第11章すべての戦争を終わらせるための戦争The War to End All Wars

The final year of the war started auspiciously for Germany. In March, its troops began an offensive against the British and quickly took the advantage. Poor weather and fog created confusion, and the British may have retreated farther than they needed to. The Germans again moved toward Paris and resumed bombarding the city as they had in the early weeks of the war. Germany also worked out treaties with Russia and Romania, which exited the war and ceded territory in the process. By the summer of 1918, these successes meant that Germany held more territory than at any time in the past.

戦争の最後の年は、ドイツにとって幸先よく始まった。3月、ドイツ軍はイギリス軍に攻勢をかけ、すぐに優位に立った。悪天候と霧が混乱を生み、イギリス軍は必要以上に後退した可能性がある。ドイツ軍は再びパリへ進み、開戦初期と同様に市への砲撃を再開した。またロシアとルーマニアとの条約をまとめ、両国は戦争から離脱する過程で領土を割譲した。これらの成功により、1918年夏までにドイツは過去のどの時点よりも多くの領土を保有していた。

In that same summer, however, the mass of U.S. troops finally arrived. After four long years of war, the French and British welcomed the aid. China and Greece also entered the war, as did Brazil in October 1917. (Haiti, Cuba, and most of the nations of Central America also declared war on the Central powers between the spring of 1917 and the summer of 1918, but none sent troops or played a decisive role in the fighting.) While the Central powers had been successful in the first half of 1918, the Allies’ sheer numbers gave them a nearly three to one advantage that the Central powers could not withstand for long.

しかし同じ夏、アメリカの大軍がついに到着した。4年の長い戦争を経たフランスとイギリスは、その援助を歓迎した。中国とギリシアも参戦し、ブラジルも1917年10月に加わった。ハイチ、キューバ、中米のほとんどの国も、1917年春から1918年夏の間に中央同盟国へ宣戦布告したが、いずれも兵を送らず、戦闘で決定的な役割は果たさなかった。中央同盟国は1918年前半に成功したものの、連合国は単純な兵力の数でほぼ3対1の優位を持ち、中央同盟国は長く耐えられなかった。

The Allies began offensive maneuvers, gaining some victories and setting the stage for the events of the fall. The last major engagement of the war was the Meuse-Argonne offensive in France, which began in September 1918. This Allied counterattack had been planned for many months. Hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops joined the British and French forces, employing tactics that included infantry attack and the use of poison gas, tanks, and aircraft. The Allied armies quickly advanced several miles. The German armies held on, but over the next month, the tide turned against them.

連合国は攻勢に出て、いくつかの勝利を収め、秋の出来事の土台を作った。戦争最後の大規模な交戦は、1918年9月にフランスで始まったムーズ＝アルゴンヌ攻勢だった。この反撃は何か月も前から計画されていた。数十万人のアメリカ兵が英仏軍に加わり、歩兵攻撃に加えて毒ガス、戦車、航空機を使う戦術を用いた。連合軍は素早く数マイル前進した。ドイツ軍は持ちこたえたが、その後1か月の間に戦況は不利になった。

The situation for Germany was bleak. Food shortages were causing widespread panic and despair. Troops began deserting, and civil unrest spread throughout Germany and Austria-Hungary. German naval commanders wanted to achieve one last moment of glory by sailing the fleet out in late October to engage the British. The German sailors, however, knew there was no chance of victory and had no wish to go on a suicide mission. About one thousand of them mutinied and refused to set sail. In Kiel, home to a major German naval base, both sailors and workers refused to follow orders. The revolt soon spread to other cities.

ドイツの状況は暗澹としていた。食糧不足が広範な恐慌と絶望を生んでいた。兵士は脱走を始め、ドイツとオーストリア＝ハンガリーの全土に社会不安が広がった。ドイツ海軍の指揮官は10月下旬に艦隊を出してイギリス軍と交戦し、最後の栄光を得ようとした。しかし水兵は勝機がないと知っており、自殺的な任務に就く気はなかった。約1000人が反乱を起こし、出航を拒んだ。主要な海軍基地のあるキールでは、水兵も労働者も命令に従わなかった。反乱はすぐに他都市へ広がった。

In Berlin, the far-left Socialist Party’s politicians seized on the burgeoning revolt as a way to force a major change in the government and restore order. They called for the abdication of the Kaiser and the establishment of a republic. Wilhelm II abdicated on November 9, 1918, leaving the country for the Netherlands where he lived until his death in 1941. The civilian political leaders of the more moderate Social Democrats now proclaimed a provisional government, making Germany a republic. The German military agreed to work under this new civilian government. Political leaders then took up the negotiations that had already begun for an armistice, or cease-fire agreement, with the Allies. They believed Germany could not win the war and was best served by ending it. This maneuver helped isolate the socialist radicals.

