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A Life that saved Millions

Fromelles July 19, 1916.

6th Bavarian Reserve Division.

Gefreiter Adolf Hitler had just received a message to take bavk to regimental headquarters when he is shot in the back by a British officer.

Incensed by the loss of their friend and komrade the Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment 16 did not stop fighting when the Entente forces withdrew back to their lines.
The Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment 16 went on the offensive routing the British 61st division.
The 6th Bavarian Reserve division on hearing of the route of the British division decided that a local counter attack might take some pressure from the German forces at the Battle of the Somme reinforced the Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment 16.
Little did the Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment 16 know that their unauthorised actions would change the course of the war.

By July 23rd the 6th Bavarian division called high command asking for reinforcements for their surprisingly successful offensive.
General Feldmarshal Falkenhayn read the news of the success of 6th Bavarian reserve divisions counterattack with something akin to awe.
The 6th Bavarian reserve division had destroyed two Entente divisions and was fighting a third.
They had taken heavy losses but had seized a massive salient including the East bank of the river Lys.
Looking at the tactical maps General Feldmarshal Falkenhayn decides to roll the dice and orders a massive reinforcement of the 6th Bavarian reserve division from the theatre reserves.
General Feldmarshal Falkenhayn hopes that with these forces he can replicate the Race for the sea from 1914 and draw Entente reserves from the Battle of the Somme.

Once again the 6th Bavarian Reserve Division assumes defensive positions while it regenerates it's forces.
As it does the reinforcements streak past to resume the offensive.

By the 31th of August 1916 much to the surprise of General Feldmarshal Falkenhaynthis offensive is a massive success ending up with the capture of Abbeville and the cutting off of all Entente forces
in Northern France and Belgium.
The success of this new offensive when it was least expected by the Entente made General Feldmarshal Falkenhayn realise that instead of a supporting attack as this was meant to be he now had two major offensives one that was drawing more and more resources from the battle of the Somme for both the Entente and the Central Powers.
Once Abbeville was taken General Feldmarshal Falkenhayn ordered the newly designated 6th Bavarian Amry Corps to build defenses to the south while attacking to the North with the assistance of Armies in Northern France and Belgium attacking south to destroy all Entente forces in the theatre.
By the end of 1916 both the Central Powers and the Entente had fought to a stand still in France with massive casualties on both sides.
Yet it was the Central Powers that had the upper hand for they had retained the territory they had gained from the second race for the sea.
During the winter months General Feldmarshal Falkenhayn had a vast system of fixed defenses built from Abbeville to Verdun freeing many divisions for the army reserves.

While this was happening, in December 1916, Kaiser Wilhelm II and the German government attempted to negotiate peace with Central Powers.
They were unsuccessful.
However in April 1917 as series of French army mutinies just as the Germans were preparing for a new offensive caused a rethink on the part of the British Empire.
With the French struggling to bring the muties under control they grudgingly aggreed with the British for a ceasefire while negiotations took place.

With the Western front quiet the Germans and Austro-Hungarians upped the pressure on the Italians and Russians.
With the Russian Tsar already abdicated the Russian Provisional government bite the bullet and signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

With the Russians out of the war, the Italians suffering serious defeats the British Empire decided to make the best of a bad situation and made a seperate peace with the Central Powers while the French were still debating what concessions could be given and received for peace.

For Great Britain, they lost little in the peace treaty only having to return Germany's colonies renounce their claims on the Ottoman lands and give the Ottoman Empire two superdreadnoughts.
The real cost to the British Empire would be financial as they had to pay their own war costs.

The French and Italians were dismayed when the news broke of the Russian surrender followed by the British announcement that it was withdrawing from the war.
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