Having driven the Russians from the war in 1917 and fearing the arrival of thousands of American soldiers in the coming years, Germany had decided to try and force a military conclusion to the war in the spring of 1918.

General Erich Ludendorff – George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress

On 21st March 1918, the German army launched its Spring Offensives with the original aim of splitting the British and French armies apart and then seeing how the situation developed from there. However, whilst the German army was able to force the two allied armies back, the commanding officer General Erich Ludendorff became distracted by temporary gains and the possibility of capturing Paris.

As a result he redirected his attacks and allowed the allies to regroup and his own momentum to be lost. What had begun as a dramatic and devastating series of offensives in March became a panicked retreat in July when the German army realised it was at risk of being surrounded.

With the German army no longer able to maintain their assault, the allies took the chance to launch counter-attacks.

The Black Day

Throughout their Spring Offensives the Germans had aimed to capture the strategically significant city of Amiens. Their failure had allowed the allies to make use of the railway junctions in the area to resupply their own armies. At the beginning of August the allies would make this advantage count.

Following the final German offensive in July and their subsequent retreat, the allied Supreme Commander Ferdinand Foch devised an allied attack on enemy positions.

On 8 August 1918, a mixture of British, French, Australian, and Canadian forces attacked the Germans near Amiens. The attack was initially led by over 500 tanks from the British armies, and caught the German opposition almost completely by surprise as they attacked through thick fog at 4:20am. To ensure that the Germans could not organise further resistance, the allied armies targeted their enemy’s lines of communication to leave the defenders isolated.

Battle of Amiens. German prisoners arriving at a temporary POW camp near Amiens, 9 August 1918. © IWM (Q 9193)

Within a few hours allied armies had breached German trench lines and begun breaking through to the countryside behind. By the end of the day some allied forces had advanced by over 8 miles and carved a hole 13 miles wide in the German lines. German losses for just the 8th August numbered over 30,000.

By the conclusion of the offensive on 12th August the allies had advanced by over a dozen more miles and Germany had lost over 75,000 men with 50,000 of those being taken prisoner.

General Ludendorff would look back on the 8th August and describe it as ‘the black day of the German army’ not simply because of the losses sustained but because of what the day represented. The use of massed allied tanks, the surprise nature of the attack, the distance they had covered, the collapse of German moral and the high numbers of their soldiers surrendering or being captured all indicated one undeniable fact; Germany was now decisively losing the war.

The Hindenburg Line

German soldiers had begun 1918 within the formidable defenses of the Hindenburg Line, named after General Ludendorff’s commanding officer; Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg. The series of fortifications had been constructed at the end of 1916 and the beginning of 1917. Following their heavy losses at the Battles of Verdun and the Somme, the German army had withdrawn to these new positions in order to solidify their hold on the French territory they had already gained.

Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, 1914

Having abandoned these defenses to go on the attack in March the German army that returned to them in August was but a shadow of its former self.

With the Germans forced back into their original defensive positions, the allies began a series of attacks around the Hindenburg Line with a view to capturing or breaching the last serious fortifications on the Western Front. If they were successful the ground behind these fortifications would lie open to them; the remainder of occupied France and Belgium could be liberated and there would even be a route open into Germany itself.

Allied operations against the Hindenburg Line began with a joint American and French attack near the River Meuse and the Argonne Forest on 26th September. Though the Franco-American forces would eventually force German soldiers from the forest, the attack would be hampered by the difficult terrain and the tactics of the American armies who had not yet adapted to the warfare in Europe.

Meanwhile, on 29th September the British army using, Australian and American forces under their command, had reach the strongest fortifications of the Hindenburg Line and launched their attack through a tunnel near Bellicourt and at the final remaining bridge of the St Quentin Canal at Riqueval.

As American soldiers stormed the tunnel at Bellicourt, Captain A. H. Carlton of the North Staffordshire Regiment reached the top of the Riqueval Bridge where he, and a small contingent of his men, discovered a small German detachment priming the bridge to be destroyed. If the Germans could successful detonate their explosives and destroy the bridge the allied offensive would be temporarily checked. Both groups of men stared at each other for a moment, before charging.

When the smoke cleared the German soldiers were gone and the bridge was captured.

By 5th October the allies had opened a gap through the defenses of the Hindenburg Line across a 15 mile front.

On the 8th October, at the Second Battle of Cambrai, the British army decisively broke through the Hindenburg Line and effectively destroyed the last serious German defenses remaining on the Western Front.

The end

Following the successful attack on the Hindenburg Line on 29th September 1918, General Ludendorff and his senior Field Marshal von Hindenburg informed the German Kaiser that the war had been lost and an immediate peace must be sought.

Kaiser Wilhelm in exile, 1933

The newly chosen German Chancellor Prince Maximilian of Bader attempted to open negotiations with the American President Woodrow Wilson, only to be informed that America would only enter negotiations with a democratic Germany. If the Kaiser would not step down there would be no peace. As details of the planned terms of surrender began to filter through to the German military Ludendorff changed his mind and claimed that peace on these terms was unacceptable and that the war must continue.

In response Prince Maximilian told the Kaiser that he would resign if Ludendorff was not dismissed. General von Hindenburg himself was viewed as too important a military figurehead to remove from power. Ludendorff offered his resignation as did Hindenburg. The Kaiser berated Ludendorff in front of the rest of the German command and then accepted his resignation and refused  Hindenburg’s.

Ludendorff’s replacement, General Groener immediately informed the Kaiser that if a peace could not be quickly secured he could not guarantee the future existence of the German army should allied attacks continue.

Facing imminent revolutions on the home front and an unmitigated military collapse at the front lines, the Germans began peace negotiations with the allies and, within days, the Kaiser himself had abdicated and fled to the Netherlands. These negotiations would bring the fighting to an end.

The armistice terms came into effect at 11am on 11th November 1918. They did not signal the complete end of the fighting, however. Word had not reached all the forces arrayed around the Western Front and some men continued to die up to and beyond the 11am deadline. 10,944 men became casualties on the war’s final day; 2,738 of them were fatalities in a war that had already been decided.

Armistice Day in London, 1918© IWM (Q 47852)

It had taken four years and three months, some 1,568 days, and cost 41 million casualties; 18 million of them were dead.

But it was now over. However, whilst the fighting on the Western Front had ceased, conflicts emerging out of the First World War in Germany, Russia, the middle-east and across the world would continue for years in some cases. Decades in others.

As the dust settled, Britain, France, America, and their allies would begin the plans for peace talks with Germany in Paris the following year. The agreement they drew up, the Treaty of Versailles remains one of the most controversial and misunderstood documents in modern history.

The ‘guilt clause’ of the Treaty that specified that Germany, and Germany alone, bore responsibility for the conflict has often been viewed as a key factor in the build up to the Second World War. German anger at shouldering all of the culpability alongside enforced financial reparations was seen as a crushing dual burden that lay the foundations for the rise of fascism and the Nazi Party.

However, the Treaty itself was never fully accepted by all of the allied combatants. America would not ratify it and eventually made their own peace terms with the new Weimar Republic. France had wanted a far more punitive treaty to discourage future German aggression, whilst the British had hoped to rebuild Germany as a future trading partner. In the end not only did the Treaty disappoint all involved, many of its clauses and aspects were never fully enforced.

