Kick
1914: The Beginning
War plans – Battle of the Frontiers
At the outbreak of the First World War, the German Army, with seven field armies in the west and one in the east, executed a modified version of the Schlieffen Plan, moving quickly through neutral Belgium to attack France, and then turning southwards to encircle the French Army and trap it on the German border.[11] The Western Front was the place where the most powerful military forces in Europe, the German and French armies, met and where the war was decided.[12] Belgian neutrality had been guaranteed by Britain under the Treaty of London, 1839; this caused Britain to join the war at the expiration of its ultimatum at midnight on 4 August. Armies under German generals Alexander von Kluck and Karl von Bülow attacked Belgium on 4 August 1914. Luxembourg had been occupied without opposition on 2 August. The first battle in Belgium was the Siege of Liège, which lasted from 5–16 August. Liège was well fortified and surprised the German Army under Bülow with its level of resistance. German heavy artillery was able to demolish the main forts within a few days.[13] Following the fall of Liège, most of the Belgian field army retreated to Antwerp, leaving the garrison of Namur isolated, with the Belgian capital, Brussels, falling to the Germans on 20 August. Although the German army bypassed Antwerp, it remained a threat to their flank. Another siege followed at Namur, lasting from about 20–23 August.[14]
The French deployed five armies on the frontier. The French Plan XVII was intended to bring about the capture of Alsace-Lorraine.[15] On 7 August, the VII Corps attacked Alsace to capture Mulhouse and Colmar. The main offensive was launched on 14 August with the First and Second Armies attacking toward Sarrebourg-Morhange in Lorraine.[16] In keeping with the Schlieffen Plan, the Germans withdrew slowly while inflicting severe losses upon the French. The French Third and Fourth Armies advanced toward the Saar River and attempted to capture Saarburg, attacking Briey and Neufchateau but were repulsed.[17] The French VII Corps captured Mulhouse after a brief engagement on 7 August but German reserve forces engaged them in the Battle of Mulhouse and forced a French retreat.[18]
The German Army swept through Belgium, executing civilians and razing villages. The application of "collective responsibility" against a civilian population further galvanised the allies. Newspapers condemned the German invasion, violence against civilians and destruction of property, which became known as the "Rape of Belgium".[19][d] After marching through Belgium, Luxembourg and the Ardennes, the Germans advanced into northern France in late August, where they met the French Army, under Joseph Joffre, and the divisions of the British Expeditionary Force under Field Marshal Sir John French. A series of engagements known as the Battle of the Frontiers ensued, which included the Battle of Charleroi and the Battle of Mons. In the former battle the French Fifth Army was almost destroyed by the German 2nd and 3rd Armies and the latter delayed the German advance by a day. A general Allied retreat followed, resulting in more clashes at the Battle of Le Cateau, the Siege of Maubeuge and the Battle of St. Quentin (also called the First Battle of Guise).[21]
First Battle of the Marne
The German Army came within 70 km (43 mi) of Paris but at the First Battle of the Marne (6–12 September), French and British troops were able to force a German retreat by exploiting a gap which appeared between the 1st and 2nd Armies, ending the German advance into France.[22] The German Army retreated north of the Aisne River and dug in there, establishing the beginnings of a static western front that was to last for the next three years. Following this German retirement, the opposing forces made reciprocal outflanking manoeuvres, known as the Race for the Sea and quickly extended their trench systems from the Swiss frontier to the North Sea.[23] The territory occupied by Germany held 64 percent of French pig-iron production, 24 percent of its steel manufacturing and 40 percent of the coal industry – dealing a serious blow to French industry.[24]
On the Entente side (those countries opposing the German alliance), the final lines were occupied with the armies of each nation defending a part of the front. From the coast in the north, the primary forces were from Belgium, the British Empire and then France. Following the Battle of the Yser in October, the Belgian army controlled a 35 km (22 mi) length of West Flanders along the coast, known as the Yser Front, along the Yser river and the Yperlee canal, from Nieuwpoort to Boesinghe.[25] Meanwhile, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) occupied a position on the flank, having occupied a more central position.[26]
First Battle of Ypres
From 19 October until 22 November, the German forces made their final breakthrough attempt of 1914 during the First Battle of Ypres, which ended in a mutually-costly stalemate.[27] After the battle, Erich von Falkenhayn judged that it was no longer possible for Germany to win the war by purely military means and on 18 November 1914 he called for a diplomatic solution. The Chancellor, Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg; Generalfeldmarschall Paul von Hindenburg, commanding Ober Ost (Eastern Front high command); and his deputy, Erich Ludendorff, continued to believe that victory was achievable through decisive battles. During the Lodz offensive in Poland (11–25 November), Falkenhayn hoped that the Russians would be made amenable to peace overtures. In his discussions with Bethmann-Hollweg, Falkenhayn viewed Germany and Russia as having no insoluble conflict and that the real enemies of Germany were France and Britain. A peace with only a few annexations of territory also seemed possible with France and that with Russia and France out of the war by negotiated settlements, Germany could concentrate on Britain and fight a long war with the resources of Europe at its disposal. Hindenburg and Ludendorff continued to believe that Russia could be defeated by a series of battles which cumulatively would have a decisive effect, after which Germany could finish off France and Britain.[28]
1915: Weltkrieg goes on...
Map of the Western Front, 1915–16
Between the coast and the Vosges was a westward bulge in the trench line, named the Noyon salient for the captured French town at the maximum point of advance near Compiègne. Joffre's plan for 1915 was to attack the salient on both flanks to cut it off.[29] The Fourth Army had attacked in Champagne from 20 December 1914 – 17 March 1915 but the French were not able to attack in Artois at the same time. The Tenth Army formed the northern attack force and was to attack eastwards into the Douai plain across a 16-kilometre (9.9 mi) front between Loos and Arras.[30] On 10 March, as part of the larger offensive in the Artois region, the British Army fought the Battle of Neuve Chapelle to capture Aubers Ridge. The assault was made by four divisions along a 2 mi (3.2 km) front. Preceded by a surprise bombardment lasting only 35 minutes, the initial assault made rapid progress and the village was captured within four hours. The advance then slowed because of supply and communication difficulties. The Germans brought up reserves and counter-attacked, forestalling the attempt to capture the ridge. Since the British had used about one-third of their supply of artillery ammunition, General Sir John French blamed the failure on the shortage of ammunition, despite the early success.[31][32]
Gas Warfare: Poison in War.
