Last 100 days on the Western Front

What took them so long?

We know that, privately at least, by the end of September, von Hindenburg and von Ludendorf knew that War was lost. On September 28^th, these senior Marshals of the German Army informed the Kaiser. His comment was ‘Why didn’t you tell me a fortnight ago? Saved us all a lot of trouble.’

Yet over the next five weeks, the First World War continued. There were over a quarter of a million casualties, arguably more. In a more peaceful environment, the influenza epidemic might have been better managed and less deadly. These were not just forces of history which caused the delay. Decisions taken by men (mostly men) delayed the Armistice.

Bulgaria collapsed relatively quickly. The breakthrough battle happened on 15^th September, peace negotiations by the end of the month. A fuller description is in my previous blog. The agony on the Western Front took much longer.

View of the station at Lens, liberated early October 1918. The damage is not so much due to shell fire as to deliberate wrecking, designed to deny any facilities to the Allies. From 'Illustration' magazine. Courtesy MD Wright

We can home in on the highly symbolic Somme Front. What happened there reflected events over the whole of the western Front. The French and AEF were also advancing but our looking glass will be trained so to speak on the Upper Somme. In 1916, during the Battle of the Somme, the British expended much blood and treasure on he objective of Péronne – which they never took. (See earlier blog.) In March and early April 1918, the Germans took all but 60 kilometres – the distance between Péronne and the eastern suburbs of Amiens. They were halted at Villers Bretonneux a few kilometres from the strategic city. (See recent blog).

In July 1918, the Allies moved on to the front foot. On August 8th, they took 10 kilometres (6 ½ miles) of territory in the Péronne direction. Villers Bretonneux and  Amiens were out of danger. Between the 9^th and 29^th August, they advanced a further 15 kilometres to another Villers, this time Villers Carbonnel. There they paused.

Their way to Péronne was barred by the Somme and Canal de Somme. Before them lay the formidable Hindenburg Line which stretched from Péronne north-west to Lens in the department of Pas de Calais. After hard fighting, they were 5 kilometres east by September 6^th. A British, Canadian and ANZAC force reached the gates of the town of St Quentin by September 18^th, but not much beyond until October 9^th.

The truism has been that the Germans traded territory for lives, but in actual fact, they had planned the retreat as a series of strong points. Places in between were given up under relatively little pressure, but centres of resistance were not given up without a desperate fight. These cost many lives, their own as well as those of the Allies.

Map showing Allied advances August to November 1918 on the Western Front east of Amiens. Villers Bretonneux is in the white zone ie never under enemy control. On 29th August, Allies arewithin a shout of Peronne, but don't pass until 6th September. THey slow up at St Quentin and again just beyond. Right central, a bit blurred, in the band of pink liberated on 7th November is La Capelle mentioned below. Illustration courtesy MD Wright

There were reasons why the Allies were able to press home their attack. In spite of news censorship, the Germans had their suspicions about the course of the War. Rumour has a thousand tongues. During the advances in the spring, they saw captured Allied supplies. The contrast between the coarse plenty that the enemy enjoyed and their own shortages was painful. In addition, the Germans were exhausted. They had been reinforced the previous winter, but not since.

On the Allied side, the presence of the million-strong AEF on their right flank was heartening. Most importantly, what enabled them to press forward was a better educated leadership. Old-fashioned ideas of sending men armed with bayonets to face barbed wire and machine guns had finally been replaced. Military intelligence was being used better. Instead of a random bombardment, an advance was being protected by a creeping barrage of artillery. The gunfire crept forward just ahead of the infantry.

Guns were bigger, there were more of them and they were better used.

155mm American Expeditionary Force guns in the field, autumn 1918. This is just one gun battery in support of their infantry but it required a serious supply chain for the huge shells. The AEF had a large field railway service. Photo courtesy MD Wright

The Army had learned to use trench railways to bring ammunition into the field. Military shells were now enormous but the guns never went short. Finally the French and British had learned the lessons that Prosper Péchot had tried to teach. (See previous blogs)

A battered French bogie wagon (Pechot system) with water tanker beyond.Wagons such as these ensured that humans and guns were kept fed. Photo MD Wright

Those contesting St Quentin, inch by painful inch, might have been interested in what was happening at German HQ.

On September 28^th, after they heard the plans for a Bulgarian armistice, Ludendorf and Hindenburg agreed that a general armistice should be sought. They did not approach the Kaiser until the next day. Wilhelm II did as he was told – as he had done for quite a while. He is supposed to have made this comment about his relationship with the two Marshals. ‘From time to time I hear this and that has been done, according to the wishes of those gentlemen’

A disappointing peace was now inevitable. Neither the Marshals nor the Kaiser liked the German Reichstag (Parliament), so their priority was not to stop the bloodshed. They started manoeuvres to ensure that Parliament and a new administration were blamed. Thus it was not until 4^th October that Prince Max of Baden appealed to President Wilson of the USA for an armistice. Wilson did not reply until 14^th October. He reminded the Central Powers that the USA entered the War for ‘the destruction of every arbitrary power anywhere.’

