This. Plus the war-weary Germans now have a reason to fight and make the invasion as bloody as possible.The Allied armies would revolt if they found out the Germans surrendered and their generals refused to accept it. Now if the Germans refused Allied armistice terms in 1918 then the fight goes on, but Germany was falling apart into communist uprisings, so were literally unable to continue, which is why they accepted ANY terms the Allies offered OTL. What happened IOTL was the Germans asked for the armistice, the Allies gave them really harsh ones, the Germans accepted because they had no choice, so the war ended. Then when the terms the Germans thought were intolerable were offered in 1919 at Versailles, they had to accept because armistice terms meant the Allies held German Ruhr industry and Rheinland bridgeheads, while the army was pretty much been disbanded; continued war was impossible while the German civil war wrapped up.
Invading armies would strip German factories of high-tech machine tools and chemical plants. Key workers would be allowed to chose between living in a devastated Germany or a comfortable career in one of the victorious countries.
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Poland and Russia would claim several provinces along Russia's eastern borders.
There's a very real chance you'd see a full scale revolt or mass desertions in the British and French armies. The French already mutinied once after all. And at the utmost extreme, well... When the Americans have the only intact army, they're the only ones with any real influence over the peace terms, you know?
See the following from Haig's diary.
Wednesday January 2 [1918]. After lunch I motored to Buckingham Palace - - I told the King that it was very desirable to tell the Army in a few unambiguous sentences , what we are fighting for. The Army is now composed of representatives of all classes in the Nation, and many are most intelligent and think things out. They don't care whether France has Alsace and Italy Trieste; they realise that Britain entered the war to free Belgium and save France. Germany is now ready, we have been told, to give all we want in these respects [1]. So it is essential that some statement should be made which the soldier can understand and approve of. Few of us feel that the "democratising of Germany" is worth the loss of a single Englishman. - - -".
"Saturday October 19. - - - I was asked what the attitude of the Army would be if we stuck out for stiff terms, which enemy then refuses, and war goes on. I reminded the P.M. of the situation a year ago when there were frequent demands for information as to what we were fighting for; he (the P.M.) then made a speech and stated our war aims. The British Army had done most of the fighting latterly, and everyone wants to have done with the war, provided we get what we want. I therefore advise that we only ask in the armistice for what we intend to hold, and that we set our faces against the French entering Germany to pay off old scores. In my opinion, under the supposed conditions, the British Army would not fight keenly for what is really not its own affair. - - -"
[1] In fact it turned out that the Germans were not yet ready to meet those conditions. But by November they were, and Haig's attitude had not changed. While the second entry doesn't use the M-word anywhere, I kind of wonder whether he wasn't beginning to fear it if his men were pushed too far.
It certainly sounds like you could read it that way. I mean its only a few steps from "Not fighting keenly" to "Not fighting at all" and a few more steps from that to "Stringing up your officers and declaring for the Revolution."
True, but did the May mutineers hear that Germany offered to surrender, and their generals refused to accept it?That last is rather improbable. Even the May mutineers in France didn't go that far.
That last is rather improbable. Even the May mutineers in France didn't go that far.
But I could imagine something like "Further than Liege we will not go", rather as the German sailors said "Further than Heligoland we won't - -"
True, but did the May mutineers hear that Germany offered to surrender, and their generals refused to accept it?
It'd certainly end up with one hell of an awkward peace conference.
They already did that IOTL, apparently.They could alleviate the awkwardness by stuffing the German delegation in a broom closet and forging their signatures.