The Western Front has been pretty quiet since early December, but no more, for this week,
Germany launches Operation Michael, the beginning of the Kaiserschlacht, their largest offensive
of the entire war.
I’m Indy Neidell; welcome to the Great War.
Last week, the Germans continued to consolidate their victory in the east, even though their
army lost in the field to the Czechoslovak Legion.
The Allies requisitioned Dutch shipping, the Ottomans advanced as the Armenians retreated,
and there were peace overture possibilities between the Allies and Austria.
But that was last week.
This week, Baron Burian, former Austrian Foreign Minister, wrote in his diary (Gilbert), “No
one will now listen to the word peace.
Everything is based on the forthcoming offensive, as if everyone were entrusting himself without
a tremor to the decision of fate.”
And that offensive, a German one on the Western Front, begins this week.
German Quartermaster General Erich Ludendorff’s general objective was to drive the British
from the Somme and the French from the Aisne, and to threaten Paris as the Germans had three
and a half years ago.
Then, though, Germany was fighting a war on two fronts, now it was just the one, and in
spite of the enormity of the offensive, Ludendorff had the element of surprise.
The Germans had been in motion along the whole front all winter.
The final placement of the heavy guns began only March 11th.
The assault divisions didn’t arrive until the 16th, and they marched only by night.
Ludendorff even twice moved his own headquarters, once to Southeast Belgium and once to Avesnes
in France.
He now had 190 divisions on the Western Front - three million men - and more were coming.
He had succeeded in making the British think the attack was coming in Flanders, where the
British were strongest.
British Commander Sir Douglas Haig even wrote in his diary after an inspection of his northern
lines, “I was only afraid that the enemy would find our front so very strong that he
will hesitate to commit his army to the attack with the almost certainty of losing very heavily”.
Gotta be fair to Haig, though, the intelligence reports he got were often wrong, and confusing
in general.
Anyhow, for the British, Henry Horne and the 1st Army defended Arras in the north, Julian
Byng and the 3rd army just south of them, and Hugh Gough and the 5th army on their right,
at St. Quentin.
The German 17th army under Otto von Below, victor of Caporetto, was opposite Horne and
Byng.
On his left was the 2nd army under Georg von der Marwitz, who’d led the counter attack
at Cambrai a few months ago.
To his south was the 18th army under Oskar von Hutier; the guy who really advanced German
stormtroop doctrine and tactics, and after whom those tactics are named.
Ludendorff’s drive now against the British 5th Army was unexpected, and Haig had built
up his reserves behind the 3rd army to protect the Channel ports.
Also, earlier in the week, the French 3rd army was moved 160km east of the British 5th,
to guard against a sweep to the south.
A sweep that proved non-existent.
So the 5th army was in a pretty bad position.
This was complicated by its divisions being under strength, as we talked about in January.
Martin Gilbert says that those divisions, designed to be 12,000 men were in no case
much more than 6,000 each.
General Gough, a mile behind the front line, was awakened around 0500 by German artillery.
(Gilbert) “I awoke in my room at Nesle to the sound of a bombardment so steady and sustained
that it gave me an immediate impression of some crushing, smashing power.”
That was because the Germans had over 6,000 heavy guns firing, backed up by over 3,000
mortars.
The Germans were also firing gas shells to mess with the ability of the British artillery
to counter attack.
In the skies, 361 German fighters attacked 261 British; 16 British and 14 German planes
were shot down that first day.
The shelling began at 0440, and just after 7 AM the first waves of German infantry went
over the top and smashed into the British lines.
44 divisions of storm troops, the cream of the German army, with the best mobile weapons
Germany could produce, led the attack.
Many of them were not even using their rifles.
They were on the run in tiny groups using whatever cover there was.
If they met the enemy, they tossed grenades or a light machine gunner laid down a field
of fire.
Anything to keep moving moving moving.
They had colored flares to signal their comrades.
There was no continuous line, and the pace was set by whoever was fastest.
