Jim,
Your arguments relied on (out of context) quotes from one historian and one tabloid journalist

Not true Jim.
Below is a list of the historians I quoted.
I quoted them in context, with a link so it could be seen in context.
Not one was challenged as being out of context.

All the historians lead, or hold senior positions in, university history faculties except for Hastings.
He is an acclaimed historian by virtue of his research and his books.
Here the BBC places him at the head of their list of "ten leading historians" of WW1.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26048324


Saul David, Nigel Jones, Richard Holmes, Peter Hart, David Stephenson, Dan Todman, Gary Sheffield, Max Hastings, Malcolm Brown,
Stuart Halifax, Catriona Pennel, Margaret MacMillan, William Philpott,
Tristram Hunter, Dan Snow, Ian McMillan, David Renolds, heather Jones,
Jane Winter, Pierre Purseigle, Brian Bond, Daniel De Groote, Jeremy Paxman/OU History Dept.