The Spring Offensive: Germany's Final Gamble To Win WW1 | History Of Warfare | War Stories

Similar to the Ukrainian spring offensive into kursk. They will take more ground than they can hold, overstretch the supply lines and get cut off. Meanwhile the Russians keep grinding forward in donetsk because they know the defences are weaker due to large numbers of troops being diverted to the north

Can't watch it, advertisement after advertisement ruins it.

This offensive is what led to the blitzkrieg tactics of the beginning ww2 (speed with smaller weapons and tanks). The luddendorf breakthrough was too good and the heavy krupps artillery were not able to keep up. When they reached a heavily fortified position, they had to wait on there big guns and it took too long.

Why germany not sent their troops in east to west?
Second why austria not help germany in the west?

Very excellent. Thank You

No mention of the Hunger blockage which killed 750,000 people. But the Entente cry foul when unrestricted submarines used as a counter measure. When one deliberately targets civilians then all cards are off the table.

That gamble worked perfectly in '40 !!! So don't spit too much at it....

The German Army of August 1918 was bereft of many of it's better soldiers as many had been stripped out of the main body of the army to form assault formations.

Germany accepted an armistice based upon Wilson’s 14 points for peace. They were then starved into submission and ultimately they got the treaty of Versailles. This is what the ‘stab in the back’ was really about. Germany still occupied enemy territory and the army, while certainly massively battered and weakened, wasn’t destroyed and in many areas still held its ground. The fact the Germans accepted a peace based upon lies and for a horrible Versailles treaty is where the ‘stab in the back’ comes from. And it’s quite true. Also consider that by the start of November 1918, 9 out of 20 major German cities were under Marxist strikes or full control. Communist agitators DID sabotage the war effort. I think this is quite safe to call a stab in the back.

Now would Germany have won if these 2 factors weren’t a thing? Most likely NOT, and yes some more extremist views did take the myth way too far and used it as a form of cope. But to dismiss it as a total myth is just dishonest.
Germany laid down their arms while still on enemy soil and believed they would get an honourable peace based off Wilson’s 14 points. They were starved by the illegal high seas blockade into accepting the harsh Versailles treaty. And Bolshevik revolts also did undermine the war effort.

Just found the exact same video on the War Channel, channel, from 9 months ago. Stop stealing each others videos, we get a You Tube full of the same but with different uploaders.

Brings me back to the original History Channel great times, without aliens.

WW1 ended, because the H1N1 virus brought to Europe by the USA killed 100 Million people, compared to 8.5 Million killed by enemy fire throughout the entire war on all sides. WW1 was ended by the USA virus, which destroyed Europe and its youth. Woodrow Wilson got sick too, lost his speech and couldn't push his 14 reasonable points through. The H1N1 virus and the Treaty of Versailles changed the World for the worse.

And it almost worked
But was stopped just outside of Paris by uncle Sam’s misguided children

If bully beef means they are doing well then things must of been very bad for central powers troops.
Not only food but boot polish tobacco etc are abundant and factor in exhaustion after breaking so far into the allied rear.
I knew things were dire for German troops as war goes on.
WW1 sheer horror mass scale.

Similar in desperation to the Wehrmacht's Ardennes offensive in 1944.

This was the brainchild of Ludendorff, the guy who was a Colonel in 1914 and that's the level of education and competence he brought to the strategic level.
The war was lost BEFORE he launched this, but the Army was still intact and highly effective. He chose the wrong path to peace.

Germany's 1918 Spring offensive in WW1 was kinda analogous to Germany's Ardennes offensive in Winter 1944 in WW2. An act of desperation but no matter the outcome Germany was exhausted and still doomed to defeat.

In 1917 russia was knocked out of war,italy was badly defeated. Germans ocupied most of central and eastern europe and started to fight only in western front. Western front was in french teritory,belgium and netherland was occupied. Usa did join the war,and they were economic superpower but they were military midget comparing to europes countries.

that yank got any evidence to back that psychological issues didnt affect the germans?

Despite some interesting perspectives this video is woefully inadequate. The March 1918 German offensive was only the first of several major German offensives to come with the Germans persisting in hoping against hope for victory through much of the summer. This video focuses much too much on the March offensives with only brief mention of April, May and August fighting (with brief mention of the so called August "black day"). But again most of the 1918 German offensive action was after March and is mostly ignored in this video.

Probably the Germans should have sent a lot more troops from Russia to France than they did but in the end that would have only delayed their inevitable defeat with so many Americans on the way to Europe. That is hindsight though and overlooks the fact that Russia is so vast and many German troops were in fact needed to enforce the terms of the Russian defeat. There really was no way the Russians were going to reenter the war in 1918. But the Germans were wary of that possibility if "too many" Germans were sent west since the triumph of the "bread and peace" Communists by 1918 though spectacular was still tenuous.

