["FALSE DAWN AT CAMBRAI \u201c Tanks were all over the place, some noses up, some a\ufb01re.\u201d WAR DIARY OF E BATTALION, TANK CORPS, AT FLESQUI\u00c8RES, NOVEMBER 20, 1917 Physically the defenses were strong. A hurricane artillery 28 tanks were lost and the advance Moving artillery Barbed wire entanglements hundreds bombardment began was halted. By the end of the day, German soldiers move a 75 mm Skoda field gun of yards deep fronted three lines at 6:20am, followed some British forces had crossed the forward on the Western Front. During the Battle of of trenches and forti\ufb01ed positions by the advance of St. Quentin Canal and the path into Cambrai, artillery pieces were hauled out of gun pits to reaching to a depth of 4 miles (6 km). 300 Mark IV tanks. the rear of the German defenses was engage the British tanks with direct fire at close range. But the sector was only lightly Clanking forward at open, but cavalry failed to exploit the garrisoned by two German divisions walking pace, they brief opportunity for a breakthrough. AFTER with very limited artillery support. crushed the German wire and crossed the Hollow victory The Battle of Cambrai showed that The British plan depended upon trenches. Infantry new technology and tactics were surprise. Tanks and artillery were followed, some with After the horrors of Passchendaele, making it possible to overcome moved into position at night. Aircraft their ri\ufb02es slung over their shoulders the initial success at Cambrai was even strong defenses on the Western \ufb02ew up and down the front to mask and smoking cigarettes. In places there trumpeted by the British as a victory. Front. This pointed the way to more the noise of the tank engines. The were hardly any British casualties. But by the end of the \ufb01rst day, 179 mobile warfare. entire strength of the Tank Corps Some infantry divisions had advanced tanks were out of action, 65 destroyed and 1,000 artillery pieces were in more than 3 miles (5 km) by midday. by the Germans, and the rest broken CAMBRAI REVISITED position by November 20 without down or ditched. Haig insisted that the German assault tactics employing the Germans realizing it. Generally, the stunned Germans offensive continue, but it became stormtroopers 274\u201375 \u276f\u276f created surrendered without a \ufb01ght. The bogged down in a struggle for Bourlon major breakthroughs in their spring offensives Steel plate armored hull exception was at Flesqui\u00e8res, in the Wood, 4 miles (6 km) west of Cambrai. in 1918, leaving Cambrai far behind German center of the attack. Here, a German lines. The Allies returned to Cambrai in artillery general, Oskar von Watter, By November 30, German commanders October 1918, when it was taken by Canadian ordered his men to roll forward \ufb01eld had moved fresh troops to Cambrai and troops during the Hundred Days guns and pick off the tanks as they organized a counteroffensive. The Offensive that ended the war. came over a ridge. With the supporting British advance had created a salient. NEW MILITARY THEORIES infantry of 51st Highland Division 476 The number of British British and French tanks played a signi\ufb01cant too far behind the tanks, tanks deployed at the role in Allied operations in 1918. After the Battle of Cambrai. Of these, 378 war, the Battle of Cambrai became a reference Sponson with were fighting tanks while the point for military theorists advocating the six-pounder gun rest performed support roles. use of tanks as the primary shock force in modern warfare. The Germans attacked it from the north and south. They were trying out Breech their own new tactics, using Hammer stormtroopers\u2014elite assault forces trained in in\ufb01ltration tactics. Flare cartridge Launched against tired British soldiers insuf\ufb01ciently prepared for defense, the BRITISH FLARE GUN AND CARTRIDGE German counterattacks broke through on the southern \ufb02ank, until halted by the British Guards Division. By the end of the \ufb01rst week in December, the battle was over. The British retained their hold on one section of the Hindenburg Line but had lost ground elsewhere. The number of casualties was around 45,000 on each side. After the hopes raised on November 20, it was another severe disappointment for Britain. 249","REVOLUTION AND DISILLUSION 1917 Tank Warfare version of their own. Only a handful of German A7V tanks eventually entered service in 1918. Enormous vehicles with a crew of 18, they had almost no impact on the war. \u201c A huge grey object reared itself into Further developments view and slowly, very slowly, it crawled along\u2026 It was a tank.\u201d From 1917 onward, tanks became a standard feature of British and French CANADIAN PRIVATE DONALD FRASER, JOURNAL ENTRY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1916 operations. The British developed the Mark IV and Mark V, versions of the L ike most inventions, the tank has prototypes of a British Whippet tank original Mark I heavy tank that had complex and disputed origins. tracked armored Officially designated the Medium Mark A, the Whippet been somewhat improved in armor, The idea of an armored motor vehicle. The British used was armed with four Hotchkiss machine guns, speed, and reliability. The \ufb01rst French vehicle capable of operating across the code name \u201ctank\u201d to disguise providing all-around fire from a fixed turret. It was models to enter service, the Schneider dif\ufb01cult terrain was developed by the nature of the experimental powered by two engines originally designed for CA1 and its rival, the Saint-Chamond, imaginative \ufb01ction writers and military machines they were developing. buses, achieving a speed of 8 mph (13 kph). were also heavy tanks, mounting of\ufb01cers early in the 20th century. 75 mm armament. The development of tractors with The \ufb01rst tanks to arrive at the immediately, believing they might \u201cadd caterpillar tracks for agricultural front were British Mark Is, delivered very greatly to the prospect of The French largely sidelined these use also drew interest from to the Somme in late August 1916. success\u201d in an offensive models in 1918 and adopted the armies seeking vehicles to pull British commander-in-chief General he had planned at Renault FT, a light tank that marked heavy artillery. Douglas Haig was eager to use them Flers-Courcelette a leap forward in on September 15. design, since it had After the outbreak of World Haig rejected a rotating gun War I, several of\ufb01cers, including the argument turret. Relatively Colonel Jean Baptiste Estienne in that he should cheap and easy to France and Colonel Ernest Swinton wait until more produce, the FT in Britain, understood the potential tanks were available was manufactured value of an all-terrain armored and then launch them in in larger quantities vehicle on the Western Front. By a mass surprise attack. than any other early 1915, the idea had attracted World War I tank the support of some powerful \ufb01gures, Tanks in battle and was used in including the British First Lord of the massed formations. Admiralty, Winston Churchill, who Forty-nine tanks were available headed a Landships Committee set at Flers-Courcelette. The general More than 3,500 up in February 1915. The stalemate handling the offensive, Henry Renault FTs were on the Western Front added urgency to Rawlinson, was dubious about the produced in the course the quest for a vehicle that could forge value of the new machines and of the war, for the a path through barbed wire and scattered them among his infantry. American army as well as possibly cross enemy trenches. Mechanical failures combined with the French. The British inexperienced crews contributed to an also built a lighter tank, the Development proceeded haltingly, inauspicious debut. Only 32 of the Whippet, that gave good with many setbacks, but by 1916 both tanks managed to reach their start line, service in 1918, racing along at Britain and France had arrived at 25 actually entered combat, and nine over 8 mph (13 kph). penetrated German positions, aiding in Tank crews had, on the whole, a 5,500 The approximate tough experience of war. The inside number of tanks of a tank was always uncomfortably manufactured by Britain and TECHNOLOGY France during World War I. ANTITANK WARFARE 20 The total number of tanks manufactured by Germany Barrel during World War I. Trigger Bipod Artillery was effective against tanks, ri\ufb02e, but these rounds were countered by the capture of Flers village. However, although achieving a direct hit was a improved tank armor. In 1918, the \ufb01rst Haig was enthused by their negative challenge. Infantry attacked tanks with specially built antitank ri\ufb02e, the Mauser impact on German morale and grenades and mortars, but found ri\ufb02e \ufb01re T-Gewehr, was deployed. Firing a 13 mm requested delivery of a thousand tanks largely ineffective. The Germans round, it was derived from big-game of improved design. introduced K bullets, armor-piercing hunters\u2019 \u201celephant guns.\u201d Its recoil could ammunition \ufb01red from a standard Mauser break the collarbone of the soldier \ufb01ring it. The Germans were in fact not greatly impressed by tanks and devoted very limited resources to producing a 250","TANK WARFARE \u201cThe tanks appeared not Leather TIMELINE one at a time but in whole skull cap lines kilometers in length!\u201d \u25a0 November 1904 American inventor Benjamin Leather Holt demonstrates a working tracked tractor. HEINZ GUDERIAN, GERMAN OFFICER, DESCRIBING THE BATTLE OF CAMBRAI, visor NOVEMBER 20, 1917 \u25a0 August 1914 French Colonel Jean Baptiste Estienne calls for the development of an all-terrain vehicle armed with a 75 mm gun. \u25a0 February 1915 The British government establishes the Landships Committee to investigate production of an armored vehicle. hot and \ufb01lled with engine fumes. The were so slow they Chainmail machine shook and the noise inside sometimes had mouthpiece was deafening. Visibility was restricted dif\ufb01culty keeping and so was communication with the pace with the troops British tank crew helmet and mask outside world. There were no radios in advancing on foot. When bullets struck a tank\u2019s armor, shards of metal \ufb01ghting tanks\u2014the vehicles carried sometimes flew off the inside of the hull, causing pigeons into battle for sending Forging forward severe wounds. British tank crews were issued helmets messages to the rear. The heavy tanks and face masks to protect against this hazard. Tanks were in no sense wonder weapons that could win the war Third Ypres in autumn 1917, stopped A CATERPILLAR TRACTOR on their own, but they did play the tanks, but they usually succeeded a part in ending the stalemate of in forging a path across cratered \u25a0 May 1915 In France, arms manufacturer ground and over trenches. Schneider begins development of an armored trench warfare. They provided vehicle based on a Holt tractor. invaluable assistance to the The British tank offensive, which infantry, clearing a path brie\ufb02y broke through at Cambrai in \u25a0 January 1916 Demonstration of the British through layers of barbed November 1917, demonstrated how Mark I tank, then known as Big Willie. wire and attacking effective tanks could be when used in strongpoints such as conjunction with infantry and artillery. \u25a0 February 1916 The French army orders machine gun posts. But it also showed that World War I production of 400 Schneider CA1 tanks. Deep mud, as at tanks were not fast enough for the kind of mobile warfare that would \u25a0 September 15, 1916 Tanks are sent into occur in World War II. combat for the first time by the British at Flers-Courcelette during the Somme Offensive. \u25a0 April 16, 1917 The French deploy Schneider CA1 tanks during the Nivelle Offensive. \u25a0 May 1917 The British Mark IV heavy tank goes into production. Mark IV tank at Cambrai \u25a0 July 27, 1917 The British Tank Corps is formed. A British Mark IV tank is maneuvered over a trench \u25a0 November 20, 1917 British Mark IV tanks lead at Cambrai in November 1917. Slow-moving a shortlived breakthrough at Cambrai. and prone to mechanical failure, the armored \u25a0 December 1917 The first British Whippet vehicles could only be effective as part medium tanks are delivered to the Tank Corps. of a combined arms operation with \u25a0 March 21, 1918 Germany\u2019s only operational infantry and artillery. World War I tank, the A7V, goes into combat. \u25a0 April 24, 1918 The first tank-on-tank combat occurs at Villers-Bretonneux, near Amiens. \u25a0 May 31, 1918 The French Renault FT light tank enters combat at the F\u00f4ret de Retz. \u25a0 August 8, 1918 The British Army employs about 600 tanks in the Amiens offensive. \u25a0 September 12, 1918 American tank units enter combat at the Battle of St. Mihiel; they use French-supplied Renault FTs. \u25a0 November 1918 The Anglo-American Mark VIII Liberty tank is about to enter service when the war ends. FRENCH RENAULT FT LIGHT TANK 251","REVOLUTION AND DISILLUSION 1917 The Bolshevik Revolution By autumn 1917, the Russian war effort had largely disintegrated. The revolutionary key points in the city, including the Bolshevik Party\u2014soon to be renamed the Communist Party\u2014seized power in Russia train station, telephone exchange, and in November and immediately pursued an armistice with the Central Powers. post of\ufb01ce were taken over by revolutionary soldiers and Red Guards. BEFORE R ussia\u2019s Provisional Government, the July Days, including Leon Trotsky, led by Alexander Kerensky, were released and arms were The Winter Palace, the seat of the The overthrow of the tsarist regime was in a perilous situation in distributed to Petrograd factory Provisional Government, was defended in March 1917 failed to halt the by just a unit of female soldiers and disintegration of Russian society. September 1917. The country was in workers, who formed Red Guard Cossack cavalry. On the night of After the failure of the Kerensky November 7, the cruiser Aurora, in the Offensive, the army also collapsed. a state of upheaval, with strikes in militias alongside prorevolutionary hands of its sailors, \ufb01red a blank round across the Neva river to signal an attack THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT factories, peasants seizing land, and soldiers and sailors. Kornilov was on the Winter Palace. There was no Set up in the wake of Tsar Nicholas II\u2019s resistance. Kerensky had already abdication \u276e\u276e 210\u201311, the Provisional widespread quickly arrested and slipped out of the building and \ufb02ed. Government struggled to establish its authority. Alexander Kerensky, who looting. The the affair \ufb01zzled out, Barrel emerged as the government\u2019s key \ufb01gure, launched a major military offensive newly appointed but the Red Guards \u276e\u276e 234\u201335 against the Central Powers in July 1917. Its failure ended in mass commander-in- kept their guns. desertion and the effective collapse of the Russian army. chief of the In the wake of PETROGRAD\u2019S JULY DAYS Russian army, the Kornilov affair, In Petrograd (St. Petersburg), the government was challenged by the \u201csoviets\u201d General Lavr Trotsky was elected (workers\u2019 and soldiers\u2019 committees). Kerensky succeeded in suppressing the popular Kornilov, chairman of the disturbances known as the July Days, and cracked down on the Bolshevik Party, which demanded Red Guard armband Petrograd soviet, was blamed for stirring up unrest. Bolshevik leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin \ufb02ed to authorization to Members of the Red Guard paramilitary units set which was now Finland to escape imprisonment. A German victory at Riga in September ended restore discipline up during the revolution wore red armbands. They dominated by hopes of reviving the Russian war effort. by a series of fought in the early part of the Russian Civil War, but the Bolsheviks. tough measures, were eventually replaced by the Red Army. Lenin remained in including the hiding in Finland, suppression of soldiers\u2019 committees to which he had \ufb02ed after the July and the disbanding of rebellious Days, but from there urged the regiments. Kerensky agreed with the overthrow of the Provisional need to restore order but feared that Government. Meanwhile, Kerensky Kornilov intended to seize power and attempted to send the soldiers of the institute military rule. Petrograd garrison to the front. The On September 9, Kerensky accused soldiers mutinied. Kornilov of planning a coup and dismissed him from his post. Kornilov The Bolsheviks seize power responded by rebelling against the With the Provisional Government government. Fearing an advance on defenseless, Lenin returned to the capital by Kornilov\u2019s troops, the Petrograd. A Military Revolutionary Petrograd soviet joined Kerensky in Committee dominated by organizing a defense of the capital. Trotsky set about seizing Bolshevik leaders imprisoned after power. On November 6, RUSSIAN POLITICIAN (1870\u20131924) VLADIMIR ILYICH LENIN The leader of the Bolshevik Party, Vladimir to democracy, dismissing an elected Ilyich Lenin had been in exile for over a Constituent Assembly. Although he decade before the Germans facilitated pressed for peace with the Central Powers his return to Russia in April 1917. regardless of the terms, he went on to A consistent opponent of the war, lead Russia into a period of civil and he proposed an immediate peace and socialist revolution. foreign wars before the founding of the Soviet Union in 1922. After the Bolsheviks seized power in November, he rejected any concessions Mobile firepower A machine gun is mounted on a horse-drawn carriage for deployment on the streets of Petrograd by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution. As it happened, very little fighting took place in the capital. 252","THE BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION Lenin proclaimed a Bolshevik Women\u2019s Battalion of Death government of People\u2019s Commissars, Female volunteers formed combat units of the Russian with himself as Chairman and Trotsky army during 1917, adopting names such as \u201cBattalion as Commissar for Foreign Affairs. of Death\u201d or \u201cShock Battalion.\u201d Several hundred of On November 8, addressing the these women were assigned to defend the Winter All-Russian Congress of Soviets in Palace against the Bolsheviks. Petrograd, he issued an appeal for an immediate end to the war. He called AFTER on the combatant powers to negotiate a peace \u201cwithout annexations or The Bolshevik Revolution marked indemnities.\u201d He also appealed to the the beginning of a traumatic period in working classes in Germany, Britain, Russian history. and France to rise in revolution against their \u201cimperialist governments.\u201d FROM WORLD WAR TO CIVIL WAR Trotsky was entrusted with negotiating the Minority rule Bolsheviks. Lenin closed it down after showing the territorial gains that the peace agreement with the Central Powers. a day. The installation of a Russian Allies had hoped to achieve from the The punitive treaty dictated by Germany at Lenin\u2019s revolutionary government held government committed to ending the war. Germany, in contrast, was eager Brest-Litovsk 276\u201377 \u276f\u276f in March 1918 sway in a limited area, with Petrograd war was a disaster for the Allies. They to respond to Russian peace feelers. deprived Russia of a large part of its territory. and Moscow key bases. The Bolsheviks not only lost their eastern ally but were The Central Powers agreed to an also deeply embarrassed by the armistice with the Bolsheviks on Immediately after the revolution, civil war were in a minority even in the Bolsheviks\u2019 revelation of \u201csecret December 16, ending the \ufb01ghting on broke out between the pro-Bolshevik Red and Congress of Soviets, and when treaties,\u201d found in Russian archives, Germany\u2019s Eastern Front. the anti-Bolshevik White armies in Russia, with a democratically elected Allied forces intervening 300\u2013301 \u276f\u276f Constituent Assembly met in on the side of the Whites. January 1918, just 175 of its 703 deputies were Box seat Footboard Mounting ANTI-BOLSHEVISM POSTER step Shaft Wooden wheel \u201c The government considers it the greatest of crimes against humanity to continue this war.