I pit DrDeth

Worry not, DrDeez has had it pointed out to him repeatedly that German mobilization meant war since it required depositing troops on the Belgian border and immediately violating its neutrality by marching across it. There was no option for mobilizing and not going to war in German plans, unlike French and Russian plans, for which mobilization didn’t involve an immediate attack, it only involved mobilization. Or that the German ultimatum to France was entirely pro forma since it required France to demobilize, hand over its arms and allow Germany to occupy the country with the promise that they’d leave once they were done beating up the Russians. Or that the German declaration of war on Russia handed over to the Russians forgot to remove the parts that demonstrated that it was going to declare war on Russia regardless of their actual response, whether their justification was going to be not getting a response in time or deciding the response wasn’t sufficient enough.

World War I, The German Declaration of War on Russia (byu.edu)

The Imperial German Government have used every effort since the beginning of the crisis to bring about a peaceful settlement. In compliance with a wish expressed to him by His Majesty the Emperor of Russia, the German Emperor had undertaken, in concert with Great Britain, the part of mediator between the Cabinets of Vienna and St. Petersburg; but Russia, without waiting for any result, proceeded to a general mobilisation of her forces both on land and sea. In consequence of this threatening step, which was not justified by any military proceedings on the part of Germany, the German Empire was faced by a grave and imminent danger. If the German Government had failed to guard against this peril, they would have compromised the safety and the very existence of Germany. The German Government were, therefore, obliged to make representations to the Government of His Majesty the Emperor of All the Russias and to insist upon a cessation of the aforesaid military acts. Russia having refused to comply with [not having considered it necessary to answer]* this demand, and having shown by this refusal [this attitude]* that her action was directed against Germany, I have the honour, on the instructions of my Government, to inform your Excellency as follows: –

His Majesty the Emperor, my august Sovereign, in the name of the German Empire, accepts the challenge, and considers himself at war with Russia.


*The words in brackets occur in the original.

He’s a moron. He’s impervious to facts. He’s a blight on this board to anything relating to history, the military, or military history amongst a great many other topics. It’s best to just ignore his responses once he goes into broken record mode repeating his endlessly debunked nonsensical horseshit, since he’s going to act like it didn’t happen and keep repeating himself, in all his idiocy, inaccuracy and falsehood. It’s like his repeatedly bringing up T-34s at Khalkhin Gol, imagining it’s his one great shining example of pwning me. Except he was the one who brought up T-34s and Khalkhin Gol, not me. Because I already knew there were no T-34s at Khalkhin Gol. There were, however, over 1,000 Russian tanks in the Far East against a theoretical total of 73 Japanese tanks. With shit for logistical support, any real tank doctrine, or a concept of combined arms. To say nothing about overwhelming Russian artillery superiority.

But no, DrDeez is certain that Zhukov was the only reason Russia won at Khalkhin Gol. He basis his deep knowledge of military history on his years playing Axis&Allies, a boardgame by Milton Bradley for ages 12 and up. I wish I was making that up. I’m not.