INTERVIEW WITH NICK LLOYD
Three times the size of the Western Front, the war in the East saw over 6.5 million killed and set the stage for yet more carnage in the decades to come
The Eastern Front is the second book in Professor Nick Lloyd’s First World War trilogy, which began with The Western Front, published in 2021. In this second volume, Lloyd uncovers what Winston Churchill named the “unknown war”, spanning much of Eastern Europe and the Balkans. While reconstructing the front’s story, Lloyd meticulously details the vast, devastating battles that led to the collapse of three empires.
The Eastern Front paints a vivid picture of this bloodsoaked conflict through eyewitness reports, diaries and memoirs from the soldiers and civilians who struggled for survival in the East. In this book, many of these sources have been translated into English for the first time.
Professor Lloyd spoke with History of War about the characteristics of the Eastern Front, detailing how its size and mobility created distinct experiences for the men who fought, while posing unique tactical challenges for commanders. He also covers how a fragile and tense peace came to the Eastern Front via the Russian Revolution and the Brest-Litovsk and Versailles treaties. The borders drawn in the peacemaking process remain central in understanding Europe’s bloody 20th century and the current war in Ukraine.
What was the balance of military power in the East during the opening months of the First World War?
The Eastern Front started in a bizarre way with three main protagonists who didn’t want to fight, although smaller powers came in later. On the traditional Eastern Front, there was the Russian Army, which was the largest, over four million men. Then there was the Habsburg Empire, whose armies were split between the Galician main front in the northeastern corner of the empire bordering Russia, about two million men, and the considerable forces against Serbia as well. The German Eighth Army was limited to East Prussia because when the war began seven-eighths of the German Army was in France and Belgium on the Western Front.
The war in the East started out with nobody wanting to fight. The Germans had massed their troops in the West to win a decisive victory there. The Hapsburg Empire wanted to fight against Serbia to quash its troublesome Balkan neighbour and they didn’t want to fight the Russians. The Russians didn’t want to engage the Germans because they were wary of German strength and wanted to focus on the Austrians.
What caused the Eastern Front to be so mobile compared to the relatively static Western Front?
The Eastern Front was a big area, at least three-times the size of the Western Front.