\u201d BOLSHEVIK DECREE ON PEACE, NOVEMBER 8, 1917 253","German colonial troops A field gun is manned by European and African soldiers of the East African Schutztruppe. Black troops, known as Askaris, formed the majority of fighting men on both sides. BEFORE Guerrilla War in East Africa The Allies occupied all of Germany\u2019s African colonies in the war, but met The guerilla campaign mounted by German colonial troops in East Africa tied down substantial stiff resistance in German East Africa. Allied forces at very little cost to Germany. Although just a sideshow in the context of the wider war, it was a catastrophe for the local African population. CROSS-BORDER RAIDS German colonial forces under Lieutenant G erman East Africa\u2014mainland effort by engaging Germany\u2019s enemies had proved a hollow victory, however, Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck launched Tanzania, Rwanda, and wherever and whenever possible. This since Lettow-Vorbeck lost several key cross-border raids into British colonies from Burundi\u2014had an area of around was to be the rationale for a campaign of\ufb01cers in the attack and used up a large German East Africa in September 1914. 386,000 sq miles (1 million sq km). quantity of ammunition, which was in In November, a division from British India was In 1914, its European population 40,000 The number short supply. He was obliged to change defeated by Lettow-Vorbeck\u2019s forces at Tanga numbered barely 5,000. German rule of black African his tactics, carrying out repeated (in modern-day Tanzania) \u276e\u276e 76\u201377. was maintained by a defense force, the porters who died of hardship and cross-border raids, ambushing trains Schutztruppe, consisting of about 2,500 disease in British service during the and destroying bridges, but avoiding REINFORCEMENTS ON BOTH SIDES Askaris (black African troops) under East African campaign. battle. The Uganda railroad, a key After the conquest of German South the command of a few German of\ufb01cers. transportation link in British East Africa, West Africa (Namibia) in July 1915, many The colony was bordered by British, that began in September 1914 and was a particularly vulnerable target. South African troops joined the East African Belgian, and Portuguese colonies with continued throughout the war campaign. Meanwhile, sailors from the an equally sparse white population. The indomitable Schutztruppe German cruiser In January 1915, Lettow-Vorbeck, SMS K\u00f6nigsberg, When war broke out in Europe in pursuing this policy of aggression, had In 1916, the British embarked upon a destroyed by the 1914, the commander-in-chief of the attacked the British Indian garrison at major campaign to occupy German Royal Navy in East Schutztruppe, Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Jassin on the border between German East Africa and defeat the Schutztruppe Africa\u2019s Rufiji von Lettow-Vorbeck, saw it as his duty East Africa and British East Africa, once and for all. South African General delta \u276e\u276e 76\u201377, to contribute to the wider German war forcing the soldiers to surrender. This Jan Smuts was sent to lead the escaped capture to join Lettow- Vorbeck\u2019s forces. ASKARI CAP 254","GUERILLA WAR IN EAST AFRICA \u201c Our track is marked by GERMAN GENERAL (1870\u20131964) death, plundering, and evacuated villages.\u201d PAUL VON LETTOW-VORBECK DR. LUDWIG DEPPE, A MEDICAL OFFICER IN EAST AFRICA, DESCRIBING Before World War I, German of\ufb01cer Paul THE GERMAN SCHUTZTRUPPE OFFENSIVE von Lettow-Vorbeck saw action in colonial wars in China and German campaign, taking a substantial body of climate and withstand disease. South West Africa (Namibia). He was South African mounted troops. Along A Nigerian brigade was sent from West appointed commander of the defense with the predominantly black soldiers Africa and more soldiers were recruited force in German East Africa in April of the King\u2019s African Ri\ufb02es and British locally into the King\u2019s African Ri\ufb02es. 1914. After defeating British Indian Indian troops, this gave Smuts a force The British also sought to bene\ufb01t from troops at Tanga in November, he of around 25,000 men. improved technology, bringing in a sustained a guerrilla campaign number of reconnaissance aircraft and undefeated for four years. A strict Meanwhile, Lettow-Vorbeck had built making use of radio. With horses ruled disciplinarian, he shared the hardship up his Schutztruppe to around 15,000 out by the prevalence of tsetse \ufb02ies, of his troops and won their loyalty. He combat troops, including several motor trucks were imported for was worshipped as a hero in Germany thousand Germans from the settler transportation, though the shortage of and admired even by his enemies as population and sailors from the roads of even the most basic kind a skilful if ruthless opponent. After abandoned cruiser SMS K\u00f6nigsberg, limited their effectiveness. his return to Germany at the end destroyed by the Royal Navy in the of the war, he was dismissed from Ru\ufb01ji delta the previous year. Local conditions forced both sides the army for involvement in a failed in East Africa to campaign in a similar coup in 1920. Attack and counterattack fashion. The Schutztruppe and their AFTER opponents operated in self-suf\ufb01cient opportunity to in\ufb02ict a defeat. In From March 1916, Smuts dispatched columns on foot, depending on October 1917, the new British In the peace settlement at the end thousands of forcibly recruited African commander-in-chief, South African of the war, Germany lost its entire columns into German East Africa, porters to carry their supplies. General Jacob van Deventer, sent colonial empire, including all of its Nigerian troops to attack the African possessions. while attacks were also mounted by Lettow-Vorbeck\u2019s soldiers resupplied Schutztruppe at Mahiwa in the south DIVIDING GERMAN EAST AFRICA themselves by capturing British of German East Africa. Poorly led, they After the war, Britain and Belgium divided the Belgians across the border from the equipment and living off the land. Like were outmaneuvered and encircled. German East Africa between them. Their locusts, their passage through a fertile A British relief attempt failed, but the colonial rule was legally sanctioned by the Congo. Lettow-Vorbeck was unable to zone left a food shortage in its wake. Nigerians eventually escaped through grant of mandates from the League of Nations Troops on both sides would a gap in the German lines. Mahiwa in 1922. The bulk of the former German colony prevent Smuts taking the colony\u2019s two systematically destroy crops to deny was a humiliating defeat for the British, became British-ruled Tanganyika, while the them to the enemy, condemning the although the Schutztruppe could ill Belgians took over Rwanda and Burundi. railroads and occupying the local villagers to starvation. afford the casualties it also suffered. ASKARI MONUMENT, NEAR HAMBURG administrative capital, Dar es Salaam, Pursuit through Africa Reports of Lettow-Vorbeck\u2019s exploits aroused great enthusiasm in Germany. WEST AND SOUTH WEST AFRICA by September. The British success Despite the dif\ufb01culty of simply In November 1917, an ambitious The German colonies of Togoland (now surviving as fugitive forces in Togo) and Kamerun were divided between was, however largely illusory. a largely hostile environment, 2,500 The number of British Britain and France under the mandate system. Lettow-Vorbeck\u2019s columns casualties, out of a The mandate to rule German South West Mounting ambushes and continued to seize the force of 5,000, at the Battle of Africa (Namibia) was given to South Africa. initiative. From February Mahiwa in October 1917. German Most of these countries became independent counterattacks, Lettow- to October 1917, a column casualties numbered about 500, a in the 1950s and \u201960s. Namibia remained of about 500 Schutztruppe, third of the original German force. under South African control until 1990. Vorbeck in\ufb02icted losses on initially led by Captain Max Wintgens and then by attempt was made to supply the 255 Smuts\u2019s forces in a number Captain Heinrich Naumann, Schutztruppe with ammunition by forged their way northward \ufb02ying Zeppelin airship L-59 4,000 miles of small-scale encounters in across East Africa from (6,500 km) from Bulgaria to East Lake Nyasa to Mount Africa. The airship reached Sudan which the Schutztruppe Kilimanjaro. Pursued before the mission was called off by thousands of because of a false report that Lettow- achieved local British and Belgian Vorbeck had been defeated. troops, they were eventually superiority. forced to surrender. In fact, with a force that had Even when harried by dwindled to 2,000 men, Lettow- The South superior forces, Lettow- Vorbeck continued to evade capture Vorbeck sought any through the last year of the war. After Africans\u2019 Sharkskin grip a long trek through the Portuguese Officer\u2019s sword colony of Mozambique, where he dependence on This sword belonged to a German found easy targets for raiding, he led Schutztruppe officer in World War I. his men back into German East Africa horses proved Swords were not generally worn on active in September 1918. Lettow-Vorbeck duty except by cavalry, but they retained surrendered, still undefeated, on disastrous, since Folded guard their ceremonial function. November 25 after belatedly receiving most of the news of the armistice. animals died of diseases carried by the tsetse \ufb02y. The South African troops suffered from malaria and dysentery, and many units were soon reduced to a fraction of their original strength. In January 1917, Smuts left East Africa claiming a victory, but Lettow- Vorbeck had withdrawn his forces south to the Ru\ufb01ji River region and was in no sense beaten. Overcoming obstacles In 1917, the British increased the proportion of black troops deployed in East Africa, in the belief that they would be best able to tolerate the","REVOLUTION AND DISILLUSION 1917 BEFORE Naval War in the Mediterranean The shape of the naval war in the Mediterranean slowly became clear Naval control of the Mediterranean was vital to Allied land operations in the area and to once Italy and Turkey decided to maintaining communications with the British and French overseas empires. Despite their become combatants. overwhelming naval superiority, the Allies had a tough fight to keep their sea lanes open. AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY F rom the start of the war, the was used to intervene in Torpedo boat commander Britain and France agreed before the war that surface warships of the Central the crisis. During 1916 Italy\u2019s most celebrated naval hero the French navy would take responsibility Powers could not challenge Allied and 1917, mostly of World War I was Luigi Rizzo. for the Mediterranean, while Britain\u2019s naval supremacy in the Mediterranean. French warships Commanding a motor torpedo Royal Navy concentrated on the English Operating from British bases in Malta, blockaded Greek boat, Rizzo sank the Channel and North Sea. Italy\u2019s decision Gibraltar, and Alexandria in Egypt, ports, threatened Austro-Hungarian to enter the war \u276e\u276e 106\u201307 on the Allied and from ports in southern France and to bombard cities, dreadnought SMS Szent side in 1915 was a relief for the Allied navies. French Algeria, the Allied navies forced and even \ufb01red Istv\u00e1n on June 10, 1918. Austria-Hungary to con\ufb01ne its \ufb02eet to upon the royal TURKISH CRUISER MIDILLI the Adriatic. palace. These Mediterranean, was actions eventually badly damaged by a THE NAVIES OF THE CENTRAL POWERS Intervention in Greece drove the king to torpedo in December In August 1914, the only two German warships abdicate and brought 1914. Another in the Mediterranean, SMS Goeben and Allied naval power could also exert Greece into the war Austro-Hungarian Breslau, escaped pursuit by entering Turkish considerable in\ufb02uence in the countries on the Allied side in U-boat sank the French waters, an incident that contributed to around the Mediterranean, as June 1917. armored cruiser L\u00e9on Turkey entering the war \u276e\u276e 74\u201375 as demonstrated in Greece. Although Gambetta, with heavy loss an ally of the Central Powers. Goeben and Greece was of\ufb01cially neutral, the Greek The U-boat menace of life, in April 1915. Breslau became part of the Turkish navy. people were divided, some supporting German U-boats began arriving in Austria-Hungary had a navy based at ports the pro-Allied politician Eleftherios If Allied naval supremacy could not be the Mediterranean in response to the in the Adriatic. Venizelos, others the pro-German king, challenged on the surface of the sea, it Allied landings on Turkey\u2019s Gallipoli Constantine I. In October 1915, was a different story underwater. Early Peninsula in the spring of 1915. Based Venizelos had invited Allied troops to in the war the Austro-Hungarian navy at Constantinople and in the Adriatic, land at Salonika in northern Greece, made effective use of its submarines they not only sank Allied warships but so they could proceed to Serbia to against Allied warships that were also merchant shipping. Connecting assist it in \ufb01ghting the Central Powers. maintaining a blockade of the Adriatic. the Atlantic to the Suez Canal, the This move by Venizelos provoked a The French battleship Jean Bart, Mediterranean was a major trade route confrontation between Venizelists and \ufb02agship of Admiral Augustin Bou\u00e9 de offering a multiplicity of targets for royalists in Greece. Allied naval power Lapeyr\u00e8re, French commander in the Allied warships in Malta Ships of the British and French Mediterranean fleets lie at anchor in the Grand Harbor in Malta in 1916. A British territory, Malta was a vital link in the Allied chain of naval bases.","NAVAL WAR IN THE MEDITERRANEAN U-boats. Sinkings for the Allies reached nets\u201d designed to detect submarines. Italian attack Attempting to return to base, however, crisis level in 1916, when more than If a U-boat was discovered, the trawlers The F\u00e0a di Bruno, an armored they ran into a mine\ufb01eld. Midilli was 400 merchant ships went down. would radio warships for support. In barge equipped with two heavy sunk and Yavuz Sultan Selim disabled. practice, U-boats slipped through the guns, was used for land The Otranto barrage barrage with ease. It did, however, give bombardment in support of Skirmishes in the Adriatic the Austro-Hungarian navy a chance ground troops. Here, it is In an attempt to block U-boat to mount hit-and-run raids on the assisted by an Italian seaplane. The Italian and Austro-Hungarian operations from Adriatic ports, the trawlers. One raid, headed by Captain navies fought around the shores of the Allies created the Otranto barrage Miklos Horthy, led to a naval battle in Losses of merchant Adriatic. The Austro-Hungarian \ufb02eet between the Italian coast at Brindisi May 1917 when Allied warships ships to German bombarded the Italian coast in 1915, and the island of Corfu. This consisted damaged Horthy\u2019s cruiser SMS Novara. U-boats in the causing heavy civilian casualties at the of a line of trawlers with \u201cindicator Mediterranean peaked port of Ancona. The Italians raided the at 1.5 million tons Austro-Hungarian naval bases at \u201c We sped down the Aegean in 1917, falling to Trieste, Cattaro, and Pola by sea and and encountered the U-boat half that level by by air. Italian patriots were elated that dogged us so relentlessly.\u201d 1918. The belated when their small motor torpedo boats introduction of sank the Austro-Hungarian battleships TROOPER REGINALD C. HUGGINS, EAST RIDING OF YORKSHIRE IMPERIAL YEOMANRY escorted convoys from Wien and Szent Istvan in December spring 1917 helped 1917 and June 1918, respectively. On reduce Allied losses, November 1, 1918, an Italian \u201chuman but a shortage of torpedo\u201d midget submarine penetrated escort vessels Pola Harbor, placed a limpet mine on remained a problem. Britain\u2019s ally the hull of the Austro-Hungarian Japan responded to an urgent request dreadnought Viribus Unitis, and sank it. for assistance by sending 14 destroyers to the Mediterranean for convoy Austro-Hungarian flag escort duties. The use of aircraft on Although Austria and Hungary are now antisubmarine patrols and the towing landlocked countries, in 1914 they had ports of manned kite balloons (blimps) on the Adriatic coast and strong naval traditions. behind convoys for aerial observation The Austro-Hungarian navy boasted four also inhibited U-boat operations. dreadnought battleships, as well as submarines. The Allies eventually got their revenge for the embarrassment caused to them when the two German warships SMS Goeben and Breslau evaded pursuit at the start of the war by sailing into Turkish waters. Given to Turkey by Germany, and renamed Yavuz Sultan Selim and Midilli, the two ships sailed from Constantinople into the Aegean Sea in January 1918, attacking British destroyers and monitors off the island of Imbros. AFTER The armistice between Turkey and the Allies, negotiated on October 30, 1918, resulted in the Allied occupation of Constantinople. CLEARING THE DARDANELLES Under the terms of the armistice 316\u201317 \u276f\u276f at the end of October, Turkey had to clear a passage through the heavily mined Dardanelles for Allied ships. By mid-November 1918, a line of Allied warships was anchored off Constantinople. The British commander in the Mediterranean, Admiral Sir John de Robeck, supervised a military occupation of the city in 1920. Meanwhile, the disintegration of Austria-Hungary 320\u201321 \u276f\u276f at the end of the war left both Austria and Hungary without access to the sea. The Austro- Hungarian ports devolved either to Italy or to Yugoslavia. 257","REVOLUTION AND DISILLUSION 1917 BEFORE From Gaza to Jerusalem Germany\u2019s ally Ottoman Turkey was \ufb01ghting Russia in the Caucasus and Between October and December 1917, British and Commonwealth forces, assisted by Arab the British in Mesopotamia (Iraq) irregulars, mounted a successful campaign against Turkish forces in Palestine. The Turks were and Palestine. forced to abandon the holy city of Jerusalem to British occupation. THE BRITISH THREAT In 1917, pressure on Turkey on the Caucasus I n March 1917, the British Egyptian Camel ambulance The opposing side was also preparing front was relieved by the revolutionary Expeditionary Force, commanded Medical orderlies of an Australian for a \ufb01ght, but the Germans and Turks upheavals in Russia. In Mesopotamia, by General Archibald Murray, had field ambulance prepare to load a had problems at command level. Britain recovered from its defeat at the Siege advanced across the Sinai Desert and wounded soldier onto a camel\u2019s back. General Erich von Falkenhayn, former of Kut \u276e\u276e 122\u201323 and took Baghdad in was poised to break into Palestine. Camels were often the most practical German Chief of the General Staff, March, continuing to press northward through Its route lay through a line from Gaza transportation in desert terrain. had been sent to Turkey to head the the rest of the year. In Palestine, the Turks on the coast to Beersheba, 30 miles German-Turkish Yildirim were threatened by the Arab Revolt (50 km) inland, lightly held by Turkish on Gaza on April 17 faced (\u201cThunderbolt\u201d) Army, originally \u276e\u276e 196\u201397 and by a British expeditionary troops and their German advisers. much stronger resistance force advancing across the Sinai from Egypt. However, the British were \ufb01nding it and was repelled. Murray dif\ufb01cult to cope with the desert terrain. was relieved of command CARTOON DEPICTING TURKEY VERSUS BRITAIN Water shortages meant that offensives and replaced by General had to be swiftly concluded before Edmund Allenby. portable supplies ran out. The new commander On March 26, British troops was given substantial reinforcements so succeeded in penetrating Gaza in he could satisfy British Prime Minister a surprise assault but were then David Lloyd George\u2019s demand to take withdrawn because of fear of a Turkish Jerusalem by Christmas. The expanded counterattack. A second British attack forces were reorganized and Arab forces, led by Emir Faisal and Colonel T.E. Lawrence, were supplied with money and equipment.","FROM GAZA TO JERUSALEM Comb Toothbrush Shaving brush AFTER \u201cThey were an Shoelaces British wash kit By the end of 1917, Ottoman Turkey awe-inspiring Wash bag This standard kit was carried by British soldiers in World was in a perilous situation, dependent sight, galloping War I. Care for basic hygiene on the Palestine front was for survival, both militarily and through the red difficult because of the lack of water, but it was also economically, on aid from Germany. haze\u2026 the dying essential for survival. sun glinting on THREE-PRONGED ATTACK bayonet points.