The Domino Effect Part 2: Hail Mary, Full of Grace
With Russia's exit from the war, the Allies began to panic. Suddenly, hundreds of divisions were on the move to other fronts. There was no doubt among them that the Germans would reinforce their Western front. Their biggest fear was the Huns launching a full-scale attack.
To prevent this nightmare scenario from happening, the Allies begin planning their offensive. This one was designed for one big push across the entire front. They would use the tactics they had learned from all the battles they had fought in for the past 4 years. The goal is to hopefully break through the seemingly impregnable Hindenburg line and advance into Belgium. Hopefully, they could overwhelm the Germans before more and more would arrive to prop up their defenses.
The date was set for May 1st. The operation was to be known as 'The Great Western Offensive' for the feeling of decisiveness the Allies thought they had.
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In the early hours of the morning of May the 1st 1918, British and French guns began pounding the German positions along the whole line. After a short while, it stopped. Then the whistles blew, signaling the vast huge waves of men to go over the top. Under heavy fire, the British and French reach the first lines of defense. Surprisingly, they encountered very few Germans and must've thought they had scared away the rest.
They were proven wrong, as the Germans launched counterattacks that won them back control of the trenches. This story was the same everywhere else as Allied troops found the Hindenburg line to be a very tough nut to crack. For the next few days, the British, French, and Commonwealth forces suffered heavy casualties as they struggled to make much ground. All the time, they were beaten back by machine guns and artillery fire.
British troops attacking German positions, May 1918
In some areas of the front, no ground was gained at all, proving the effectiveness of the Hindenburg line.
The only place the British managed to succeed was in the area of Lille, where the defenses weren't as strong as other places. But despite that, the offensive was eventually called off on May 10.
Throughout the whole offensive, the Allies suffered more than 800,000 casualties while the Germans suffered far less than their enemies. The whole offensive had become a waste of resources. The failure of this increased tensions with the British and French ranks which were once again punished harshly.