Before reading this article, I sincerely invite you to click the "Follow" button, so that you can continue to push such articles in the future, and it is also convenient for you to discuss and share, your support is the driving force for us to insist on creating~
Text: Zhang Runchen
Edit|t
introduction
What did Germany experience in World War I, simply put, it kept winning, always winning, but it was never able to win the war. The Second German Reich "tirelessly climbed every hill", but there was no end in sight to the war.
Under such a situation, Germany finally "went crazy" and launched the final blow against Britain and France in 1918 - the "Kaiser Offensive"!
(German army in the 19th century)
1. Since you win, you must keep winning!
With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, this world war profoundly affected the course of human history and completely closed the coffin board for the "era of kingship". But the battle itself is incomparably exciting.
Unlike World War II, World War I was fraught with uncertainty, and until the final year of the war, insiders could not tell who would emerge victorious.
(Soldier on the battlefield)
After all, until 1917, it seemed that the situation was still very good for Germany. But in the midst of such a "great good", the Kaiser and his generals gradually lost their minds......
By 1916, almost all the countries on the European continent had run out of gas. The war was in fact sustained by the constant export of goods by the United States, and the United States, which maintained its neutrality in the war, allowed any ship of any country that arrived on the American mainland to buy from the United States any goods, including arms of any kind.
The problem, however, was that although the Allies in 1916 did not have the ability to counterattack Germany on land, Britain and France retained their still strong maritime power. But in May 1916, Germany, which had been winning, lost the Battle of Jutland, the end of which was in fact doomed Germany's defeat.
(Early Naval Battles)
Because the destruction of the High Seas Fleet meant that Germany had no chance of breaking the British Royal Navy naval blockade again, Germany and its allies were in fact blocked by the Allied Powers. As a result, the cargo ships of the Central Powers could not reach the United States at all, and the United States was actually only transfusing blood to the Entente.
So in early 1917, Wilhelm II's generals came up with the concept of "unrestricted submarine warfare", that is, the indiscriminate sinking of any ship of any country that might enter the ports of the Entente. This plan was approved by Wilhelm II, and in February 1917 the "Unrestricted Submarine Warfare" was officially implemented.
However, the "unrestricted submarine warfare" did not make the United States, which was dominated by isolationism, make up its mind to participate in World War I, and what really made the United States decide to participate in World War I was the "Zimmerman Telegram Incident." At the same time as the "unrestricted submarine warfare" began, Germany hoped to draw Mexico into the camp of the Allies, so as to contain the United States through Mexico, in fact, to allow Mexico to invade the United States.
(Unrestricted Submarine Warfare)
This proposal was made by German Foreign Minister Artur. Emmerman sent a telegram to the Mexican government. The problem, however, was that Germany's submarine cable to North America had long been cut by the British, which meant that Germany's telegrams to Mexico had to pass through two neutral third countries, Copenhagen in Denmark and Washington in the United States.
However, this also made it necessary for the telegraph signal to pass through Britain, and the British successfully intercepted the telegram and sent it to the United States. President Wilson demanded that Germany explain his actions, but Germany did not bother to explain at all, and the United States joined the Entente. The reason why Wilhelm II was so tough was because he believed that the US Army was too weak and that it would take at least a year of preparation to enter the war.
However, in 1917, Germany and its ally Austria-Hungary won the Battle of Kaboretto and crushed the "Kerensky Offensive" of the Russian Republic, and Italy and the Russian Republic can be said to have basically lost the ability to fight. Serbia was occupied by the whole territory, and Romania was forced by Bulgaria to only 15% of its territory, and was making peace with the Central Powers alone.
Kaiser Wilhelm II thought that if he was given another year, as long as Britain and France were deprived of American aid, then he was confident that he would be able to defeat France completely within a year, and then force England back to the island. But America's entry into the war also meant that Germany had only one year to go, so Germany had to launch a large-scale offensive to completely crush the British and French resistance.
(William II)
Second, the emperor's offensive
In fact, before the Battle of Kaboretto, Germany was not capable of launching a large-scale offensive. This is because Germany's forces on the Western Front have long been less than those of the Entente, after all, Germany is fighting on three fronts! In April 1917, the French launched the "Nivelle Counteroffensive", forcing the Germans to retreat to the Hindenburg Line.
However, the victory of the French "Nivelle counteroffensive" also stimulated the Russian Republic, which in turn directly led to the "Kerensky Offensive" that buried the Russian Republic. After the Russian Republic was defeated in World War I, Germany was free to deal with Italy on the southern front, and after the Battle of Caporetto, Italy was completely destroyed.
At this time, the German army mobilized 48 divisions from the Eastern Front and 8 divisions from the Southern Front, and in early March 1918, the German army on the Western Front had 192 divisions and 3.56 million men. Although the Anglo-French army won the "Nivelle counteroffensive", it also lost 340,000 men, so the Entente strength fell to 178 divisions, a total of 3.8 million people, including a large number of Indians.
