alternatehistory.com

…The next German offensive was launched on June 14th. Codenamed Walther, after another legendary German hero, it was launched in the South near Rheims. The Entente were expecting an assault in the north and were rapidly trying to shore up the depleted forces in Flanders, thus were taken by surprise.

25 German divisions attacked in Champagne while 19 divisions attacked along the Marne River. As usual they were preceded by the typical firewall bombardment and a gas attack, followed by a large sortie of ground attack aircraft. The attack achieved strategic surprise and the French frontline was shattered in Champagne, and 12 bridgeheads were established across the Marne river on the first day. Rheims itself was captured by nightfall.

The French Air Force attempted to intervene and destroy the bridges across the Marne by air attack the next day. The Germans retained sufficient airpower to destroy the French bombers before most of them could reach their target, with the few bombs dropped being ineffective. However the large scale air combat that accompanied the sortie inflicted punishing losses on the German Air Force and even shot down the famed Red Baron, who would be hospitalized for the remainder of the war.

By the end of the Second day the Germans had advanced as much as 20 miles in Champagne and forced Foch to deploy his limited reserves to prevent a breakthrough there. In Champagne however Foch could do nothing, he had no reserves to send and he had to protect Paris. The only source of troops he could find was the garrison of Verdun, he could free up a large force by withdrawing from the salient centered on the city and redeploying them to form a new defensive line from the Meuse to Revigny to the Marne. However that was unacceptable to the French government, they had fought too hard to retain Verdun.

On the third day of the offensive the French reinforcements stalled the German attack over the Marne with heavy casualties on both sides. However in Champagne the Germans had reached the outskirts of Chalons and were no closer to being contained. Foch again requested to evacuate Verdun, saying they would either lose Verdun now, or lose it in two months and Paris in three. This time the politicians agreed and the evacuation began, with troops redeploying to take up defensive positions.

Ludendorff, by this point had become fixated on the idea of encircling the French at Verdun and starving them out. In pursuit of this he ignored reports that the line over the Marne was lightly held and that a strong push could break the French there and threaten Paris. Likewise he disbelieved reports that the French were evacuating Verdun and continued a slow cautious and circuitous approach to Verdun he hoped would not tip off the French.

By June 22nd the evacuation was complete and the Germans realized what had happened. A few hasty attacks were launched on the 23rd against the new French defense line. After being repelled with moderate casualties Ludendorff called off the attack before it achieved any results.

By conventional metrics Walther had been a success, 60,000 German casualties led to the capture of 90,000 Frenchmen and the loss of 90,000 more. Rheims, Chalons, Troyes and Verdun had been captured, along with a huge quantity of weaponry and supplies. More territory had been taken any previous offensive.

However it cost the Germans heavily in specialist resources. Many Stormtroopers, Pioneers, Ground Attack and Fighter aircraft were lost, resources that would be very useful for Hagen. Most importantly it cost the Germans time, Hagen would have to be delayed by a month because of the attack, to July 20th rather than June 21st, and give time for the British to recover from the previous German offensives, and for more American troops to arrive.

Perhaps more importantly it failed to be a knockout blow by a hairsbreadth. Had Ludendorff pushed on at the Marne early in the battle or pressed harder against the hastily prepared defensive lines a war of movement might have resulted, one the Germans were capable of winning. But he saw the high casualties for little ground gained and moved on to his next target. Once again Ludendorff had snatched strategic defeat out of the jaws of tactical and operational success…

-Excerpt from The Loss of Innocence: America in the Great War, Harper & Brothers, New York 2014



Okay not much, but what I can put out without going nuts