A
sides had signed the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, which prohibited the use of chemical weapons in warfare. In 1914, there had been small-scale attempts by both the French and Germans to use various tear gases, which were not strictly prohibited by the early treaties but which were also ineffective.[33] The first use of more lethal chemical weapons was against the French near the Belgian town of Ypres.[34]
Despite the German plans to maintain the stalemate with the French and British, Albrecht, Duke of Württemberg, commander of the 4th Army planned an offensive at Ypres, site of the First Battle of Ypres in November 1914. The Second Battle of Ypres, April 1915, was intended to divert attention from offensives in the Eastern Front and disrupt Franco-British planning. After a two-day bombardment, the Germans released a cloud of 168 long tons (171 t) of chlorine gas onto the battlefield. Though primarily a powerful irritant, it can asphyxiate in high concentrations or prolonged exposure. Being heavier than air, the gas crept across no man's land and drifted into the French trenches.[35] The green-yellow cloud started killing some defenders and those in the rear fled in panic, creating an undefended 3.7-mile (6 km) gap in the Allied line. The Germans were unprepared for the level of their success and lacked sufficient reserves to exploit the opening. Canadian troops on the right drew back their left flank and halted the German advance.[36] The gas attack was repeated two days later and caused a 3.1 mi (5 km) withdrawal of the Franco-British line but the opportunity had been lost.[37]
The success of this attack would not be repeated, as the Allies countered by introducing gas masks and other countermeasures. An example of the success of these measures came a year later, on 27 April in the Gas attacks at Hulluch 40 km (25 mi) to the south of Ypres, where the 16th (Irish) Division withstood several German gas attacks.[38] The British retaliated, developing their own chlorine gas and using it at the Battle of Loos in September 1915. Fickle winds and inexperience led to more British casualties from the gas than German.[39] French, British and German forces all escalated the use of gas attacks through the rest of the war, developing the more deadly phosgene gas in 1915, then the infamous mustard gas in 1917, which could linger for days and could kill slowly and painfully. Countermeasures also improved and the stalemate continued.[40]
Air Warfare: The Battle of the Skies
Specialised aeroplanes for aerial combat were introduced in 1915. Aircraft were already in use for scouting and on 1 April, the French pilot Roland Garros became the first to shoot down an enemy aircraft by using a machine-gun that shot forward through the propeller blades. This was achieved by crudely reinforcing the blades to deflect bullets.[41] Several weeks later Garros force-landed behind German lines. His aeroplane was captured and sent to Dutch engineer Anthony Fokker, who soon produced a significant improvement, the interrupter gear, in which the machine gun is synchronised with the propeller so it fires in the intervals when the blades of the propeller are out of the line of fire. This advance was quickly ushered into service, in the Fokker E.I (Eindecker, or monoplane, Mark 1), the first single seat fighter aircraft to combine a reasonable maximum speed with an effective armament. Max Immelmann scored the first confirmed kill in an Eindecker on 1 August.[42] Both sides developed improved weapons, engines, airframes and materials, until the end of the war. It also inaugurated the cult of the ace, the most famous being Manfred von Richthofen (the Red Baron). Contrary to the myth, anti-aircraft fire claimed more kills than fighters.[43]
Spring Offensive
The final Entente offensive of the spring was the Second Battle of Artois, an offensive to capture Vimy Ridge and advance into the Douai plain. The French Tenth Army attacked on 9 May after a six-day bombardment and advanced 5 kilometres (3 mi) to capture Vimy Ridge. German reinforcements counter-attacked and pushed the French back towards their starting points because French reserves had been held back and the success of the attack had come as a surprise. By 15 May the advance had been stopped, although the fighting continued until 18 June.[44] In May the German Army captured a French document at La Ville-aux-Bois describing a new system of defence. Rather than relying on a heavily fortified front line, the defence was to be arranged in a series of echelons. The front line would be a thinly manned series of outposts, reinforced by a series of strongpoints and a sheltered reserve. If a slope was available, troops were deployed along the rear side for protection. The defence became fully integrated with command of artillery at the divisional level. Members of the German high command viewed this new scheme with some favour and it later became the basis of an elastic defence in depth doctrine against Entente attacks.[45][46]
During the autumn of 1915, the "Fokker Scourge" began to have an effect on the battlefront as Allied reconnaissance aircraft were nearly driven from the skies. These reconnaissance planes were used to direct gunnery and photograph enemy fortifications but now the Allies were nearly blinded by German fighters.[47] However, the impact of German air superiority was diminished by their primarily defensive doctrine in which they tended to remain over their own lines, rather than fighting over Allied held territory.[48]
Autumn Offensive
In September 1915 the Entente allies launched another offensive, with the French Third Battle of Artois, Second Battle of Champagne and the British at Loos. The French had spent the summer preparing for this action, with the British assuming control of more of the front to release French troops for the attack. The bombardment, which had been carefully targeted by means of aerial photography,[49] began on 22 September. The main French assault was launched on 25 September and, at first, made good progress in spite of surviving wire entanglements and machine gun posts. Rather than retreating, the Germans adopted a new defence-in-depth scheme that consisted of a series of defensive zones and positions with a depth of up to 8.0 km (5 mi).[50]
On 25 September, the British began the Battle of Loos, part of the Third Battle of Artois, which was meant to supplement the larger Champagne attack. The attack was preceded by a four-day artillery bombardment of 250,000 shells and a release of 5,100 cylinders of chlorine gas.[51][52] The attack involved two corps in the main assault and two corps performing diversionary attacks at Ypres. The British suffered heavy losses, especially due to machine gun fire during the attack and made only limited gains before they ran out of shells. A renewal of the attack on 13 October fared little better.[53] In December, French was replaced by General Douglas Haig as commander of the British forces.[54]
1916: The Year of Verdun
German soldier on the Western Front in 1916
Falkenhayn believed that a breakthrough might no longer be possible and instead focused on forcing a French defeat by inflicting massive casualties.[55] His new goal was to "bleed France white".[56] As such, he adopted two new strategies. The first was the use of unrestricted submarine warfare to cut off Allied supplies arriving from overseas. (the Kaiser would discontinue this practice later, to not provoke America). The second would be attacks against the French army intended to inflict maximum casualties; Falkenhayn planned to attack a position from which the French could not retreat, for reasons of strategy and national pride and thus trap the French. The town of Verdun was chosen for this because it was an important stronghold, surrounded by a ring of forts, that lay near the German lines and because it guarded the direct route to Paris.[58]
Falkenhayn limited the size of the front to 5–6 kilometres (3–4 mi) to concentrate artillery firepower and to prevent a breakthrough from a counter-offensive. He also kept tight control of the main reserve, feeding in just enough troops to keep the battle going.[59] In preparation for their attack, the Germans had amassed a concentration of aircraft near the fortress. In the opening phase, they swept the air space of French aircraft, which allowed German artillery-observation aircraft and bombers to operate without interference. In May, the French countered by deploying escadrilles de chasse with superior Nieuport fighters and the air over Verdun turned into a battlefield as both sides fought for air superiority.[60]
Battle of Verdun
The Battle of Verdun began on 21 February 1916 after a nine-day delay due to snow and blizzards. After a massive eight-hour artillery bombardment, the Germans did not expect much resistance as they slowly advanced on Verdun and its forts.[61] Sporadic French resistance was encountered. The Germans took Fort Douaumont and then reinforcements halted the German advance by 28 February.[62]
The Germans turned their focus to Le Mort Homme on the west bank of the Meuse which blocked the route to French artillery emplacements, from which the French fired across the river. After some of the most intense fighting of the campaign, the hill was taken by the Germans in late May. After a change in French command at Verdun from the defensive-minded Philippe Pétain to the offensive-minded Robert Nivelle, the French attempted to re-capture Fort Douaumont on 22 May but were easily repulsed. The Germans captured Fort Vaux on 7 June and with the aid of diphosgene gas, came within 1 kilometre (1,100 yd) of the last ridge before Verdun before being contained on 23 June.[63]
Over the summer, the French slowly advanced. With the development of the rolling barrage, the French recaptured Fort Vaux in November and by December 1916 they had pushed the Germans back 2.1 kilometres (1.3 mi) from Fort Douaumont, in the process rotating 42 divisions through the battle. The Battle of Verdun—also known as the 'Mincing Machine of Verdun' or 'Meuse Mill'[64]—became a symbol of French determination and self-sacrifice.[65]
Battle of the Somme
British infantry advance near Ginchy. Photo by Ernest Brooks.