ベルリンでは、極左の社会主義政党の政治家が拡大する反乱を捉え、政府を大きく変えて秩序を回復しようとした。皇帝の退位と共和国の成立を求めた。ヴィルヘルム2世は1918年11月9日に退位し、オランダへ去り、1941年の死までそこで暮らした。より穏健な社会民主党の文民指導者は臨時政府を宣言し、ドイツを共和国にした。軍はこの新しい文民政府のもとで働くことに同意した。政治指導者は、すでに始まっていた連合国との休戦、すなわち停戦協定の交渉を引き継いだ。ドイツは戦争に勝てず、終わらせることが最善だと考えた。この動きは急進社会主義者の孤立化を助けた。

Compounding the problems the Central powers faced in the final months of the war was the entrance on both the battlefield and the home front of another foe—influenza. By the fall of 1918, a flu pandemic was raging throughout Europe and the United States. The first cases had been reported in the United States earlier that year, and the mass movement of troops across the Atlantic Ocean had undoubtedly facilitated the virus’s spread. The flu proved quite deadly, especially among young adults. As the pandemic continued unabated, tens of millions of people around the world died before the virus burned itself out the next year.

終戦前の数か月に中央同盟国が直面する問題をさらに深刻にしたのは、戦場と銃後の両方に現れた別の敵、インフルエンザだった。1918年秋までに、ヨーロッパとアメリカ全域でパンデミックが猛威を振るっていた。最初の症例はその年の初めにアメリカで報告され、大西洋を越える兵士の大量移動がウイルス拡散を促進したことは疑いない。この流行は特に若い成人に致命的だった。勢いが衰えないまま続き、翌年に流行が収まるまでに世界中で数千万人が死亡した。

Austria came to terms on an armistice on November 3, 1918, and Hungary followed on November 13. For Germany, an armistice was set to go into effect on November 11 at 11:00 a.m., imposing a cease-fire on all units. The armies continued to fight up until the precise minute. Then, at the appointed time, the guns fell silent. Men climbed out of their trenches and came from behind their batteries. The decision by the Allies to request an armistice instead of a surrender was important. A surrender meant that one side had to accept defeat. This was not something Germany was prepared to do in 1918. The armistice, however, simply meant that a cease-fire would be imposed while formal negotiations occurred. Germany believed these negotiations would allow it to preserve some of its gains in the war and extract itself from the fighting with a measure of honor and dignity.

オーストリアは1918年11月3日に休戦条件に合意し、ハンガリーは11月13日に続いた。ドイツの休戦は11月11日午前11時に発効し、全部隊に停戦を命じることになっていた。軍はその瞬間まで戦い続けた。そして定刻になると砲声が止んだ。兵士たちは塹壕や砲台の陰から出てきた。連合国が降伏ではなく休戦を求めたことは重要だった。降伏は一方が敗北を受け入れることを意味したが、1918年のドイツにはその用意がなかった。一方、休戦は正式交渉を行う間、停戦することを意味するにすぎなかった。ドイツは交渉によって戦争で得た利益の一部を保ち、一定の名誉と尊厳を保って戦いから抜け出せると考えた。

Under the terms of the armistice, German troops had to withdraw from their occupation of parts of France and Belgium and return to Germany. (The fact that German troops were still in possession of foreign soil when the war ended was a point that later leaders such as Adolf Hitler exploited in the coming decade.) Germany also had to turn over its military equipment to the Allies, along with its navy. Most of the ships ended up at Scapa Flow, in the Orkney Islands off the coast of Scotland, where their German crews scuttled them the following year rather than turn them over to the Allies intact.

休戦条件により、ドイツ軍は占領していたフランスとベルギーの一部から撤退し、帰国しなければならなかった。終戦時にドイツ軍がなお外国領を保有していた事実は、その後10年ほどの間にアドルフ・ヒトラーらが利用する論点となった。ドイツは海軍とともに軍事装備を連合国へ引き渡す必要もあった。艦艇の大半はスコットランド沖のオークニー諸島スカパ・フローへ移され、翌年、ドイツの乗員は無傷のまま連合国に渡すことを避け、自沈させた。

The casualties from the war were staggering. They included not only those who died or were wounded but also those who were taken prisoner or classified as missing. Russia had more than nine million casualties, France more than six million. Germany and Austria-Hungary topped seven million casualties each. In all, more than 8.5 million soldiers died in the war, and twenty-one million were wounded. The numbers of civilians who perished or were wounded were also in the millions.

戦争の人的損失は驚くべき規模だった。死者や負傷者だけでなく、捕虜や行方不明者も含まれた。ロシアは900万人以上、フランスは600万人以上だった。ドイツとオーストリア＝ハンガリーはそれぞれ700万人を超えた。全体では850万人以上の兵士が死亡し、2100万人が負傷した。死亡または負傷した民間人の数も数百万人に達した。

It was in this period, with countries still reeling from the aftermath of the carnage, that treaty negotiations began. They dragged on for six months following the armistice, and Germany was ultimately proven wrong in its expectations of what it could expect from the talks. There was still much damage and suffering from which to recover, but the war was over.

諸国が大殺戮の余波でなお動揺していたこの時期に、条約交渉が始まった。休戦後6か月にわたって長引き、ドイツが交渉から得られるものについて抱いた期待は、最終的に誤りだったとわかった。回復すべき損害や苦しみはまだ多かったが、戦争は終わっていた。