As the inter-war years proceeded the previously victorious allies would drift apart through angry recriminations over the failure to secure a Treaty which fulfilled their desires.

Through a mixture of financial crises following the Great Depression, rising fascism in Europe, and a constructed notion in Germany that their army had not been defeated in battle but rather had been betrayed by politicians and ethnic and religious minorities on the home front, resentment bubbled.

Twenty years after the conclusion of the First World War, Europe would go to war again.

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By the end of 1917 the situation on both Western and Eastern Fronts of the First World War had changed dramatically. Repeated revolutions in Russia had overthrown the Tsar and set in motion the creation of the Soviet Union. In a bid to shore up power, Vladimir Lenin was prepared to sign a peace treaty with Germany and end the conflict on the Eastern Front.

General Erich Ludendorff – George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress

The battles of Verdun and the Somme in 1916 had gravely weakened the armies of Britain, France, and Germany in the west. Britain would attempt to force Germany back again in 1917 during the Third Battle of Ypres. In an attempt to starve Britain into submission in 1917, Germany had once again launched a campaign of unrestricted U-Boat Warfare breaking their 1916 ‘Sussex Pledge‘. Germany knew that such a course of action may provoke the President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, who had only recently won re-election.

To prevent American interference in the conflict, Germany hatched a plot which would see them offer military support to Mexico for an invasion of America if the United States declared war on Germany. However, the leaking of this secret plan through the infamous Zimmerman Telegram infuriated the Americans and led them to declare war regardless.

Germany now faced a strategic and mathematical conundrum. They knew that with Russia on the verge of quitting the conflict, they could relocate men from the Eastern Front to face Britain and France and have a numerical advantage. However, with American soldiers beginning to arrive in 1917, this advantage would not last for long. Though the German army was tired, there was a chance that one final successful attack could bring the war to an end.

Operation Michael

The German general Erich Ludendorff considered several plans for the opening of their Spring Offensive and eventually settled on an attack near the town of St Quentin. Whilst the geography of this area, being near the old Somme battlefield of 1916, was not conducive to a full-scale assault it did provide a notable benefit. This was the area where the British and French armies met on the Western Front. If the Germans could drive them apart they could isolate the British in particular and potentially open a corridor through to the open countryside beyond the trenches. Their heaviest blow would be aimed towards the British.

British forces defending on 26 March during Operation Michael – © IWM (Q 8628)

With the location selected, the Germans gathered their forces on the Western Front where they soon outnumbered the joint British-French armies by 191 division to 178. During the day on 20 March 1918, reports began to be received by British forces that German artillery was now in position to open fire.

A heavy fog had settled in the area and visibility fell to mere yards. At 4:40am on 21 March, the German artillery began to fire as Operation Michael began. It was one of the largest artillery bombardments in history and over 3 million shells were fired in just five hours. The town of Flesquieres was smothered in Mustard Gas and German artillery pounded British trenches and destroyed communications with areas behind the lines.

Five hours later German infantry advanced. The fog was so thick the British could not see them coming and, in some parts of the line, the artillery bombardment had been so ferocious that some British soldiers had been rendered virtually catatonic and were unable to function let alone defend their trenches.

With the front line being pierced in multiple places, some British soldiers reported threatening taunts being shouted through the fog by German soldiers who were surrounding them. In fear they turned and ran. The German army advanced throughout the day and continued to push as the British continued to retreat.

In Paris recriminations began between the different countries. The French blamed the British for retreating. The British blamed the French for a lack of support. Both blamed the Americans for not arriving in greater numbers. With huge German railway guns now able to fire at Paris, the French government began to discuss the possible need to evacuate the capital.

To stem the German attacks, the allies would need to agree a drastic solution.

Supreme Allied Command

Marshal Ferdinand Foch

Since the outbreak of war the British and French armies had been largely independent on the Western Front. Whilst they would coordinate with each other, and with the war being in France the French were nominally the senior partner, they could not issue orders to each other and retained their own commands.

However, the disaster unfolding on the Western Front forced the allies into finally appointing a single commander for all their forces. The man chosen was General Ferdinand Foch. Foch had commanded the French forces on the Somme in 1916 and played an important role in military plans between Britain and France before the outbreak of war.

With a single man now in command of the British, French, and American armies on the Western Front the allies could begin to come to grips with the German attacks.

Operation Michael came to an end on the 5th April. The Germans had made significant territorial gains but had found advancing over the ruins of the Somme battlefield difficult. More dramatically, whilst they had inflicted severe casualties on the British and French in the area, arriving Americans could eventually replace those losses. The thousands of German soldiers who had died could not be replaced.

Ludendorff launched another offensive near Lys in an attempt to capture nearby British railway routes that led to the channel ports. Again the Germans were able to force the allies back from the town of Armentieres and capturing the Messines Ridge.

However, like previously the Germans were still sustaining high casualties. More than this though, Ludendorff had shown a tendency to be distracted from his original objectives by the changing tactical situation. He would weaken his drive towards his main targets in an attempt to exploit new situations. When his attacks then lost momentum, the Germans had not made significant enough gains.

The Germans had hoped to capture the strategical important city of Amiens but the French in particular had held out in the area and blunted the German attacks.

As Ludendorff began to introduce new offensives, the initial impetus of the attacks was being lost. This presented a Foch with a real chance.

Turning the Tide

Heavy artillery shell bursting on the slopes of Mont Kokerelle, 31 May 1918 – © IWM (Q 58386)

German forces had managed to push slowly but surely to within 90km of Paris but their manpower strength was beginning to ebb away. Rather than break through the allied lines, the Germans had created several notable ‘salients‘ or bulges in the line. Whilst allowing the Germans to move forward these salients were also vulnerable as they could be surrounded on three sides.

Ludendorff launched a penultimate attack near the River Matz to try and force a way through but the allies, who by now had strengthened their defenses and after the shock of 21 March were able to hold them at bay.

A final attack was then attempted by the Germans on 15 July near Champagne but failed to break the allied lines. Rather than let the Germans consolidate their positions this time though, Foch ordered an immediate allied counter attack on 18 July.

The German army had been exhausted by their efforts so far and were stunned by the sudden French attack which threatened to collapse the salient and trap thousands of German soldiers. Fearing a disaster Ludendorff ordered the immediate evacuation of the battlefront.

As the Germans withdrew the allies began to chase them.

French troops in the ruins of Clermont-en-Argonne, 20 June 1918 – © IWM (Q 78194)

Despite coming so close to breaking the British and French armies apart in March, Ludendorff had achieved nothing more than exhausting his own army and losing thousands of his best soldiers.

The allies had weathered the worst that the Germans had been able to offer and were emerging stronger than they had been before. With Foch in complete control of allied strategy, the British, French, and American armies could now act with unified purpose.

Furthermore the flood of American soldiers that the Germans had feared was now arriving. On 30 March there had been only 284,000 American soldiers in France. By 20 July there were over a million. At times 10,000 Americans were arriving in France on a single day. The allies were able to replace their losses. The Germans were not.

As the German army began to fall back their morale began to collapse.

The end of the war was suddenly in sight.

