July-August 1919: the Western “Blitzkrieg”
Western front: Between the 1 and 5 July began the Entente’s general offensive against Germany. Medium C tanks were used to cross the lines and devastate German’s command and control structures; Mark VIII “Liberty” tanks followed to breach the lines; finally, cavalry and Whippet light tanks poured through the gaps created by the assault and sweeped around the slow-moving defenders. Artillery couldn’t follow, but tank’s firepower and a massive use of airplains for a tactical support, could replace the artillery during the fast advance. That scheme was repeated in all sectors and it was always succesfull. On 1 July, British II and I Armies breached the front of German VI Army and liberate Bruxelles in just one week; American’s I and II Armies, with French IV Army, breached the German’s V Army lines near Saarbrucken. The long war of attrition is finished: maneuver warfer is back again in the Western front for the first time since 1914. The large two-pronged Entente’s offensive routed three German Armies (IV, VI in Northern sector, V in Southern sector) and obliged the other 5 German Armies (XVII, II, XVIII, VII and I) to retreat beyond the Rhine river by the end of August.
Italian front: after the occupation of Fiume by Italian III Army, the Austro-Hungarian fleet was forced to a sortie; the fleet, led by Hungarian admiral Horty was intercepted and defeated by the Allied First Fleet (with Italian and French dreadnoughts, led by Italian admiral Thaon di Revel) near Curzola Island on 10 July; on 11 July Emperor Karl I asked for peace; an armistice was signed in Trieste on 15 July; Ludendorff sent immediately troops in Bohemia, Moravia and Tirol to stop a future Entente’s advance against German’s southern flank; other German divisions were sent in Ukraine and Belarus to relieve Austro-Hungarian units; Germany’s reserves were overstreched.
Salonika Front: One week after the start of the new Entente’s offensive, Bulgaria asked for peace; an armistice was signed on 8 July; after the surrender of Austro-Hungarian empire, on 16 July, German’s XI Army and the Army Group Mackensen began a long retreat followed by French and Serbian armies; all Serbian territory was quickly liberated; all Romania was liberated by the end of August; Entente’s troops entered the territory of Austro-Hungarian Empire, where they could use an intact railway net to attack Germany; the British expeditionary force in Salonika and the Greek army (under the unified command of general George Milne, turned East and attack European Turkey; on 6 august, after two weeks of hard fightings, British forces conquered Gallipoli, five years after the famous landing; on 7 august the Anglo-French fleet (led by French admiral Jean Amet) penetrated the Dardanelles and shelled Costantinople; on 9 august, Greek and British forces began the attack on Costantinople by land; on 10 august the Anglo-French fleet sank the German Mediterranean Squadron (the battlecruiser Goeben and the light cruiser Breslau); on 11 august the Young Turks government asked for peace; an armistice was signed in Gallipoli on 15 august.
Middle East: Allenby began the advance inside the Anatolia peninsula; the advance was very slow, due to rough terrain and hard resistence opposed by Turkish army; only on 10 august the first British column (led by Allenby) could reach Angora (Ankara); Marshall’s Anglo-Indian divisions reached Lake Van on august 9, cutting out Ottoman troops deployed in Persia; on 15 august the operations ended because of the armistice.
Central Asia: British Malleson’s troops counter-attacked and dispersed the remnants of the Turkestan German-Ottoman’s column; in the beginning of august, he attacked the hostile khanates of Bukhara and Kiva, bringing them to heels in few weeks; by the end of July, a re-organized Persian army and the British column led by general Dunsterville (the “Dunsterforce”) counter-attacked and defeated the Ottoman column in Persia; by the end of August, all the Central Asia was cleared.
