Some of our regular viewers might want a bit of a refresher of what’s happened so far,
and some of you newer viewers might want to catch up more quickly, so we’re doing a
series of recap episodes to help you out, and this is one of them.
I’m Indy Neidell; welcome to a Great War Recap special covering the months of February,
March, and April 1917.
February began with some major news.
Germany announced that from now on it would pursue a policy of unrestricted submarine
warfare, where any ship- even neutral- within the war zone could be sunk on sight without
warning.
There was a danger that doing this could bring the United States into the war, but Germany
felt that it could sink enough shipping to drive Britain out of the war before American
troops could be trained and brought to Europe in force.
America would, in fact, break off diplomatic relations with Germany just two days later.
In Russia, war weariness had called into question whether that nation would be able to continue
the war, and public unrest caused hundreds of workers’ strikes in a matter of weeks.
There were no major offensives this month on the Western, Eastern, or Italian fronts,
though there was scattered action there every single day.
Thing is, on the Western Front scattered Allied attacks faced surprisingly little opposition.
As the month developed it turned out that the Germans were retreating to their new improved
defense system, the Hindenburg Line.
On the Libyan front, where Ottoman backed Senussi tribesmen had harassed the British
forces in Egypt for over a year, the Senussi were defeated and power broken for good.
On the Macedonian front, the British attempted to storm Bulgarian positions mid month and
discovered that the Bulgarian defenses had been beefed up to the point where they may
well be the best defenses on any front at this point.
In Mesopotamia, the British were advancing up the Tigris River toward Kut-al-Amara, where
they had surrendered last year.
They took the prize on the 24th and set their sights on Baghdad.
Toward the end of February, it was revealed that German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann
had sent a telegram to Mexico promising German financial assistance and American territory
if Mexico would go to war with the US.
This provoked a huge anti-German outcry in the states and drew the two nations one step
closer to war.
Also toward the end of the month, the Toplice Rebellion began; a Serbian rebellion in Bulgarian
occupied Balkan territory.
The rebels would have initial successes and take several towns and villages, but Austrian
and Bulgarian forces would crush the rebellion by late March.
March began with a shakeup in the Austrian High Command.
Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, the Army Chief of Staff for years and one of the main architects
of the whole war, lost his job and was replaced by Arthur Arz von Straussenburg.
There were other leaders losing their positions too- the situation in Russia had deteriorated
to the point where there were hundreds of thousands of people demonstrating in the street,
and the February Russian revolution- named after the calendar in use at the time- exploded.
Tsar Nicholas was forced to abdicate and two rival factions vied for control- the new Provisional
government and the Petrograd Soviet, Soviet meaning council.
The first wished to continue the war, the second to make peace.
The chaos in the country reached new heights as both governments issued orders and proclamations.
On March 11th, British and Indian troops entered Baghdad, a prize for the Allies, and the Ottoman
forces withdrew to Mosul.
In Macedonia, the French had pushed to Bulgarians back from the new Serbian capital Monastir
to the point where they could no longer daily shell the city, but couldn’t push them further.
The Palestine front came to life with the British attacking the Ottomans and losing
at the First Battle of Gaza.
There were striking munitions workers in Britain, and Austrian Emperor Karl began thinking about
abandoning his German allies and making a separate peace.
April 1917 would be known to history as Bloody April.
This because of the war in the skies, which had heated up over the Western Front.
The month would see the British Royal Flying Corps lose a quarter of its whole strength,
and the average life expectancy of a British replacement pilot was just 11 days.
On April 6th, the United States declared war on Germany, though it would take at least
a year for an American army to be trained and sent to Europe.
That same day, French military and political leaders met to discuss the impending British
and French Offensives on the Western Front, which would be the first major actions there
this year.
The British one- the Battle of Arras- began April 9th, and though the British were successful
that day, especially the Canadians taking Vimy Ridge, within a few days the offensive
had bogged down because of blizzards and exhaustion.
It would continue from time to time for the rest of the month, and the glory of the first
day would pale as casualties topped 100,000 and the British failed to break through the
German lines.
The French one- the Nivelle Offensive- kicked off the 16th and was a complete disaster;
the French nearly reaching 100,000 casualties in just five days and taking 40,000 the first
day alone.
It was one of the worst disasters of the war so far, and morale in the French army had
plummeted to a breaking point, with mutiny a very real possibility.
General Robert Nivelle, who’d planned the offensive, refused to take responsibility
for the catastrophe and blamed everybody but himself.
A shocked French government stripped him of his post as Chief of Staff- which he’d only
been given four months ago- and gave the job to Philippe Petain.
The British tried and failed again in Palestine at the Second battle of Gaza and that front
went quiet.
The Macedonian Front heated up near the end of the month and stayed that way as the British
attacked and lost to the Bulgarians at the Battle of Lake Doiran.
One place the British were successful was the Mesopotamian Front, where they won the
Battle of Istabulat and took the Samarrah rail yard, crushing Ottoman hopes for regaining
a stronghold in the region.
Germany managed to sink nearly 900,000 tons of shipping in April, far more than the 600,000/month
they estimated they’d need to knock Britain out of the war, Russia had to call off its
planned May 1st Offensive because of chaos and desertion in the ranks, and Vladimir Lenin
arrived in Petrograd and took charge of the Bolshevik forces there.
And that’s where we stand as May 1917 begins.
The British and French losing hundreds of thousands of men in the West for very little
gain.
Morale collapsing in the French army.
The Eastern Front quiet because of turmoil in the Russian army and at home in Petrograd.
The British unable to push through in Palestine or Macedonia, but making headway in Mesopotamia.
New army commanders in Austria-Hungary and France.
The United States begins its preparations for war.
The Italian front has remained quiet all spring.
You can see that this war, even after nearly three years and the death of millions, will
continue to grow ever larger.
The offensives will be larger and more deadly as weapons like the tank and the airplane
are further developed, and nations like Portugal and the United States will now send men into
the field to fight, kill, and die.
The world has never seen anything like what modern war has become, and that world now
plunges further and further into chaos and destruction.