\u201d November, delivering a dangerous The collapse of Russia after the Bolshevik counterattack against a position lightly Revolution \u276e\u276e 252\u201353 allowed Turkish AUSTRALIAN TROOPER ION IDRIESS, DESCRIBING held by British cavalry. It soon proved, forces to advance at will on the Caucasus THE CAVALRY CHARGE AT BEERSHEBA however, to be no more than a front, but this could not disguise their delaying action. weakness elsewhere. Through 1918, delayed intended to intervene in Mesopotamia. actually sending the bulk of his forces and distracted by crucial battles on the On the night of December 6, a Western Front, the British prepared a The British buildup opposite the to attack Beersheba at the other end British surprise attack in heavy rain three-pronged offensive, to attack Turkey broke through the Turkish defenses from Palestine and Syria, from northern Gaza-Beersheba line led Falkenhayn to of the Turkish line. While Gaza was on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Mesopotamia, and through Bulgaria from their Commanders on both sides accepted base at Salonika in northern Greece. take his troops to Palestine instead, subjected to a six-day artillery that there would be no ARMISTICE WITH TURKEY where he assumed bombardment, British \ufb01ghting in the city itself, The defeat of German and Turkish and Turkish troops were forces in Palestine in September 1918 and overall command 670 The number of years troops moved to new the fall of Damascus and Beirut to the Allies in of German and Jerusalem had been positions 25 miles allowed to withdraw early October suf\ufb01ced to persuade Turkey to to the north. The negotiate an armistice 316\u201317 \u276f\u276f. The Turkish forces. under continuous Muslim rule (40 km) distant. A British took \ufb01ghting of\ufb01cially stopped on October 30. possession of Yet his arrogance before the British occupation contingent of the Royal Jerusalem on George\u2019s wish for the city to be in British hands by Christmas. The offended the Turks, of the city in 1917. Flying Corps \ufb02ew December 11, capture of Jerusalem was a boost to ful\ufb01lling Lloyd British morale and a severe blow to and General combat patrols to block Turkish prestige. Militarily, however, it was the start of a long pause in British Mustafa Kemal, commander of the the Germans from carrying out aerial offensive operations, which would not resume until September 1918. Turkish Seventh Army at Gaza, left on reconnaissance over British lines. Allenby enters Jerusalem sick leave rather than serve under him. General Allenby strides through Jerusalem\u2019s Jaffa Gate on December 11, 1917. Although a cavalry officer, Meanwhile, Allenby planned his The British advance Allenby chose to enter the conquered holy city on foot as a mark of respect. offensive with care. He devised an The offensive was launched on the intelligent deception operation to make morning of October 31. While infantry the enemy believe he intended to struggled forward, cutting a path renew the attack on Gaza, while through barbed wire, Australian and New Zealand cavalry executed a daring Yeomanry Mounted Division \ufb02anking movement to approach the James Beadle\u2019s painting depicts the British Yeomanry Turkish defenses from the north and Mounted Division charging Turkish positions at east. The speed and unexpectedness El Mughar Ridge in November 1917. Cavalry played of the cavalry charge by the Australian a major role in the Palestine campaign. Fourth Light Horse Brigade carried them through Turkish trench lines and into Beersheba by nightfall. The whole Turkish line quickly became indefensible. By November 6, Gaza was also in British hands. With Faisal and Lawrence\u2019s Arab forces operating in the desert on his right \ufb02ank, Allenby pressed forward determinedly. The Turkish Seventh and Eighth armies retreated in front of him to a new defensive line southwest of Jerusalem. These formations arrived much depleted by troops deserting or surrendering to the British. Capturing Jerusalem From November 10, \ufb01ghting resumed in earnest. After a British cavalry charge helped infantry capture forti\ufb01ed villages at El Mughar Ridge, Junction Station was taken, cutting Turkish rail links with Jerusalem. The Turkish Eighth Army withdrew northward, leaving the Seventh Army to defend the holy city. The advance of British troops was then slowed by the onset of winter rains. Falkenhayn\u2019s Yildirim Army came into action in late 259","REVOLUTION AND DISILLUSION 1917 Recording the War \u201c I am a messenger who will bring were mostly disappointing\u2014indistinct back word from the men\u2026 It will images of small \ufb01gures advancing have a bitter truth\u2026\u201d across featureless ground. To meet the demand for exciting combat BRITISH OFFICIAL WAR ARTIST PAUL NASH, IN A LETTER DATED NOVEMBER 13, 1917 shots, photographers resorted to fakery, either staging action for the camera or T he efforts of hundreds of gifted equipment\u2014both handheld cameras 1916 that a British photographer was retouching photographs in the studio. and brave artists and photographers and tripods, glass plates or roll \ufb01lm, allowed on to the Western Front. produced an impressive visual and panoramic cameras. Most pictures Eventually, however, some of the \ufb01nest Illustrated newspapers and magazines record of World War I. Some worked were black and white, but color shots images were made by Britain\u2019s Ernest were the main market for war pictures. with of\ufb01cial backing from government of trench life were taken, notably by Brooks and John Brooke, Canada\u2019s Image quality was poor, and detail all agencies; others followed a private Germany\u2019s Hans Hildenbrand. William Rider-Rider, and Australia\u2019s but lost in reproduction. One reason for impulse to capture their observations Frank Hurley. the prevalence of soldiers silhouetted and experiences on the battle\ufb01eld. In 1914, Germany was the world\u2019s against the sky in World War I All had at best an ambivalent technical leader in photography and had Lost in print photographs is that such pictures relationship with the military authorities, the best grasp of its propaganda value. showed up well even when they were who viewed both mediums as a potential Some 50 photographers were embedded Inevitably, given the danger and badly printed. security risk open to abuse by spies. with its forces, compared to 35 with the technical dif\ufb01culty involved, few French. The British military authorities photographs were taken in the thick Although the aim was to promote the Military and propaganda uses were lagged behind. It was not until spring of action. When they were, the results war effort, and some of those published found for soldiers with artistic training, were fatuously cheerful, photographers from inventing camou\ufb02age schemes to Lens Lens often succeeded in conveying the tough producing sketches of enemy positions conditions under which troops were for intelligence purposes, but their wider \ufb01ghting, hinting at their suffering. talents were at best only tolerated by Some subjects, however, were only armies as a trench pastime. Civilian covered by soldiers taking amateur governments, by contrast, saw art images with their own box cameras. and photography as vital tools in The fraternization between enemy their propaganda campaigns to drum up support for the war on the home front and publicize their cause abroad. War photography As the war raged on, more long-term goals emerged, with authorities in some countries consciously preparing a visual record of the con\ufb02ict for future generations. Of\ufb01cially sponsored photography and art became the norm, eventually leading to the founding of institutions such as Britain\u2019s Imperial War Museum and the Australian War Memorial. By 1914, technology had improved and war photography became easier. Cameras were smaller and lighter, with shutter speeds capable of capturing rapid movement. Photographers worked with a range of Stereoscopic camera and glass slide Some World War I photographers used twin-lensed stereoscopic cameras that enabled them to capture three-dimensional images. The glass slides had to be seen through a special viewer. 260","RECORDING THE WAR A war artist\u2019s tools Brush case individual artistic goals and of\ufb01cial TIMELINE This paint box and set of brushes was used requirements was never entirely by British artist John Nash during World War I. absent. Nonetheless, artists were \u25a0 1847 The first known war photographs are Nash served for a year as a soldier on the allowed to present their own views of taken during the Mexican-American War. Western Front before being appointed an the war, however grim, in their own official war artist in January 1918, a move style, however radical. Artists receiving \u25a0 1855 Roger Fenton becomes the first official that probably saved his life. of\ufb01cial commissions included war photographer, invited by the British modernists such as Percy Wyndham government to cover the Crimean War. Lewis, leader of the Vorticist movement, as well as traditionalists \u25a0 1861\u201365 Photography flourishes during the like Sargent. Many war painters American Civil War under the direction of continued to produce commemorative Mathew Brady. works long after the war\u2019s end. \u25a0 1890s The marketing of small Kodak roll-film cameras makes photography practical for casual amateurs. Mixing Motion pictures palette In addition to painting and photography, Paintbrush the relatively new medium of motion pictures was applied to recording the troops during the Christmas truce in responses to the experience of the war. All combatant countries produced newsreels for public exhibition in 1914, for example, was recorded in this con\ufb02ict were varied and individualistic. movie theaters. Probably the most ambitious project was the British way, and so was the frequent spectacle French Cubist Fernand L\u00e9ger, for documentary The Battle of the Somme. Shot by Geoffrey Malins and John of hideously mutilated corpses\u2014which example, found inspiration in the McDowell, it included a considerable amount of authentic footage shot was censored from the of\ufb01cial record. shapes of gun barrels, whereas German during the 1916 Somme Offensive and is considered to be the \ufb01rst full-length Expressionist Otto Dix ironically documentary \ufb01lm. America\u2019s entry into the con\ufb02ict gave a substantial boost to Artistic expression entitled a 1915 painting of himself in the task of recording the war on moving \ufb01lm, with cameramen from the The role of the war artist in World uniform Self-Portrait as a Target. U.S. Signal Corps shooting thousands of reels on their hand-cranked cameras. War I was complex and subtle. The In 1916, when two serving British Although they include a large proportion of reenactment in action painting of heroic battle scenes soldiers, C.R.W. Nevinson and Eric sequences, these black-and-white \ufb01lms remain a valuable testimony. and vignettes of Kennington, Fallen men military life was 40,000 The number of exhibited First exhibited in May 1918, British war artist William an established Orpen\u2019s Dead Germans in a Trench is an unflinching photographs taken determinedly depiction of the horrors of war. If the painting had FRENCH TRENCH ART shown fallen Allied soldiers, Orpen would not have genre and during by the official British, Australian, unheroic paintings been allowed to exhibit such a picture. \u25a0 1914 Many artists become soldiers in the war; combatant governments establish the war, painters and Canadian war photographers based on their propaganda bureaus. and illustrators during World War I. own experiences \u25a0 February 1916 The Dada movement begins. Antiwar absurdist performances are held at represented the at the front, they Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich, Switzerland. drama of cavalry charges and close- caused a considerable sensation in \u25a0 March 1916 Ernest Brooks becomes the first British war photographer on the Western Front. quarters infantry combat. Although Britain. In the same year, the French \u25a0 April 1916 The Canadian War Records Office, demand for this kind of work never government mounted an set up on the initiative of journalist Max Aitken (later Lord Beaverbrook), begins sponsoring ceased, there was an uncomfortable exhibition of soldiers\u2019 photographers on the Western Front. awareness that it did not represent paintings in Paris. \u25a0 May 1916 Britain\u2019s War Propaganda Bureau recruits Scottish engraver Muirhead Bone as the reality of the industrialized warfare Of\ufb01cial sponsorship of Britain\u2019s first official war artist. to which soldiers at the front were war artists, practiced in \u25a0 August 1916 The documentary film The Battle of the Somme is released in British theaters. being subjected. all countries, reached the \u25a0 December 1916 In Paris, the government- From the outset of the war scale of a major cultural sponsored Salon des Arm\u00e9es opens, exhibiting art produced by French soldiers in the trenches. many artists found themselves project in Britain from \u25a0 May 1917 The Australian War Records Section faced with the reality of 1916. Established artists is created to collect and preserve images of the Australian war experience. combat, serving either as such as the American \u25a0 July 1917 A Photographic Section is created conscripts or volunteers in John Singer Sargent within the U.S. Signal Corps to organize still and moving images of the American their national armies. They and Irish painter William Expeditionary Force (AEF). included members of Orpen were sent to the \u25a0 June 1920 The Imperial War Museum opens in London to house all official art of the war. innovative modernist front to record the war, \u25a0 1924 German artist Otto Dix publishes 50 groups\u2014Cubists, while young painters etchings entitled Der Krieg (The War), reflecting his experience as a frontline soldier. Futurists, Vorticists, already serving in the Expressionists\u2014who army were plucked had been challenging from the trenches and traditional forms of adopted as of\ufb01cial artists. representation in the Friction between prewar period. Their Glass slide 261","","6 VICTORY AND DEFEAT 1918 In spring 1918, Germany attempted to win the war with a series of offensives on the Western Front. But large numbers of newly arrived American troops helped defeat the German armies, and Germany was forced to sign an armistice before the year\u2019s end.","VICTORY AND DEFEAT 1918 VICTORY AND DEFEAT Celebrations in Paris Strategic bombing of on Armistice Day, enemy cities is a significant November 11, 1918, part of military strategy on express relief at the both sides by 1918. The Italian ending of the war and satisfaction in victory. Caproni Ca4 was one of Most people hope it will the largest bomber aircraft be \u201ca war to end wars.\u201d used in the war. Germany\u2019s defeat against FINLAND the Allies is depicted in this Y French poster. By November ICELAND A N 1918, the countries at war NORW SWEDE EUROPE with Germany include China, FAEROE ISLANDS Brazil, Siam (now Thailand), (Denmark) N O R W AY and Cuba. GERMANY SWEDEN AT L A N T I C FRANCE AUSTRIA- SOVIET RUSSIA tic Sea HUNGARY OCEAN I TA LY Black Sea Caspian Sea North PORTUGAL S PA I N TUNISIA OTTOMAN N Sea DENMARK Bal SPANISH MOROCCO EMPIRE P E R S I A AFGHANISTA BRITAIN MOROCCO CYPRUS TIBET BAHRAIN (autonomous) NETH. G E R M A N Y SOVIET ALGERIA LIBYA EGYPT KUWAIT QATAR NEPAL RUSSIA BEL. LUX. RIO DE ORO NEJD INDIA HEJAZ TRUCIAL ANGLO- (Saudi) OMAN EGYPTIAN OMAN FRANCE AUSTRIA- FRENCH WEST AFRICA SUDAN HADHRAMAUT HUNGARY SWITZ. GAMBIA TOGO FRENCH (British mandate) ADEN PROTECTORATE PORTUGUESE GUINEA EQUATORIAL ERITREA FRENCH SOMALILAND CEYLON SIERRA LEONE NIGERIA AFRICA ABYSSINIA BRITISH SERBIA ROMANIA LIBERIA GOLD CAMEROON SOMALILAND COAST IT BULGARIA B l a c k S e a ITALIAN ALY MONT. BRITISH EAST SOMALILAND PORTUGAL SPAIN ALB. RIO MUNI FRENCH BELGIAN AFRICA (Spain) CONGO CONGO GERMAN EAST OTTOMAN AFRICA INDIAN Me diterr GREECE EMPIRE a n ean Se NORTHERN ANGOLA OCEAN ALGERIA TUNISIA DODECANESE RHODESIA (France) (France) (Italy) MOROCCO SOUTHERN MADAGASCAR a CYPRUS RHODESIA GERMAN (France) (Britain) SOUTH WEST BECHUANA- PORTUGUESE AFRICA LAND EAST LIBYA AFRICA (Italy) EGYPT (Britain) UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA The fall of the Kaiser and the The defeat of Bulgaria in declaration of a German republic September 1918 leaves Austria- in November 1918 is accompanied by Hungary and Germany open to street battles in Berlin. The new invasion by Allied forces from government shoulders responsibility the Balkans. for the Armistice. B y early 1918, Germany had won the war on its Eastern Front. part of a wider Spring Offensive, achieved a breakthrough on the Russia had to sign the Treaty of Brest Litovsk\u2014a ruthlessly Somme front and was a severe shock to the Allies. punitive treaty that opened the way for German domination and exploitation of Central and Eastern Europe. Transferring troops from The offensive did not, however, achieve its larger objectives. The the Eastern to the Western Front, the Germans gambled on a massive Allies tightened the coordination between their armies and continued offensive to win the war before newly arrived U.S. troops were to fight. A series of German follow-up offensives in Flanders and at committed to combat. Launched on March 21, the Michael Offensive, the Aisne River achieved further breakthroughs, but by June the German army was running out of steam. 