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1917 was a trying year for the Entente Allies. Following on from the battles and huge casualties sustained at the Somme and Verdun in 1916, Britain, France, Italy, and Russia continued searching for ways to break the German army and bring the war to a conclusion as it entered yet another year.

However, revolutions in Russia brought that nation to its knees and would eventually see them quit the conflict all together. A failed French attack at the Chemin des Dames during April and May, caused an outbreak of mutiny within their army and left the French unable to carry out any attacks for the rest of the year. Whilst the Italians had forced the Austrian-Hungarian armies back on their own front, German forces soon arrived to assist their beleaguered allies and quickly prevented any further advances.

Whilst the United States of America had recently joined the war, their first contingent of soldiers only began to arrive at the end of June 1917, and their army would not be ready for combat operations until the following year.

For the second half of 1917, Britain was the only allied power able to launch attacks against Germany. Given a free hand to pick his target, Field Marshal Haig once again turned his attention to the area around Flanders in Belgium, where a successful assault could capture German U-Boat pens and potentially turn the flank of the enemy army.

Battles of Ypres

Aerial oblique view of Ypres showing the ruins of the city. – Image Courtesy of the Imperial War Museum (IWM Q 29795)

Fighting had first begun around Ypres towards the end of 1914. Following the ‘Race to the Sea’ and creation of trenches along the Western Front, the ancient walled city of Ypres took up a crucial position in the front lines. Whilst the city was on the allied side its defenses caused a bulge in the front line which jutted out into German held territory.

This salient meant that British and French forces could attack out of Ypres and, if they could break through the German lines, would be able to move into the open countryside behind the German defenses and potentially surround the German army. However, this same situation allowed the Germans to bombard the city from three sides in an attempt to destroy the defending forces.

The First Battle of Ypres in October and November 1914, saw British, French, and Belgian armies fight against the Germans in order to keep control of the city. Whilst neither side was able to force the other from their positions, the allies continued to hold the city and keep their front line positions a safer distance in front of the city itself.

On 22nd April 1915, the German army used poison gas for the first time near Ypres in a new attempt to drive the defenders from the area and seize the position. This Second Battle of Ypres lasted for a month and the German army was able to push the front lines back towards the city but were unable to capture it.

Whilst other battles in 1916, such as the Somme, moved the focus of attention away from the Ypres area, Douglas Haig remained keen on a breakthrough in the area. Success along the Belgian coast would help protect Britain from the threat of German U-Boats and would provide a recognisable moment of victory for those back home. Perhaps just as importantly, however, it would also help guarantee a clear route of escape out of Europe should the war turn badly.

Following the failure of the French offensives in April and May 1917, the difficulties facing Russia and Italy, and the slow movement of the United States, responsibility for offensive operations fell to the British. Haig had the opportunity he desired to force the issue in Flanders. His choice of target was not universally welcomed however. Over the objections of the French army and concerns of the British government, Haig pressed his case and won permission to stage his attack.

Haig’s Plan

Portrait of Field Marshal Haig by Sir William Orpen, May 1917

Whilst the front lines had tightened around Ypres during the battles of 1914 and 1915, the basic situation remained the same. The city continued to be surrounded on three sides by the German army.

The landscape around Ypres greatly benefited the Germans. Hills and ridges to the east allowed the German army to bombard allied positions and observe the movement of the defending forces. Haig intended to force the Germans off some of these hills and secure them for allied operations.

The village of Passchendaele lay on one of these hills slightly to the north east of Ypres. A further 5 miles beyond it lay a key railway hub that the German army was using for resupply.

Haig’s initial aim was to capture the strategic hills and ridges around Ypres and then begin the process of pushing through the German defenses, capturing railway and supply junctions along the way. A further series of assaults, including a planned amphibious attack, along the coast would help to compromise the German line in Belgium.

However, the landscape that made Ypres so important also severely restricted the possibilities for prolonged fighting. The ground in Flanders is composed of a mix of sand, silt, and clay. The area was criss-crossed with drainage ditches and was prone to flooding given the high water table. Many of the ditches which were required to drain water away from the battlefield had already been destroyed by fighting.

Although research suggested that the weather in Ypres had been steadily improving year on year, starting in August 1917, Flanders experienced one of the worst years for rain on record.

Third Battle of Ypres

The initial British objectives were the Gheluvelt Plateau and Pilckem Ridge. If these two positions could be captured early on they would provide a powerful platform for British artillery to then cover the advance.

The British began their attacks on these objectives at 3:50am on 31st July 1917. The time had initially been chosen because it corresponded with dawn, but low-hanging cloud obscured the sun and ensured that the British soldiers advanced in darkness.

The early part of the day saw initial British successes but, as the day wore on the attacks began to stall as German defenders rushed to the area and began to counter-attack against positions the British had only recently captured and had not yet been able to fortify.

The British were able to make some notable gains at Pilckem Ridge but the fighting was harder around Gheluvelt. The situation became tougher still when it began to rain.

The British continued to launch further offensive operations throughout August and began the process of forcing the German army slowly backwards.

To assist in the advance, supporting attacks were made in the surrounding area to draw German soldiers away from the main thrust and also capture other strategically useful positions. One of these attacks saw Canadian forces capture the German position at Hill 70. This position would allow British forces to give further artillery support to their own attacks and, in capturing it, the Canadians sustained around 9,000 casualties but inflicted over 25,000 on the Germans.

Battle of Pilckem Ridge. Stretcher bearers struggle in mud up to their knees to carry a wounded man to safety near Boesinghe, 1 August 1917 – Image Courtesy of the Imperial War Museum (IWM Q 5935)

The deteriorating weather conditions continued to make combat difficult. Over the course of August, 5 inches of rain fell in the area. Artillery bombardments tore up the ground and further destroyed drainage ditches. Attempts to dig new trenches did little more than open a succession of muddy puddles.

Haig had, justifiably, not anticipated the weather being so poor throughout August. However, though the weather continued to worsen, he continued with his plan of attack.

Throughout August and into September, the British army continued to attack German positions and force the line away from Ypres and back towards the village of Passchendaele.

Muddy Advance

With the objective of Passchendaele nominally in sight towards the end of September, Haig maintained the offensive into October.

However, the bad weather which had begun in August had not noticeably lifted in the months that followed. The change from late summer into autumn and, eventually, winter would bring no respite for the soldiers in the area.

Traditional front lines had ceased to exist in some areas. Digging new trenches in water-logged ground was useless. So men tried to construct defenses in shell craters or the remnants of previous fortifications. Whilst the mud made any defenses more sophisticated than this impossible, it also became a real danger to the lives of soldiers.

Looking back after the war, Gunner Jack Dillon described the potential dangers of the terrain:

Now the mud at Passchendaele was very viscous indeed, very tenacious, it stuck to you. The mud there wasn’t liquid, it wasn’t porridge, it was a curious kind of sucking kind of mud. When you got off this track with your load, it ‘drew’ at you, not like quicksand, but a real monster that sucked at you.

Wooden boards had been placed down in many areas, particularly behind the lines, to allow men to walk in safety. However a misstep or the need to dive for cover could quite easily bring a man off the wooden boards and onto the mud. Once caught in it, it was often impossible to get back out again. The mud sealed airtight around boots, legs, and bodies and it could require many men to pull a single soldier back out of the mud.

