The oft-repeated myth that the Great War could have been avoided

SIR – Paul Ham’s contention that the First World War was unnecessary (“1918 was a victory, but we won nothing”, Comment, February 21) repeats an unhistorical myth.

In 1914, the German Empire invaded first Belgium, then what is now Poland, then France. What does he suggest that we should have done about it? By building a huge army, Germany had been preparing for war for decades, and by building a huge navy it had been preparing for war with Britain. The 1918 Treaty of Brestlitovsk would have established a military hegemony over eastern Europe. Germany’s war aims in western Europe included acquisition of French and Belgian territory, and a similar military hegemony over western Europe.

Mr Ham’s suggestion that 1914 Germany was a comparatively liberal, democratic state is bizarre. While formally constitutional, its real rulers were an elite of landed aristocrats, military, and industrial monopolists. The Reichstag was powerless. The only person formally in charge was the Kaiser, who was not up to the job, and who rapidly lost control to the military when the war began.

Newbury, Berkshire

SIR – Colonel Tim Collins criticises the BBC’S coverage of the Passchendaele anniversary as being “saturated in grief, in the horror and pity of war” (report, February 20). He calls upon the broadcaster to remember that “we are marking a victory”.

Important as that might be, it is my belief that for many people, perhaps most, the overwhelming thoughts are indeed of grief, horror and pity.

King’s Lynn, Norfolk

SIR – My grandfather, a labourer from Preston and Blackpool, was killed in Belgium in 1914.

His widow of more than 60 years had never quite worked out, even by the Seventies, where Belgium was or why it mattered. What she did know was that the war was little to do with her or the millions of other widows throughout the world. She held the view that “it were all them mad kings and emperors and even madder generals”. I found her reasoning at least equal to that of Colonel Collins.

Kendal, Cumbria

SIR – Colonel Collins should consider himself lucky he doesn’t live in our village.

The centenary of the end of the First World War in November this year has been described as an “amnesty”.

Gotham, Nottinghamshire

SIR – Colonel Collins has every right to challenge the “Blackadder version” of the Great War.

However, the phrase he invokes, “Lions led by donkeys”, was not coined by Captain Blackadder, but by that well-known Lefty, Alan Clark.

London SW20