Then at the end of July 1917, the British attacked Passchendaele Ridge. [94], In June, the British launched an offensive in Flanders, in part to take the pressure off the French armies on the Aisne, after the French part of the Nivelle Offensive failed to achieve the strategic victory that had been planned and French troops began to mutiny. [92], On 25 June the first US troops began to arrive in France, forming the American Expeditionary Force. [118] German manpower had been severely depleted after four years of war and its economy and society were under great internal strain. Play a deciding role in history with this real-time tactical experience as you take charge in the iconic Western Front from 1914 to 1919. [25] Max Bauer, with his industrialist friends, began by setting overambitious targets for military production in what they called the Hindenburg Program. Hitler, waving a pistol, jumped onto the stage, announcing that the national revolution was underway. The overall commander of the Imperial German Army was Kaiser Wilhelm II, but real [129] The British lost 16,829 civilian dead, 1,260 civilians were killed in air and naval attacks, 908 civilians were killed at sea and there were 14,661 merchant marine deaths. [53] The German retreats continued, pressed by Allied attacks. [96], On 11 July 1917, during Unternehmen Strandfest (Operation Beachparty) at Nieuport on the coast, the Germans introduced a new weapon into the war when they fired a powerful blistering agent Sulfur mustard (Yellow Cross) gas. [75], In August 1916 the German leadership along the Western Front had changed as Falkenhayn resigned and was replaced by Hindenburg and Ludendorff. Brownell, William and Denise Drace-Brownell. It is true that as his wife testified, "Anyone who knows Ludendorff knows that he has not a spark of humor". Four independent cavalry corps served on the Western Front. The British had suffered about 420,000 casualties and the French around 200,000. "[61], In exile, Ludendorff wrote numerous books and articles about the German military's conduct of the war while forming the foundation for the Dolchstosslegende, the "stab-in-the-back theory," for which he is considered largely responsible,[62] insisting that a domestic crisis had sparked Germany's surrender while the military situation held firm, ignoring that he himself had pressed the politicians for an armistice on military grounds. With Russia out of the war, the Germans outnumbered the Allies on the Western Front. OHL still vigorously opposed offering to give up the territory they desired in France and Belgium, so the German government was unable to make a plausible peace proposal. [89] Appeals to patriotism and duty followed, as did mass arrests and trials. [115] The rapidly increasing American presence served as a counter for the large numbers of redeployed German forces. [76] In an attempt to regain Ludendorff's favor, Hitler arrived unannounced at Ludendorff's home on his 70th birthday in 1935 to promote him to field marshal. After a massive eight-hour artillery bombardment, the Germans did not expect much resistance as they slowly advanced on Verdun and its forts. His office was in the (civilian) War Ministry, not in the OHL as Ludendorff had wanted. The Germans were unable to cut any vital railway. Guderian rose to the full rank of General abd is recognized as one of the most prominent generals of World War II. It remained German Army doctrine through World War II; schools taught the new tactics to all ranks. In the opening phase, they swept the air space of French aircraft, which allowed German artillery-observation aircraft and bombers to operate without interference. The application of "collective responsibility" against a civilian population further galvanised the allies. Ludendorff was acquitted, but Heinz Pernet, Ludendorff's stepson, was convicted of "aiding and abetting treason," given a fifteen-month sentence. Ludendorff's hand was everywhere. WebThe Western Front. The bombardment, which had been carefully targeted by means of aerial photography,[51] began on 22 September. [106] Ludendorff decided on an offensive strategy beginning with a big attack against the British on the Somme, to separate them from the French and drive them back to the channel ports. By summer, between 250,000 and 300,000 American soldiers were arriving every month. [92] The offensive began on 7 June, with a British attack on Messines Ridge, south of Ypres, to retake the ground lost in the First and Second battles in 1914. Their next attack was in Flanders. [91] The French would go on the defensive for the following months to avoid high casualties and to restore confidence in the French High Command, while the British assumed greater responsibility. Known as Lion of Champagne. [84], During the winter of 19161917, German air tactics had been improved, a fighter training school was opened at Valenciennes and better aircraft with twin guns were introduced. He addressed the now enthusiastically supportive audience and then spent the night in the War Ministry, unsuccessfully trying to obtain the army's backing. By 31 March the RFC was struggling to find German air opposition. WebIt required German troops to go around the north and west of Paris to cut the city off. [36], Despite the German plans to maintain the stalemate with the French and British, Albrecht, Duke of Wrttemberg, commander of the 4th Army planned an offensive at Ypres, site of the First Battle of Ypres in November 1914. By 16 August, all the forts around Lige had fallen, allowing the German First Army to advance. Despite being temporarily removed from the Great General Staff for meddling in German politics, Ludendorff restored his