Editing H. H. Asquith (section)

==First year of the war: August 1914 – May 1915==
{{main|History of the United Kingdom during the First World War}}

===Asquith's wartime government===
The declaration of war on 4 August 1914 saw Asquith as the head of an almost united Liberal Party. Having persuaded [[Sir John Simon]] and [[William Lygon, 7th Earl Beauchamp|Lord Beauchamp]] to remain,{{sfn|Asquith 1928b|p=10}} Asquith suffered only two resignations from his cabinet, those of [[John Morley]] and [[John Burns]].{{sfn|Hobhouse|p=180}} With other parties promising to co-operate, Asquith's government declared war on behalf of a united nation, Asquith bringing "the country into war without civil disturbance or political schism".{{sfn|Cassar|p=234}}

The first months of the War saw a revival in Asquith's popularity. Bitterness from earlier struggles temporarily receded and the nation looked to Asquith, "steady, massive, self-reliant and unswerving",{{sfn|Cassar|p=31}} to lead them to victory. But Asquith's peacetime strengths ill-equipped him for what was to become perhaps the first [[total war]] and, before its end, he would be out of office for ever and his party would never again form a majority government.{{sfn|Cassar|p=232}}

Beyond the replacement of Morley and Burns,{{sfn|Asquith 1923|pp=220–221}} Asquith made one other significant change to his cabinet. He relinquished the War Office and appointed the non-partisan but Conservative-inclined [[Lord Kitchener of Khartoum]].{{sfn|Cassar|p=38}} Kitchener was a figure of national renown and his participation strengthened the reputation of the government.{{sfn|Asquith 1923|p=219}} Whether it increased its effectiveness is less certain.{{sfn|Adelman|p=11}} Overall, it was a government of considerable talent with Lloyd George remaining as chancellor,{{sfn|Cassar|p=37}} Grey as foreign secretary,{{sfn|Cassar|p=36}} and Churchill at the Admiralty.{{sfn|Cassar|p=38}}

The invasion of Belgium by German forces, the touch paper for British intervention, saw the Kaiser's armies attempt a lightning strike through Belgium against France, while holding Russian forces on the Eastern Front.{{sfn|Liddell Hart|p=69}} To support the French, Asquith's cabinet authorised the despatch of the [[British Expeditionary Force (World War I)|British Expeditionary Force]].{{sfn|Gilbert 1995|p=37}} The ensuing [[Battle of the Frontiers]] in the late summer and early autumn of 1914 saw the final halt of the German advance at the [[First Battle of the Marne]], which established the pattern of [[Attrition warfare|attritional trench warfare]] on the Western Front that continued until 1918.{{sfn|Liddell Hart|p=131}} This stalemate brought deepening resentment against the government, and against Asquith personally, as the population at large and the press lords in particular, blamed him for a lack of energy in the prosecution of the war.{{sfn|Cassar|p=93}} It also created divisions within the Cabinet between the "Westerners", including Asquith, who supported the generals in believing that the key to victory lay in ever greater investment of men and munitions in France and Belgium,{{sfn|Cassar|p=171}} and the "Easterners", led by Churchill and Lloyd George, who believed that the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]] was in a state of irreversible stasis and sought victory through action in the East.{{sfn|Cassar|p=144}} Lastly, it highlighted divisions between those politicians, and newspaper owners, who thought that military strategy and actions should be determined by the generals, and those who thought politicians should make those decisions.{{sfn|Taylor|p=109}} Asquith said in his memoirs: "Once the governing objectives have been decided by Ministers at home—the execution should always be left to the untrammeled discretion of the commanders on the spot."{{sfn|Asquith 1928a|p=154}} Lloyd George's counter view was expressed in a letter of early 1916 in which he asked "whether I have a right to express an independent view on the War or must (be) a pure advocate of opinions expressed by my military advisers?"{{sfn|Grigg 1985|p=390}} These divergent opinions lay behind the two great crises that would, within 14 months, see the collapse of the last ever fully [[First Asquith ministry|Liberal administration]] and the advent of the [[Asquith coalition ministry|first coalition]] on 25 May 1915, the Dardanelles Campaign and the Shell Crisis.{{sfn|Clifford|pp=273–274}}

===Dardanelles Campaign===
{{main|Gallipoli Campaign}}
[[File:Adm. John Fisher.jpg|thumb|upright|[[John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher|Admiral "Jacky" Fisher]]]]
The [[Dardanelles Campaign]] was an attempt by Churchill and those favouring an Eastern strategy to end the stalemate on the Western Front. It envisaged an Anglo-French landing on Turkey's Gallipoli Peninsula and a rapid advance to Constantinople which would see the exit of Turkey from the conflict. The plan was rejected by [[Admiral Fisher]], the [[First Sea Lord]], and Kitchener.<ref>Tom Curran, "Who was responsible for the Dardanelles naval fiasco?." ''Australian Journal of Politics & History'' 57.1 (2011): 17–33.</ref> Unable to provide decisive leadership, Asquith sought to arbitrate between these two and Churchill, leading to procrastination and delay. The naval attempt was badly defeated. Allied troops established bridgeheads on the Gallipoli Peninsula, but a delay in providing sufficient reinforcements allowed the Turks to regroup, leading to a stalemate Jenkins described "as immobile as that which prevailed on the Western Front".{{sfn|Jenkins|p=354}} The Allies suffered from infighting at the top, poor equipment, incompetent leadership, and lack of planning, while facing the best units of the Ottoman army. The Allies sent in 492,000 men; they suffered 132,000 casualties in the humiliating defeat—with very high rates for Australia and New Zealand that permanently transformed those dominions. In Britain, it was political ruin for Churchill and badly hurt Asquith.<ref>{{cite book|author=Jenny Macleod|title=Gallipoli: Great Battles|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VuKrCQAAQBAJ|year=2015|publisher=Oxford UP|pages=65–68|isbn=9780191035227|access-date=6 October 2018|archive-date=23 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210923023123/https://books.google.com/books?id=VuKrCQAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Shell Crisis of May 1915===
{{main|Shell Crisis of 1915}}