And this video almost completely ignores the fact that by the summer of 1918 the Americans were finally influencing the course of the war with major military effect. Huge numbers of Americans were already in France by 1918. But American General Pershing would only let Americans fight under American command and not until he deemed them ready. In their first skirmishes with the Germans they were not ready and were badly mauled. But they learned quickly and by summer were having great success if only in local battles, not the least because they were much fresher than the Germans they were fighting.

Also ignored in the video as is also ignored in most others and in most books about World War I is the fact that the first wave of the flu while not especially lethal was so contagious that it forced cancelation of major military operations by both sides. To a degree this neglect is due to the fact of Allied and German military censorship as they attempted to hide the extent of the flu, soon known as the Spanish flu since neutral Spain didn't initially censor flu news. The flu forced cancelation of many military operations with sometimes entire cities shut down with up to a third of people sick at any one time. Finally the flu first seen in Spain in March and first seen in France in large numbers of cases no later than May seemed to abate at the end of July giving both sides apparent respite before returning in much more lethal form with vengeance. Nearly all 1918 flu deaths worldwide occurred during September and October 1918 and killed far more in two months than World War I killed in roughly four years. But by then the German strategic situation was clearly hopeless. Very simply more and more Americans were on the way.

In the end all the German spring and summer offensives of 1918 were ultimately doomed from the start since no amount of initial German tactical successes could have possibly prevented the Americans from decisively turning the war's tide against the Germans. But it's worth noting that what happened to the Russians in 1917 would also happen to the Germans in 1918. The Russian Army in the summer of 1917 and the German army in the summer of 1918 were more powerful and better supplied than ever before but collapsed because they lost confidence in their leaders. In both cases almost overnight many troops simply refused to fight any longer. And just as no one expected the sudden Russian collapse of 1917 no one anticipated the quick German 1918 fall collapse. In November 1918 it wasn't that the Germans were militarily broken, they could have resisted many, many months more. But the Germans had simply emotionally had enough and refused to fight any longer thus forcing an armistice as quickly organized as it was decisive.

thaught it 171920

1918 was such a strange year. Germany could have won the war even in 1918 after all the troops were freed up from the eastern front.

Thank you to all german soldiers who gave their life for Germany. Respect and RIP.

It was always unrealistic, given that this was a war of attrition.

Petian never changed

Actually the German navy’s failure to break the blockade of their food etc at Jutland was the real winning strategy. Germany was starving including the Army.

With Verdun petering out, Hindenburg, in his memoirs states that with the July 1st 1916 Somme offensive he knew that Germany could not win the war!

One of the problems with the german creeping bombardment was that they had orders to keep firing all of their shells once they hit maximum range, so when the infantry caught up they either started getting teamkilled again or had to stop advancing---read this in storm of steel

wow a quality older documentary, I live for these. head and shoulders above the newer breed of history hit trash etc

Germany lost war in 1st 2 weekend in belgium its obvious and its such apitty and was of resources that it drug on so long

Ludendorff's handling of the final offensive campaign was an incredible failure of leadership.

Germany could have won but it was as tough as it was in the Second World War but that war was lost from day 1! Sadly when you think about how the world could have looked like today 🫵

As an Australian i find this highly offensive

So wanted German to win. Europe sucked then. And does now. Sad.

Haig should have been tried for war crimes wasting men's lives

Problem with this plan was the Germans weren't mobile enough... I think TANKS was the answer in this attack. German learned this lesson in WW2 when they defeated the Allies in France with Blitzkrieg!

Monash not mentioned. HE is why the King came. Pommies never cease to denigrate others.

Germany was too greedy in the east after defeat of russia. They had to leave lots of divisions in ukraine that would have been usefull for this last ditch offensive in the west.

🅒

1945

The RN/USN naval blockade of Germany, which they could not break, was actually what won the war. A land victory by Germany would be very damaging and dangerous but not disastrous for the Allies!

slave kaiser wilhelm

How criminal elites send millions to death, but keeping making money, a lot of money.....

Amateurs talk tactics, professionals talk logistics; this adage seems to be again confirmed by this vid. A wonderful discussion and to and fro of the tactics and fighting but scant about the logistics. I would say Ludendorff never had the logistic support, means or plan to achieve his strategic aims.

The German Spring Offensive was defeated by the French at the second battle of the Marne, and at the battle of Champagne. This was the turning point of the war.

On historical point of view the fact is that it utterly failed. Good on paper but tanks and even taxis didn't exist to reach the sea in few days. Not enough planes to bring havoc in enemies rears. Supplies from ports not cut. I would have seaked peace while further increasing fortifications (bunkers). Building railway network inside fortifications (very mobile artillery ). Using this army to crush the army of Salonique, recapture Baghdad and cut Suez canal, marching to Marocco. England may have been frighten enough to seek peace (Belgium and French occupied territories to be given back). Even this wouldn't have been too late (USA)? A very difficult situation for Germany and allies. When times works against you ...

My people the Australian helped win the day, in Two world Wars .:losing Hundreds of Thousands .Then without warning covertly exterminated ....