The High Command started an argument which basically continued until November 1^st. This turned out to be rearranging the proverbial deckchairs on the proverbial sinking ship. Was it necessary for the Kaiser to abdicate and if so, in favour of whom?

The generals argue. Photo from' Illustration' Courtesy MD Wright

In the meantime, the bloodshed continued. Between 8^th and 10^th October, the BAC (British, Australian and Canadian) forces sped 15 kilometres east of St Quentin, as far as the valley of the Oise. There the Germans mounted a stiff defence and held them off until October 26^th.

In the meantime, politics seemed to have stalled. The USA may have kept the other Allies informed, but the Germans were still unwilling to approach the French or British. 

In Germany, word of the parley with President Wilson soon got out.  As Edmund Taylor put it, ‘Wilhelm’s abdication was soon the subject of conversations and arguments everywhere, in government offices, drawing rooms, political meetings and streetcars; everywhere but in the press where every mention of it was censored.’ Clearly, no one told the PBI (poor b***** infantry) who continued to slog it out in eastern France.

On 27^th October, the BCA force were east of the Oise river.

On October 28^th, mutiny started in the German Navy. The Fleet had been ordered into the North Sea. The aim had been to help evacuate German soldiers who risked being stranded on Belgian beaches by the rapid Allied advance. Unfortunately for the High Command, the sailors put an unfavourable interpretation on the orders. Rumours abounded; the fleet stayed in port. An example was made of the ring-leaders but this just turned them into martyrs.

On November 1^st, mutiny was all around the ships. By November 4^th, the Red Flag (Russian!) was flying from most of the warships and thousands of sailors were parading the streets of Kiel singing the Marseillaise (French!)

Kurt Eisner

On land, the BCA were making fast progress. From November 5^th to the day of the Armistice, the average distance covered, per day, was 15 kilometres. The Germans came as close as they ever did to trading territory for lives. They still, however, took the time to destroy communications and material as they retreated.

On November 5^th, President Wilson made it clear that Marshal Foch of France had his full approval to represent the Allies in negotiations with Germany.

On November 7^th, Bavaria declared itself a Republic. Its new President was a journalist called Kurt Eisner; his sympathies were firmly socialist. This was really serious! The aim of this new republic was to be free – free of the Wittelsbach dynasty which had ruled them for 700 years but also free of the rest of Germany. German unity was at stake. This seems to have concentrated minds.

At nine that evening, three German staff cars approached Haudroy in Aisne. There is a monument to the Armistice in nearby La Capelle. Each car prominently displayed a white flag. Talks could begin. Within 24 hours, the German government had sent an Armistice Commission to the Forest of Compiègne to meet Marshal Foch and his delegation.

As imagined by Georges Scott, the moment when German cars approached the French near La Capelle on November 7th. 'Illustration' magazine. Courtesy MD Wright

Between 8^th November, when the Armistice was agreed, and the end of the war on 11^th November, thousands more lives were sacrificed. Soldiers continued to die, homes and communications were blown up, people starved, the Spanish flu rampaged through Europe. The story is depressing.

We should not be too angry, looking for someone to blame for all the suffering. What happened a century ago belongs to the past. We may feel some ignoble satisfaction when we find someone to blame, but it doesn’t do much good. Winston Churchill said the following about another disaster. ‘If we open a quarrel between the past and the present, we have lost the future.’ This sounds very noble and oratorical but the attitude has important practical results.

After World War One, there were lots of recriminations on the Allied side, firstly against Germany and then against our own generals. On the German side, among the military at least, there was a more useful spirit. Mistakes were made, certainly, during the last 100 days of the War.  But von Rundstedt, (1875-1953) then a Staff Officer, remarked that many of the successful campaigns of the Second World War were informed by the failures of the First.

In the period between the Wars, British, Australian and Canadian generals were all blamed for not taking better care of theirsoldiers. As they were left ‘out of the loop’ some of this is unfair. General Monash, commander of Australian troops deserves to have a University named after him.

German Brigadelok of he design used in World War 1, sold at the WW1 and lovingly restored. Photographed at Apedale by MD Wright

As for the portable railways designed by Prosper Péchot, they disappeared back into French Army bases. The German equivalents, the rail, wagons and locomotives, were sold off as War Surplus to the victors.