Military History of the First World War
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Allied counter-offensive
This began on the 18th July when the French attacked along the March using three Armies and 750 tanks. The Germans were forced to retreat. Despite British losses of artillery, their war effort proved equal to the drain, and the British army by July had more artillery available than they had in March. The British blockade of Germany was having the effect of depriving Germany of raw materials. British weapons were superior to German weapons by the end of the war. German infrastructure was beginning to collapse. On the 8th August the British attacked at Amiens and were able to advance 8 miles along a 9 mile front. The Germans lost 27,000 casualties as opposed to the British 9,000. Their artillery was becoming effective in negating the German defences. The British then started attacking all along the front, switching the offensive from one sector to another, and using the same techniques as were successful at Amiens. The Germans were pushed back by mid September to the outer limits of the massive Hindenburg Line. The British supported by Belgium, French and American forces, attacked the line along the entire Western front commencing 26th September. The operation commenced in the south with attackes by the French and Americans, successfully reducing the St. Mihiel salient to the south of Verdun. The British commenced their attack in the north on the 27th September. The main defence of the Hindenburg Line was the St.Quentin Canal; this was constructed so that there were banks 15 metres high and filled with 2 metres of mud or water. Nonetheless, British artillery were able to neutralize German guns in advance of the attack, and the first British division to cross the canal and thus breach the line was the 46th North Midland. Thereafter, the British armies were able to breach the Hindenburg line over its whole length. The Allies continued to make steady advances throughout October right up to 11th November. In Germany Ludendorff recommended peace and the Kaiser abdicated. The new German government accepted the inevitable and negotiations started on the 7th/8th November
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Contents of
Military History of the First World War
1 The Central Powers and the Entente
2 The run-up to the war: The July Crisis, 1914
3 Military Planning in Advance of the War
4 Serbia and the Eastern Front, 1914
5 The Battle for the Marne
6 The Race to the Sea and the First Battle of Ypres
7 First Battle of Ypres
8 The Pacific
9 Africa
10 The Eastern Front during 1915
11 Italy enters the war
12 The Balkans
13 The Western Front
14 Gallipoli
15 The Western Front, 1916
16 Verdun
17 The Battle of the Somme
18 The Trentino Offensive
19 The Brusilov Offensive
20 Romania
21 The Russian Front in 1917
22 Mesopotamia
23 The Nivelle Offensive
24 The Third Battle of Ypres (The Battle of Passendaele)
25 Cambrai
26 Caporetto
27 German offensive in Russia, 1918
28 Ludendorff's offensive in the West
29 Allied counter-offensive
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