What if the Allies in WW1 invade Germany proper? How would that affect post-war politics?
What if the Allies in WW1 invade Germany proper? How would that affect post-war politics?
would go a long way toward ended the stab in the back myth.
How difficult could the Germans have made an invasion in November of 1918? The Germans looked like they were falling apart in early September of 1944 but they were still able to keep the Allies from crossing the Rhine for another 6 months.
And Allied casualties were already horrendous. Iirc, in the last Hundred Days of the war, the British Army lost as many men as in four months of the Battle of the Somme, and the French more than in eight months at Verdun. No way were they going to double this casualty list for the sake of a parade down the Unter den Linden..
I hardly see a way (in a WW1 scenario) were that myth (or a very similar one) could be avoided.
How difficult could the Germans have made an invasion in November of 1918? The Germans looked like they were falling apart in early September of 1944 but they were still able to keep the Allies from crossing the Rhine for another 6 months.
The German morale was at the breaking point in 1918 (Kiel mutiny occurred before the armstice, records from British soldiers showing entire German front line units surrendering), the same was not true of 1944.
Petian wanted to conduct an offensive into Lorraine in mid 1918 but was held back by Clemeceau. I believe that holding a good chunk of German territory before the Armistice would go a long way toward ended the stab in the back myth.