Russian front: on 2 July, Kolchak officially assumed the supreme command of all White and Allied forces; on 5 July he launched the great offensive against Moscow; in the South, general Denikin advanced in Ukraine, against German and Austrian occupation’s forces; after the collapse of Austro-Hungary, his advance speeded and he could reach the Dnepr river and Kiev by the end of august; by 30 august all Ukraine was under Denikin’s control, only Mahno’s anarchist forces resisted in Crimean peninsula. In the central sector, Kolchak’s army (with Allied forces) marched directly against Moscow; the core of the Red Army supported by two German army corps defended the capital; on 2 august Kolchak began the attack of the eastern defences, but the frontal assault failed; Whites and Allies began the siege of the city; Lenin and Trockj decided to resist to the death inside the Cremlin’s walls. The city fell on 30 august. The Bolshevik élite was decapitated.
War on the sea: British Grand Fleet conducted a series of bombings against German’s Baltic cities, inflicting heavy casualties and menacing an imminent landing… which never took place; this menace obliged German High Command to deploy fresh troops and reserves in the North, far from the other fronts; on 2 august, coordinated with the attack on Moscow, British battlecruisers supported Judenic’s White Army offensive against Petrograd; the battle lasted one week, on 10 august Petrograd fell.
Internal fronts: all pro-communist rebellions in France, Great Britain and Italy were succesfully repressed with harsh methods. Sabotages in war’s industries were punished applying the martial law. Pro-Bolshevik socialist formations were banished. In the Central Power’s side, the alliance with Bolshevism produced more stability inside armies and civilians. But the fall of Moscow demoralized troops and civilians. Soviets inside German units disbanded and the discipline began to collapse.
September - October 1919: German finale
On 1 september 1919, Germany was lonely against all Entente’s forces. Its reserves were completely mobilized and exhausted. German Army’s units had less then half of their organics. And they were completely demoralized. In this phase of the conflict, Entente’s forces had virtually no enemies. They had only to advance as fast as possible to reach strategic objectives.
Western front: after the fall of Metz and Saarbrucken, American I and II Armies and French IV Army advanced to Mainz (occupied on 21 October); British III and V Armies breached German’s inner defences at Aachen and advanced in the Ruhr and Saar, occupying the two industrial regions; British II Army advanced to the North, taking Bremen and Hamburg by the end of October.
Italian front: exploiting the vacuum created by the Austro-Hungarian defeat, Italian armies began an offensive against the southern border of Germany, through Austria and Tirol; but on Brennero’s pass Italians met the defences of German mountain troops (led by Kraft von Dellmessingen) and were stopped after hard fightings; the second Italian offensive, through Austria was halted by German’s XI Army on the Drava river after a very slow advance; Germans began a general retreat only in the end of October
South-Eastern front: in mid-september, the Army Group Mackensen began to regroup in new defensive positions in Bohemia and Moravia; on 2 October, general Franchet d’Esperey, advanced through the Balkans. He reached the Danube when the war ended
Russian front: Russian White forces completed a fast advance to the West; in the first days of september, Polish, Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian nationalist forces insurrected against the German appointed “Baltic Nobility”; Hindemburg and Ludendorff decided to retreat all troops from the Eastern front, to face the Entente’s advance from the West; in few weeks, Poland and the Baltic Republics were liberated; along the new frontiers, White armies met the new national armies when the war ended.
On 11 November 1919 Germany surrendered. Large portions of it’s territory were under military occupation. A Bolshevik regime in Russia was overthrown: immediately after the war, a National Assembly was elected in Petrograd. Finland, Baltic Republics, Belarus (White Russia), Poland, Ukraina, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, three Kossak’s Republics (Terek, Kuban and Don), Turkestan, Bukhara and Kiva, became independent states. In the Middle East two new nations (an Arab kingdom and a Jewish state) were born after the collapse of Ottoman Empire. Austria-Hungary didn’t exist anymore: Czechoslovakia became independent, Croatia and Slovenia were under Italian occupation, Bosnia-Hercegovina under Serbian and French occupation. They never became a unified Jugoslavia: they became two separate states. The first was a Republic comprising Slovenia and Croatia (independent but under the Italian sphere of influence), the second was a Kingdom comprising Serbia, Montenegro, Vojvodina, Bosnia and Hercegovina (Serbian-centered, but under the French sphere of influence).
A treaty signed in Potsdam on 28 July 1920 generated a very different World.