The opening of 1915 saw growing division between Lloyd George and Kitchener over the supply of munitions for the army. Lloyd George considered that a munitions department, under his control, was essential to co-ordinate "the nation's entire engineering capacity".{{sfn|Cassar|p=84}} Kitchener favoured the continuance of the current arrangement whereby munitions were sourced through contracts between the War Office and the country's armaments manufacturers. As so often, Asquith sought compromise through committee, establishing a group to "consider the much vexed question of putting the contracts for munitions on a proper footing".{{sfn|Asquith 1985|p=497}} This did little to dampen press criticism{{sfn|Cassar|p=87}} and, on 20 April, Asquith sought to challenge his detractors in a major speech at Newcastle by saying, "I saw a statement the other day that the operations of our army were being crippled by our failure to provide the necessary ammunition. There is not a word of truth in that statement."{{sfn|Cassar|p=88}}

The press response was savage: 14 May 1915 saw the publication in ''[[The Times]]'' of a letter from their correspondent [[Charles à Court Repington]] which ascribed the British failure at the [[Battle of Aubers Ridge]] to a shortage of high explosive shells. Thus opened a fully-fledged crisis, [[Shell Crisis of 1915|the Shell Crisis]]. The prime minister's wife correctly identified her husband's chief opponent, the Press baron, and owner of ''The Times'', [[Lord Northcliffe]]: "I'm quite sure Northcliffe is at the bottom of all this,"{{sfn|Margot Asquith 2014|p=128}} but failed to recognise the clandestine involvement of [[Sir John French]], who leaked the details of the shells shortage to Repington.{{sfn|Riddell|p=111}} Northcliffe claimed that "the whole question of the supply of the munitions of war is one on which the Cabinet cannot be arraigned too sharply."{{sfn|Thompson|p=237}} Attacks on the government and on Asquith's personal lethargy came from the left as well as the right, [[C. P. Scott]], the editor of ''[[The Manchester Guardian]]'' writing, "The Government has failed most frightfully and discreditably in the matter of munitions."{{sfn|Scott|p=124}}

===Other events===

Failures in both the East and the West began a tide of events that was to overwhelm Asquith's Liberal Government.{{sfn|Jenkins|p=355}} Strategic setbacks combined with a shattering personal blow when, on 12 May 1915, Venetia Stanley announced her engagement to [[Edwin Montagu]]. Asquith's reply was immediate and brief, "As you know well, this breaks my heart. I couldn't bear to come and see you. I can only pray God to bless you—and help me."{{sfn|Asquith 1985|p=593}} Venetia's importance to him is illustrated by a remark in a letter written in mid-1914: "Keep close to me beloved in this most critical time of my life. I know you will not fail."{{sfn|Asquith 1985|p=101}} Her engagement, "a very treacherous return after all the joy you've given me", left him devastated.{{sfn|Clifford|p=271}} Significant though the loss was personally, its impact on Asquith politically can be overstated.{{sfn|Koss|p=186}} The historian Stephen Koss notes that Asquith "was always able to divide his public and private lives into separate compartments (and) soon found new confidantes to whom he was writing with no less frequency, ardour and indiscretion."{{sfn|Koss|pp=186–187}}

This personal loss was immediately followed, on 15 May, by the resignation of Admiral Fisher after continuing disagreements with Churchill and in frustration at the disappointing developments in Gallipoli.{{sfn|Riddell|p=112}} Aged 74, Fisher's behaviour had grown increasingly erratic and, in frequent letters to Lloyd George, he gave vent to his frustrations with the [[First Lord of the Admiralty]]: "Fisher writes to me every day or two to let me know how things are going. He has a great deal of trouble with his chief, who is always wanting to do something big and striking."{{sfn|Toye|p=136}} Adverse events, press hostility, Conservative opposition and personal sorrows assailed Asquith, and his position was further weakened by his Liberal colleagues. Cassar considers that Lloyd George displayed a distinct lack of loyalty,{{sfn|Cassar|p=100}} and Koss writes of the contemporary rumours that Churchill had "been up to his old game of intriguing all round" and reports a claim that Churchill "unquestionably inspired" the Repington Letter, in collusion with Sir John French.{{sfn|Koss|p=193}} Lacking cohesion internally, and attacked from without, Asquith determined that his government could not continue and he wrote to the King, "I have come decidedly to the conclusion that the [Government] must be reconstituted on a broad and non-party basis."{{sfn|Jenkins|p=360}}