264","VICTORY AND DEFEAT 1918 1918 CANADA CHINA The Allies intervene in the Russian Civil War from 1918, UNITED STATES U.S. troops achieve a victory at the initially in the hope of reviving Russia\u2019s war effort. Here, Allied OF AMERICA St. Mihiel Salient in September 1918. troops supporting White anti-Bolshevik troops march through The 2 million U.S servicemen sent to Europe Vladivostok, a port on Russia\u2019s Pacific coast. play an essential role in the defeat of the Central Powers. JAPANESE EMPIRE BRITISH HONDURAS MEXICO DOMINICAN REPUBLIC Mariana CUBA VIRGIN ISLANDS AT L A N T I C Islands Hawaiian PACIFIC LEEWARD ISLANDS Islands OCEAN PHILIPPINE WINDWARD ISLANDS SIAM FRENCH ISLANDS OCEAN GUATEMALA BARBADOS INDOCHINA GUAM Marshall EL SALVADOR NICARAGUA Islands TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO BRITISH CANAL ZONE NORTH BORNEO GERMAN PACIFIC TERRITORIES VENEZUELA BRITISH GUIANA DUTCH GUIANA BRUNEI Caroline Islands Christmas COLOMBIA FRENCH GUIANA Island SARAWAK Gilbert Islands MALAYA Bismarck ECUADOR Archipelago Nauru Ellice KAISER Islands Cook D U T C H E A S T I N D I E S WILHELMSLAND Solomon Islands BRAZIL PAPUA Islands UAY PORTUGUESE New German Samoa French Polynesia PERU TIMOR Hebrides (Western) Fiji Tonga BOLIVIA PARAG AUSTRALIA New Caledonia CHILE NEW ZEALAND An Australian propaganda URUGUAY THE WORLD poster shows Germany as a ARGENTINA NOVEMBER 11, 1918 grasping, bloodthirsty beast with FALKLAND The Central Powers global ambitions. Such simplistic and ISLANDS Central Powers conquests exaggerated views of the German to Nov 11, 1918 enemy fell out of favor in Allied countries after the war ended. Allied states Allied conquests to Nov 11, 1918 Neutral states Frontiers, Jul 1914 In July, the French led a successful counteroffensive at the Marne, Austria-Hungary all surrendered to the Allies. From late October, supported by U.S. troops. On August 8, British and Commonwealth mutinies and revolutionary uprisings broke out in German cities. On forces achieved a striking victory at Amiens. From then on, the Allies November 9, Kaiser Wilhelm II was deposed and Germany became a launched an unbroken series of offensives, climaxing in the breach of republic. Two days later, the Germans reluctantly accepted rigorous the German Hindenburg Line at the end of September. armistice terms and the fighting stopped. There were wild celebrations in the victor countries, while the defeated were immersed in political While German troops continued to fight hard on the Western upheaval and economic breakdown. Front, Germany sought an armistice. Bulgaria, Ottoman Turkey, and 265","VICTORY AND DEFEAT 1918 TIMELINE 1918 Peace of Brest-Litovsk \u25a0 German Spring Offensives \u25a0 U.S. troops enter the war \u25a0 Allies turn the tide \u25a0 Hindenburg Line breached \u25a0 Germany\u2019s allies defeated \u25a0 Kaiser overthrown \u25a0 Germans sign an armistice JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL MAY JUNE JANUARY 8 The Russian bear in search MARCH 3 APRIL 1 JUNE 3 President Wilson of peace Russia signs the Treaty British army and navy U.S. and French forces presents a Fourteen FEBRUARY 10 of Brest-Litovsk with aircraft are unified in begin the defense of Point peace program The Bolshevik the Central Powers. the independent Royal Belleau Wood. The to Congress. delegation walks out Air Force. German advance on of peace talks with the MARCH 21 the Marne front JANUARY 14 Central Powers. Germans launch the APRIL 4 is halted. Former French prime Michael Offensive The Michael Offensive minister Joseph Caillaux against the British Fifth peters out as Allied JUNE 8 is arrested for treason Army on the Western defensive line French General for supporting a Front and achieve a stabilizes. Franchet d\u2019Esperay negotiated peace. major breakthrough. takes command of APRIL 8 Allied forces at JANUARY 16 MARCH 23 Slav nationalists Salonika in Greece. Vienna and Budapest Paris comes under meeting in Rome are rocked by riots bombardment from a demand right to form JUNE 9 against food shortages. long-range German nation states. German offensive at railroad gun. Matz achieves limited JANUARY 24 APRIL 9 gains and is quickly Rejecting German The Germans launch Field Marshal Paul von abandoned. peace terms, Russia\u2019s the Lys Offensive in Hindenburg deals with Bolshevik government Flanders, driving the Field Marshal Douglas Haig adopts the stance of Allies into retreat. \u201cno war, no peace.\u201d FEBRUARY 18 Germany resumes APRIL 21 JANUARY 28 military operations German flying ace Strikes in German cities against Russia, Baron von Richthofen in protest at the advancing unopposed (the Red Baron) is shot continuation of the war. into Russian territory. down and killed over the Somme. German and Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war head home FEBRUARY 24 MAY 7 JUNE 10 At Lenin\u2019s insistence, Romania signs a punitive Austria-Hungary the Bolshevik peace treaty imposed by launches an offensive government reluctantly the Central Powers. in Italy at the Piave agrees to accept River. By June 15, it German peace terms. MAY 27 has failed. Germans launch an MARCH 26 Gas mask offensive at the Aisne U.S. marine fights a German French General River that forces the at the Battle of Bellau Wood Ferdinand Foch is given Allies into another coordinating powers withdrawal. over Allied armies on the Western Front. APRIL 23 MAY 28 The British Royal U.S. troops see their MARCH 28 Navy raids the ports first major action at the German offensive fails of Zeebrugge and Ostende Battle of Cantigny. to take Arras in the in an attempt to halt face of stiff British U-boat operations. MAY 30 resistance. German forces APRIL 29 advancing from the Germany suspends the Lys Aisne reach the Marne. Offensive without reaching strategic targets. Manfred von Richthofen 266","TIMELINE 1918 \u201cAlready this was a different world\u2026 The war was over; a new age was beginning; but the dead were dead and would never return.\u201d BRITISH NURSE VERA BRITTAIN, REMEMBERING ARMISTICE DAY, 1918 JULY AUGUST SEPTEMBER OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER JULY 1 AUGUST 8 SEPTEMBER 2\u20133 NOVEMBER 3 DECEMBER 1 President Wilson Successful British Canadian forces make Austria-Hungary signs Kingdom of Serbs, announces that one million offensive at Amiens in first successful assault an armistice. Croats, and Slovenes U.S. troops have been sent France is dubbed the on the Hindenburg declares independence. to Europe. \u201cblackest day of the Line defenses at NOVEMBER 9 German army.\u201d Drocourt-Qu\u00e9ant. Kaiser Wilhelm II JULY 15 abdicates and flees Start of the Second Battle SEPTEMBER 12 to the Netherlands. of the Marne. A German The U.S. First Army Germany is declared offensive is halted by goes into action at the a republic. July 17. St. Mihiel salient. JULY 16 SEPTEMBER 15 U.S. general John Pershing Tsar Nicholas II and his The Allied army at family are murdered by Salonika launches OCTOBER 1 the Bolsheviks at the Vardar Offensive Damascus is captured by Ekaterinburg. against Bulgaria. Australian and Arab forces. SEPTEMBER 19 OCTOBER 3 Turkish forces suffer a Prince Max von Baden crushing defeat at the becomes German Battle of Megiddo chancellor and seeks in Palestine. an armistice. German ration card AUGUST 10 SEPTEMBER 26 OCTOBER 10 The German delegation General Pershing Americans and French German U-boat sinks arrives to sign the Armistice JULY 18 announces the launch the Meuse- an Irish ferry, killing In the Second Battle formation of Argonne Offensive. 500 people. NOVEMBER 11 of the Marne, French the U.S. First Army. A German delegation and U.S. forces SEPTEMBER 27 OCTOBER 14 signs an armistice; launch a successful Canadians penetrate Belgian King Albert fighting stops at 11am. counteroffensive, using the Hindenburg Line at leads a major Allied Emperor Charles I large numbers of tanks. the Canal du Nord. advance in Flanders. renounces his powers as ruler of Austria-Hungary. SEPTEMBER 28 OCTOBER 24 DECEMBER 13 British troops cross the Successful Italian President Wilson arrives St. Quentin Canal. offensive at Vittorio in France for the Paris Veneto begins. Peace Conference. SEPTEMBER 29 Bulgaria arranges OCTOBER 26 an armistice with Ludendorff is forced to the Allies. resign after opposing German acceptance of an armistice. JULY 31 French Renault FT tank OCTOBER 29 Grave of the last British and DECEMBER 14 Allied intervention force Mutiny breaks out in the Commonwealth soldier to be Coalition led by David in Russia takes the AUGUST 22 German navy, triggering killed in the war Lloyd George wins a northern port In a renewed offensive uprisings in German cities. large majority in British of Arkhangelsk. north of Amiens, British NOVEMBER 22 general election. troops take the town OCTOBER 30 Belgian King Albert of Albert. Turkey signs an armistice reenters Brussels. at Mudros. AUGUST 29 NOVEMBER 25 New Zealand troops German forces in East occupy Bapaume. Africa surrender after learning of the armistice. German Stahlhelm, with camouflage 267","VICTORY AND DEFEAT 1918 BEFORE Home Fronts Combatant countries entered the war Soldiers on the battlefields often complained that people at home failed to share their bitter in a spirit of national unity, but the experience of war. But by 1918, few civilians in any of the combatant countries were immune pressures of a long con\ufb02ict created to the impact of the war, and raising their morale had become a crucial issue for governments. social and political strains. POPULAR DISILLUSION T he combatant states had a rich Germans suffered a steep rise in deaths canteens and subsidizing wheat prices, In the course of 1917, an uprising that began fund of patriotism to draw upon, from tuberculosis and other diseases which helped keep the British with protests over food shortages and in\ufb02ation but as the con\ufb02ict continued into associated with poverty, dampness, population decently fed. overthrew the tsarist regime in Russia its fourth year, war-weariness began to and malnutrition. At the same time, and a Bolshevik revolutionary spread. For many in Germany and working hours were increased to meet Citizens of London and Paris endured government \u276e\u276e 252\u201353 later seized power. Austria-Hungary, constant food and the rising demands of war production. the inconvenience of blackouts and Germany and Austria-Hungary experienced fuel shortages made daily existence German women, who were often occasional air raids. From March 1918, disturbances provoked by acute food a struggle for survival. undernourished, were forced into Parisians were bombarded by long- shortages \u276e\u276e 198\u201399 in the winter factory jobs, where overtime and range German shell \ufb01re. Although few of 1916\u201317, known in Germany as the By early 1918, of\ufb01cial rations in Sunday working were compulsory and civilians were killed by enemy action, Turnip Winter. Vienna, allowed 2.5 oz (70 g) of safety standards were poor. After work, it brought the war home and had potatoes per person a day and they would stand for hours in food a psychological effect. BOLSHEVIK MILITARY PATROL lines. German troops on leave from the 0.8 oz (23 g) of meat. Mobile soup front were demoralized by the Private pro\ufb01ts kitchens regularly fed about one poor state of their families. in \ufb01ve of the city\u2019s population with a The authorities in combatant states thin gruel. In summer 1918, tens of Conditions in the Allied countries knew they needed to persuade their thousands of Viennese children were were never quite as bad. By spring populations that sacri\ufb01ces were being evacuated into rural areas, where they 1918, Britain had introduced rationing evenly shared. All countries, however, received food in return for supplying for sugar, tea, butter, and meat, but this adopted policies in which state farm labor. was in order to put a stop to panic buying rather than because of food British strike meeting Living standards shortages. The government introduced Striking transportation workers hold a meeting at a range of practical measures, such as Mitcham Green in London in 1918. In general, British Conditions in Germany were little encouraging the setting up of factory trade unions supported the war, and strikes were about better. Short of food and living in low pay and job status rather than the conflict itself. unheated buildings through the winter,","HOME FRONTS \u201c As for the mood of the people, the heroic attitude has entirely disappeared. Now one sees faces like masks, blue with cold and drawn by hunger.\u201d PRINCESS BL\u00dcCHER, DESCRIBING BERLIN, DIARY ENTRY, FEBRUARY 1917 direction of the economy went hand Governments tried to persuade trade German ration coupons Food ration cards were issued in in hand with private enterprise. The unions to support the war effort, thus Germany from the early stages of the war. Supplies of many staple pro\ufb01ts made by industrialists and giving them a respectability they had goods were limited and officially customers could only buy them traders became a widespread source not previously possessed. But even if using these coupons. of popular anger on both sides in the union leaders supported government dangerously revolutionary \ufb02avor, particularly in the wake of the war. In Germany and Austria-Hungary, policies, workers at the factory level Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. government attempts to control prices often opposed them, so strikes were Urgent demands and food supplies led to a thriving still widespread. Labor unrest was In mid-January 1918, Austria-Hungary was swept by strikes after further black market. 1,400 The estimated daily common not reductions in food rations. At the same Wealthy city caloric intake for only in Europe, but time, about a million workers went dwellers, for German adults in 1918, down from also in Australia on strike in Berlin and other German example, would over 3,000 calories in 1914. and the United cities. They demanded more food, an take trips to the States. During the end to the black market, and the country to buy 5.9 MILLION The number of last years of the meat directly from working days lost to strike war, Britain farmers at well action in Britain in 1918. experienced more over the of\ufb01cial strikes than any \ufb01xed price. Police action failed to stop other combatant country, with over such trading, allowing the well-off to 900,000 British workers engaging in eat while others went hungry. some form of industrial action during 1918. However, with a handful of prosecution of pro\ufb01teers. They also wanted the country\u2019s leaders to Controlling labor exceptions, such as on \u201cRed Clydeside\u201d introduce democratic reforms and end the war. The strikes were quickly In most countries, state measures in Glasgow, antiwar socialism had little suppressed. Ringleaders were arrested or drafted into the army and sent to designed to increase output provoked impact on Britain\u2019s war effort. the front. Few concessions were made. The waves of strikes left little doubt, popular opposition. People resented In France, politicized strikes were however, that in the longer term only military victory could avert some form attempts to stop them from choosing brought to an end by vigorous of revolutionary upheaval in Germany and Austria-Hungary. their place of work, and they resisted repressive action after Georges the drafting of unskilled men and Clemenceau became prime minister women into skilled jobs. Above all, in November 1917. In Germany and discontent focused on rising prices and Austria-Hungary, on the other hand, rents, with workers demanding pay popular anger over dif\ufb01cult working raises to maintain their living standards. and living conditions took on a AFTER Ersatz products While malnutrition encouraged VOTES FOR WOMEN Unable to import goods by sea, the German population had to the rapid spread of a deadly form Some measures taken to secure support for the put up with substitute ersatz products. Coffee was made from of in\ufb02uenza, demands for democratic war became permanent. In Britain, for roasted acorns, tea from common weeds, and soap from a range of reforms led to a widening of suffrage, example, the Representation of the chemicals and abrasives. including votes for women in Britain, People Act, passed by the House of Commons the United States, Germany, and Austria. in February 1918, tripled the size of the \u201cCOFFEE\u201d electorate, enfranchising all men over 21 and SPANISH FLU most women over 30. One effect of wartime Women were also given hardship was to weaken the vote in Germany resistance to the and Austria. virulent \u201cSpanish flu\u201d In the U.S., President of 1918. The pandemic is Woodrow Wilson agreed thought to have killed in 1918 to enshrine around 400,000 Germans, votes for women in a similar number of French, the Constitution, a move 250,000 British, and rati\ufb01ed by the 19th possibly as many as Amendment to the 650,000 Americans. ANNE J. CURRY, THE FIRST U.S. WOMAN TO VOTE Constitution in 1920. \u201cSOAP\u201d \u201cTEA\u201d 269","","EYEWITNESS 1917 Hunger on the Home Front By the end of 1917, there was a marked deterioration in the living conditions of Germany\u2019s civilian populace. The drain on resources caused by war on multiple fronts and the Allied naval blockade was compounded by the harsh winter of 1916\u201317. Shortages of food, fuel, soap, and other items left those who could not pay for black market goods struggling to survive. Some estimates place the death toll due to malnutrition-related disease at more than 700,000 during the course of the war. \u201cAmong the three hundred applicants for food there was not one who had had enough to eat in weeks. In the case of the younger women and the children, the skin was drawn hard to the bones and bloodless. Eyes had fallen deeper into the sockets. From the lips, all color was gone, and the tufts of hair that fell over parchmented foreheads seemed dull and famished, a sign that the nervous vigor \u201dof the body was departing with the physical strength. GEORGE ABEL SCHREINER, AMERICAN JOURNALIST, FROM THE IRON RATION: THREE YEARS IN WARRING CENTRAL EUROPE \u201cAt long last, there\u2019s butter, flour, and chocolate in the house. But not much of it, only two small squares of chocolate each! It has been so long, it brings back memories of breakfasts before the war. We are having a hard time. It is very cold, which increases your appetite. My older brothers go to work in thick boots to keep their feet warm. But we have faith in France and God, and comfort ourselves with the thought that over in Germany they are almost as unhappy as we are. There is famine in Berlin, Dresden, and \u201dBavaria. I hope they all die! AYVES CONGAR, FRENCH CIVILIAN, FROM JOURNAL DE LA GUERRE 1914\u20131918 Civilians crowd around a municipal kitchen cart on the streets of Berlin, in 1918 People in urban areas were most affected by acute food shortages and profiteering, leaving Germany\u2019s government unable to maintain morale on the home front. 271","VICTORY AND DEFEAT 1918 Trench Warfare Transformed In 1918, after three years of trench stalemate, a degree of mobility was restored to the Steel-welded cylinder fighting on the Western Front. The adoption of innovative tactics and new technology allowed armies to take the offensive with a good chance of success. BEFORE W orld War I generals are often A brief but intense \u201churricane\u201d Operating portrayed as unimaginative bombardment became the usual start lever The defensive \ufb01repower of machine men who were forever to an attack, replacing the prolonged guns, ri\ufb02es, and artillery could defeat marching their soldiers straight into the preliminary bombardments practiced Portable flamethrower massed infantry assaults, especially if \ufb01re of enemy machine guns. In reality, earlier in the war and restoring The fuel tank of a German flamethrower was carried the defenders were entrenched. commanders on both sides in the war an element of surprise. The on a soldier\u2019s back while a comrade operated the made constant efforts to improve the creeping barrage, introduced firing tube. Flamethrowers were frequently used by BREAKTHROUGH TACTICS performance of their troops. by the British and French in stormtroopers as part of their shock assault equipment. From 1915, commanders attempted to break Technological innovations were 1916, had been perfected so grenades, ri\ufb02e grenades, and mortars, through enemy trench lines using a prolonged adopted with enthusiasm and new that attacking soldiers had the as well as ri\ufb02es and bayonets, infantry artillery bombardment to prepare the techniques were developed. con\ufb01dence to advance 50 yd (50 m) sought to push forward rapidly in small way for an infantry advance. These tactics, behind a protective curtain units. Of\ufb01cial British infantry tactics used, for example, at the Battle of the Transforming the battle\ufb01eld of shell \ufb01re. While this barrage crept from 1917 emphasized the platoon\u2014 Somme \u276e\u276e 180\u201385 in July 1916, achieved forward, other guns would saturate around 40 soldiers\u2014as the essential small gains at the cost of many lives. By 1918, artillery was a re\ufb01ned the area behind the enemy front line instrument of war. For set-piece with high-explosive and gas shells to DEFENSE IN DEPTH offensives, gunners developed complex preempt counterattacks. The introduction of poison gas \u276e\u276e 104\u201305 \ufb01ring plans in coordination with in April 1915 and tanks \u276e\u276e 184\u201385 in infantry assaults. Different kinds of Defensive artillery \ufb01re was effectively September 1916 had no decisive impact. New fuses and shells were allotted to various suppressed by the accurate shelling of offensive tactics, used in the Russian tasks, from cutting barbed wire to enemy batteries. This was achieved Brusilov Offensive \u276e\u276e 174\u201375 of June destroying enemy artillery batteries. through well-honed techniques for 1916, were matched by better defense, with identifying their exact position, such as trenches stretching far behind the front line. Assault troops in action aerial reconnaissance, sound location, Stormtroopers advance through barbed wire during the and \u201c\ufb02ash spotting\u201d\u2014observing the German offensive on the Western Front in March 1918. \ufb02ashes from the muzzles of the guns. Trained to maintain the momentum of their attack at all costs, these specialized assault troops proved capable By 1918, infantry tactics had none of punching holes deep into Allied lines. of the crudity seen earlier in the war. Armed with light machine guns,","TRENCH WARFARE TRANSFORMED Attacks from the air The highly maneuverable and robust Halberstadt CL.II was one of Germany\u2019s most successful ground-attack aircraft. This machine was captured by Australian forces at Flesselles, France, in June 1918. defender could move in reserves to block a breakthrough more quickly than the attacker could exploit it. \u201c We crossed a battered The Germans in particular still created Time to rethink tangle of wire without defenses in depth. They were prepared dif\ufb01culty and at a jump were to sacri\ufb01ce frontline troops to draw The Allies achieved a string of successes over the front line.