In the spring, Allied commanders had been concerned about the ability of the French Army to withstand the enormous losses at Verdun. The original plans for an attack around the River Somme were modified to let the British make the main effort. This would serve to relieve pressure on the French, as well as the Russians who had also suffered great losses. On 1 July, after a week of heavy rain, British divisions in Picardy began the Battle of the Somme with the Battle of Albert, supported by five French divisions on their right flank. The attack had been preceded by seven days of heavy artillery bombardment. The experienced French forces were successful in advancing but the British artillery cover had neither blasted away barbed wire, nor destroyed German trenches as effectively as was planned. They suffered the greatest number of casualties (killed, wounded and missing) in a single day in the history of the British Army, about 57,000.[66]
The Verdun lesson learnt, the Allies' tactical aim became the achievement of air superiority and until September, German aircraft were swept from the skies over the Somme. The success of the Allied air offensive caused a reorganisation of the German air arm and both sides began using large formations of aircraft rather than relying on individual combat.[67] After regrouping, the battle continued throughout July and August, with some success for the British despite the reinforcement of the German lines. By August, General Haig had concluded that a breakthrough was unlikely and instead, switched tactics to a series of small unit actions.[68] The effect was to straighten out the front line, which was thought necessary in preparation for a massive artillery bombardment with a major push.[69]
The final phase of the battle of the Somme saw the first use of the tank on the battlefield.[70] The Allies prepared an attack that would involve 13 British and Imperial divisions and four French corps. The attack made early progress, advancing 3,200–4,100 metres (3,500–4,500 yd) in places but the tanks had little effect due to their lack of numbers and mechanical unreliability.[71] The final phase of the battle took place in October and early November, again producing limited gains with heavy loss of life. All told, the Somme battle had made penetrations of only 8 kilometres (5 mi) and failed to reach the original objectives. The British had suffered about 420,000 casualties and the French around 200,000. It is estimated that the Germans lost 465,000, although this figure is controversial.[72]
The Somme led directly to major new developments in infantry organisation and tactics; despite the terrible losses of 1 July, some divisions had managed to achieve their objectives with minimal casualties. In examining the reasons behind losses and achievements, once the British war economy produced sufficient equipment and weapons, the army made the platoon the basic tactical unit, similar to the French and German armies. At the time of the Somme, British senior commanders insisted that the company (120 men) was the smallest unit of manoeuvre; less than a year later, the section of ten men would be so.[73]
Hindenburg Line: The German Maginot Line
In August 1916 the German leadership along the western front had changed as Falkenhayn resigned and was replaced by Hindenburg and Ludendorff. The new leaders soon recognised that the battles of Verdun and the Somme had depleted the offensive capabilities of the German Army. They decided that the German Army in the west would go over to the strategic defensive for most of 1917, while the Central powers would attack elsewhere.[74]
During the Somme battle and through the winter months, the Germans created a fortification behind the Noyon Salient that would be called the Hindenburg Line, using the defensive principles elaborated since the defensive battles of 1915, including the use of Eingreif divisions.[75] This was intended to shorten the German front, freeing 10 divisions for other duties. This line of fortifications ran from Arras south to St Quentin and shortened the front by about 50 kilometres (30 mi).[74] British long-range reconnaissance aircraft first spotted the construction of the Hindenburg Line in November 1916.[76]
1917: The Year of Divergence
Map of the Western Front, 1917
The Hindenburg Line was built between 2[77] and 50 kilometres (30 mi) behind the German front line. On 25 February German forces began retreating to the line and the withdrawal was completed on 5 April, leaving behind a devastated territory to be occupied by the Allies. This withdrawal negated the French strategy of attacking both flanks of the Noyon salient, as it no longer existed.[78] However, offensive advances by the British continued as the High Command claimed, with some justice, that this withdrawal resulted from the casualties the Germans received during the Battles of the Somme and Verdun, despite the Allies suffering greater losses.[79]
Warning: From this point, is the diverging point, where the Kaiserreich timeline fades away from ours..
Unrestricted submarine warfare, although a crucial part of the German efforts to break the blockade and starve the British, it wasn't carried out against US ships. The German High Command was keen to keeping America neutral. Germany sent spies into the neutral nation, and were ordered to spread propaganda, building up anti British feelings, especially for the Irish Americans and the German Americans.
America almost intervened, when at the end of the year, a British freighter torpedoed and sank a US freighter carrying Christmas presents to Germany, which was mistaken for a German ship. Caught between public outrage and financial ties, President Wilson allows future ships through after a thorough inspection or sanctions will be applied. 1918 was the dawn of the expected, with Russia exiting the war due to revolt, and Germany in position to topple the Entente.
1918: Start of Eventual Defeat
As 1918 opened both sides could see both victory and defeat looming closer. The fall of Russia allowed thousands of German troops to head west, and thousands of Austrian troops to head for Italy and Greece (which had finally joined the Entente in 1917). However, the effects of the British blockade were becoming increasingly intolerable, and the Ottoman Empire likewise seemed to be collapsing slowly. Surprisingly, the German High Command chose to maintain a defensive posture for the year, at least in the west. They gambled that the collapse of Russia and the opening of its resources to Germany, particularly the Ukraine, would alleviate the worst effects of the blockade. Moreover, it would give them the time to prepare for a grand offensive in 1919 with overwhelming strength. To aid this, smaller offensives were planned to destroy the Entente forces at Salonika and to aid the Turks, thus allowing for better concentration of forces in 1919.
Meanwhile the Entente decided that a massive offensive in the west was needed before Germany could strengthen its forces there with its recently-returned Eastern divisions. Dubbed the 'Great Western Offensive,' the attack was planned for March and involved a near simultaneous thrust on no less than five different points along the front. While this hampered attempts to concentrate attacking forces, it was hoped that the German line and mobile reserve would not be able to defend so many places at once. Attempts were made to replicate the new tactics devised at Cambrai. Unfortunately it proved impossible to achieve surprise with such a large attack. Moreover the Germans decision to defend meant they had taken the time to devise counter-measures for the tanks. As such, when the attack was finally launched, it immediately became bogged down. The strong defences of the Hindenberg Line proved too much for the Entente forces. Only in the British attack on Lille was any notable success achieved - indeed it only proved worthwhile in the following year, as it allowed thousands more British troops to escape France. Elsewhere, the attack proved to be a costly waste of time, with over 800,000 Entente casualties.