Those who could not be pulled out often had to be left behind to slowly sink into the mud and drown. A soldier of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment recalled:

A party of men passing up to the front line found a man bogged to above the knees. The united efforts of four of them with rifles under his armpits made not the slightest impression, and to dig, even if shovels had been available, was impossible for there was no foothold. Duty compelled them to move on up to the line, and when two days later they passed down that way the wretched man was still there; but only his head was visible and he was raving mad.

In these conditions hundreds of men were lost into the depths of Flanders. Attempts to move support equipment by trucks or horses proved impossible. Hopes that the deadlock could be broken by using tanks were also short-lived as they too became bogged down in the mud.

Passchendaele

Canadian Machine Gun Company holding defensive positions during the Second Battle of Passchendaele

The British made an attempt to capture ground around Passchendaele itself on 12th October 1917, but by this point the men were exhausted and morale had fallen badly in the poor conditions and gruelling fighting. As a result, the attack was unsuccessful and resulted in 13,000 casualties, nearly 3,000 of which were men from New Zealand.

Haig paused the offensive on the village to allow his men to recover and rest whilst also bringing in significant numbers of Canadian soldiers in preparation for another attack on the village.

Following a supporting attack on 20th October, the British army once again launched itself against Passchendaele, with Canadian forces in the forefront. A significant portion of the battlefield had now become a literal swamp and had to be manouevered around in order for attacking forces to reach German lines.

Following multiple stages of the offensive, Passchendaele itself was finally captured on 6th November, by Canadian soldiers. However, whilst the village was now secure, the actual ridge upon which it rested remained divided between the British and the Germans. Despite a last attempt to force the Germans to abandon the ridge, the offensive eventually came to a halt on 10th November 1917.

Aftermath

Aerial view of Passchendaele village before and after the battle

Haig’s hope that the German lines could be conclusively ruptured around Ypres had proven false. Furthermore, his plans for complementing attacks and an amphibious assault along the Belgian coast had not transpired either.

The front lines had been moved significantly away from Ypres and the British now held several key positions in the region, but no breakthrough had occurred.

Perhaps the most important lasting consequence of the battle was in the casualties it had produced. Accurate casualty information for both sides in the battle remain contested but it is suggested that the British incurred 244,897 casualties (including wounded and dead) for the operation. The German army had received at least 217,194 casualties as well.

These casualties were serious for both sides but potentially more so for the German army. They had been dealt staggering blows at Verdun and the Somme the previous year and could not easily replace the men they were losing. The knowledge that American reinforcements would begin to arrive in Europe at some point meant that the German army would have to prepare for a last ditch assault in the spring of 1918. This German offensive would see much of the British gains around Passchendaele lost.

However, neither side were easily able to shake the experience of fighting at Passchendaele, nor were the men who disappeared into the mud easily forgotten.

Following the war, all the men of Britain and its Commonwealth, except New Zealand, who had died in the battles around Ypres but who had no known grave were commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing at the entrance to Ypres. The New Zealand government decided to commemorate their soldiers with memorials closer to the areas where their men fought and died, though their soldiers are commemorated on a single plaque within the Menin Gate memorial itself.

Just outside Passchendaele is now located the Tyne Cot Cemetery. It is the largest Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery in the world and contains the graves of 11,965 men. 8,369 of these men are unnamed.

The Battle of Passchendaele came to define many of the prominent images that remain of the First World War; the death, the destruction, and the mud.

The bodies of those who fell in the battle continue to be found in the fields of Flanders to this day.

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Although the plot orchestrated earlier in the year by German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmerman to pit Mexico against America had spectacularly failed to keep the United States out of the conflict, America’s declaration of war in April 1917 did not immediately bring the American military into battle.

Initially it was not totally clear if American forces would be deployed overseas. Both Britain and France desired the introduction of additional reinforcements but were also interested in increased supplies from safe American factories.

However, for a burgeoning global power, America’s armed forces were almost non-existent. The most recent military endeavours the country had undertaken had been directed against Mexican bandits led by Pancho Villa, and now were potentially needed to participate in the greatest armed struggle in history.

Before the declaration of war, American generals had already begun work on a planned conscription law in the event of conflict. This new law was shortly enacted and became the Selective Service Act of 1917. It allowed the United States to quickly build an armed force in preparation for deployment abroad. Whilst the army’s tiny pre-war size was solved, it would still need to be prepared for battle.

American soldier undergoes bayonet training (United States Defense Visual Information Center via Wikimedia Commons)

Training the Army

In order to bring the newly expanded American army up to a fighting standard, the British and French dispatched a number of officers to America to provide training.

These British and French officers began instructing the American army in the means and methods of fighting a modern industrial war. However, important national and cultural differences existed between how Britain and France viewed and fought the war. Some of these differences would be transmitted to the American recruits.

They did not yet know it, but the majority of American soldiers would end up using French artillery pieces and a mix of British and, eventually, American made rifles. However, they would be trained to use a mix of weapons that they would never actually encounter.

Additionally, the personal attitudes of the training instructors would also influence the training regime, with more than one British officer informing the Americans that they should never accept the surrender of German soldiers and should summarily execute them instead.

Many American soldiers found the training to be a strange and confusing experience. The warfare they were being trained for did not seem to correspond to their expectations, with too much emphasis being placed on trenches and not enough on open fighting. Additionally the concept of army discipline and learning ‘not to think for yourself’ was at odds with their individualism.

However, their transition from individuals to a fighting collective would help them form a new group identity. With the American Civil War still a relatively recent event, tensions between the men of the north and the south were still present. However, together the American soldiers would come to be known as the ‘Doughboys‘.

As training continued it became apparent that the majority of the American army would not be ready to serve until 1918. However, the first detachments were prepared and sent to Europe during June 1917.

The U.S. Signal Corps, the first 5,000 American soldiers to reach England march across historic Westminster Bridge in London (Associated Press)

Deployment to Europe

The journey from America to Europe was a fraught one. The German U-Boats that had played a part in bringing America into the conflict still patrolled the Atlantic and would be keen to prevent American soldiers ever reaching the continent.

The majority of American soldiers were carried across the ocean by British ships in a convoy system to combat the activities of submarines. Remarkably, despite a few scares, not a single transport carrying American soldiers was lost at sea during the war.

Onboard the British ships, American soldiers had to get used to British food and customs. This was not an easy transition and many American soldiers found themselves thoroughly miserable on the roughly two week journey to Britain.

Most ships arrived in Liverpool, though some went directly to France, and American soldiers began their journey down the length of Britain to ports along the south coast. As the war continued soldiers could end up spending anywhere between a few days and a few weeks in Britain. Lieutenant Edgar Taylor, an American pilot who arrived in Britain in January 1918, spent several weeks living on the Sussex coast and practicing his flying in the area.

On 26th June 1917, the first 14,000 American soldiers began arriving at the port of St Nazaire in France. Their arrival had been kept a secret to further guard against German intervention, but it did not take long for the local French population to begin cheering them through the streets.

These soldiers were not yet destined for the front. The commander of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF), General John Pershing, had already begun the organisation of further training camps for his men in France. Pershing himself had officially arrived in France on 13th June 1917.