\u201d their enemy into a zone of concealed from August 1918 by abandoning the machine gun nests and further pursuit of a breakthrough and adopting ERNST J\u00dcNGER, STORMTROOPER COMMANDER, IN HIS MEMOIR STORM OF STEEL trench lines, where they could a step-by-step approach\u2014biting small then be engaged by chunks out of the German defenses unit of combat, with one part of the ground-attack aircraft, as well as counterattack troops. and then holding them against unit pinning down the enemy artillery, in tight cooperation with counterattacks, making sure to stay defenders with suppressive \ufb01re while infantry. Australian forces coined the Poor communication within range of supporting artillery. the other moved to attack. term \u201cpeaceful penetration\u201d to describe They consolidated a series of limited an assault in which the coordinated use Despite the progress made gains that progressively pushed the Stormtrooper tactics of artillery, tanks, and aircraft as a in tactics and technology, enemy line back toward Germany. The shock force allowed infantry to occupy offensive operations on war was no longer static, but it was still The Germans began developing ground with relatively few casualties. the Western Front in hard, slow, and exhausting. specialized assault infantry from 1915. 1918 were still plagued The success of an assault detachment Hood with with dif\ufb01culties. Without British postcard under Captain Willy Rohr evolved into face mask effective mobile radios, A wartime comic postcard depicts, with a good the creation of stormtrooper battalions communication was deal of exaggeration, the fear inspired in German as elite formations of shock troops. always a problem troops by British heavy tanks. The Byng Boys Stormtroopers were armed with light for troops on the were popular music hall entertainers of the day. and heavy machine guns, mortars, and offensive. The German \ufb02amethrowers, as well as light artillery stormtroopers could achieve a AFTER pieces. Their role was to spearhead breakthrough in depth but they could attacks, breaking through weak not speed up Germany\u2019s creaky supply A lull in the \ufb01ghting on the Western points and then penetrating in system, which mostly depended on Front ended when the Germans depth to capture enemy guns. horse-drawn carts, or the movement launched the Michael Offensive on German infantry would follow of heavy artillery across war-torn March 21, 1918. on to deal with strongpoints ground. It remained true that a that had been bypassed. THE SEARCH FOR VICTORY Hand-painted Spearheaded by stormtroopers These \u201cin\ufb01ltration tactics,\u201d linen 274\u201375 \u276f\u276f, the German army achieved usually preceded by a breakthrough offensives from March hurricane barrage of to June, but not decisive victory. From artillery, were employed August 1918, aided by large numbers of successfully by General American troops, the Allies began a new Oskar von Hutier\u2019s Eighth campaign of offensives that achieved an Army at Riga in September unbroken series of military successes 1917. They are often referred lasting to the war\u2019s end in November. to as Hutier tactics. After the war, the stormtrooper principle of Combined attack Sniper\u2019s shock attack in depth combined with the use mitten of tanks and aircraft created the German Aircraft were used increasingly in a \u201cblitzkrieg\u201d tactics used in World War II. ground-attack role in support of Camouflage suit infantry. Advancing stormtroopers Among wartime innovations was could expect close air support from the development of the art of Halberstadt aircraft or all-metal camouflage. This camouflage outfit Junkers J4s. But the Allies made the was worn by a British sniper best progress in combined air and land seeking to fire on German troops attacks. By the second half of 1918, from a concealed position. they could \ufb01eld numerous tanks and 273","VICTORY AND DEFEAT 1918 Stormtrooper Equipment The German stormtroopers (Sturmtruppen) were elite soldiers specially trained in trench infiltration tactics. As rapidly moving assault troops, they required their gear and weaponry to be quick to deploy, highly portable, and easily accessible inside the confined conditions of an enemy trench. 1 Gas mask features a screw-\ufb01tted air \ufb01lter and plastic used before the end of the war. 8 Mauser KAR 98AZ This 1 GAS MASK goggles. 2 M1917 Stahlhelm Helmet The distinctive carbine was preferred by stromtroopers over the Gewehr 98 German helmet was introduced in 1916. The 1917 model ri\ufb02e, as its shorter length made it more effective in trench incorporated improvements to the liner. 3 Death\u2019s head warfare. 9 Equipment belt Items clipped to the belt patch The totenkopf (death\u2019s head) symbol, originally used included a water bottle, ammunition pouches, bayonet, axe, by cavalry in the Prussian army, was adopted by some and bread bag. 10 Books A military pass, a schiessbuch stormtroopers during the offensives in 1918. 4 Spoon and (\u201cshooting book\u201d to record marksmanship training), a fork Stromtroopers often had to eat quickly in lulls between German-French dictionary, and a paybook. 11 Stick grenade \ufb01ghting; they carried the necessary utensils. 5 Battery- The stielhandgranate, introduced by Germany in 1915, was operated \ufb02ashlight It was important for assault troops to called the \u201cpotato masher\u201d by British troops. 12 Assault see into dugouts and other dark spaces within trenches. pack This backpack holds a shovel, used to entrench and as 6 Tunic Many soldiers would cover their epaulettes with a a weapon. It also contains a zeltbahn, a rain poncho that strip of cloth, so the enemy could not identify their regiment. doubled as a tent. 13 Puttee These strips of cloth were The top medal indicates the soldier has been wounded; wound around the leg, acting as support. 14 Pants the bottom one is an Iron Cross First Class. 7 Bergmann Three-quarter-length pants with knee patches were worn by MP18\/I Introduced in 1918, this was the \ufb01rst practical stormtroopers in 1918. 15 Trench knife Knives were used in submachine gun employed in combat. At least 5,000 were hand-to-hand combat during assaults on trenches. 7 BERGMANN MP18\/I SUBMACHINE GUN WITH MAGAZINE 8 MAUSER KAR 98AZ 10 BOOKS 11 STICK GRENADE 274","2 M1917 3 DEATH \u2019S STAHLHELM HELMET HEAD PATCH 4 SPOON 6 TUNIC AND FORK 5 BATTERY-OPERATED FLASHLIGHT 9 EQUIPMENT BELT 12 ASSAULT 13 PUTTEE 14 PANTS PACK 15 TRENCH KNIFE","VICTORY AND DEFEAT 1918 German Victory in the East An armistice was arranged between Russia and the Central Powers in December 1917, but the Russian Bolshevik government stalled negotiations over the terms of the peace. The Bolsheviks finally accepted German terms in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918. BEFORE O n November 13, 1917, Leon asserting independence. The Russian would resume hostilities. On Trotsky, Commissar (minister) army had disintegrated and the new February 10, Trotsky broke off The strain of \ufb01ghting for three years for Foreign Affairs in the Red Army was not yet a credible negotiations. The Bolshevik leadership against Germany, Austria-Hungary, was split. The largest faction favored and Ottoman Turkey eventually Russian Bolshevik government, \ufb01ghting force. The Bolsheviks\u2019 only launching a revolutionary people\u2019s war proved too much for the Russian against the Central Empire. A political, social, and contacted the German High Command hope lay in the spread of revolution. Powers. Lenin, military collapse followed during however, believed it the course of 1917. to request an armistice as a prelude They believed that if they could spin was necessary to accept the German RUSSIAN BEAR IN SEARCH OF PEACE to peace negotiations. Talks with out the negotiations at Brest-Litovsk, terms. He argued that the alternative TURMOIL IN RUSSIA the Central Powers were held at workers\u2019 revolutions might overthrow Russia\u2019s tsarist regime was overthrown \u276e\u276e 210\u201311 in March 1917. The Provisional Brest-Litovsk, a German regional the governments of Germany, Austria- Government attempted to revitalize the Russian war effort, but the failure of the headquarters in Hungary, and other Kerensky Offensive \u276e\u276e 234\u201335 led to the disintegration of the Russian army. In modern-day 54 PERCENT of the former countries, and bring November 1917, revolutionary Bolsheviks Belarus. Having no seized power in Russia and called for an end Russian Empire\u2019s industrial other socialist to the war. By that time, German and Austro-Hungarian troops had occupied diplomatic corps, enterprises and 89 percent of its regimes to power. large areas of the former Russian Empire, including Poland. the Bolsheviks sent coal mines were lost to Germany Taking over a delegation of under the terms of the Treaty of leadership of the revolutionary Brest-Litovsk in March 1918. Bolshevik activists and token delegation at representatives of Russian society\u2014 Brest-Litovsk in January 1918, Trotsky workers, soldiers, sailors, peasants, adopted a stance summed up in the and women. An armistice, initially slogan \u201cNeither war nor peace.\u201d He for one month, was announced on would neither accept Germany\u2019s peace December 15. Further progress toward terms nor resume the \ufb01ghting. a peace agreement, however, raised On February 9, Germany deeply divisive issues. and its allies presented an ultimatum: The Bolsheviks Peace at any price must either agree to peace Militarily weak and facing starvation terms or the Central Powers in its cities, Austria-Hungary was prepared to renounce all territorial gains in the interest of achieving a swift agreement. By contrast, Germany\u2019s military leaders, Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg and General Erich Ludendorff, were determined to treat Russia as a defeated enemy and impose harsh peace terms. Germany\u2019s civilian government, sensitive to support within the Reichstag (German parliament) for less punitive terms, pursued a more nuanced approach. In the end, however, Hindenburg and Ludendorff prevailed. On the Russian side, the Bolsheviks were in a weak negotiating position. They were struggling to hold on to power and were facing the beginnings of a civil war. In parts of the former Russian Empire, notably Ukraine and Finland, anti-Bolshevik nationalists were Negotiating table In December 1917, Prince Leopold of Bavaria, supreme commander of German forces on the Eastern Front, signed an armistice with the Bolsheviks at Brest-Litovsk. 276","GERMAN VICTORY IN THE EAST Helping the Finns greatest gain was the transfer of Baltic Sea Tallinn Petrograd German medical orderlies aid a German troops to the Western Novgorod wounded Finnish soldier. The Front from late 1917, but over Germans intervened in support a million soldiers were still Pskov of anti-Bolshevik forces in the civil war fought in Finland from RUSSIAN January to May 1918. needed as occupation forces Riga EMPIRE was signed at Brest- in the east. Their task of Litovsk on March 3. extracting resources from Danzig Smolensk Moscow Russia lost almost all its European territories. Ukraine, Poland, Finland, the conquered territories\u2014 GER. Brest- Minsk Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania became such as the oil-producing Vistula Litovsk nominally independent states under city of Baku (in modern- Kursk effective German control. Turkey was day Azerbaijan)\u2014and Warsaw Pinsk Pripet awarded territory in the Caucasus. The sending them to Germany was to see the Bolshevik government areas lost were especially populous and was hindered by wrecked Kiev Dnieper Do overthrown by the German army and prosperous, accounting for a third of transportation networks. the revolution snuffed out. On Russia\u2019s prewar population and more UKRAINE Rostov n February 18, while the Bolsheviks than half its industry. There was also continued hesitated, the Germans took the \ufb01ghting. In Finland, for AUSTRIA- Czernowitz YekaterinoslavDnie sBug offensive. Meeting no resistance, Impact on Germany HUNGARY ter Odessa German troops pushed deep into Ukraine, Belarus, the Donetz basin, Along with a punitive peace imposed example, German troops ROMANIA Sebastopol and the Crimea, advancing up to on Romania in May, the Brest-Litovsk helped right-wing nationalists SERBIA Black Sea 30 miles (50 km) a day. treaty was a triumph for the Central defeat socialists in a civil war. Powers. But the victory in the east In Ukraine, the exploitative BULGARIA Fearing an imminent attack on the proved less valuable to the German Russian capital, Petrograd, by German war effort than had been expected. The policies of the German military 0 400 km and anti-Bolshevik Finnish forces, the Bolshevik government accepted governor, Field Marshal Hermann 0 400 miles German terms on February 23. These von Eichhorn, provoked armed were harsher than those they had previously rejected. uprisings among the peasant Russian losses A peace treaty population. The occupation forces Between the armistice of December 1917 and the also had to be fed, further reducing signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918, the quantities of goods that trickled the armies of the Central Powers occupied a vast swath back to Germany and Austria-Hungary. of the former Russian Empire. KEY Armistice line, Dec 15, 1917 Line set by Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Mar 3, 1918 AFTER Prisoners return The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk allowed German and Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war, Germany to plan its domination of released by the Russians under the terms of the Treaty Eastern Europe. It also helped of Brest-Litovsk, arrive by train in the German-occupied galvanize Allied efforts on the city of Kiev in spring 1918. Western Front . THE SPRING OFFENSIVES For the Allies, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk ended any hopes of a negotiated \u201cjust peace\u201d by showing that Germany\u2019s leadership was intent upon military conquest. Eighteen days after the signing of the treaty, the Germans launched a string of offensives on the Western Front, employing the extra forces transferred from the East. The campaign, known as the Spring Offensive, began with the Michael Offensive on March 21 278\u201379 \u276f\u276f. Germany\u2019s intention was to win the war before U.S. troops could be drafted to Europe in substantial numbers. The strategy began well but ultimately failed 282\u201383 \u276f\u276f. THE FUTURE OF EUROPE Germany\u2019s defeat in November 1918 left the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk null and void and Germany withdrew its army from the lands it had occupied. Instead, the future shape of Central and Eastern Europe was determined by the outcome of the Russian Civil War and other conflicts 342\u201343 \u276f\u276f that continued into the early 1920s. 277","Slow progress The Michael Offensive A German column advances during the Spring Offensive in 1918. The reliance on horse-drawn supply wagons meant that, even after the Germans achieved a breakthrough, further progress was slow. BEFORE On March 21, 1918, Germany launched a massive offensive on the Western Front in a bold bid to win the war. Known as the Spring Offensive\u2014Kaisersschlacht (Kaiser\u2019s Battle) to the Germany saw spring 1918 as Germans\u2014it achieved spectacular early successes, beginning with the Michael Offensive. an opportunity for victory before U.S. troops arrived in G eneral Erich Ludendorff gave Strap sector. By March, they were facing large numbers. the order to prepare for the Glass 63 German divisions. The British Fifth Michael Offensive on eyepiece Army, commanded by General Hubert DEFEAT OF RUSSIA January 21, 1918. His aim was to Gough, was particularly thinly spread Germany\u2019s adoption of unrestricted Mouthpiece in the southern part of the sector, submarine warfare had brought exploit a temporary advantage in the where it had been sent to recuperate the United States into the war from heavy losses incurred at \u276e\u276e 212\u201313 in April 1917 without number of German divisions opposing Passchendaele the previous year. achieving the victory the German navy had hoped for. While the Americans those of the Allies on the Western The Germans attack recruited and trained a mass army, the defeat of Russia \u276e\u276e 276\u201377 Front. Peace with Bolshevik Russia had The Allies knew a German offensive enabled Germany to transfer was likely, but failed to identify where elite troops from the Eastern allowed him to transfer 50 divisions or when the blow would fall. The to the Western Front. opening of the attack on the morning from the east, including many infantry NEW TACTICS British gas mask French and British offensives in troops trained in in\ufb01ltration tactics. The small box respirator was used by British forces as 1917 failed to break the stalemate antigas protection from 1916. By filtering gas from the of trench warfare. The German German artillery, under the direction air to make it breathable, the respirator saved lives, but high command believed that new it was uncomfortable to wear and had limited visibility. in\ufb01ltration tactics held the key to of General Georg Bruchm\u00fcller, was successful offensive action. meticulously prepared for an initial TRENCH PERISCOPE artillery barrage that would destroy 278 enemy command and communications, gun batteries, and trench systems with accurate \ufb01re of devastating power. Ludendorff focused on achieving a Rubberized canvas breakthrough, leaving objectives vague. \u201cWe will punch a hole,\u201d he said. \u201cFor the rest, we will see.\u201d The attack was to take place on a sector of the front held by the British Fifth and Third Armies between Arras Flexible hose Box \ufb01lter and St. Quentin. Only 26 British divisions manned the 56-mile (90 km)","THE MICHAEL OFFENSIVE \u201c We could see the Germans TECHNOLOGY swarming over the ridge\u2026 pouring towards us in an THE PARIS GUN endless torrent.