy for 1919; Conclusions.'With this timely, balanced and illuminating study of the Supreme War Council, Meighen McCrae gives us an excellent opportunlC'