As the offensive died down during early June, the Germans launched Operation Teutoberg, a combined German/Austrian/Bulgarian attack on Greece and the Salonika beach-head. Ludendorff used the offensive to perfect his new attack methods trialed previously in the attack on Riga, which involved the use of small storm trooper squads infiltrating enemy lines ahead of the main advance. Once again the new tactics proved very successful. While the Austrians and Bulgarians pinned down the allied forces at Salonika the German divisions swept through Greece. Athens fell on July 3rd and Britain soon had to mount an evacuation operation to extract the remnants of the Greek army from the Peloponnese.
With Greece out of the war the German forces returned north and drove the allies back into Salonika proper. The siege of Salonika lasted 5 months until December 28th, when the last allied forces were evacuated by the British Navy. News remained bright for the Entente in the Near East however. Allenby’s forces staged a massive attack on Turkish positions in September. In the most brilliant use of cavalry seen in the entire war Allenby managed to trap and destroy around 80% of the Turkish army, captured Damascus and soon swept through Syria. The remnants of Turkish forces, hurriedly reinforced by two German and one Austrian division retired back into Asia Minor, planning to dig in and defend the mountain passes onto the central Anatolian plateau.
As the year that marked the end of the post-Jutland stalemate opened, it appeared that the Entente had the upper hand. The Royal Navy’s increasing success against the U-Boat menace was due to the combined effects of convoying and further developments in naval aviation. Many observers believed that the German High Seas Fleet would ride out the war in harbour for fear of the RN, however in the first week of November the HSF put to sea out of sheer desperation in a final attempt to break the British blockade.
The Imperial German High Seas Fleet at full steam.
Under the command of Admiral von Hipper, the HSF managed to score a remarkable victory over the RN on the 11th of that month in what became known as the Second Battle of Jutland. The actual losses of the two fleets where almost equal however the shock to an over confident RN was enough to force them back to port. The year closed with the HSF poised to roam the Atlantic at will and with the RN licking it wounds at Scapa Flow.
1919: The End of Hope
Planning for Germany’s Great Spring Offensive had being going on for over a year. New equipment, tactics and logistics had been developed, many of which were tested in the Greek offensive. Since the fall of Greece a second offensive had also been planned, known as Operation Radowitz, which called for an envelopment of the Italian army at the Piave by an attack from Trento. Germany sent four elite alpine divisions to spearhead the attack.
The Spring Offensive was launched on the 2nd March. The German 1st and 8th Armies attacked the French lines at St. Mihiel to the south of Verdun. The storm trooper tactics worked once more, albeit not as stunningly as at Riga in 1917, or in Greece the year before. After five days of heavy fighting, the Germans broke out of the St. Mihiel salient. German planners had been careful this time to have ready a large and mobile reserve which now penetrated through the gap. German forces quickly pushed west and south. Verdun itself became surrounded on the 14th and the siege began a day later while Nancy fell on the 16th. Allied divisions rushed to the front managed to slow the German advance as it approached the Marne and soon another stalemate seemed likely. However on the 26th March another German attack was launched on French positions near Reims. While the attack had been hastily organised it succeeded partly because the allies were too overstretched and so couldn't defend the line properly. With the capture of Reims the new allied lines near the Marne were outflanked. At this point the German 6th Army showed great skill. In three days they pushed through all opposition to capture Château-Thierry. This blocked the path of retreat from the Marne back to Paris and so split the French forces. While a large portion retreated southward the rest fell back on Paris. The only remaining entrenched zones were now the British lines to the North.
Meanwhile the Germans struck north and south and began to encircle Paris. The attack in Trento, begun on the 11th March, was also proving a success. Helping this was the denuding of that front by the allies in order to get reinforcements north into France. A lightning advance by the Central Powers saw them reach Verona and Vicenza on the 24th. The Italians hurriedly began to pull back from the Piave line but far too late for many. Despite strong opposition from an Australian division that held the road to Padua for three days single-handedly the Central Powers were able to push forward and reached the Adriatic coast south of Venice on the 10th April, trapping over 60% of the Italian army in doing so.
Italian morale plummeted quickly, just as it had done at Caporetto. Nevertheless it was only on the 8th June that the last Italian resistance in the pocket outside Venice surrendered. Meanwhile Venice itself came under fierce siege. The arrival of much of the Italian army in the city made defence easier but supply a lot harder. Luckily the Austrian navy was in no state to blockade Venice and so sea-supply routes were soon set up. While all this was occurring other Austrian forces were pushing southwards, aiming at seizing Rome before the end of the year. In France, Paris was surrounded by the beginning of May, and victorious the German forces halted to regroup and plan their next offensive. This proved to be a mistake, for it gave time for much of the British army to pull back and retreat slowly towards the Channel Ports. Thus, when the Germans began a new drive for the coast around Dieppe in June, the British had already managed to get the bulk of their army out of the trap by an extended naval evacuation. A few Belgian units were also evacuated, but returned home soon after with the surrender of their country.
Following the collapse of Italy, Empress Zewditu of Ethiopia approached Germany and offered to join the Central Powers in exchange for being able to annex the lands Italy had stolen from her. Lacking any interest in them, the Kaiser agreed.
In both France and Italy, the Entente was in full retreat. Paris and Venice were both under siege while German, Austrian and Bulgarian armies raced southwards down the country at a speed which seemed incredible next to the pace of trench warfare that had dominated the prior years of the war. In the end, Rome fell on the 1st of August. Five days later, Italy unconditionally surrendered to the Germans in the hopes of avoiding Austria’s harsh terms. What little remained of a coherent Italian army was still pinned in Venice, while its capital and industrial heartland had fallen. The surrender of Italy also allowed a southern invasion of France. Marseilles fell in late September, but by then it was clear that France too was doomed.
Thus on the 4th of October, with Paris only weeks away from surrender, the French government likewise chose to surrender to the Germans, their decision no doubt hastened by the rising radicalism amongst the working class soldiery. This left Britain as the only remaining major Entente power left in the war, although Japan remained strong in the east too. In Turkey, Allenby had been recalled to help defend France. His successor, Sir William Marshall, launched two attacks on the Turkish defences which failed only due to a shortage of men. But with the Central Powers free to reinforce Turkey next year, it was clear that Britain was in deep trouble. Thus, on November 11th, 1919, representatives of the two sides met in Copenhagen to sign a ceasefire. But the guns did not fall silent completely.
1919 - The War at Sea
To coincide with the German Army’s spring offensive, the HSF was ordered to strike at targets of opportunity, particularly in the French Navy that was at this stage in open mutiny. Battlecruiser raids on Entente convoys where actually rarer than the RN feared, although this did not stop the adoption of a disastrous policy of de-convoying that lead to an upsurge in U-Boat attacks. Despite the country’s official neutrality, German warships often coaled in Spanish ports, allowing them to operate with deadly efficiency against the French.
By May, the British had decided to detach single vessels from the fleet to effectively commandeer the French Navy, which lead to the supreme irony of French warships assisting the evacuation of British troops in June, a move that effectively doomed the French government. The final months of the year saw a slow attrition of the RN by an increasingly assertive von Hipper including the destruction of the Aerodrome Ship HMS Furious on 4th October, the very day of the French surrender.