\u201d On March 23, 1918, the Germans opened (40 km) at the top of their trajectory, BRITISH PRIVATE FREDERICK NOAKES, THIRD COLDSTREAM GUARDS, DESCRIBING a long-range bombardment of Paris using becoming the \ufb01rst man-made objects to THE GERMAN ADVANCE ON MARCH 26, 1918 a specially adapted gun. Mounted on a enter the stratosphere. Technical problems train car, it \ufb01red on the city from a distance made bombardment intermittent. Paris of 74 miles (120 km). Based on a Krupp was struck by 320 shells before an Allied 380 mm gun, its barrel was lengthened offensive forced the gun\u2019s withdrawal in and lined, reducing it to 210 mm caliber. August. About 250 Parisians were killed Its shells reached a height of 25 miles by the shelling and 620 were injured. of March 21 was shocking in its point, on March 27. In Germany, the intensity. The bombardment was Kaiser announced a school holiday in unleashed at 4:20am, involving 6,000 celebration of victory. artillery pieces and 3,000 mortars. It savaged the British defenses. Phosgene Down but not out and tear gas shells were mixed with the The Allies were, however, by no means high explosives, and British soldiers beaten. In response to the crisis, rapid struggled to put on gas masks in time. changes were made in command. On At around 9am, the German infantry March 26, French General Ferdinand advanced. Spearheaded by elite Foch was entrusted with coordinating stormtrooper battalions, the gray-clad the action of the Allied armies, troops emerged from a role soon dense morning mist 21,000 The number of formalized as soldiers turned aside to feast on the had been stopped by British and to fall upon the British soldiers the Supreme food and alcohol they discovered in Australian troops at Villers- abandoned British stores and the Bretonneaux, 10 miles (16 km) short British in their who were taken prisoner on Commander of cellars of French farmhouses. of its objective, Amiens. devastated trenches. March 21, 1918, the first day of the Allied Armies. Brought to a standstill In two weeks, the German army had suffered 250,000 casualties, including In places, British the Michael Offensive. This gave Foch By March 28, Hutier\u2019s Eighteenth a large percentage of its elite Army had come to a temporary halt. stormtroopers, without achieving the resistance crumbled, authority over the Ludendorff attempted to relaunch the decisive victory it needed. The Allies offensive with an attack by nine fresh had experienced a shock, but were still and large numbers of bewildered French army commander-in-chief, divisions against the British Third in a position to continue the \ufb01ght. Army in front of Arras. Despite using soldiers surrendered. Entire battalions General Philippe P\u00e9tain, who had the same tactics that proved so AFTER successful a week earlier, the Germans were lost as frontline positions were been failing to act in support of the failed to make any impression on the The Michael Offensive was followed well-entrenched defenders. By April 5, by a succession of other German overrun by German troops. retreating British. the German Second Army, commanded offensives, each seeking the decisive by General Georg von der Marwitz, blow that would win the war. General Oskar von Hutier\u2019s Meanwhile, on the ground, the German A7V \u201cWotan\u201d tank KEEPING UP THE PRESSURE Eighteenth Army broke through the German advance quickly began to run The Germans first used their A7V tank on the opening Ludendorff had planned subsidiary day of the Michael Offensive. Manned by 18 soldiers, offensives in support of the Michael British Fifth Army\u2019s defenses, out of steam. This was partly the result the Wotan was too slow and cumbersome to be Offensive, and these now became major effective, and only 20 entered service. operations in their own right. On April 9, 1918, advancing up to 12 miles (20 km) by of poor transportation and supply, the Germans launched the Lys Offensive in Flanders. As in the Michael Offensive, March 22. Further north, the better- worsened by the war-torn terrain, spectacular initial success was soon followed by a loss of momentum, leaving German forces organized British Third Army under but also due to a lack of discipline far short of their strategic objectives. The French bore the brunt of the next German General Julian Byng gave ground only among the troops. Long subjected to offensive, at the Aisne River on May 27. grudgingly but was forced to withdraw Germany\u2019s food shortages, the German to keep in touch with the retreating Fifth Army. Hutier continued to set the pace for the German advance, reaching Montdidier, 40 miles (65 km) from his starting SECOND BATTLE OF THE MARNE By early June, the Germans had reached the Marne, 56 miles (90 km) from Paris, but U.S. troops were beginning to enter combat 284\u201385 \u276f\u276f. A \ufb01nal German offensive in mid-July was rebuffed by a French-led counteroffensive at the Second Battle of the Marne 286\u201387 \u276f\u276f. By then, Germany\u2019s chances of winning the war had evaporated. 279","","EYEWITNESS March 21, 1918 The Opening of the Michael Offensive On the morning of March 21, the Germans launched the first in a series of assaults that aimed to split and then destroy Allied forces on the Western Front. Following an intense preliminary bombardment, and aided by foggy conditions, stormtroopers began to puncture holes in the Allied line. Before midday, British forces in the north were in headlong retreat. \u201cTurmoil and confusion are everywhere. Troops, baggage, and all the litter of war\u2026 Where are we going? No one knows. Where\u2019s the 8th? Where\u2019s the 7th? Where is any regiment? Officers claim us\u2026 Loaded like pack-mules we move on, march, deploy, circle, get lost, dig in, get moved on\u2026 and at dawn we are still digging in. At noon the attack opens up on us. Casualties are heavy\u2026 Lieutenant W. calls for volunteers to go to headquarters for help. I set off, and take a boy with me who is badly hit in the head. The area we cross is swept by rifle and machine-gun fire\u2026 the boy is in pain. \u2018Here they come!\u2019 he cries\u2026 He is right, the first wave is almost on top of us\u2026 \u2018Up!\u2019 I say, \u2018and take your helmet off.\u2019 The German in front of me\u2026 raises his rifle and takes aim\u2026 For ten seconds we remain so\u2026 then he beckons and we approach\u2026 We go back to the rear of the German line, passing through successive waves of troops going forward. More prisoners join us\u2026 what a crowd: hundreds, perhaps thousands, French and English. A long column stretches down the road before us and behind us\u2026 on we go into \u201dGermany. Adventure is at an end; henceforth we are prisoners. ENGLISH PRIVATE ALFRED GROSCH, CAPTURED AT LA F\u00c8RE DURING THE OPENING STAGES OF THE MICHAEL OFFENSIVE The German advance Soldiers of the German 18th Army advance through smoke and gunfire as they overrun Allied lines near the Somme. The Germans achieved early success as they encountered inadequately prepared defensive positions. 281","VICTORY AND DEFEAT 1918 The German Search for Victory In April and May 1918, warfare on a vast scale raged across the Western Front. At times, German mortar shell the series of German offensives appeared to bring the Allies to the brink of defeat. In the Mortars made a substantial contribution to end, however, Germany\u2019s desperate bid for victory failed. bombardments in preparation for a ground attack. This 21 cm German mortar shell was capable of B y the start of April 1918, it was a fresh offensive, shifting the point of breakthrough would threaten to cut the blowing up an entire section of a trench. clear that the German Michael attack to the mostly British-held sector transportation link between the British Offensive launched on March 21 of Flanders. The site of some of the Army in France and its home bases. Army in the area of Neuve Chapelle. had failed to in\ufb02ict a decisive defeat \ufb01ercest \ufb01ghting of the war, including As in the Michael Offensive, the upon the Allies. It had nonetheless the Battle of Neuve Chapelle, the three Resuming the offensive Germans unleashed a powerful gained territory and placed the British battles of Ypres, and the Battle of onslaught against a relatively weak Army, in particular, under immense Messines, the Flanders sector was Code-named Operation Georgette, and defensive sector. The full brunt of the strain. Seeking to capitalize on this crucial to Britain because it defended known as the Battle of the Lys, the initial attack was borne by the Second advantage, General Ludendorff ordered the Channel ports. A German German offensive in Flanders opened Portuguese Division, commanded by on April 9 with an attack by the Sixth BEFORE Nieuport From autumn 1916, Field Marshal Paul Channel BELGIAN BELGIUM von Hindenburg and General Erich Ludendorff pursued a German The Spring Offensives Dunkerque King Albert military victory at all costs. Launching successive offensives on the Somme, in Flanders, and at the Calais FLANDERS 4TH ARMY AMERICA MOBILIZES EnglishAisne dispersed German resources. By resuming unrestricted submarine Despite major advances, the Germans Sixt von warfare \u276e\u276e 220\u201321 from February 1917, the Schcaptured no vital strategic objective. Germans drew the United States into the war. 2ND ARMY Ypres Lys Armin American troops would not, however, be ready KEY Plumer Belgian army Kemmel eldt to \ufb01ght in large numbers until British army summer 1918. Meanwhile, French army Hazebrouck Armenti\u00e8res Russia underwent a German army revolution and dropped German offensives Lille 2 Apr 9 out of the war, signing a German front line, Mar 21 Georgette Offensive opens. humiliating peace German front line, June 4 Neuve Chapelle Germans enjoy an unopposed treaty with the Central 3 mile (5 km) advance on the Powers at Brest- 1ST ARMY B\u00e9thune 6TH ARMY \ufb01rst morning. Litovsk \u276e\u276e 276\u201377. Horne Quast NEW OFFENSIVES Souchez 17TH ARMY Freed from the need to O. von Below \ufb01ght a war on two fronts, FRANCE Arras the Germans concentrated GERMAN ARMOR on the Western Front, 3RD ARMY Cambrai 2ND ARMY 1 Mar 21 gambling on winning Byng Marwitz Michael Offensive opens. Within the war before U.S. troops took the \ufb01eld. days, British 5th Army is Germany\u2019s devastating Michael Offensive Bapaume 18TH ARMY destroyed, although 3rd Army is \u276e\u276e 278\u201379, launched on March 21, 1918, Hutier able to hold its main positions. Albert 50 The number of German Vervins divisions transferred from Amiens Som me P\u00e9ronne the Eastern Front to the Western St. Quentin Front after the defeat of Russia. Villers Bretonneux forced an Allied retreat and virtually Montdidier 5TH ARMY 7TH ARMY 3 May 27 destroyed the British Fifth Army. It did Gough B\u00f6hn Bl\u00fccher-Yorck Offensive not, however, achieve the knockout blow to La F\u00e8re opens. Germans advance to the Allies that Hindenburg and Ludendorff Noyon Laon a maximum depth of 40 were seeking. Craonne miles (65 km) within 5 days. Oise Soissons 282 Compi\u00e8gne Aisne Rethel 1ST ARMY F. von Below Chantilly 6TH ARMY Reims Vesle Meaux Duchene 5TH ARMY Ch\u00e2teau-Thierry Micheler Marne Epernay PARIS 0 50 km 0 50 miles","THE GERMAN SEARCH FOR VICTORY General Manuel Gomes da Costa. Britain takes a beating Portugal had entered the war in 1916 A cartoon published in a German magazine during and a Portuguese Expeditionary Force the Lys Offensive in April 1918 shows Field had been deployed with British forces Marshal Hindenburg thrashing British commander- on the Western Front since summer in-chief Douglas Haig. 1917. Poorly led and suffering from low morale, the Portuguese troops AFTER were about to be relieved of frontline duties when the German offensive The Germans had hoped to win the began. Stunned by a perfectly war before U.S. troops were engaged. orchestrated German bombardment, By June 1918, time had run out. the Portuguese faced German infantry in the morning fog. Despite individual THE TIDE TURNS acts of heroism, Gomes da Costa\u2019s The first Americans entered combat troops put up little resistance. under overall French command at the Aisne in Some 7,000 Portuguese were taken late May 1918. The following month, U.S. troops prisoner and a similar number were were prominently involved at Belleau Wood killed or wounded. 650,000 The number Crisis for the British of American soldiers in France by the start of The British 55th Division held its June 1918. position to the south of the Portuguese, but to the north the British were forced 284\u201385 \u276f\u276f and the Battle of Matz. to retreat, losing the town of A \ufb01nal German offensive was defeated in Armenti\u00e8res on the second day of the July at the Second Battle of the Marne battle. This was followed by further 286\u201387 \u276f\u276f. Massive German losses since losses as the German Fourth Army March 21 demoralized German troops, launched the second phase of the and there was an increasing sense that offensive at the Ypres salient. Held Germany had lost its strategic purpose. The by the British Second Army under tide was set to turn on the Western Front. General Herbert Plumer, this ground had become sacred to the British The Belgian army, on the British assembled for the initial bombardment, due to the sheer scale of the sacri\ufb01ce left, also stepped up its efforts. that had taken place there. Now undetected by the Allies. The main Plumer was forced to abandon By the third week in April, the Messines Ridge and Passchendaele, Flanders offensive had degenerated weight of the attack was to fall upon Allied troops retreated across the Aisne, withdrawing to a defensive line on into a series of local engagements in the very outskirts of Ypres itself. which stubborn defense by Allied the Chemin des Dames ridge, captured pursued by the Germans. A German troops slowed German progress to On April 11, British commander-in- by the French in May 1917. It was advance of 9 miles (15 km) on the \ufb01rst chief Field Marshal Douglas Haig\u2019s order of the day called for a \ufb01ght in defended by British soldiers who had day was maintained over the following defense of \u201cthe safety of our homes been transferred week. By June 3, the \u201cThere is no course\u2026 but to \ufb01ght it to this quiet sector 50,000 The number of Germans had reached out. Every position must be held\u2026 from Flanders Allied soldiers the Marne River. With there must be no retirement.\u201d for a period of rest taken prisoner by the Germans Paris apparently under and recuperation. in the Aisne Offensive between threat, France Crowded into May 27 and May 30, 1918. experienced the same forward positions in sense of crisis that poorly organized trenches, the British Britain had in April. Few people then FIELD MARSHAL DOUGLAS HAIG, ORDER OF THE DAY, APRIL 11, 1918 were decimated by the German initial recognized the truth\u2014that the German bombardment on May 27 and then offensives had failed to achieve any and the freedom of mankind.\u201d Haig\u2019s a crawl. Neither the French Channel overrun by stormtroopers. decisive objective. rhetoric drew a mixed response from port of Dunkerque nor the vital rail war-weary British soldiers, but it did junction of Hazebrouck were seriously express the enduring resolve of senior threatened. Farther south, on April 25, Allied commanders at a crucial a German attack toward Amiens failed moment of the war. Instead of falling to take the city. apart, the Allies pulled together. Still seeking the elusive decisive Foch takes charge victory, Ludendorff gathered German strength for yet another major On April 14, the British formally offensive, code-named Bl\u00fccher-Yorck, acknowledged French General in May. Instead of reinforcing the effort Ferdinand Foch as Supreme in Flanders, he chose to attack at the Commander of the Allied Armies on Aisne River in northern France, held the Western Front. Although Foch was by the French Sixth Army. Some 6,000 slow to respond to appeals from Haig guns and two million shells were for reinforcements, rightly fearing an imminent German offensive against Prisoners of war a French-held sector of the front, he The Germans display Portuguese prisoners in Flanders eventually sent French troops to relieve in April 1918. The Portuguese were about to be relieved exhausted British formations. by British troops when they came under attack. 283","Hand-to-hand combat French war artist Lucien Jonas made this image of an American soldier grappling with the enemy in Belleau Wood. The hand-to-hand fighting occurred during the U.S. assault on the wood on June 6.","THE BATTLE OF BELLEAU WOOD The Battle of Belleau Wood At a crucial point in the war, with German forces advancing on Paris, American troops were thrown into combat for the first time. American marines and army infantry fought with outstanding courage against the Germans at Belleau Wood near the Marne River. H alf a million American soldiers in support of the French. The next known as Hill 142. Although the U.S. had arrived in France by the start of May 1918. Although day, elements of the U.S. First Division troops had already demonstrated their some divisions had spent time in trenches on quiet sectors of the front, fought the Germans at Cantigny, \ufb01ghting spirit, their shortage of combat none had entered battle. 20 miles (32 km) southeast of Amiens. experience was now evident. The The German breakthrough at the Aisne River on May 27 brought U.S. As the Germans attacks showed forces into action for the \ufb01rst time, advanced to the 9,777 The total number neither the tight Camouflage helmet BEFORE Marne River, just American troops fighting in World War I wore the of U.S. casualties in cooperation British Brodie helmet or its U.S.-manufactured German offensives in spring 1918 equivalent, the M1917. banked on U.S. troops not being fully 50 miles (80 km) the fighting from June 6\u201326, 1918, between artillery deployed. In fact, they were ready days, with desperate attacks and for action by May. from Paris, French including 1,811 dead. and infantry nor counterattacks by both sides. At times, there was hand-to-hand \ufb01ghting. RECRUITMENT POSTER FOR THE U.S. MARINES commander-in- the sophisticated German troops learned a healthy respect for their American opponents, THE AEF IS FORMED chief General Philippe P\u00e9tain called infantry tactics that the British, French, especially the marines. The United States declared war on Germany in April 1917. However, the recruitment and upon U.S. assistance again. In and Germans had developed during Belleau Wood was in American training of an American Expeditionary Force hands on June 26. By then, U.S. troops (AEF) proceeded slowly. The AEF\u2019s commander, response, commander of the American the war. The Americans behaved as had also helped the French repulse General Jack Pershing, wanted a U.S. the Germans at the Battle of Matz army to \ufb01ght as an independent force and Expeditionary Force (AEF), General soldiers had in 1914, advancing in (June 9\u201312), on the Matz River. The resisted pressure to provide units for the British German advance toward Paris had and French armies. The crisis caused by the Jack Pershing, rushed the U.S. Second dense waves across open ground. been brought to a halt. With increasing German Michael Offensive \u276e\u276e 278\u201379 in numbers of U.S. troops arriving in March 1918 and subsequent offensives and Third divisions to the Marne. The wheat \ufb01elds were soon thick France\u2014the size of the AEF passed in Flanders and at the Aisne \u276e\u276e 282\u201383 a million men in July\u2014any serious necessitated a change in U.S. policy. Fighting alongside French colonial with dead and wounded U.S. troops, possibility of Germany winning the war had evaporated. troops, the Third Division fought a the marines suffering over 1,000 AFTER successful holding action against the casualties over the course of the day. General Erich Ludendorff refused to Germans at Ch\u00e2teau-Thierry on the The Americans nonetheless took Hill accept that his offensive policy on the Western Front had failed. Marne on May 31. 142 and penetrated the German GERMANY FLOUNDERS In the \ufb01rst days of June, the Second defenses in Belleau Wood, engaging In July, Ludendorff launched yet another ambitious offensive, precipitating the Second Division dug in along the front to the the enemy at close quarters. Battle of the Marne 286\u201387 \u276f\u276f. The German attack failed and a French-led left of the Third Division. The division, counteroffensive then turned the tables, forcing the Germans to withdraw from the which included a brigade of marines Allied successes ground they had won in late May. With limited manpower, Germany could not cope with huge under Brigadier General James Harbord, The bloody battle for Belleau Wood troop losses, a situation made worse by the onset of a deadly influenza epidemic. An took up position opposite Belleau Wood, and the nearby villages of Vaux and Allied offensive at Amiens 304\u201305 \u276f\u276f in August proved a success. In September, a few miles west of Ch\u00e2teau-Thierry. On Bouresche continued for another 20 General Pershing launched the \ufb01rst American-led operation at the St. Mihiel June 3\u20134, the Germans attacked in salient 306\u201307\u276f\u276f, followed by the larger Battle of Meuse-Argonne 308\u201309 \u276f\u276f. strength but were repelled by the French and Americans. German troops advancing out of Belleau Wood were cut down by marine ri\ufb02e \ufb01re. During this engagement, the marines rejected advice from the French to conduct a tactical withdrawal. Marine Captain Lloyd Williams allegedly responded, \u201cRetreat? Hell, we just got here.