standing in the army through his success as a commander in World War I. "[101], On 20 November the British launched the first massed tank attack and the first attack using predicted artillery-fire (aiming artillery without firing the guns to obtain target data) at the Battle of Cambrai. Infuriated, Ludendorff allegedly rebuffed Hitler by telling him: "An officer is named General Field-Marshal on the battlefield! The Allies were aghast, but it was not the triumph OHL had hoped for: they had planned another Tannenberg by surrounding tens of thousands of British troops in the Cambrai salient,[48] but had been thwarted by stout defense and fighting withdrawal. When sure that the Romanians would be defeated the OHL moved west, retaining the previous staff except for the operations officer, blamed for Verdun. Pick your faction and lead your forces to victory. The German government surrendered in the Armistice of 11 November 1918, and the terms of peace were settled by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. [27], From 19 October until 22 November, the German forces made their final breakthrough attempt of 1914 during the First Battle of Ypres, which ended in a mutually-costly stalemate. Ludendorff was so humiliated by what he saw as a betrayal by his old friend that he broke off relations with Hindenburg, and in 1927 refused to even stand beside the field marshal at the dedication of the Tannenberg memorial. Although the German army bypassed Antwerp, it remained a threat to their flank. Bucharest fell in December 1916. Though primarily a powerful irritant, it can asphyxiate in high concentrations or prolonged exposure. WebThe Armistice of 11 November 1918 was the armistice signed at Le Francport near Compigne that ended fighting on land, sea, and air in World War I between the Entente This would now have a dramatic effect on the conflict as 33 divisions were released from the Eastern Front for deployment to the west. Ludendorff regarded the Germans as the "master race"[42] and after victory planned to settle ex-soldiers in the Baltic states and in Alsace-Lorraine, where they would take over property seized from Balts and the French. The main offensive was launched on 14 August with the First and Second Armies attacking toward Sarrebourg-Morhange in Lorraine. Western Front [citation needed] By the end of the war, Germany would be at war with 27 nations. This advance was quickly ushered into service, in the Fokker E.I (Eindecker, or monoplane, Mark 1), the first single seat fighter aircraft to combine a reasonable maximum speed with an effective armament. [53][54] The attack involved two corps in the main assault and two corps performing diversionary attacks at Ypres. The original plans for an attack around the River Somme were modified to let the British make the main effort. In time, the Western Front became a long line of trenches, fortifications and defences crossing western Europe. Entrenchments, machine gun emplacements, barbed wire and artillery repeatedly inflicted severe casualties during attacks and counter-attacks and no significant advances were made. Germany knew it would be hard to win a two-sided attack against its enemies, so they devised a plan to knock France quickly out of the war before turning to fight Russia. The Western Front was one of the main theatres of war during the First World War. Lacking the means to punish an entire division, its officers did not immediately implement harsh measures against the mutineers. In twenty years' time, the German people will curse the parties who now boast of having made the Revolution. Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff (German pronunciation: [er fid vlhlm ludndf]; 9 April 1865 20 December 1937) was a German general, politician and military theorist. House and Merit Order of Peter Frederick Louis, "Erich Ludendorff (German general): Introduction Britannica Online Encyclopedia", "Ludendoref Dies; World War Figure; End Comes Suddenly When He Appears to Be Recovering From an Operation", "How Germany got the Russian Revolution off the ground | DW | 7 November 2017", "Vladimir Lenin's Return Journey to Russia Changed the World Forever", "German Foreign Office Documents on Financial Support to the Bolsheviks in 1917", "Ludendorff: The Soldier and the Politician", "The God-cognition by Mathilde Ludendorff (18771966)", Newspaper clippings about Erich Ludendorff, Bogislav Friedrich Emanuel von Tauentzien, Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia, National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP), National Socialist German Doctors' League, National Socialist League for Physical Exercise (NSRL), Bulgarian National Socialist Workers Party, German National Socialist Workers' Party (Czechoslovakia), Finnish National Socialist Labor Organisation, German National Movement in Liechtenstein, National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands, National Socialist Workers' Party of Denmark, Nationalist Liberation Alliance (Argentina), South African Gentile National Socialist Movement, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Erich_Ludendorff&oldid=1156938709, German Vlkisch Freedom Party politicians, Members of the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic, National Socialist Freedom Movement politicians, Nazis who participated in the Beer Hall Putsch, Converts to pagan religions from Protestantism, Recipients of the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross, Recipients of the Pour le Mrite (military class), Knights of the Military Order of Max Joseph, Officers Crosses of the Military Merit Order (Bavaria), Grand Crosses of the Order of the Cross of Liberty, Converts to pagan religions from