War plans – Battle of the Frontiers
At the outbreak of the First World War, the German Army, with seven field armies in the west and one in the east, executed a modified version of the Schlieffen Plan, moving quickly through neutral Belgium to attack France, and then turning southwards to encircle the French Army and trap it on the German border.[11] The Western Front was the place where the most powerful military forces in Europe, the German and French armies, met and where the war was decided.[12] Belgian neutrality had been guaranteed by Britain under the Treaty of London, 1839; this caused Britain to join the war at the expiration of its ultimatum at midnight on 4 August. Armies under German generals Alexander von Kluck and Karl von Bülow attacked Belgium on 4 August 1914. Luxembourg had been occupied without opposition on 2 August. The first battle in Belgium was the Siege of Liège, which lasted from 5–16 August. Liège was well fortified and surprised the German Army under Bülow with its level of resistance. German heavy artillery was able to demolish the main forts within a few days.[13] Following the fall of Liège, most of the Belgian field army retreated to Antwerp, leaving the garrison of Namur isolated, with the Belgian capital, Brussels, falling to the Germans on 20 August. Although the German army bypassed Antwerp, it remained a threat to their flank. Another siege followed at Namur, lasting from about 20–23 August.[14]
The French deployed five armies on the frontier. The French Plan XVII was intended to bring about the capture of Alsace-Lorraine.[15] On 7 August, the VII Corps attacked Alsace to capture Mulhouse and Colmar. The main offensive was launched on 14 August with the First and Second Armies attacking toward Sarrebourg-Morhange in Lorraine.[16] In keeping with the Schlieffen Plan, the Germans withdrew slowly while inflicting severe losses upon the French. The French Third and Fourth Armies advanced toward the Saar River and attempted to capture Saarburg, attacking Briey and Neufchateau but were repulsed.[17] The French VII Corps captured Mulhouse after a brief engagement on 7 August but German reserve forces engaged them in the Battle of Mulhouse and forced a French retreat.[18]
The German Army swept through Belgium, executing civilians and razing villages. The application of "collective responsibility" against a civilian population further galvanised the allies. Newspapers condemned the German invasion, violence against civilians and destruction of property, which became known as the "Rape of Belgium".[19][d] After marching through Belgium, Luxembourg and the Ardennes, the Germans advanced into northern France in late August, where they met the French Army, under Joseph Joffre, and the divisions of the British Expeditionary Force under Field Marshal Sir John French. A series of engagements known as the Battle of the Frontiers ensued, which included the Battle of Charleroi and the Battle of Mons. In the former battle the French Fifth Army was almost destroyed by the German 2nd and 3rd Armies and the latter delayed the German advance by a day. A general Allied retreat followed, resulting in more clashes at the Battle of Le Cateau, the Siege of Maubeuge and the Battle of St. Quentin (also called the First Battle of Guise).[21]
First Battle of the Marne
The German Army came within 70 km (43 mi) of Paris but at the First Battle of the Marne (6–12 September), French and British troops were able to force a German retreat by exploiting a gap which appeared between the 1st and 2nd Armies, ending the German advance into France.[22] The German Army retreated north of the Aisne River and dug in there, establishing the beginnings of a static western front that was to last for the next three years. Following this German retirement, the opposing forces made reciprocal outflanking manoeuvres, known as the Race for the Sea and quickly extended their trench systems from the Swiss frontier to the North Sea.[23] The territory occupied by Germany held 64 percent of French pig-iron production, 24 percent of its steel manufacturing and 40 percent of the coal industry – dealing a serious blow to French industry.[24]
On the Entente side (those countries opposing the German alliance), the final lines were occupied with the armies of each nation defending a part of the front. From the coast in the north, the primary forces were from Belgium, the British Empire and then France. Following the Battle of the Yser in October, the Belgian army controlled a 35 km (22 mi) length of West Flanders along the coast, known as the Yser Front, along the Yser river and the Yperlee canal, from Nieuwpoort to Boesinghe.[25] Meanwhile, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) occupied a position on the flank, having occupied a more central position.[26]
First Battle of Ypres
From 19 October until 22 November, the German forces made their final breakthrough attempt of 1914 during the First Battle of Ypres, which ended in a mutually-costly stalemate.[27] After the battle, Erich von Falkenhayn judged that it was no longer possible for Germany to win the war by purely military means and on 18 November 1914 he called for a diplomatic solution. The Chancellor, Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg; Generalfeldmarschall Paul von Hindenburg, commanding Ober Ost (Eastern Front high command); and his deputy, Erich Ludendorff, continued to believe that victory was achievable through decisive battles. During the Lodz offensive in Poland (11–25 November), Falkenhayn hoped that the Russians would be made amenable to peace overtures. In his discussions with Bethmann-Hollweg, Falkenhayn viewed Germany and Russia as having no insoluble conflict and that the real enemies of Germany were France and Britain. A peace with only a few annexations of territory also seemed possible with France and that with Russia and France out of the war by negotiated settlements, Germany could concentrate on Britain and fight a long war with the resources of Europe at its disposal. Hindenburg and Ludendorff continued to believe that Russia could be defeated by a series of battles which cumulatively would have a decisive effect, after which Germany could finish off France and Britain.[28]
1915: Weltkrieg goes on...
Map of the Western Front, 1915–16
Between the coast and the Vosges was a westward bulge in the trench line, named the Noyon salient for the captured French town at the maximum point of advance near Compiègne. Joffre's plan for 1915 was to attack the salient on both flanks to cut it off.[29] The Fourth Army had attacked in Champagne from 20 December 1914 – 17 March 1915 but the French were not able to attack in Artois at the same time. The Tenth Army formed the northern attack force and was to attack eastwards into the Douai plain across a 16-kilometre (9.9 mi) front between Loos and Arras.[30] On 10 March, as part of the larger offensive in the Artois region, the British Army fought the Battle of Neuve Chapelle to capture Aubers Ridge. The assault was made by four divisions along a 2 mi (3.2 km) front. Preceded by a surprise bombardment lasting only 35 minutes, the initial assault made rapid progress and the village was captured within four hours. The advance then slowed because of supply and communication difficulties. The Germans brought up reserves and counter-attacked, forestalling the attempt to capture the ridge. Since the British had used about one-third of their supply of artillery ammunition, General Sir John French blamed the failure on the shortage of ammunition, despite the early success.[31][32]
Gas Warfare: Poison in War.