\u201d Ferocious combat The German failure on June 4 was a sign that the offensive launched at the Aisne eight days earlier was stalling. The French identi\ufb01ed the moment as ripe for a counterattack and the Americans complied. The counterattack was launched at dawn on June 6, with the U.S. Marines and Third Infantry Brigade attacking Belleau Wood and a nearby position Witnessing Belleau Wood The American war correspondent Floyd Gibbons lost an eye while trying to save a wounded soldier at Belleau Wood. The French awarded Gibbons the Croix de Guerre for valor in battle. 285","VICTORY AND DEFEAT 1918 The Second Battle Gun of the Marne Renault FT tank The most successful armored vehicle of Fought in July 1918, the Second Battle of the Marne was a key turning point in World War I, France\u2019s innovative Renault the final phase of the war. A German offensive at Reims was halted and then light tank had its main armament in a trumped by a powerful French-led counteroffensive that seized the initiative for fully rotating turret. More than 3,500 the Allies. The scene was set for an Allied drive to victory. FTs were manufactured during the war. Entrance Viewing hatch for driver B y summer 1918, Courageous commander Caterpillar under their command the German high General Henri Gouraud was widely tracks nine American and two command was praised for his leadership of the Italian divisions. beginning to lose touch French Fourth Army during the with the reality of the opening defensive phase of the The German attack to the war. General Erich Second Battle of the Marne. east of Reims went badly from the Ludendorff planned Earlier in the war, Gouraud start. Gouraud had prepared his an offensive to had lost an arm in the defenses in depth, leaving front encircle the city fighting at Gallipoli. positions only lightly held. His artillery of Reims in carried out an effective bombardment Champagne, 18 miles German army. It of German troops as they assembled for (30 km) north had been severely the initial assault. When the Germans of the Marne River. weakened by heavy rushed forward, they easily overran the His aim was to draw losses in offensives French frontline positions, but were the French into since March and was brought to a halt in a \ufb01ercely defended committing their showing increasing signs battle zone to the rear. Gouraud reserves to a defense of the of declining morale. infused the defense with his own historic city, diverting troops On the Allied side, Supreme ferocity of spirit, calling on his forces to away from Flanders, where he Commander of the Allied Armies \u201cKill them, kill them in abundance then intended to strike a decisive General Ferdinand Foch, buoyed by until they have had enough.\u201d blow. By then, such grandiose plans the arrival of U.S. troops in ever-larger were beyond the capacity of the numbers, was also planning to take the The Germans had had enough on offensive. Foch prepared an attack on July 16, when the eastern attack was BEFORE the western side of the salient created called off. To the west of Reims, however, it was a different story. Between March and June 1918, the 1,143 The number of Allied resist the German onslaught, but Foch Germans achieved major advances aircraft used to refused to be de\ufb02ected from pursuing on the Western Front. support the offensive at the Second his own offensive preparations. Battle of the Marne on July 18, 1918. THE SPRING OFFENSIVES Following the Michael Offensive 513 The number of Allied \u276e\u276e 278\u201379, the Germans launched offensives tanks assembled for the in Flanders in April and at the Aisne July 18 offensive. \u276e\u276e 282\u201383 in late May, but failed to pursue a clear strategy. German losses by the German advance to the Marne Attack on Reims were heavy and their gains not decisive. River between May and June. The French Tenth Army was chosen to The Germans attacked \ufb01rst. On July 15, Meanwhile, the Allies spearhead the operation, under the the First and Third Armies struck to the made French General command of General Charles Mangin. east of Reims while the Seventh Army Ferdinand Foch their attacked to the west of the city. The supreme commander. In The Allies learned about the German defensive positions were held by the June, U.S. troops fought offensive plans, chie\ufb02y through French Fourth Army under the well at Belleau Wood interrogation of enemy prisoners. The command of General Henri Gouraud \u276e\u276e 284\u201385, halting the French commander-in-chief General on the eastern side and the Sixth Army Germans at the Marne. Philippe P\u00e9tain wanted a maximum under General Jean Degoutte in the concentration of forces at Reims to west. The French armies also had BRITISH BINOCULARS \u201cAmerican comrades, I am grateful for the blood you... spilled on... my country.\u201d FRENCH GENERAL CHARLES MANGIN, AUGUST 7, 1918 286","Rotating turret Tail German stormtroopers advance from the barrage accompanied Harlem Hellfighters established a bridgehead across Aisne to the Marne in by tanks. The majority The African-American 369th Regiment, known as the the Marne. In the \ufb01erce \ufb01ghting that late May to early June. The of the troops were Harlem Hellfighters, was seconded to fight under followed, the U.S. Third Infantry attack was launched on July 18 from French, but the U.S. French command at the Marne. The soldiers were Division earned its nickname \u201cthe Rock positions to the west of the Reims First and Second equipped with French rifles and Adrian helmets. of the Marne\u201d for standing \ufb01rm while battle\ufb01elds in the direction of Soissons. divisions spearheaded other troops fell back. Impressive forces had been assembled the assault in the sector Through the last week of July, the P\u00e9tain wanted to transfer troops for the operation, including over 1,000 around Ch\u00e2teau-Thierry. Germans steadily gave ground and preparing for the Allied offensive to the aircraft and massed tanks, mostly the Although German by August 3 had managed an orderly defense of Reims, but Foch refused. light Renault FTs. machine gun and withdrawal across the Aisne River, Aided by the arrival of two British After a brief artillery returning to the positions they had divisions, the Allied position west of bombardment, the artillery \ufb01re in\ufb02icted held before their offensive in late May. Reims had stabilized by July 17. Allied infantry went heavy casualties, Ludendorff had been forced to transfer \u201cover the top\u201d at the tanks helped troops south from Flanders to help Return to the Marne dawn, advancing break through hold the line against the French behind a creeping defensive positions advance, ending any prospect of a The German offensive had failed and it and Allied renewed German offensive toward was time for the Allied offensive to U.S. troops on the move aircraft bombed the Channel ports. begin. Foch\u2019s aim was to eliminate the Soldiers of the American German troops. large salient created by the German Expeditionary Force (AEF) Although Ludendorff publicly move up by truck toward Pushed back disparaged the quality of U.S. troops, in Ch\u00e2teau-Thierry in preparation private the German leadership had to for the counterattack at the The Germans were face the fact that their presence meant Marne on July 18. American forced back, retreating that military victory was no longer an manpower altered the balance some 6 miles (10 km) in option for Germany. The endgame of of forces in the war. the \ufb01rst two days of the the war was about to begin. offensive. By July 22, the two U.S. divisions had lost 11,000 AFTER men, either killed or wounded, but they had retaken Ch\u00e2teau- The French-led offensive at the Marne Thierry (lost to the Germans in June) was the \ufb01rst in a series of Allied and won the admiration of their attacks that continued to push the French colleagues. The French were Germans back through 1918. also impressed by the performance of African-American troops, assigned to HONORED GENERAL separate formations in the segregated The initial French reaction to the Second Battle U.S. Army. Regiments of the black 93rd of the Marne was relief that Paris had Division performed outstandingly been saved. In recognition of his victory, when seconded to French divisions, Foch was granted the title of Marshal of France where they received more respectful on August 6, 1918, the second French general treatment than they were used to accorded this honor during World War I. The under U.S. command. \ufb01rst was General Joseph Joffre in 1916. GRAND OFFENSIVE The Allies resumed offensive operations with an important victory won principally by British and Commonwealth forces at Amiens 304\u201305 \u276f\u276f on August 8. From September, Foch orchestrated a simultaneous \u201cGrand Offensive\u201d by Allied armies on different sectors of the Western Front, including American-led operations at St. Mihiel and Meuse- Argonne 306\u201309 \u276f\u276f and British-led attacks on the Hindenburg Line 312\u201313 \u276f\u276f. 287","Blinded by gas In this painting entitled Gassed, by American artist John Singer Sargent, British infantry are led to a dressing station after a gas attack. Sargent witnessed the scene near Arras on August 21, 1918.","","VICTORY AND DEFEAT 1918 MARSHAL OF FRANCE Born 1851 Died 1929 Ferdinand Foch \u201c He is the most courageous man I have ever met.\u201d BRITISH GENERAL SIR HENRY WILSON, 1920 T he defeat of France by Germany Unshaken belief in the Franco-Prussian War Marshal Ferdinand Foch was the commander who of 1870\u201371 was a formative led the Allies to victory on the Western Front in 1918. experience for Ferdinand Foch. It not He was an aggressive commander, whose military only gave him his \ufb01rst taste of the army thinking influenced many French officers. as a volunteer, but also \ufb01lled him with a lasting fear of German military power. earned him a reputation as an in\ufb02uential military theoretician. A love of military history led Foch At France\u2019s War College, the \u00c9cole to study the campaigns of the French Sup\u00e9rieure de Guerre, a generation Emperor Napoleon I (1769\u20131821). of French of\ufb01cers absorbed Foch\u2019s belief that a spirited attack would always overcome defensive \ufb01repower. It was a conviction that ultimately cost many Frenchmen their lives. From desk to battle\ufb01eld At the outbreak of war, Foch was a 62-year-old general with no combat experience who had spent most of his career in desk jobs or lecture rooms. Leading XX Corps on the Lorraine front in August 1914, he attracted the favorable attention of French commander-in- chief General Joseph Joffre when he Front page news Wearing the uniform of a Marshal of France, Foch was the natural choice for the front page of a French illustrated newspaper in August 1918, the month when the Allied armies turned the tide of the war. As an of\ufb01cer in the artillery from 1873, Foch belonged to the section of the army most changed by technological progress, but his Napoleonic studies led him to believe troop morale to be the most crucial factor in warfare. He always favored offense over defense. Commitment to the offensive suited his con\ufb01dent, energetic character, and he never abandoned it. During the long peace in Europe between 1871 and 1914, Foch\u2019s clarity of mind and originality of thought 290","FERDINAND FOCH prevented a German breakthrough by was sidelined in December 1916, but Awarding medals to Allied soldiers TIMELINE mounting a successful counterattack at quickly returned to prominence in As Allied Supreme Commander, Foch distributes the Trou\u00e9e de Charmes near Nancy. spring 1917 as Chief of Staff to the new medals to Belgian soldiers on the Western Front in \u25a0 October 1851 Ferdinand Foch is born on Sensing that Foch was the man for a French commander-in-chief, General 1918, watched by King Albert I of Belgium. Foch liked October 2 at Tarbes in southwest France. crisis, Joffre gave him command of the Philippe P\u00e9tain. to meet troops and other generals face to face. Ninth Army, a makeshift new \u25a0 1870 Enlists in the infantry at the outbreak formation, and ordered him to plug a When a Supreme War Council was of the Marne in July, overruling of the Franco-Prussian War but fails to see action. gap in the French line south of Reims set up in November 1917 to coordinate P\u00e9tain\u2019s defensive instincts, was a in what would become the First Battle Allied action in Italy in the wake of the turning point in the war. \u25a0 1873 Graduates from the \u00c9cole Polytechnique of the Marne. Caporetto disaster, Foch proved its and artillery training school. Commissioned as most effective member. Although he The drive to victory an artillery officer. Foch again employed counterattack spoke no English, he had a good as the best form of defense, motivating relationship with British commander Success at the Second Battle of the \u25a0 1895 Appointed as instructor at the \u00c9cole exhausted retreating troops to turn General Douglas Haig, who preferred Marne con\ufb01rmed Foch\u2019s personal Sup\u00e9rieure de Guerre and becomes a renowned and engage the advancing Germans. Foch to the pessimistic P\u00e9tain. authority and allowed him to promote military theorist. His bold commitment to attack from an a coherent Allied offensive strategy, apparently hopeless position appealed Allied Supreme Commander even going so far as to bend the \u25a0 1903\u201304 Returns to regimental duties and to French propagandists and quickly obdurately independent American publishes collections of his lectures: On the acquired the status of myth. It also In the crisis provoked by the German general John Pershing to his will. Principles of War and On the Conduct of War. commended him to Joffre, who in breakthrough on the Western Front Foch\u2019s positive spirit was exactly what the wake of the victory on the Marne, in March 1918, Foch was immediately the moment required and ensured an \u25a0 1908 Promoted to the rank of general, he is would have made Foch his deputy chosen as the man to coordinate unrelenting drive to victory. appointed commander of the \u00c9cole Sup\u00e9rieure had such a position existed. the action of the British and French de Guerre, a post he holds until 1911. armies. Although given the title Foch pressed for the imposition Champion of new technology of Allied Supreme Commander in of tough terms on Germany in the \u25a0 August 1914 Enters the war as a corps April, he never ran Armistice negotiations that ended the commander in the French Second Army. For Foch, as for other World War I the war directly. \ufb01ghting, and protested vigorously Performs well during the Battle of the Frontiers generals, trench warfare imposed Instead, he relied against what he regarded as lax peace on the Lorraine front. His son and son-in-law a painful learning process. After upon his powers of terms during the Paris Peace are killed in separate incidents on August 22. presiding over costly failed persuasion to Conference in January 1919. He offensives in 1915, he encourage the insisted that only permanent French \u25a0 September 1914 As commander of the Ninth became an advocate different Allied annexation of the Rhineland could Army, he plays a vital role in the defeat of the of \u201cscienti\ufb01c warfare,\u201d commanders to guarantee against future German Germans at the First Battle of the Marne. seeking to limit infantry coordinate their aggression. When the Treaty of losses by more effective plans. His Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, \u25a0 October\u2013November 1914 Appointed use of artillery, intervention to Foch warned, with notable foresight, commander of the French armies in northern aircraft, and later, ensure the launch that it would condemn France to France. Cooperates with the British in the Race tanks. He fell from of a counteroffensive \ufb01ghting the war all over again. to the Sea and the First Battle of Ypres. favor after Joffre at the Second Battle Signing the Armistice \u25a0 1915\u201316 As commander of the Northern Army Foch leads the Allied delegation at the signing of the Group, he has overall control of French forces Armistice on November 11, 1918. The signing took at the Second Battle of Ypres, the Artois-Loos place on his private train in the Forest of Compi\u00e8gne. Offensive, and the Battle of the Somme. Foch insisted that the Germans accept rigorous terms. \u25a0 December 1916 When Nivelle replaces Joffre \u201cMy right is as French commander-in-chief, Foch is dismissed driven in; my from his post and sent to the Italian front. left is giving way; the situation \u25a0 May 1917 New French commander-in-chief is excellent; I am P\u00e9tain selects Foch as his Chief of Staff. attacking!\u201d \u25a0 November 1917 Appointed France\u2019s representative on the Allied Supreme War Council. \u25a0 March 1918 Entrusted with coordinating Allied armies on the Western Front, a role later formalized as Allied Supreme Commander. \u25a0 July 1918 Masterminds a successful counteroffensive at the Second Battle of the Marne. \u25a0 August 1918 Granted the honorary title of Marshal of France. \u25a0 November 1918 Heads the Allied armistice negotiations, which impose strict terms upon Germany. \u25a0 June 1919 Boycotts the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, which he considers too lenient toward Germany. \u25a0 March 1929 Dies on March 20 and is buried in Paris alongside his hero, Napoleon I. STATUE OF FERDINAND FOCH, LONDON ATTRIBUTED TO FOCH AT THE FIRST BATTLE OF THE MARNE, SEPTEMBER 1914 291","After the raid A British aerial reconnaissance photograph shows three British cruisers sunk as blockships in the mouth of the Zeebrugge-Bruges Canal. The passage of German U-boats through the canal was only briefly obstructed. BEFORE The Zeebrugge Raid The Battle of Jutland in 1916 was the In April 1918, Britain\u2019s Royal Navy and Royal Marines made a bold raid on the port of last signi\ufb01cant encounter between Zeebrugge in German-occupied Belgium. The operation failed to stop the movement of British and German surface warships U-boats, but it boosted the morale of the British public, who longed for heroic naval action. in World War I. I n late 1917, acting Vice Admiral obstacle at will. To counter these become unsustainable. Keyes THE WAR ON U-BOATS Roger Keyes, considered one of the attacks, Keyes increased the number of responded by pressing for a raid on Germany adopted unrestricted British Royal Navy\u2019s most capable mines along the barrier, stationed 70 Zeebrugge and Ostende to stop the submarine warfare \u276e\u276e 220\u201321 against leaders, was assigned the task of trawlers and drifters (small \ufb01shing movement of U-boats at its source. Allied merchant shipping from February 1917. improving the defense of the eastern vessels) as lookouts on the surface, and The U-boats failed to win the war, but Allied entrance to the English Channel backed them up with patrols by Audacious plan shipping losses remained high. The British tried against German submarines. destroyers (generally used to defend larger warships) based at Dover. The German submarine pens were and failed to stop the U-boats Since 1915, a barrage of antisubmarine situated inland at the Belgian city of from breaking into the Atlantic nets and mines had been maintained Keyes was incensed when, in Bruges; from there, they were moved by placing barrages between the English and French coasts, mid-February 1918, German destroyers by canal to the coastal ports and then across the English but U-boats sailing from Germany\u2019s attacked the English Channel barrier the open sea. The planned raid would Channel and in the North Sea ports and from bases at by night, sinking eight drifters and sink \u201cblockships\u201d\u2014vessels that were North Sea between Zeebrugge and Ostende in Belgium trawlers with impunity. There was a deliberately sunk to impede the Britain and Norway. continued to \ufb01lter through this \ufb02imsy possibility that the barrier might passage of other ships\u2014in the mouths U-BOAT SUBMARINER\u2019S BADGE 292","Three white stripes THE ZEEBRUGGE RAID \u201c Hell was