Christianity, Articles with German-language sources (de), Articles with dead external links from December 2019, Articles with permanently dead external links, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0, A highly fictionalized version of Ludendorff, which bears little resemblance in terms of appearance or biography, is portrayed by, In a second-season episode of the television series, Astore, William J. [15] Ludendorff planned to combine German settlement and Germanisation in conquered areas with expulsions of native populations; and envisioned an eastern German empire whose resources would be used in future war with Great Britain and the United States[14][16] Ludendorff's plans went as far as making Crimea a German colony. They attacked almost daily until the end of the month, but the Lake Naroch Offensive failed, "choked in swamp and blood".[19]. With a retired general, August Keim, and the head of the Pan-German League, Heinrich Class, he vigorously lobbied the Reichstag for the additional men. [23] The German Army retreated north of the Aisne and dug in there, establishing the beginnings of a static western front that was to last for the next three years. German The commanders despised Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg as weak, so they forced his resignation by repeatedly threatening to resign themselves, despite the Kaiser's admonition that this was not their business. From Dec 1915 to Dec 1916 & from June 1917 until end of #WW1, commanded 4th Army on Western Front. By 1911, Ludendorff was a full colonel. [69], Tipton notes that Ludendorff was a social Darwinist who believed that war was the "foundation of human society", and that military dictatorship was the normal form of government in a society in which every resource must be mobilized. Ludendorff, with the Kaiser's blessing,[35] helped Lenin and other 30 or so revolutionaries in exile return to Russia. Western Front (World War I) - Wikipedia WebWestern Front: trench warfare. BBC - History - World Wars: The German Front Experience [130][131] Another 62,000 Belgian, 107,000 British and 300,000 French civilians died due to war-related causes. [134] Once it was clear that Germany was going to be defeated, Ludendorff had ordered the destruction of the mines in France and Belgium. Deputies of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, which became the largest party in the Reichstag after the German federal elections of 1912, seldom gave priority to army expenditures, whether to build up its reserves or to fund advanced weaponry such as Krupp's siege cannons. General Ferdinand Foch was appointed commander of all Allied forces in France. The Saar, which formed the west bank of the Rhine, would be demilitarised and controlled by Britain and France, while the Kiel Canal opened to international traffic. Then Romania was invaded from the south by German, Austro-Hungarian, Bulgarian, and Ottoman troops commanded by August von Mackensen and from the north by a German and Austro-Hungarian army commanded by Falkenhayn. The offensive proceeded poorly as the French troops, with the help of two Russian brigades, had to negotiate rough, upward-sloping terrain in extremely bad weather. War Generals on the Western Front, 1914-1918 [83] The Canadian Corps and the 5th Division of the First Army, fought the Battle of Vimy Ridge, completing the capture of the ridge and the Third Army to the south achieved the deepest advance since trench warfare began. In examining the reasons behind losses and achievements, once the British war economy produced sufficient equipment and weapons, the army made the platoon the basic tactical unit, similar to the French and German armies. Ludendorff and Max Bauer were part of the putsch. [82], By 1917, the size of the British Army on the Western Front had grown to two-thirds of the size of the French force. Hindenburg and Ludendorff first met on their private train heading east. Within seven months, he wrote two volumes of detailed memoirs. The next morning 3,000 armed Nazis formed outside of the Brgerbrukeller and marched into central Munich, the leaders just behind the flag bearers. WebThe Western Front, 1915. On 3 March 1918, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed and Russia withdrew from the war. World War I portal; Germany portal German reinforcements counter-attacked and pushed the French back towards their starting points because French reserves had been held back and the success of the attack had come as a surprise. Despite the reversal, the attack was seen as a success by the Allies, proving that tanks could overcome trench defences. The French had spent the summer preparing for this action, with the British assuming control of more of the front to release French troops for the attack. Newspapers condemned the German invasion, violence against civilians and destruction of property, which became known as the "Rape of Belgium. Is General Friedrichs Based on a Real German WW1 General? On 29 September 1918, Ludendorff and Hindenburg suddenly told an incredulous Kaiser that they could not guarantee the integrity of the Western front "for two hours" and they must have an immediate armistice. [14] He proposed massive annexations and colonization in Eastern Europe in the event of the victory of the German Reich, and was one of the main supporters of the Polish Border Strip. [72] The Allies prepared an attack that would involve 13 British and Imperial divisions and four French corps. The Allies fielded 216 divisions against 197 German divisions. This would serve to relieve pressure on the French, as well as the Russians who had also suffered great losses.
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