alternatehistory.com

…By the end of September 1918 the danger of defeat was over for the Entente. However the Entente’s troubles were not nearly over. In Britain the losses on the Western front necessitated the expansion of Conscription to Ireland in order to make up shortfalls in manpower. The majority of Irishmen were opposed to this matter, with the war having postponed the implementation of Home Rule the majority was not well disposed to London at all. In order to implement conscription the British were forced to implement Home Rule at the same time.

This dual approach backfired. The implementation of conscription alienated many of the more moderate home rulers and drove them into the arms of the nationalists such as Sinn Fein. To compensate the Home Rulers increasingly advocated against conscription as well. The Unionists, who were already skeptical began to view their political opponents as increasingly traitorous and grew disdainful of a political solution.

Given the widespread opposition to conscription in order to enforce it the British were required to divert troops intended from the Western front in order to enforce it. The presence of increasing amounts of British troops over the fall left tensions at just short of a boil. The question was whether they would boil over before or after the Irish Parliamentary elections in November…

…Conscription troubles existed elsewhere in the British Empire. Australia rejected conscription in a Third Referendum in the summer of 1918 by a margin of nearly 60%. With almost 40% of their eligible male population having already volunteered for service the Australians were finding it hard to replace their losses.

In Canada opposition to conscription had peaked with the Easter Riots in Quebec, however it continued at a lesser pace. The intensity of opposition had dropped, but what was once confined to francophones was increasingly spreading to anglophones. Despite this Canadian conscripts were reaching the front in increasing numbers…

…The last major German assault of the war was launched on September 28th. Using reserves from Army Group Albrecht, the only one so far unengaged this season, Ludendorff launched a limited attack on an exposed French Corps in the Vosges. Over the course of three days the French Corps was mauled and nearly destroyed for moderate German losses.

Ludendorff intended to repeat this small scale limited offensive pattern against second rate French units on the quiet part of the front as part of his new policy of attriting the French to push back the inevitable Entente offensive and weaken them at the peace table. A costly but successful American counterattack near Epernay on October 3rd forced Ludendorff to divert the reserves further north instead…

…With the success of the offensive at Epernay General Pershing wanted a larger scale offensive on the Germans. The Entente was unwilling to do so. The French had but a few troops to spare given the huge casualties they had suffered. The British, despite having to divert troops to enforce conscription in Ireland, had more troops available. They were not however interested in attacking the Germans. Rather the British were interested in “knocking away the props” as they saw it, no decisive result could be achieved against the Germans before spring of 1919, while a decisive result could be achieved against the Ottomans much sooner. The French supported the British in this matter.

The disagreements reached the highest levels as Wilson, Lloyd-George and Clemenceau exchanged angry telegrams. Wilson, and the American political establishment of both parties, was convinced, not without reason, the Anglo-French were attempting a blatant landgrab at the expense of the greater war effort. The Anglo-French did little to disprove this view, being willing to allow the Americans to continue to launch limited offensives but doing little to help.

Eventually Italian Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando proposed a compromise. Only the most minimal of attacks would be launched on the Western front, with the limited aim of securing better jumping off points for the decisive offensive of 1919, but the British and French would participate equally. Instead the Americans would transfer a Corps to Italy to join in the Italian fall offensive while the Americans would take over a slightly greater share of the Western front. The compromise was accepted but the argument revealed and deepened the rift between the Entente powers.

It also extended the war by months. The Germans in the fall of 1918 were heavily overextended and in need of reinforcement and reorganization. A major offensive, while unlikely to shatter them would have forced them to take disproportionate casualties and give up great amounts of ground at an inconvenient time. However Germany was given the time they needed to make the war that much more expensive…

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




Somewhat short and not as good/coherent as I wanted but as with my other TL blame Sid (WTF does the AI need 150 battering rams for?)