General John Joseph Pershing

There had been ongoing debates between Britain, France, and America over how best to utilise these new reinforcements. Both Britain and France wanted American troops to be amalgamated into their armies to replace men lost in battle. Pershing however was adamant that the American army would fight together as a cohesive unit, with a few notable and politically charged exceptions.

Pershing succeeded in his demands, but American soldiers spent a portion of their training time embedded with allied soldiers to learn in trenches. The majority of American soldiers ended up serving alongside French soldiers.

During the early negotiations and discussions between the allied armies, America and France had begun to bond over their shared revolutionary heritage, a state of affairs the British were not keen on.

Welcoming ceremonies were planned in Paris on 4th July 1917, American Independence Day. During one of these ceremonies, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Stanton visited the tomb of the Marquis de La Fayette; a hero of the American War of Independence.

There he gave a speech that was later misattributed to Pershing:

‘America has joined forces with the Allied Powers, and what we have of blood and treasure are yours. Therefore it is that with loving pride we drape the colors in tribute of respect to this citizen of your great republic. And here and now, in the presence of the illustrious dead, we pledge our hearts and our honor in carrying this war to a successful issue. Lafayette, we are here.’

Swelling the ranks

The majority of American soldiers did not begin arriving in France until 1918.

Following the Russian Revolutions and their exit from the conflict, Germany was forced to make use of their temporary numerical superiority in March 1918 by launching their Spring Offensive designed to split the British and French armies apart and win the war before America could deploy overwhelming numbers.

A transatlantic convoy approaching Brest on 1 November 1918.

By the end of March 1918 there were still only 284,000 American soldiers in France. However, the German offensive forced America to begin deploying soldiers quicker than had previously been intended. As the German attack began to bog down and lose its momentum, American reinforcements began to arrive en masse.

By July 1918 the AEF now numbered one million men. By November it had reached 1.8 million. During this period of the war around 10,000 American soldiers were arriving every day.

Faced with a deteriorating situation and becoming more outnumbered by the day, Germany was forced onto the retreat and eventually surrendered.

America finished the war having lost 53,402 men in combat. This was actually less than the 63,114 Americans who died of diseases, primarily the Influenza Pandemic that swept the world.

In real terms the AEF only spent around 200 days in actual combat during the war, but their arrival began the process of securing victory on the Western Front. The first 14,000 men to arrive were the opening trickle of an eventual flood that would threaten to wash away the German resistance in France and Belgium.

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At the outbreak of the First World War, the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary faced off against the Triple Entente Alliance of France, Britain and Russia. The Entente Alliance had been designed to ensure that, should war occur, Germany would be faced with enemies to the east and the west. However, in many ways Russia was the odd one out in an alliance that prided itself on democracy. The Romanov Dynasty had ruled Russia in various forms for nearly 400 years, and at the start of the 20th century, the people were beginning to push back against this rule.

Road to Revolution

Dissent against the Romanov’s rule in Russia had been building for decades before the First World War. Much of the resistance stemmed from poor wages and limited civil rights in Russia, coupled with the slow progress the country was making towards industrialisation which left huge numbers of the population at the mercy of poor harvests, famines, and unemployment.

Emperor Alexander II

In 1881, the then Emperor Alexander II was assassinated in the streets of St Petersburg by members of the revolutionary organisation ‘The People’s Will‘. In 1905, the country entered a period of revolution triggered by the government’s aim to make Russian peasants nominal land-owners who could then be charged additional taxes. The land each peasant was to be awarded was not enough to supply them enough food for their own use and many peasants could not afford to purchase the additional food they required, let alone pay extra taxes on land that they were forbidden from selling. Additionally, industrial labourers in the main cities were still agitating for improved working conditions. Furthermore, the size of the Russian Empire meant that there were a number of competing nationalities within its borders that desired greater recognition by the Russian rulers.

The Revolution of 1905, began when workers at a railway plant in St Petersburg went on strike and would spread to include assorted workers, labourers, and even nearby sailors . The naval mutineers would later be remembered in the famous Sergei Eisenstein film Battleship Potemkin.

The revolution would eventually be crushed following violent governmental reprisals that became known as Bloody Sunday.

However, whilst the Russian Tsar Nicholas II retained the throne, the early seeds of future uprising had been planted.

Russia and the First World War

At the beginning of the 20th century, Russia maintained an active interest in guaranteeing the safety of the Slavic nations on their borders, such as Serbia. When the Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo by a Serb nationalist, Austria-Hungary, with German backing, used the attack as a pretext to levy a series of strident demands on Serbia and, eventually to declare war.

Russian prisoners following the disastrous defeat at Tannenberg

The system of alliances that crisscrossed Europe in 1914 meant that Russia would inevitably enter the war opposed to German and Austro-Hungarian actions in the Balkans, and alongside their allies Britain and France to the west.

The nations of Europe had long feared that one day Russia would be able to harness its tremendous manpower advantage and sweep west overwhelming all resistance. At the first outbreak of war, Germany remained concerned that they would be unable to deal with the Russian juggernaut. However, it rapidly became clear that Russia was in no way equipped or prepared for such a modern war.

After war was declared, Russia quickly staged an invasion of East Prussia where they experienced a devastating defeat at the Battle of Tannenberg. Whilst Russia would stage other offensives during the war, including having a measure of success during the Brusilov Offensive of 1916, they were never able to break the German lines.

The longer the war dragged on with little hope of victory, the worse conditions both in the army and on the Russian home front became. With morale plummeting, the desire for revolution came to the boil.

The February Revolution

On the 3rd March 1917 (18th February in the old Russian calendar), protesters took to the streets of Petrograd to demonstrate against the government. On the 8th March, the numbers were swelled by those marking International Women’s Day and protesting against imminent food rationing laws. Over the following days, the demonstrations evolved into demands for the abdication of the Tsar, the creation of a new more progressive government, and the end of the war.

Russian Protestors at the outbreak of the Februrary Revolution

In response, the Tsar, currently away ostensibly commanding his army, issued orders for the protests to be broken up. However, the protestors had soon seized large areas of the Russian capital, and a desperate message was sent to the Tsar:

The situation is serious. The capital is in a state of anarchy. The Government is paralysed. Transport service and the supply of food and fuel have become completely disrupted. General discontent is growing … There must be no delay. Any procrastination is tantamount to death.

With the protests spreading and previously loyal soldiers from the army joining the rebellion, Tsar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate in an attempt to appease the revolutionaries. However, to also help ensure the lineage of the Romanov dynasty he also nominated his brother to succeed him, an honour his brother turned down upon realising he would have no popular support.

A new Provisional Government took power and the Tsar and his family were placed in protective custody. The Provisional Government was not uniformly supported by the revolutionaries however, and socialist groups within the protesters had formed into Soviets in an attempt to take power for the people.

Seeing their enemy as vulnerable for defeat, the German Army secretly arranged for Vladimir Lenin to be smuggled into Russia to help drive the revolution. Lenin was a noted Bolshevik and Marxist revolutionary who had been previously exiled from Russia because of his activities. The return of Lenin to Russia would prove disastrous to the Provisional Government.

