Have the 1918 Spring Offensive be more successful before too many American troops can pour into France?
What else would be needed to happen?You really hit the basic idea on the head here; the only way to really make this work is a "Too late" scenario where the US enters the War without enough time to bring her weight to bare
I wonder how that would effect American-German relations after the war...You really hit the basic idea on the head here; the only way to really make this work is a "Too late" scenario where the US enters the War without enough time to bring her weight to bare
Perhaps the Americans try to help the British in knocking out the Ottomans in the Middle East.Only way to get the USA to lose in 1918 would be for the Yellowstone Caldera pops.
Otherwise, how you get the USA to sign a peace treaty?
Having all of Europe controlled by Germans in the next War didn't get the US to fold, so why now?
Maybe USA-Britain-France-Austria-Ottomans vs. Germany-Russia-Italy (if that could actually happen, maybe over Germany backing Serbia or something)another possibility - US fights with a screwed version of a Germany-Russia alliance, one that really losing the war badly. In the end the US fails to save them.
How could the Germans succeed at the 1918 Offensive? Especially with Americans coming in?Germany I think in the grand scheme of things would let the US off the hook in a peace agreement. After all, they wanted to trade, and the Mexico stuff probably was never all that serious. I think Germany probably demands control over some contested Pacific Islands and maybe some kind of Panama Canal access or share of control.
The US probably becomes more isolationist and Anglophobic after WW1 than in OTL.
But how to bring this about? Well, you have to have France collapse in the 1918 offensive.
Germany must offer the US a white peace. American troops leave France without harassment. No indemnity. If they are smart they cede German Samoa (occupied by the UK & NZ) to the US thus causing strife between the three,
I suppose it'd have to be a direct drive for the Channel Ports rather than an attempt to sunder the British from the French. If they are somehow able to stack up all of that Eastern front strength coming in and do so in the Ypres region, with holding diversionary assaults up and down the line that cause the Allies to make a big mistake and commit reserves to be thrown into the centre, before launching a shock assault near the coast and start rolling up the BEF and taking their ports, they could get the momentum to keep it going to the point where the BEF folds in on itself and the Germans hit open country somewhere in between Boulogne and Normandy, then the entire Allied defense becomes compromised, with Belgium basically knocked out of the war and the BEF being flanked.How could the Germans succeed at the 1918 Offensive? Especially with Americans coming in?
Perhaps the Americans try to help the British in knocking out the Ottomans in the Middle East.
What kind of effect would de facto losing a war have on the American consciousness? Animosity towards Germany? Super-isolationism? Would the Germans, now a world power, try to limit the influence of their biggest rival other than Britain (if Britain doesn’t fall to revolution following a disasterous German offensive)?German Spring Offensive take Amiens and Hazebrouck, forcing the BEF to destroy 90% of its equipment and withdraw from the continent. The French, with their flank now open, are forced to abandon Northern France and fall back on Paris to restore a cohesive line. Even worse, the loss of the Bethune has removed the main source of coal to Paris, which constituted 70% of French war production; IOTL German shelling was sufficient to cause disruptions, so outright taking the mines/cutting the railways will lead to major ramifications quickly. With a situation of the Brits out for a year and the French alone with an inability to sustain their forces materially, defeat is inevitable. If by some impossible miracle they do hold long enough for American units to start arriving, they'll be poorly equipped as the AEF was rather dependent on French weapons and wouldn't be able to make up for the lack of the Commonwealth until 1919.
In short, regardless of whether the U.S. signs a Treaty, they'll still be de facto on the losing side.
What kind of effect would de facto losing a war have on the American consciousness? Animosity towards Germany? Super-isolationism? Would the Germans, now a world power, try to limit the influence of their biggest rival other than Britain (if Britain doesn’t fall to revolution following a disasterous German offensive)?
It might make the US more aggressive in foreign policy, at least within our own hemisphere, while more isolationist overseas at the same time.What kind of effect would de facto losing a war have on the American consciousness? Animosity towards Germany? Super-isolationism? Would the Germans, now a world power, try to limit the influence of their biggest rival other than Britain (if Britain doesn’t fall to revolution following a disasterous German offensive)?