A
sides had signed the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, which prohibited the use of chemical weapons in warfare. In 1914, there had been small-scale attempts by both the French and Germans to use various tear gases, which were not strictly prohibited by the early treaties but which were also ineffective.[33] The first use of more lethal chemical weapons was against the French near the Belgian town of Ypres.[34]
Despite the German plans to maintain the stalemate with the French and British, Albrecht, Duke of Württemberg, commander of the 4th Army planned an offensive at Ypres, site of the First Battle of Ypres in November 1914. The Second Battle of Ypres, April 1915, was intended to divert attention from offensives in the Eastern Front and disrupt Franco-British planning. After a two-day bombardment, the Germans released a cloud of 168 long tons (171 t) of chlorine gas onto the battlefield. Though primarily a powerful irritant, it can asphyxiate in high concentrations or prolonged exposure. Being heavier than air, the gas crept across no man's land and drifted into the French trenches.[35] The green-yellow cloud started killing some defenders and those in the rear fled in panic, creating an undefended 3.7-mile (6 km) gap in the Allied line. The Germans were unprepared for the level of their success and lacked sufficient reserves to exploit the opening. Canadian troops on the right drew back their left flank and halted the German advance.[36] The gas attack was repeated two days later and caused a 3.1 mi (5 km) withdrawal of the Franco-British line but the opportunity had been lost.[37]
The success of this attack would not be repeated, as the Allies countered by introducing gas masks and other countermeasures. An example of the success of these measures came a year later, on 27 April in the Gas attacks at Hulluch 40 km (25 mi) to the south of Ypres, where the 16th (Irish) Division withstood several German gas attacks.[38] The British retaliated, developing their own chlorine gas and using it at the Battle of Loos in September 1915. Fickle winds and inexperience led to more British casualties from the gas than German.[39] French, British and German forces all escalated the use of gas attacks through the rest of the war, developing the more deadly phosgene gas in 1915, then the infamous mustard gas in 1917, which could linger for days and could kill slowly and painfully. Countermeasures also improved and the stalemate continued.[40]
Air Warfare: The Battle of the Skies
Specialised aeroplanes for aerial combat were introduced in 1915. Aircraft were already in use for scouting and on 1 April, the French pilot Roland Garros became the first to shoot down an enemy aircraft by using a machine-gun that shot forward through the propeller blades. This was achieved by crudely reinforcing the blades to deflect bullets.[41] Several weeks later Garros force-landed behind German lines. His aeroplane was captured and sent to Dutch engineer Anthony Fokker, who soon produced a significant improvement, the interrupter gear, in which the machine gun is synchronised with the propeller so it fires in the intervals when the blades of the propeller are out of the line of fire. This advance was quickly ushered into service, in the Fokker E.I (Eindecker, or monoplane, Mark 1), the first single seat fighter aircraft to combine a reasonable maximum speed with an effective armament. Max Immelmann scored the first confirmed kill in an Eindecker on 1 August.[42] Both sides developed improved weapons, engines, airframes and materials, until the end of the war. It also inaugurated the cult of the ace, the most famous being Manfred von Richthofen (the Red Baron). Contrary to the myth, anti-aircraft fire claimed more kills than fighters.[43]
Spring Offensive
The final Entente offensive of the spring was the Second Battle of Artois, an offensive to capture Vimy Ridge and advance into the Douai plain. The French Tenth Army attacked on 9 May after a six-day bombardment and advanced 5 kilometres (3 mi) to capture Vimy Ridge. German reinforcements counter-attacked and pushed the French back towards their starting points because French reserves had been held back and the success of the attack had come as a surprise. By 15 May the advance had been stopped, although the fighting continued until 18 June.[44] In May the German Army captured a French document at La Ville-aux-Bois describing a new system of defence. Rather than relying on a heavily fortified front line, the defence was to be arranged in a series of echelons. The front line would be a thinly manned series of outposts, reinforced by a series of strongpoints and a sheltered reserve. If a slope was available, troops were deployed along the rear side for protection. The defence became fully integrated with command of artillery at the divisional level. Members of the German high command viewed this new scheme with some favour and it later became the basis of an elastic defence in depth doctrine against Entente attacks.[45][46]
During the autumn of 1915, the "Fokker Scourge" began to have an effect on the battlefront as Allied reconnaissance aircraft were nearly driven from the skies. These reconnaissance planes were used to direct gunnery and photograph enemy fortifications but now the Allies were nearly blinded by German fighters.[47] However, the impact of German air superiority was diminished by their primarily defensive doctrine in which they tended to remain over their own lines, rather than fighting over Allied held territory.[48]
Autumn Offensive
In September 1915 the Entente allies launched another offensive, with the French Third Battle of Artois, Second Battle of Champagne and the British at Loos. The French had spent the summer preparing for this action, with the British assuming control of more of the front to release French troops for the attack. The bombardment, which had been carefully targeted by means of aerial photography,[49] began on 22 September. The main French assault was launched on 25 September and, at first, made good progress in spite of surviving wire entanglements and machine gun posts. Rather than retreating, the Germans adopted a new defence-in-depth scheme that consisted of a series of defensive zones and positions with a depth of up to 8.0 km (5 mi).[50]
On 25 September, the British began the Battle of Loos, part of the Third Battle of Artois, which was meant to supplement the larger Champagne attack. The attack was preceded by a four-day artillery bombardment of 250,000 shells and a release of 5,100 cylinders of chlorine gas.[51][52] The attack involved two corps in the main assault and two corps performing diversionary attacks at Ypres. The British suffered heavy losses, especially due to machine gun fire during the attack and made only limited gains before they ran out of shells. A renewal of the attack on 13 October fared little better.[53] In December, French was replaced by General Douglas Haig as commander of the British forces.[54]
1916: The Year of Verdun
German soldier on the Western Front in 1916
Falkenhayn believed that a breakthrough might no longer be possible and instead focused on forcing a French defeat by inflicting massive casualties.[55] His new goal was to "bleed France white".[56] As such, he adopted two new strategies. The first was the use of unrestricted submarine warfare to cut off Allied supplies arriving from overseas. (the Kaiser would discontinue this practice later, to not provoke America). The second would be attacks against the French army intended to inflict maximum casualties; Falkenhayn planned to attack a position from which the French could not retreat, for reasons of strategy and national pride and thus trap the French. The town of Verdun was chosen for this because it was an important stronghold, surrounded by a ring of forts, that lay near the German lines and because it guarded the direct route to Paris.[58]
Falkenhayn limited the size of the front to 5–6 kilometres (3–4 mi) to concentrate artillery firepower and to prevent a breakthrough from a counter-offensive. He also kept tight control of the main reserve, feeding in just enough troops to keep the battle going.[59] In preparation for their attack, the Germans had amassed a concentration of aircraft near the fortress. In the opening phase, they swept the air space of French aircraft, which allowed German artillery-observation aircraft and bombers to operate without interference. In May, the French countered by deploying escadrilles de chasse with superior Nieuport fighters and the air over Verdun turned into a battlefield as both sides fought for air superiority.[60]
Battle of Verdun
The Battle of Verdun began on 21 February 1916 after a nine-day delay due to snow and blizzards. After a massive eight-hour artillery bombardment, the Germans did not expect much resistance as they slowly advanced on Verdun and its forts.[61] Sporadic French resistance was encountered. The Germans took Fort Douaumont and then reinforcements halted the German advance by 28 February.[62]
The Germans turned their focus to Le Mort Homme on the west bank of the Meuse which blocked the route to French artillery emplacements, from which the French fired across the river. After some of the most intense fighting of the campaign, the hill was taken by the Germans in late May. After a change in French command at Verdun from the defensive-minded Philippe Pétain to the offensive-minded Robert Nivelle, the French attempted to re-capture Fort Douaumont on 22 May but were easily repulsed. The Germans captured Fort Vaux on 7 June and with the aid of diphosgene gas, came within 1 kilometre (1,100 yd) of the last ridge before Verdun before being contained on 23 June.[63]
Over the summer, the French slowly advanced. With the development of the rolling barrage, the French recaptured Fort Vaux in November and by December 1916 they had pushed the Germans back 2.1 kilometres (1.3 mi) from Fort Douaumont, in the process rotating 42 divisions through the battle. The Battle of Verdun—also known as the 'Mincing Machine of Verdun' or 'Meuse Mill'[64]—became a symbol of French determination and self-sacrifice.[65]
Battle of the Somme
British infantry advance near Ginchy. Photo by Ernest Brooks.