October Revolution

Vladimir Lenin

Following the February Revolution, power had effectively been split between the Provisional Government and the assorted Soviets and Bolshevik splinter groups.

As the year continued, Lenin was able to build enough support within these separate factions to stage the overthrowing of the Provisional Government. On the 7th November 1917 (25th October in the old style) an armed insurrection began in Petrograd against the Provisional Government.

However, whilst armed, most of the uprising was carried out peacefully. The culmination saw the Winter Palace, once home to the Tsar and now to the Provisional Government, being stormed by Bolshevik revolutionaries.

The revolutionaries had seized power in the capital and declared themselves to be the new rulers of Russia. This rule was contested however, by cities and soldiers still loyal to either the Provisional Government or the Tsar. As a result, Russia descended into Civil War between the ‘Red’ Bolshevik forces and the ‘White’ Loyalists.

Aftermath

With the civil war still ongoing, the new leaders of Russia signed the Brest-Litovsk treaty ending their participation in the First World War. The treaty, written by the Germans, was heavily punitive and stripped Russia of large swathes of territory.

Tsar Nicholas II and the Imperial family

The Tsar and his family had previously hoped to be permitted to enter exile in Britain or France but neither of these two former allies were willing to accept the family for fear of stoking revolution at home. Following the October Revolution, the Imperial family were effectively held as hostages by Red forces and kept far from power. However, fearing that loyalist forces may attempt a rescue of the family and to reinstall them into power, plans were made for their elimination.

In the early hours of 17th July 1918, the family were moved to the basement of a house they were staying in and summarily executed by their captors.

The Russian Civil War would continue until 1922, years after the conclusion of the First World War. At various points British, French, and American forces attempted to assist the White forces but it became clear that the war could not be won.

With the final defeat and elimination of the loyalists, Russia ceased to exist as a country and was replaced by the newly declared Soviet Union.

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1916 had been another difficult year for Britain during the First World War. Herbert Henry Asquith had been Prime Minister of the country since 1908 and had held power throughout the conflict so far.

David Lloyd George

However, the early years of the war had brought many problems for Britain. There had been failed attempts to open a second front at Gallipoli, and scandals over the armament production efforts at home. This latter issue had helped elevate the influential politician David Lloyd George to the position of Minister for Munitions.

In 1916, the Entente Allies launched joint offensives against Germany and Austro-Hungary throughout the year. The aim was to bring the war to a close that year. Their failure to do so would have repercussions for both generals and politicians.

War on all fronts

The aim of the Entente Allies in 1916 was to bring the Central Powers to their knees with repeated and coordinated attacks in France, Italy, and Russia. However, the German’s ability to resist these offensives ensured that the war dragged on.

Herbert Henry Asquith

The German attack at Verdun in February in 1916 meant that France would no longer be able to dedicate itself fully to the forthcoming Franco-British offensive on the Western Front and Britain’s difficulties deepened as the summer arrived. The Battle of Jutland at the end of May had presented the vaunted British Grand Fleet with the much anticipated opportunity to defeat their German opponents in battle. Their inability to do so and the seemingly inconclusive nature of the battle was a blow to national morale.

Within weeks the country would be rocked again with the news that following the sinking of his ship whilst en route to Russia, Lord Kitchener had drowned. Whilst Kitchener had been a hugely influential and popular figure in the earliest days of the war, being responsible for the huge recruitment drives in 1914, he had been marginalised in the years that followed after his perceived mishandling of shell production.

When the British and French then participated in their joint attack on the Somme in July 1916, the huge losses incurred, particularly on the first day, and the perceived lack of success despite early optimism, solidified fears that the war may continue beyond the current year. The lack of decisive success for either Italy or Russia in their attacks in 1916 confirmed these worries.

Beyond these issues, the Irish Easter Rising and the implementation of conscription, a topic that always proved heavily controversial, further weakened Britain and belief in the Government to wage the war successfully.

A year that had promised much had seemingly delivered little.

David Lloyd George

David Lloyd George was already an influential and popular politician before the First World War. A proud Welshman, he had opposed the Second Boer War partially because of the appearance of the British Empire inflicting defeat on a smaller country.

Three 8 inch howitzers of 39th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA), firing from the Fricourt-Mametz Valley during the Battle of the Somme, August 1916. – Image Courtesy of Imperial War Museum: Q 5818

At the outbreak of the First World War he held the position of Chancellor of the Exchequer. There was some debate in the weeks leading to war over whether Lloyd George would support military intervention or not. His eventual decision to back the declaration of war on Germany was motivated by his belief in the need to defend Belgium, a fellow small country like Wales.

He continued in his position as Chancellor until 1915 and the Shell Crisis in Britain. The British Expeditionary Force in France had failed in their recent Battle of Aubers Ridge and its commander General Sir John French let it be known that he blamed faulty artillery shells and the inability of factories back in Britain to keep the army supplied.

The resulting scandal brought about the collapse of the Liberal government, at the time lead by Herbert Asquith, and cost Lord Kitchener much of his power and prestige. It would also eventually cost General Sir John French his job. Asquith maintained control as Prime Minister but only within a coalition government that now included Lloyd George as the Minister for Munitions, charged with bringing armament production to acceptable levels.

Following the death of Lord Kitchener, Lloyd George expanded his own power base by rising to take the position of Secretary of State for War in June 1916.

As the military operations of 1916 played out to their conclusions in November and December of that year, faith in Asquith and his government to lead the country and win the war plummeted.

By December of 1916, fighting within the coalition government signalled the end for Asquith.

Lloyd George, the Conservative politician Andrew Bonar Law, and Sir Edward Carson initially planned to create a small and exclusive ‘War Council’ which would be chaired by Lloyd George and have executive control over the running of the war. With this in place they would leave Asquith as a figurehead but with little actual power.

However, Asquith himself rejected this proposal.

Instead, with the support of Lord Northcliffe who owned both The Times and The Daily Mail newspapers, Lloyd George constructed a new coalition government with himself as Prime Minister.

Lloyd George’s Ministry

Lloyd George would continue to hold power for the remainder of the war. However, at times he found it no easier to bring about victory than Asquith had.

Soldiers of an Australian 4th Division field artillery brigade on a duckboard track passing through Chateau Wood, near Hooge in the Ypres salient, 29 October 1917

1917, in particular, was a terrible year for the allies. Whilst America was finally convinced to enter the conflict, the revolution in Russia to the East which would see them drop out of the war, the failure, heavy losses, and terrible conditions of the Passchendaele offensive, and the French mutinies once again ensured that another year had been spent at war without victory.

Lloyd George would often come into conflict with Field Marshal Douglas Haig and his running of the army during these years and attempted several times to have him either replaced or placed under control of French military officers, to little effect.

Lloyd George would, however, continue the process he had begun as Minister for Munitions, in ensuring that all of Britain’s industrial power was dedicated to winning the war.

As the German war effort began to falter in 1918, Britain’s industrial output would come to be crucial in achieving victory by the year’s end.

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In the opening weeks of the First World War, as Germany invaded France and Belgium and began to advance on Paris it did not appear as though they could easily be stopped. By the end of August, the French army had lost over 75,000 men during the Battle of the Frontiers, with 27,000 of them dying on 22 August 1914 alone.

