"What am I supposed to have made up Jim?"
You have made up virtually everything here
You have basically dominated this thread (again) on a couple of cut 'n pastes from a short article discussing a book (which you haven't read) on a subject you have no particular knowledge of in, in order to show that the Germans were baddies and the Britons were goodies.
You have claimed that the soldiers who were slaughtered went to fight for a cause rather than having followed the tradition and historical path of recruitment, which has been a long established part of our understanding of W.W.1 - and all wars throughout history.
This latter has not even been raised as a question in anything you have produced and you persistently ignore all requests to show otherwise.
The causes of World War One have long been established and accepted - it was part of the fight for territories and markets by two major Imperial powers.
Contrary to your claims, Max Hastings (your star witness) is not an established and respected historian - he is a journalist turned populist historian who has (apparently - I haven't read his book, neither have you) done some work on researching the war and (apparently - not clear from the article) may or may not have come up with a few new facts.
What those facts are remain to be seen; they are certainly not included in the newspaper article and the snippets you have cut -'n-pasted indicate that you have been unable to be able fill out any more detail of what Hastings has to say on the matter.
If it proves to be of interest I might make the effort to read it - you won't - you've made it quite clear in the past that you rely on quick dips into the net for your information, which you use to dominate these threads and, when you arrive at the far reaches of your 'knowledge' and have driven any discussion you take part in into a mind-numbing dead-end, throw up your hands and squeal "I'm no historian" - this happens on this forum time after time.
You are basically an old-fashioned jingoist who has sought out something which apparently supports your jingoism written by a minor populist historian who has just written a book which you have not read and almost certainly will not bother to read.
I'm no historian and I make no claim to anything other than a superficial knowledge of the subject here other than what I have read over the last fifty odd years.
I do have a fairly deep and active interest in social history and have spent some time recording that particular aspect of history from a few people who have been involved in some major historical events
This includes a three-day long interview with a First World War soldier - which is why I bothered to join this discussion.
I am well used to jingoism and apologist outpourings such as yours - I can pick up a copy of a tabloid newspaper any day of the week, should I choose to.
It got up my nose that, yet again, at a time when those who died nearly a century ago for their sacrifices, out came the usual bunch of flag-waggers who are still prepared to use those sacrifice to defend a war that has long been established as indefensible between two Imperialist powers whose avarice and inhumanity has been equally long established.
Their empires are dead, long may they remain dead; the only reason for keeping their histories alive is to make sure we or our children, or our childrens' children.... never see the rise of another one.
Jim Carroll