(Ludendorff)
For the first time, the forces of the two sides on the Western Front reached a balance, and the Germans had the basis to launch a large-scale offensive. In just one year, the strength of the American army in Europe has risen from 1,308 to 183,000, leaving less and less time for Germany.
The Emperor's offensive was launched on this basis, and the Germans intended to encircle the British army in Belgium first, and at the same time cut off the eastern ports of France, directly forcing the British out of the war. After dealing with Britain in the north, it made its way through Amiens to Paris, finally crushing the French resistance.
In the early hours of March 21, 1918, the border between France and Belgium was covered with one of the heaviest fogs in months. Everyone thought that the Germans would not be able to attack in such weather, but at 4:40 the German shelling began without warning.
(World War I)
Tens of thousands of artillery pieces were in unison, and the largest artillery bombardment in human history officially began, and in five hours, the Germans fired 3.2 million shells. All military stations, assembly points, communication points and transport hubs within 40 kilometers of the British trenches were blown up. On 400 kilometers of land, each British soldier was allocated at least 10 shells!
The loud roar even woke up the citizens of London on the other side of the Channel, and the Londoners, awakened by the sound of the cannons, even thought that the Germans were attacking the British mainland! But when they came to sea by boat, they saw a sea of fire that the thick fog could not hide, and the other side of the sea had become hell!
At 9:35, under the cover of heavy fog, millions of German soldiers began to charge the British positions. Hundreds of British soldiers were taken prisoner in the face of the bombed British soldiers. On March 21, the German army advanced 10 kilometers, which was undoubtedly an extremely impressive result on the Western Front in units of 100 meters.
(Wilhelm II, Hindenburg and Ludendorff)
Although the British, French, and Belgian officers and soldiers resisted valiantly, the balance of victory inevitably tipped in favor of the Germans. When the news reached the White House, the pressure came to President Wilson.
3. Who is the "invisible hand that prevents Germany from winning"?
In the first half of 1918, bad news spread to the White House one after another. This was followed by the unprecedented large-scale artillery bombardment of Operation Michel, followed by the launch of the Emperor's offensive, followed by the French mutiny involving 78 front-line divisions.
The 200,000 US troops, who originally planned to complete their training within six months, may not be able to complete the set tasks.
Because in March 1918, an unprecedented flu swept through the United States, and this flu was called the "Spanish flu". With the flu at home on the one hand, and the precarious war situation in Europe on the other, Wilson is faced with a choice that is impossible to have both.
(Wilson)
Either he immediately sent the sick American troops to the front, or he sat back and watched Paris fall. In the end, Wilson chose to let the epidemic go and prioritize the German Emperor's offensive.
Since the total number of troops in the United States before the war was only 150,000, in order to quickly recruit soldiers, the United States built a large number of improvised military stations, which also made the US military station the most densely populated place in the United States.
Millions of U.S. recruits were crammed into the station, and because of the "Emperor's Offensive" that followed, these potential carriers of the virus had to immediately board the more crowded troop carriers. The "Spanish flu" spread almost inevitably and rapidly in such an environment.
When the flu arrived in Europe with the American recruits, the virus was greeted by a devastated Europe, a new environment that was extremely suitable for the spread of the virus, and the "Spanish flu" began to spread rapidly among the British and French forces. In fact, the arrival of the American army did not fundamentally change the situation of the war on the Western Front, because these recruits were not prepared for war at all, and they had little combat effectiveness.
(Spanish flu)
On the contrary, a large number of American, British and French troops were captured by the Germans in the ensuing battles. But this also had an unintended consequence, that is, the captured Entente soldiers began to infect the German soldiers!
After only a few weeks, almost every German division had 1,000-2,000 infected people, and some divisions had even half of their strength incapacitated.
On the German front, the mortality rate from influenza was a staggering 50%-60%. In other words, under the power of the great flu, some German divisions directly reimbursed a quarter of their troops! The situation of the British and French forces is also dire, but the US military is still sending a steady stream of troops to Europe, and the United States has sent 667,000 troops to Europe by the end of May.
At the same time as the French mutiny, the Germans did not feel good. Lenin, the leader of the Russian revolution, began to instigate revolutions in European countries, and Germany was the first target of this. Bolshevism began to spread in large numbers among the lower ranks of the German army, and the German army began to mutiniate frequently. If the Germans were able to hold the front, then Austria-Hungary on the southern front had simply been defeated.
(Mutiny at Kiel Military Port, Germany)
In this situation, the Germans also seemed to have no choice but to negotiate. The "Kaiser's offensive" drained the last vestiges of Germany's strength, but it did not have the desired effect.
Ludendorff blamed the sudden appearance of the "Spanish flu", and in his later memoirs, Ludendorff put it this way:
"This plague is the invisible hand that prevents Germany from achieving the final victory!"
Resources:
[1] Wang Yeying.1918 Influenza and World War I[D].Capital Normal University,2012.
[2] Xu Jilian. "Bertas" and the collapse of the German offensive in 1918[J].Military History,1992,(06):58-59.
[3] A hundred years ago, it was not Britain and France that defeated Germany, but a virus. Qilu Evening News, 2020-04-14