The British Expeditionary Force had been forced back by the German army at Mons, and soon both the British and French began a period of retreat in the face of the invading enemy. Their stand at the Battle of the Marne managed to check the German momentum and push them back over ground they had just taken.

With the possibility of a quick  victory decreasing for both sides, a change in tactics was required.

Race to the Sea

With the route to Paris now blocked and the German army in possession of a significant portion of north-eastern France and much of Belgium, it was clear that frontal assaults from either combatant would not bring about an immediate victory.

Captain Willoughby Clive Garsia, Hampshire Regiment in a trench near Ypres,  using a periscope to carry out reconnaissance for an attack. – Image Courtesy of the Imperial War Museum (IWM Q 56706)

However, the distribution of forces meant that if either side could make use of the empty space to the north, they would be able to envelope the flank of the enemy and cut them off. What followed was a month long ‘race to the sea‘ as both the German and Franco-British armies attempted to outflank each other by heading towards the Channel as quickly as possible. What resulted was a series of attempted ‘leapfrog’ manoeuvres up through northern France and into Belgium.

As both sides began to close with the channel, available space to try and break through became limited. In response, the Germans launched an attack against the Belgian town of Ypres. Jointly held by British, French, and Belgian forces, the defensive positions at Ypres formed a small salient protruding into the German line.

If the German army was to break through the allied flank, then Ypres would have to be taken.

The First Battle of Ypres attack began on 19 October 1914 and lasted until 22 November.

The German army made repeated attempts to break through the defenses and the town was shelled by artillery for the duration of the assault. Though the Germans did make breaches in the defensive lines, they were slow to exploit them and the allied defenders were able to force them back.

By the close of the battle in November, thousands of men on both sides had lost their lives and the race to the sea was over.

Ypres would continue to be the scene of fierce fighting throughout the war and the town was effectively destroyed in the conflict.

Trenches

The uses of trenches in warfare pre-dated the First World War. Building defensive positions out of ‘field works’ was a tactic regularly used by armies since the Roman Empire and was of particular use during the Napoleonic Wars and other conflicts during the 19th century when armies needed to reinforce a defensive line against an advancing enemy.

The early trenches of the First World War were seen as being temporary arrangements that provided both limited protection against enemy fire and also a useful position from which to launch attacks. Whilst the war was mobile in its earliest months, the movement of forces would often leave trenches behind.

Ruins of the Cloth Hall (Lakenhalle) and St Martin’s Cathedral in Ypres, 23 January 1916. – Image Courtesy of the Imperial War Museum (IWM Q 29055)

Once the defensive lines on both sides solidified, trenches began to offer a variety of benefits. Much of the fighting was taking place in open ground with little available cover. In the absence of alternative options, digging downwards into the ground and then below the surface allowed the competing armies a degree of safety.

This was particularly important, as defensive weapons were proving to be far more useful than offensives ones at this period in the war.

Furthermore, trenches were easier to defend than fortifications built upwards as they presented much less of a target for attacking artillery guns.

Following the First Battle of Ypres, both sides began constructing increasingly intricate trench positions. The Germans in many cases had the benefit of high ground for their positions as well as the added psychological boost of now holding land they wanted to defend, rather than the French who had to try and force them out.

Rather than a single line of trenches, defenses on the Western Front often incorporated multiple parallel lines of trenches, made up of the front line, support lines, and reserve lines. All of these were connected by communication trenches. These trenches were rarely straight lines, and had regular right angles built into them to obscure line of sight and make them more defensible if enemy soldiers were to take a portion of the line.

Battle of St. Quentin Canal. Men of the 137th Brigade (46th Division) on the slope of the St. Quentin Canal, near Bellenglise, which they crossed on 29 September. Photograph taken on 2 October 1918. – Image Courtesy of the Imperial War Museum (IWM Q 9538)

Sandbags and barbed wire were used to protect the trenches facing no man’s land, and the Germans in particular often built fortified concrete bunkers into their trenches to protect the men.

Soldiers rarely spent more than three or four days in front line trenches in any one period and they would then work their way back through reserve trenches and then behind the line.

The desire to try and break the stalemate of trench warfare saw the development of many new weapons such as poisonous gas and the tank.

However, the trenches continued to hold on the Western Front until the German Spring Offensive in 1918 and the subsequent allied counter-attacks.

By the closing months of the war, the conflict had once again become mobile and the breaching of the infamous ‘Hindenberg Line‘ by British, American, and French forces in September 1918, particularly during the Battle of St Quentin Canal, marked the end of large scale trench fortifications and, shortly after, the war.

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Following the outbreak of the First World War, the United States of America worked hard to maintain its neutrality. However, the culmination of several events in 1917 brought them into the conflict.

When war engulfed Europe in 1914, both sides looked for possible ways to gain an advantage over their opponents. Many saw the latent power of the United States of America and hoped to bring them into the conflict in support of their aims. If this could not be achieved then the next best possible solution was to ensure that America remained neutral and did not aid the opposition.

Set against these European desires was the ongoing policy of the United States to remain detached from events across the Atlantic Ocean.

Isolationism

Whilst European Powers such as Britain and France had been crucially involved in the birth of the United States during the Wars of Revolution, the country had grown increasingly detached from events in Europe. By the 19th century, America had embraced a policy of isolationism. Most of America’s outwards attention was directed towards the activities of Japan to the west, rather than Europe to the east.

This policy was not without issue. Many of those who had come to live in America had roots back in Europe, particularly in countries such as Britain, Ireland, Germany, Poland, and Italy. Thoughts within these groups regarding interactions with Europe were often split between two positions. There were those who still felt a connection to their country of origin and ancestors, and others who had purposefully left Europe behind to avoid further entanglements with European politics.

Maintaining this isolationism was much easier when there was little happening in Europe that could directly impact the activities and interests of the United States. In the immediate aftermath of the War’s beginning it did not appear likely to interfere with America’s plans.

However, the decision by Germany to take the war into a new direction challenged this belief.

Unrestricted U-Boat Warfare

RMS Lusitania coming into port, possibly in New York, 1907-13

Once war was declared, Britain was placed in a difficult position. They lacked an army that could truly challenge the might of Germany. Recruiting a bigger military force would take time. However, the Royal Navy remained the most powerful force on the seas. With this in mind, the Admiralty deployed their fleets to both secure the British Isles against the threat of invasion and also to blockade Germany and prevent ships loaded with supplies reaching the enemy. With this blockade in place, the British hoped to starve Germany into submission over time.

Whilst the German High Seas Fleet was formidable in its own right, risking it in a single battle against the British was not a gamble the German military was yet willing to take.

Instead, they unleashed their U-Boat submarines with instructions to sink shipping that was destined for Britain and France. By doing so they would impose a blockade of their own with the similar hope of starving the British. Germany also declared that the waters around the British Isles were a war zone and that any vessels entering them risked being sunk. This included ships registered to neutral nations.

On 7 May 1915, a German U-Boat torpedoed the passenger ship RMS Lusitania of the coast of Ireland. The ship sank in little more than 20 minutes with the loss of 1,198 of the 1,959 passengers. Among the dead were 128 Americans.