(World Undone) “Everything would depend on initiative, boldness, flexibility, and
the ability to adapt to whatever developed.
The main rule was that the old rules no longer applied.”
They even had a new pamphlet that said the first day’s objective was the artillery,
but the second day’s depends on the first day.
And the reserves would be sent in where the attack was progressing, not where it was stalled,
as was traditional.
Behind the assault units were heavier battle units with flamethrowers, heavy machine guns,
field artillery, and engineers.
They were to wipe out the strongpoints bypassed by the shock troops and build defensive works
to hold off counterattacks.
Behind them was, of course, the mighty Hindenburg Line of defense, and behind that, the reserves.
The whole plan would fail, though, if the storm troops couldn’t get past the front
lines, and to make sure they did, the Germans had something the British had yet to encounter
- Georg Bruchmuller.
(World Undone) “the one true artillery genius of a war dominated by artillery...
He was, in all likelihood, the most valuable individual in the entire German army during
the great climax of 1918.”
Bruchmuller was attached to Hutier and the 18th army.
We have already talked at length about Bruchmuller’s barrage techniques, which had been so successful
at Caporetto and on the Eastern Front, and he was no less successful here.
In a heavy fog, the Germans came on.
I said they smashed into the British lines, but in reality, they smashed through them.
Just this first day, the Germans made advances of up to 7 km, and took over 20,000 British
prisoners, and the British took over 50,000 total casualties including prisoners.
It was a war of motion once more, for the first time since the fall of 1914.
The 5th Army could not stand against the assault, not that they didn’t try their damndest.
At Manchester Hill, a British regiment literally fought to the last man.
This was not unique, and whole villages were obliterated as the British - again - literally
defended to the last man.
In the center, Byng’s army held on to the Flesquieres salient, but with Gough’s men
falling back, they were in danger of being cut off.
But the breakthrough into open territory, had only been achieved on the German left.
Below’s army had reached the British second line, sure, and Marwitz had done a bit better
even, but the real drama, the real action was where Hutier and Bruchmuller had implemented
the tactics that bore their names.
This was not what Ludendorff had expected, though.
I mean, it was a brilliant success, but it hadn’t gone according to plan.
So what would Ludendorff do?
He could reinforce Below and try again to break through on the right, which is the sort
of thing we’ve seen Haig and Falkenhayn do - try to turn a stalled offensive into
a success by throwing more men at it, but he did the opposite.
He sent his best reserve divisions to Hutier and none to Below.
The last day of the week brought further German successes.
The British counter attacked with 25 tanks, 16 of them were knocked out of commission.
Thirty British planes were lost on day two, just 11 for the Germans.
But again, the German progress that day was pretty much all on the left.
Ludendorff’s plans, though, had been overtaken by the events of 48 hours.
His supply system wasn’t prepared to follow Hutier’s men and even as the week ends,
they were running out of essentials like water.
You know what, though?
The British actually launched their own offensive on the same day the German one began, but
on the Palestine Front.
They finally set out to try and take Amman.
This began ominously.
The Ottomans had decoded the British radio traffic and knew that an attack on Amman was
coming.
They had reinforced the town days before the British even began crossing the Jordan, which
took until the end of the week, as the river was swollen from the rains.
Before Amman, they would first make the muddy climb to Salt.
And so the week ends, with the British beginning a small offensive, and the German beginning
a colossal one.
And make no mistake, the whole world was watching, and watching nervously.
The Central Powers had won in the East, they had made huge gains in Italy, they were doing
fine in Macedonia and the Caucasus, and holding on in Palestine, and Germany was now only
fighting on one front.
And was bringing hundreds of thousands of fresh troops from the east to the west.
The French and the British armies were still exhausted from last year’s offensives, and
the Americans had not yet arrived in force.
And all hell broke loose this week on the Western Front as the Germans try to smash
the enemy once and for all.
It doesn’t get heavier than this.
If you want to learn more about the evolution of German Infantry Tactics throughout the
war, you can click right here to find our playlist including multiple episodes on that
topic.
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