In the spring, Allied commanders had been concerned about the ability of the French Army to withstand the enormous losses at Verdun. The original plans for an attack around the River Somme were modified to let the British make the main effort. This would serve to relieve pressure on the French, as well as the Russians who had also suffered great losses. On 1 July, after a week of heavy rain, British divisions in Picardy began the Battle of the Somme with the Battle of Albert, supported by five French divisions on their right flank. The attack had been preceded by seven days of heavy artillery bombardment. The experienced French forces were successful in advancing but the British artillery cover had neither blasted away barbed wire, nor destroyed German trenches as effectively as was planned. They suffered the greatest number of casualties (killed, wounded and missing) in a single day in the history of the British Army, about 57,000.[66]
The Verdun lesson learnt, the Allies' tactical aim became the achievement of air superiority and until September, German aircraft were swept from the skies over the Somme. The success of the Allied air offensive caused a reorganisation of the German air arm and both sides began using large formations of aircraft rather than relying on individual combat.[67] After regrouping, the battle continued throughout July and August, with some success for the British despite the reinforcement of the German lines. By August, General Haig had concluded that a breakthrough was unlikely and instead, switched tactics to a series of small unit actions.[68] The effect was to straighten out the front line, which was thought necessary in preparation for a massive artillery bombardment with a major push.[69]
The final phase of the battle of the Somme saw the first use of the tank on the battlefield.[70] The Allies prepared an attack that would involve 13 British and Imperial divisions and four French corps. The attack made early progress, advancing 3,200–4,100 metres (3,500–4,500 yd) in places but the tanks had little effect due to their lack of numbers and mechanical unreliability.[71] The final phase of the battle took place in October and early November, again producing limited gains with heavy loss of life. All told, the Somme battle had made penetrations of only 8 kilometres (5 mi) and failed to reach the original objectives. The British had suffered about 420,000 casualties and the French around 200,000. It is estimated that the Germans lost 465,000, although this figure is controversial.[72]
The Somme led directly to major new developments in infantry organisation and tactics; despite the terrible losses of 1 July, some divisions had managed to achieve their objectives with minimal casualties. In examining the reasons behind losses and achievements, once the British war economy produced sufficient equipment and weapons, the army made the platoon the basic tactical unit, similar to the French and German armies. At the time of the Somme, British senior commanders insisted that the company (120 men) was the smallest unit of manoeuvre; less than a year later, the section of ten men would be so.[73]
Hindenburg Line: The German Maginot Line
In August 1916 the German leadership along the western front had changed as Falkenhayn resigned and was replaced by Hindenburg and Ludendorff. The new leaders soon recognised that the battles of Verdun and the Somme had depleted the offensive capabilities of the German Army. They decided that the German Army in the west would go over to the strategic defensive for most of 1917, while the Central powers would attack elsewhere.[74]
During the Somme battle and through the winter months, the Germans created a fortification behind the Noyon Salient that would be called the Hindenburg Line, using the defensive principles elaborated since the defensive battles of 1915, including the use of Eingreif divisions.[75] This was intended to shorten the German front, freeing 10 divisions for other duties. This line of fortifications ran from Arras south to St Quentin and shortened the front by about 50 kilometres (30 mi).[74] British long-range reconnaissance aircraft first spotted the construction of the Hindenburg Line in November 1916.[76]
1917: The Year of Divergence
Map of the Western Front, 1917
The Hindenburg Line was built between 2[77] and 50 kilometres (30 mi) behind the German front line. On 25 February German forces began retreating to the line and the withdrawal was completed on 5 April, leaving behind a devastated territory to be occupied by the Allies. This withdrawal negated the French strategy of attacking both flanks of the Noyon salient, as it no longer existed.[78] However, offensive advances by the British continued as the High Command claimed, with some justice, that this withdrawal resulted from the casualties the Germans received during the Battles of the Somme and Verdun, despite the Allies suffering greater losses.[79]
Warning: From this point, is the diverging point, where the Kaiserreich timeline fades away from ours..
Unrestricted submarine warfare, although a crucial part of the German efforts to break the blockade and starve the British, it wasn't carried out against US ships. The German High Command was keen to keeping America neutral. Germany sent spies into the neutral nation, and were ordered to spread propaganda, building up anti British feelings, especially for the Irish Americans and the German Americans.
America almost intervened, when at the end of the year, a British freighter torpedoed and sank a US freighter carrying Christmas presents to Germany, which was mistaken for a German ship. Caught between public outrage and financial ties, President Wilson allows future ships through after a thorough inspection or sanctions will be applied. 1918 was the dawn of the expected, with Russia exiting the war due to revolt, and Germany in position to topple the Entente.
1918: Start of Eventual Defeat
As 1918 opened both sides could see both victory and defeat looming closer. The fall of Russia allowed thousands of German troops to head west, and thousands of Austrian troops to head for Italy and Greece (which had finally joined the Entente in 1917). However, the effects of the British blockade were becoming increasingly intolerable, and the Ottoman Empire likewise seemed to be collapsing slowly. Surprisingly, the German High Command chose to maintain a defensive posture for the year, at least in the west. They gambled that the collapse of Russia and the opening of its resources to Germany, particularly the Ukraine, would alleviate the worst effects of the blockade. Moreover, it would give them the time to prepare for a grand offensive in 1919 with overwhelming strength. To aid this, smaller offensives were planned to destroy the Entente forces at Salonika and to aid the Turks, thus allowing for better concentration of forces in 1919.
Meanwhile the Entente decided that a massive offensive in the west was needed before Germany could strengthen its forces there with its recently-returned Eastern divisions. Dubbed the 'Great Western Offensive,' the attack was planned for March and involved a near simultaneous thrust on no less than five different points along the front. While this hampered attempts to concentrate attacking forces, it was hoped that the German line and mobile reserve would not be able to defend so many places at once. Attempts were made to replicate the new tactics devised at Cambrai. Unfortunately it proved impossible to achieve surprise with such a large attack. Moreover the Germans decision to defend meant they had taken the time to devise counter-measures for the tanks. As such, when the attack was finally launched, it immediately became bogged down. The strong defences of the Hindenberg Line proved too much for the Entente forces. Only in the British attack on Lille was any notable success achieved - indeed it only proved worthwhile in the following year, as it allowed thousands more British troops to escape France. Elsewhere, the attack proved to be a costly waste of time, with over 800,000 Entente casualties.
