today we're looking at world war one year five 1918
hello welcome to the daily bell ringer please don't forget to subscribe and take a look at the
questions down in the description also don't forget to check out daily dailybelringer.com
where you'll find more resources that go with many of the bellringer videos
since fighting began in world war one during the summer of 1914 neither side the allied or central
powers had been able to achieve clear victory 1918 would be another year of intense combat
but by the year's end fighting would come to an end the previous year 1917 had seen interesting
developments in the war as russia had officially withdrawn from the conflict and the united states
had decided to enter the war on the side of the allies in january 1918 president woodrow wilson
outlined his 14 points which was his plan for how peace could be accomplished to end
the war his plan focused on open diplomacy or open communication between nations freedom for vessels
to be at sea without fear of being attacked and improving economic relationships between nations
among many other points however as wilson was discussing ideas for peace at the same time
germany was preparing for a major offensive that would decide the fate of the war
although the united states had declared war in 1917 american troops and materials had not been
fully mobilized and reached the battlefields of europe yet german leaders believed that
they could defeat british and french forces before the u.s could fully engage in the war
so beginning in late march of 1918 germany began a series of attacks known as the spring offensives
on march 21 1918 germany launched a 6 000 gun artillery attack and pushed allied forces back and
recaptured ground from the battle of sam fought two years earlier but after two weeks of fighting
british forces put up strong resistance and the offensive stalled by the end of march in an effort
to better coordinate their efforts ferdinand fosh was appointed allied supreme commander
on the western front shortly after on april 9 germany launched its second offensive attacking
on the northern end of the western front at epra belgium but here again the combined british french
and australian forces were able to stop the german progress by the end of april undeterred germany
launched a third offensive starting on may 27th aimed at the middle of the western front here
german forces overran french defenses surprised by their success german troops made a quick
push towards paris but allied reinforcements which included newly arrived american troops
were able to stop the germans and turn them back before they reached paris immediately the american
expeditionary force under general john j pershing began to push back the german forces american
forces by late may numbered nearly 650 000 in france with an additional 10 000 troops arriving
each day on june 9th germans attempted yet another offensive to push towards paris but this time they
faced both french and american troops that caused their offensive to crumble in a matter of days on
july 15th germany launched its final offensive of the war around ron's france but here again french
and american troops were ready for the attack and were able to counter-attack driving german forces
off starting on july 18 1918 british french and american forces began to coordinate their own
series of offenses to push the german army from their trenches along the western front allied
forces were able to successfully push german forces out of the marin region then on august 8th
allied forces attacked in the psalm region forcing the germans to quickly retreat and taking over 10
thousand german prisoners then on september 12th american ground forces along with over 1300 attack
planes coordinated an attack on the southern end of the western front the americans captured
over 15 000 german prisoners and hundreds of artillery pieces shortly after on september 27th
allied forces broke through the heavily fortified hindenburg line again forcing german forces to
retreat the allied forces continued their pressure on the german army forcing them to retreat further
over the next several weeks in early october german military commanders informed the german
legislature in berlin that they could no longer stop the allied advanced and that the war was lost
germany began the process of negotiations and requesting for an armistice or an agreement to
stop fighting for a certain period of time in the meantime on october 24th italian forces were able
to push the austrian army out of italy barely a week later on november 3rd austria signed an
armistice with italy now leaving germany alone in the war then on november 11 1918 in the rail car
of allied supreme commander ferdinand fosh germany signed an armistice that took effect at 11 am
at exactly 11 o'clock all was quiet on the western front the fighting was over but it would not be
until june of 1919 that the treaty of versailles would be signed bringing the war officially to
an end the war to end all wars had come to an end taking a terrible toll with an estimated 20
million people dying in the war and an additional 21 million wounded in the years following the war
europe would be reshaped and unfortunately the events of world war one would contribute to the
outbreak of world war ii so with that hopefully you learned something and thanks for watching
you