CaliGuy
Banned
Yes, they would; after all, no Italy = more CP troops for use against Britain & France on the Western Front, no?Should Italy get hammered enough and leave the war would France/Uk actually care?
So, Petain was willing to allow Germany to occupy eastern Lorraine?Good question, Petain wanted to pull out immediately, the French government, afraid of a vote of no confidence said he had to stay regardless of cost. I think they'd force the military to stay and die until parliament toppled the government and allowed a withdrawal. I have no idea what that point would be though. USW was never contemplated under Falkenhayn due to the civilian government's opposition; that only changed once H-L took over and did their 'soft' dictatorship that forced the civilian government to comply to their demands. The Kaiser was effectively a political non-entity at that point. Shortages were bearable in 1916 all things considered, they only became serious in the winter of 1916-17 because of the insane production plan H-L devised that effectively collapsed a bunch of sectors of the German economy, which 1917-18 were spent recovering from. Falkenhayn saw the Verdun attrition as the solution to the strategic dilemma he faced: bleed the French so badly that the Brits launch their offensive prematurely before their conscript army was prepared to fight, bleed them on strong defenses on the Somme, then negotiate an end to the war on the backs of the destroyed combat power of the Entente (he also assumed Russia was more beaten than it was...but then Brusilov's success was a function of Conrad and his generals' massive incompetence).
Also, it's interesting that H & L first screwed over sectors of the German economy and then brought the U.S. into the war; indeed, those two resulted in little but trouble for Germany after Tannenberg, no?