As the offensive died down during early June, the Germans launched Operation Teutoberg, a combined German/Austrian/Bulgarian attack on Greece and the Salonika beach-head. Ludendorff used the offensive to perfect his new attack methods trialed previously in the attack on Riga, which involved the use of small storm trooper squads infiltrating enemy lines ahead of the main advance. Once again the new tactics proved very successful. While the Austrians and Bulgarians pinned down the allied forces at Salonika the German divisions swept through Greece. Athens fell on July 3rd and Britain soon had to mount an evacuation operation to extract the remnants of the Greek army from the Peloponnese.
With Greece out of the war the German forces returned north and drove the allies back into Salonika proper. The siege of Salonika lasted 5 months until December 28th, when the last allied forces were evacuated by the British Navy. News remained bright for the Entente in the Near East however. Allenby’s forces staged a massive attack on Turkish positions in September. In the most brilliant use of cavalry seen in the entire war Allenby managed to trap and destroy around 80% of the Turkish army, captured Damascus and soon swept through Syria. The remnants of Turkish forces, hurriedly reinforced by two German and one Austrian division retired back into Asia Minor, planning to dig in and defend the mountain passes onto the central Anatolian plateau.
As the year that marked the end of the post-Jutland stalemate opened, it appeared that the Entente had the upper hand. The Royal Navy’s increasing success against the U-Boat menace was due to the combined effects of convoying and further developments in naval aviation. Many observers believed that the German High Seas Fleet would ride out the war in harbour for fear of the RN, however in the first week of November the HSF put to sea out of sheer desperation in a final attempt to break the British blockade.
The Imperial German High Seas Fleet at full steam.
Under the command of Admiral von Hipper, the HSF managed to score a remarkable victory over the RN on the 11th of that month in what became known as the Second Battle of Jutland. The actual losses of the two fleets where almost equal however the shock to an over confident RN was enough to force them back to port. The year closed with the HSF poised to roam the Atlantic at will and with the RN licking it wounds at Scapa Flow.
1919: The End of Hope
Planning for Germany’s Great Spring Offensive had being going on for over a year. New equipment, tactics and logistics had been developed, many of which were tested in the Greek offensive. Since the fall of Greece a second offensive had also been planned, known as Operation Radowitz, which called for an envelopment of the Italian army at the Piave by an attack from Trento. Germany sent four elite alpine divisions to spearhead the attack.
The Spring Offensive was launched on the 2nd March. The German 1st and 8th Armies attacked the French lines at St. Mihiel to the south of Verdun. The storm trooper tactics worked once more, albeit not as stunningly as at Riga in 1917, or in Greece the year before. After five days of heavy fighting, the Germans broke out of the St. Mihiel salient. German planners had been careful this time to have ready a large and mobile reserve which now penetrated through the gap. German forces quickly pushed west and south. Verdun itself became surrounded on the 14th and the siege began a day later while Nancy fell on the 16th. Allied divisions rushed to the front managed to slow the German advance as it approached the Marne and soon another stalemate seemed likely. However on the 26th March another German attack was launched on French positions near Reims. While the attack had been hastily organised it succeeded partly because the allies were too overstretched and so couldn't defend the line properly. With the capture of Reims the new allied lines near the Marne were outflanked. At this point the German 6th Army showed great skill. In three days they pushed through all opposition to capture Château-Thierry. This blocked the path of retreat from the Marne back to Paris and so split the French forces. While a large portion retreated southward the rest fell back on Paris. The only remaining entrenched zones were now the British lines to the North.
Meanwhile the Germans struck north and south and began to encircle Paris. The attack in Trento, begun on the 11th March, was also proving a success. Helping this was the denuding of that front by the allies in order to get reinforcements north into France. A lightning advance by the Central Powers saw them reach Verona and Vicenza on the 24th. The Italians hurriedly began to pull back from the Piave line but far too late for many. Despite strong opposition from an Australian division that held the road to Padua for three days single-handedly the Central Powers were able to push forward and reached the Adriatic coast south of Venice on the 10th April, trapping over 60% of the Italian army in doing so.
Italian morale plummeted quickly, just as it had done at Caporetto. Nevertheless it was only on the 8th June that the last Italian resistance in the pocket outside Venice surrendered. Meanwhile Venice itself came under fierce siege. The arrival of much of the Italian army in the city made defence easier but supply a lot harder. Luckily the Austrian navy was in no state to blockade Venice and so sea-supply routes were soon set up. While all this was occurring other Austrian forces were pushing southwards, aiming at seizing Rome before the end of the year. In France, Paris was surrounded by the beginning of May, and victorious the German forces halted to regroup and plan their next offensive. This proved to be a mistake, for it gave time for much of the British army to pull back and retreat slowly towards the Channel Ports. Thus, when the Germans began a new drive for the coast around Dieppe in June, the British had already managed to get the bulk of their army out of the trap by an extended naval evacuation. A few Belgian units were also evacuated, but returned home soon after with the surrender of their country.
Following the collapse of Italy, Empress Zewditu of Ethiopia approached Germany and offered to join the Central Powers in exchange for being able to annex the lands Italy had stolen from her. Lacking any interest in them, the Kaiser agreed.
In both France and Italy, the Entente was in full retreat. Paris and Venice were both under siege while German, Austrian and Bulgarian armies raced southwards down the country at a speed which seemed incredible next to the pace of trench warfare that had dominated the prior years of the war. In the end, Rome fell on the 1st of August. Five days later, Italy unconditionally surrendered to the Germans in the hopes of avoiding Austria’s harsh terms. What little remained of a coherent Italian army was still pinned in Venice, while its capital and industrial heartland had fallen. The surrender of Italy also allowed a southern invasion of France. Marseilles fell in late September, but by then it was clear that France too was doomed.
Thus on the 4th of October, with Paris only weeks away from surrender, the French government likewise chose to surrender to the Germans, their decision no doubt hastened by the rising radicalism amongst the working class soldiery. This left Britain as the only remaining major Entente power left in the war, although Japan remained strong in the east too. In Turkey, Allenby had been recalled to help defend France. His successor, Sir William Marshall, launched two attacks on the Turkish defences which failed only due to a shortage of men. But with the Central Powers free to reinforce Turkey next year, it was clear that Britain was in deep trouble. Thus, on November 11th, 1919, representatives of the two sides met in Copenhagen to sign a ceasefire. But the guns did not fall silent completely.
1919 - The War at Sea
To coincide with the German Army’s spring offensive, the HSF was ordered to strike at targets of opportunity, particularly in the French Navy that was at this stage in open mutiny. Battlecruiser raids on Entente convoys where actually rarer than the RN feared, although this did not stop the adoption of a disastrous policy of de-convoying that lead to an upsurge in U-Boat attacks. Despite the country’s official neutrality, German warships often coaled in Spanish ports, allowing them to operate with deadly efficiency against the French.
By May, the British had decided to detach single vessels from the fleet to effectively commandeer the French Navy, which lead to the supreme irony of French warships assisting the evacuation of British troops in June, a move that effectively doomed the French government. The final months of the year saw a slow attrition of the RN by an increasingly assertive von Hipper including the destruction of the Aerodrome Ship HMS Furious on 4th October, the very day of the French surrender.