let loose, German naval uniform troops were climbing A detachable collar was part of the uniform the scaling ladders worn by a Matrose (seaman), the lowest rank onto the mole\u2026\u201d in the German Imperial Navy. ROYAL MARINE PRIVATE G. CALVERLEY ON BOARD THE IRIS AFTER of the canals, denying the U-boats from this protective cloud The raid had no effect on the shape of the naval war. The Allies could not passage to the sea. Inevitably, the within a few hundred yards of stop U-boat attacks, and the German surface \ufb02eet was unable to break the Belgian ports would be heavily the breakwater. It was then raked Royal Navy\u2019s blockade. RENEWED ATTACK defended, but the British were by \ufb01re from a whole range of The British attempt to raid Ostende was renewed on May 9\u201310, 1918. HMS Vindictive, convinced that such a raid was feasible. German guns at point-blank range. this time involved as a blockship, was sunk in Ostende Harbor. As in the Zeebrugge Raid, the Various vessels were assembled for Marines and seamen who were effect on the movement of U-boats was limited. The German navy withdrew its the operation, including 19th-century crowded onto the deck in U-boats from Belgium in September 1918 when the Belgian ports were threatened by cruisers, ferry boats, motor launches, preparation for the landing advancing Allied armies in Flanders. Submarine operations continued from German ports. and submarines. To maintain secrecy, suffered heavy casualties. Some 188,000 The number of seamen were invited to volunteer men gallantly mounted ladders Identi\ufb01cation number tons of Allied shipping sunk by U-boats in for the mission without being told onto the breakwater but, pinned Ties September 1918. GERMAN MUTINY what it entailed. down by German machine guns, of the men who executed it was The German High Seas Fleet coincidentally acknowledged with the award of eight made its last sortie into the North Sea on the The plan for the attack on Zeebrugge they stood no chance of reaching Victoria Crosses. same day as the Zeebrugge Raid. Attempting to intercept a convoy off Norway, it was complex, ingenious, and fallible. the heavy gun emplacements that The Bruges canal was blocked for was chased home by the British \ufb02eet. The only two days. The Germans quickly morale of German sailors deteriorated. A naval Under cover of a smoke screen, the were their main objective. One of opened a channel for submarines to mutiny triggered revolutionary upheaval bypass the blockships, and the effect 320\u201321 \u276f\u276f in Germany at the war\u2019s end. elderly cruiser HMS Vindictive and the British submarines succeeded in on the U-boat campaign was imperceptible. Coming at a dark 293 two ferries would advance to the blowing up the link between the moment in the war, however, with German armies on the offensive in breakwater at the harbor entrance so breakwater and the shore. France, the raid was celebrated as a victory by the British. marines and seamen could disembark. Vindictive had been armed with This landing party would then howitzers and mortars to provide silence the German guns additional \ufb01re support for the defending the port, while landing party, but its submarines packed with position was soon explosives would untenable. After less demolish the bridge than an hour, the connecting the British ships were breakwater to the forced to withdraw, land, preventing the loaded with dead and Germans from sending wounded seamen. in reinforcements. Despite the failure Then three antiquated at the breakwater, the cruisers packed with three blockships rubble and concrete continued with their would be sunk by their mission. Under heavy crews at the entrance German \ufb01re, Iphigenia to the canal. At the Bold operator and Intrepid sailed to same time, a similar The commander of Britain\u2019s Dover Patrol, the mouth of the canal plan, involving two acting Vice Admiral Roger Keyes where they were blockships, was to be masterminded the daring Zeebrugge scuttled by their crews executed at Ostende. Raid of April 1918. as planned\u2014most of the men were Night attack picked up by small boats and carried After two false starts, when the raids safely back to England. The third were aborted due to bad weather, blockship, Thetis, did not make it to the Keyes\u2019s raiding force set sail on canal but was sunk short of its target. April 22, with the admiral sailing on board the destroyer HMS Warwick. The Heroic failure Ostende attack was abandoned when The Zeebrugge Raid was a brave but it was found that buoys put in place to botched operation. More than 200 guide the ships to the port entrance British servicemen lost their lives and had been destroyed by the Germans, some 400 were wounded or taken but the raid at Zeebrugge went ahead. prisoner. Even though the raid did Just after midnight, Vindictive and the not achieve its objective, the courage ferries Iris and Daffodil approached the breakwater. The sea was lit up by Return from Zeebrugge German \ufb02ares and searchlights, but the Badly damaged by gunfire, the cruiser HMS Vindictive ships were hidden by a bank of smoke arrives back in Dover after the Zeebrugge Raid. laid down by British destroyers and Vindictive was sunk as a blockship in an attack motor launches. Vindictive emerged on Ostende the following month.","VICTORY AND DEFEAT 1918 BEFORE Climax of the Air War Aircraft were used for bombing or By 1918, German airmen were outnumbered and could not stop the Allies from winning reconnaissance early in the war. Later, \ufb01ghter planes were built for combat. CHANGING ROLE command of the air. Although the support of army operations remained the principal role of Britain was the \ufb01rst country aircraft, late in the war an Allied bombing campaign was launched against German cities. to engage in strategic I n the \ufb01nal campaigns of the war, substantially to the return to mobile Hampered by shortages of labor and bombing by from the German Michael Offensive warfare. Aerial observers, now able to raw materials, Germany produced only targeting Zeppelin in March 1918 to the Allied contact ground staff by radio, could 14,000 aircraft during the same period, hangars in Cologne and Hundred Days Offensives between report on the movements of ground insuf\ufb01cient to replace its losses in the D\u00fcsseldorf in August and November, army forces that had \ufb01ghting from spring to September 1914. commanders made aircraft an integral penetrated enemy 270,000 The number autumn 1918. From 1915, Germany of workers The entry of the part of their tactics for ending the defenses in depth. ALTIMETER carried out the long- stalemate of trench warfare. Troops They also enabled employed in the British aircraft United States into the range bombing of learned to fear being gunned down artillery \ufb01re to be industry by the end of the war. war was expected to British and French cities \u276e\u276e 232\u201333, a tactic by low-\ufb02ying planes, and tactical accurately targeted boost Allied aircraft later adopted by the Allies. From 1916, bombing of targets such as arms in support of infantry. Late in the war, output, but it proved surprisingly dif\ufb01cult specialized \ufb01ghter planes, \ufb01rst built to attack dumps, train stations, and ports supplies were dropped from the air to to turn U.S. automobile factories into aircraft bombing targets behind enemy lines or hampered the supply of equipment rapidly advancing troops. aircraft manufacturers. A mere 1,400 engage in reconnaissance, battled for and reinforcement. Fight for supremacy aircraft were produced by the U.S. air supremacy \u276e\u276e 188\u201389. Air support was often inhibited by during the war and most American pilots bad weather and did not always As the role of aircraft became more \ufb02ew in British or French machines. work\u2014for example, an attempt by the important to the war effort, the \ufb01ercer With well-organized squadrons, the British to bomb bridges over the the struggle for air superiority became. Germans achieved air supremacy in 5000 Somme during the Battle Air commanders learned the value of spring 1918. They held a slender lead of Amiens in August 1918 raiding enemy air\ufb01elds as the \ufb01rst blow in technology. The introduction of failed. But the use of in an offensive. Ever larger formations aircraft contributed were put into the skies over the 4000 Western Front\u2014700 aircraft supported Aileron Frontline combat aircraft KEY the French counterattack at the Marne 1914 in July 1918. 3000 1918 The battle for air superiority was fought in War in the skies factories as well as in the 2000 Military aviation expanded rapidly air. The British aircraft during the war. In August 1914, industry, built up from around 500 aircraft were deployed almost nothing during the 1000 by all combatants combined. By course of the war, produced over the end of the war, some 12,000 30,000 aircraft in 1918, while French military aircraft were engaged factories manufactured almost 0 in active service. 25,000 planes. France Britain Germany Italy USA Countries 7.92 mm Parabellum MG14 machine gun Rudder Tail skid German two-seater The LVG C.VI was a sturdy German reconnaissance aircraft introduced on the Western Front in 1918. Unlike most World War I airmen, the LVG\u2019s two-man crew had parachutes and heated flying suits. 294","CLIMAX OF THE AIR WAR Italian triplane bomber overwhelmed by the sheer number of AFTER One of the largest bomber aircraft deployed in the war Allied aircraft over the battle\ufb01eld\u2014 was the Italian three-engine triplane Caproni Ca.4. 1,500 were deployed at the St. Mihiel From 1919, air forces shrank to a salient in northeastern France in fraction of their wartime strength, Although clumsy in appearance, it was able September. Heavy combat losses meant but belief in the potential of strategic to carry a substantial bombload on the quality of German pilots declined bombing grew. long-range missions. as inexperienced pilots were drafted to COVERT FORCE the front. Growing fuel shortages in Under the terms of the 1919 Treaty of the Fokker D.VII in April gave them a Allied \ufb01ghters, its crew equipped with Germany curtailed training \ufb02ights and Versailles 338\u201339 \u276f\u276f, Germany was better \ufb01ghter aircraft than the Allied oxygen and heated \ufb02ying suits to cope limited the number of combat missions banned from possessing an air force. Covertly, Sopwith Camels, SE5s or SPAD XIIIs. with the high altitude. Germany even that could be \ufb02own. By autumn 1918, however, a shadow air force was kept in issued parachutes, a re\ufb01nement the Allies had achieved indisputable air place, with pilots trained in Russia under the The German Rumpler C.VII, also scorned by Allied commanders, who superiority over the Western Front. terms of the German-Soviet Treaty of Berlin of deployed in 1918, was the war\u2019s most feared crewmen would jump out of 1926. After the rise to power of Adolf Hitler advanced reconnaissance aircraft. It their planes due to cowardice. Bombing campaigns in 1933, Germany began a rapid expansion could \ufb02y at 20,000 ft (6,000 m), above of military aviation, formally announcing But nothing could save German The German bombing campaign against the founding of the Luftwaffe in 1935. Wing forces from the logic of numbers. British and French cities, using airships THE CHANGING FACE OF WAR By summer 1918, they were being in 1915 and planes from 1917, ended In 1921, Italian General Giulio Douhet published in spring 1918 with a late \ufb02urry of an in\ufb02uential book, The Command of the Air, Exhaust heavy raids on Paris. The German arguing that a future war could be won through pipe bombers were then reassigned to mass bombing attacks on enemy cities tactical missions aimed at targets of and industrial facilities. The chief of Britain\u2019s 200 hp Propeller immediate military value. By then the Royal Air Force (RAF), Hugh Trenchard, and uncovered British had begun preparing their own General Billy Mitchell in the United States were inspired by a similar vision. It led to the engine 15,000 The estimated development of the bomber forces that number of airmen would devastate cities in World War II. Plywood of all nationalities killed in the fuselage course of the war. Air Force recruitment poster A wartime poster encourages men to join Britain\u2019s Fixed bombing campaign against German Royal Air Force. The RAF was established as an undercarriage cities in the hope of undermining independent service in April 1918 by amalgamating the Germany\u2019s performance on the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service. battle\ufb01eld by targeting its industries. In Britain, the Royal Air Force was established in April 1918 to make air power independent of army and naval commanders, partly with a bombing campaign in mind. In June, the British and French assembled their bomber aircraft in France as an independent air force commanded by General Hugh Trenchard. They began raids deep into Germany with \ufb02eets of up to 40 bombers. Large Caproni and Handley Page aircraft attacked by night, and smaller de Havillands and Breguets by day. As the Germans had already discovered, causing large-scale damage was beyond the capacity of World War I aircraft, but the inhabitants of Mannheim and Frankfurt experienced the terror that had struck London and Paris. Commitment to the strategic bombing campaign was less than total. Trenchard more often used his aircraft to support the Allied armies. Had the Armistice not intervened, however, the Allied bombing campaign would undoubtedly have expanded. \u201c What is the point of shooting down \ufb01ve out of \ufb01fty machines?\u2026 The enemy\u2019s material superiority was dooming us to failure.\u201d GERMAN PILOT RUDOLF STARK IN WINGS OF WAR: AN AIRMAN\u2019S DIARY OF THE LAST YEAR OF WORLD WAR ONE 295","","EYEWITNESS 1918 Aerial Combat As fighting continued unabated on the Western Front, a ferocious air battle raged in the skies above, leading to a high casualty rate among pilots. By 1918, some 8,000 aircraft were in action over northern France and Belgium. Successful pilots were glorified by propaganda and the media. \u201cSuddenly we saw a squadron approaching from the other side\u2026 I was nearest to the enemy and attacked the man to the rear\u2026 My opponent did not make matters easy for me. He knew the fighting business\u2026 he plunged into a cloud and had nearly saved himself. I plunged after him and as luck would have it, found myself close behind him. I fired and he fired without any tangible result. At last I hit him. I noticed a ribbon of white benzine vapor\u2026 He was a stubborn fellow and fought until he landed. When he had come to the ground I flew over him at an altitude of about 30 feet in order to ascertain whether I had killed him or not. What did the rascal do? He took his machine gun and shot holes \u201dinto my machine. GERMAN ACE MANFRED VON RICHTHOFEN, FROM HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY, RED AIR FIGHTER (1918) \u201cAt 150 yards I pressed my triggers. The tracer bullets cut a streak of living fire into the rear of the Pfalz tail. Raising the nose of my aeroplane slightly, the fiery streak lifted itself like the stream of water pouring from a garden hose\u2026 The swerving of its course indicated that its rudder no longer was held by a directing hand. At 2,000 feet above the enemy\u2019s lines I pulled up my headlong dive and watched the enemy machine continuing on its course. Curving slightly to the left, the Pfalz circled a little to the \u201dsouth and the next minute crashed into the ground. AMERICAN ACE EDDIE RICKENBACKER, FROM HIS MEMOIR FIGHTING THE FLYING CIRCUS (1919) Safe return Ground staff cheer as a German Gotha returns safely from a mission. Aircrew on both sides were worked to the point of exhaustion, often having to make several flights each day for weeks on end. 297","VICTORY AND DEFEAT 1918 FIGHTER PILOT Born 1892 Died 1918 Manfred von Richthofen \u201c Fly... to the last drop of blood\u2026 the last beat of the heart.\u201d MANFRED VON RICHTHOFEN, TOAST TO HIS FELLOW PILOTS G erman pilot Manfred von A junior of\ufb01cer in the Uhlan lancers Richthofen, popularly known as when the war broke out, Richthofen the Red Baron, has proved the was soon disillusioned by the lack of most enduringly famous of the World opportunity for dashing action and War I \ufb02ying aces. He was singled out transferred to the air service in search by German propagandists as a hero of adventure. After serving six months whose daring deeds would shine forth as an observer in a two-seater in invigorating contrast to the reconnaissance aircraft, he learned mechanical slaughter of the trenches. to \ufb02y in October 1915. Brought up on an estate in rural Courage is the key Prussia, he developed a passion for hunting from an early age. The hunt Richthofen\u2019s skill was as a killer not would later be his favorite metaphor a pilot\u2014he later wrote that he had for air combat, with himself as the shot down 20 aircraft by the time he hunter and enemy aircraft as his prey. was comfortable at the controls. He Following family tradition, he entered would always disparage complex the Prussian military education system aerobatics, saying that \u201cone does when he was a child. not need to be a clever pilot\u201d but only \u201cto have the courage to \ufb02y Medal of honor in close to the enemy before After confirmation of his 16th kill in January 1917, opening \ufb01re.\u201d Richthofen was awarded the Pour le M\u00e9rite (Blue Max), Germany\u2019s highest military honor. Richthofen Assigned to piloting two- eventually scored 80 kills. seater bombers on the Eastern Front, Richthofen was saved from obscurity in 1916 by a chance acquaintance with Oswald Boelcke, Germany\u2019s leading \ufb02ying ace. Boelcke chose Richthofen to join his elite Jagdstaffel (Jasta) 2 \ufb01ghter squadron on the Western Front. The \ufb01rst theoretician of air combat, Boelcke passed on the basics of this new form of warfare to Richthofen and the other pilots in his squadron. Boelcke\u2019s guiding principles included not \ufb02ying into the sun when attacking an enemy and not opening \ufb01re until at close range. Employed against slow-moving Allied reconnaissance aircraft and 298"]
Search
Read the Text Version
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- 26
- 27
- 28
- 29
- 30
- 31
- 32
- 33
- 34
- 35
- 36
- 37
- 38
- 39
- 40
- 41
- 42
- 43
- 44
- 45
- 46
- 47
- 48
- 49
- 50
- 51
- 52
- 53
- 54
- 55
- 56
- 57
- 58
- 59
- 60
- 61
- 62
- 63
- 64
- 65
- 66
- 67
- 68
- 69
- 70
- 71
- 72
- 73
- 74
- 75
- 76
- 77
- 78
- 79
- 80
- 81
- 82
- 83
- 84
- 85
- 86
- 87
- 88
- 89
- 90
- 91
- 92
- 93
- 94
- 95
- 96
- 97
- 98
- 99
- 100
- 101
- 102
- 103
- 104
- 105
- 106
- 107
- 108
- 109
- 110
- 111
- 112
- 113
- 114
- 115
- 116
- 117
- 118
- 119
- 120
- 121
- 122
- 123
- 124
- 125
- 126
- 127
- 128
- 129
- 130
- 131
- 132
- 133
- 134
- 135
- 136
- 137
- 138
- 139
- 140
- 141
- 142
- 143
- 144
- 145
- 146
- 147
- 148
- 149
- 150
- 151
- 152
- 153
- 154
- 155
- 156
- 157
- 158
- 159
- 160
- 161
- 162
- 163
- 164
- 165
- 166
- 167
- 168
- 169
- 170
- 171
- 172
- 173
- 174
- 175
- 176
- 177
- 178
- 179
- 180
- 181
- 182
- 183
- 184
- 185
- 186
- 187
- 188
- 189
- 190
- 191
- 192
- 193
- 194
- 195
- 196
- 197
- 198
- 199
- 200
- 201
- 202
- 203
- 204
- 205
- 206
- 207
- 208
- 209
- 210
- 211
- 212
- 213
- 214
- 215
- 216
- 217
- 218
- 219
- 220
- 221
- 222
- 223
- 224
- 225
- 226
- 227
- 228
- 229
- 230
- 231
- 232
- 233
- 234
- 235
- 236
- 237
- 238
- 239
- 240
- 241
- 242
- 243
- 244
- 245
- 246
- 247
- 248
- 249
- 250
- 251
- 252
- 253
- 254
- 255
- 256
- 257
- 258
- 259
- 260
- 261
- 262
- 263
- 264
- 265
- 266
- 267
- 268
- 269
- 270
- 271
- 272
- 273
- 274
- 275
- 276
- 277
- 278
- 279
- 280
- 281
- 282
- 283
- 284
- 285
- 286
- 287
- 288
- 289
- 290
- 291
- 292
- 293
- 294
- 295
- 296
- 297
- 298
- 299
- 300
- 301
- 302
- 303
- 304
- 305
- 306
- 307
- 308
- 309
- 310
- 311
- 312
- 313
- 314
- 315
- 316
- 317
- 318
- 319
- 320
- 321
- 322
- 323
- 324
- 325
- 326
- 327
- 328
- 329
- 330
- 331
- 332
- 333
- 334
- 335
- 336
- 337
- 338
- 339
- 340
- 341
- 342
- 343
- 344
- 345
- 346
- 347
- 348
- 349
- 350
- 351
- 352
- 353
- 354
- 355
- 356
- 357
- 358
- 359
- 360
- 361
- 362