The incident caused uproar in America, with Britain and France ceasing upon the opportunity to highlight the apparent barbarity of the Germans. Whilst Germany maintained that the vessel had been a legitimate military target and that it had been carrying munitions bound for France, they also realised that they had greatly angered America and risked dragging them into the conflict.

To try and avoid an American entry to the war, the Germans curtailed the activity of their U-Boats in the hopes of placating neutral powers.

However, by 1916 with the end of the war no closer in sight and the Germans battling hard against the French at Verdun, the decision was again made to widen the activities of German U-Boats in the waters around Britain and coastal France.

On 24 March 1916, a German U-Boat fired torpedoes into the cross-channel passenger ferry SS Sussex. Although the ship did not sink and managed to reach port, around 50 passengers were killed and a number of other civilians were wounded, including 2 Americans. Once again the Germans had raised the ire of the United States and, once again, Britain and France tried to use it as an opportunity to bring America into the war.

This time, the Germans made the Sussex Pledge in an attempt to avoid war. This guarantee ensured that passenger ships would not be sunk, merchant ships would not be sunk without confirmation of military cargo, and that attempts would be made to ensure the safety of any crew or passengers from sunken ships. Once again this assuaged the Americans from intervening.

President Woodrow Wilson

To try and force a naval resolution to the war, the German High Seas Fleet engaged the British Grand Fleet in the Battle of Jutland over 31 May to the 1 June 1916. However, this battle proved to be non-decisive and the blockade of Germany continued.

In America, the President throughout the war, Woodrow Wilson was fighting an election in 1916. Whilst the conflict in Europe was becoming an increasingly contentious issue in America, Wilson’s election campaign often painted him as the man who had kept the country out of the war. Wilson’s subsequent victory in this election was seen as an affirmation of his continued policy of non-intervention and neutrality.

The result did little to encourage hopes amongst Britain and France that America might be about to enter the war on their side. In Germany, the heavy losses sustained in the 1916 battles at Verdun and the Somme had impacted the army’s ability to continue fighting. The decision was once again taken to widen the use of U-Boats. However, the Germans were fearful that another incident like the sinking of the Lusitania or torpedoing of the Sussex might be enough to provoke America into war.

With this in mind the German Empire’s Foreign Secretary, Arthur Zimmerman began to formulate a plan for dealing with any American involvement in the war. His plan would become one of the greatest foreign policy disasters of the 20th century.

The Zimmerman Telegram

Arthur Zimmerman, German Foreign Secretary

It was not the army of the United States that Britain and France were keen to harness, but rather the untapped potential of a nation so large in size and with an industrial infrastructure undamaged by the fighting. The American army for most of the war was only around 200,000 men strong and, as a result comparable in size with the British Expeditionary Force in 1914. However, should the mood cease the country, America’s population was such that a much larger force could conceivably be mustered and sent to war.

For much of 1916, a notable portion of the American armed forces had been engaged against incursions from Mexican bandits, particularly those following Pancho Villa. With the Mexican Civil War ongoing, America still held concerns about their southern border.

These concerns were recognised in Germany and seen as an opportunity.

On 11 January 1917, Arthur Zimmerman in his role as Foreign Secretary began the process of sending a secret coded telegram to Heinrich von Eckardt, the German ambassador to Mexico. At the beginning of the war, Germany’s diplomatic cables across the Atlantic had been cut by the British, so Zimmerman’s telegram had to pass through a circuitous route utilising cables in Denmark and Sweden, before using an American cable to cross the Atlantic. The Americans had offered limited use of their diplomatic cables at the start of the war to ensure that communications with Europe and Germany were maintained.

However, for these cables to get across the Atlantic they had to pass through a relay station at Land’s End on the western tip of Britain. Unbeknownst to all parties, including the Americans, all traffic that passed through this relay station was copied and sent to the secretive Room 40 in the Admiralty building in London. Most people had no idea what happened within Room 40 but for those who did, they were aware that it was the very heart of the British cryptanalysis operation. The staff at Room 40 were code breakers.

When the telegram was transmitted through the relay station on 16 January 1917, British intelligence had decoded most of it by the following day. It did not take long for the seriousness of the telegram’s contents to be understood. The British knew that if the Americans were to be shown Zimmerman’s message then public opinion would turn rapidly against Germany and America might push for war. But how could the British provide the Americans with the text without also admitting that they were listening in to all of America’s communications to Europe?

To solve this problem the British held onto the telegram for three weeks whilst they crafted a cover story. They knew that the telegram must have passed through the Mexican telegraph office, so a man identified only as Mr H bribed a member of staff there in order to acquire their copy of the coded message. By itself it was not useful, but the British had also acquired the key for translating this particular code during other battles in the war. They could therefore supply the Americans with both the Mexican copy of the message and the British key for de-coding it, all whilst maintaining their own secret telegram interception system.

Whilst this delay had been ongoing, the Germans had once again declared unrestricted U-Boat warfare in the Atlantic Ocean. This had resulted in America breaking off diplomatic contact. The British sensed that their best opportunity had come.

On 19 February 1917, Edward Bell, the secretary of the American Embassy to Britain, was shown the following translated telegram:

“We intend to begin on the first of February unrestricted submarine warfare. We shall endeavor in spite of this to keep the United States of America neutral. In the event of this not succeeding, we make Mexico a proposal of alliance on the following basis: make war together, make peace together, generous financial support and an understanding on our part that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. The settlement in detail is left to you. You will inform the President of the above most secretly as soon as the outbreak of war with the United States of America is certain and add the suggestion that he should, on his own initiative, invite Japan to immediate adherence and at the same time mediate between Japan and ourselves. Please call the President’s attention to the fact that the ruthless employment of our submarines now offers the prospect of compelling England in a few months to make peace.” Signed, ZIMMERMANN

The Zimmerman Telegram

At first Bell refused to believe the message was real but upon being assured of its legitimacy he flew into a fury. The following day the message was shown to the American ambassador, Walter Hines Page, and then sent on to President Wilson. Wilson subsequently released the text of the message to the American press on 28 February.

At the time, there were still strong anti-Mexican sentiments within America which were further inflamed by the German telegram. The Mexicans quickly disavowed themselves from the German offer, having made their own assessment of the situation and whilst they might have wished to recapture the territories of Texas, New Mexico and, and Arizona which they had lost to America in differing circumstances such as the Mexican-American War and the Mexican Cession they were not blinded to the difficulties in achieving this. Mexico realised that not only was it unlikely that they could reconquer these lost lands, there were no guarantees that the Germans would be able to offer what they promised. There was also little chance that the Mexican government could influence Japan to do anything, let alone engage in war against America. However, whilst President Wilson was convinced as to the message’s veracity, because the newspapers reported the British cover story of the telegram being stolen from a Mexican telegraph office, many people believed it to be a forgery perpetrated by the British to gain American support in the war.

These concerns from the public may yet have stopped American entry into the conflict until Zimmerman once again took centre stage. In a press conference on 3 March 1917, Zimmerman was questioned by an American reporter on the telegram and its contents, only to declare; “I cannot deny it. It is true.” At the end of the month he then gave a speech in the German Reichstag once again admitting the telegrams authenticity and his role in crafting it. He hoped to assuage the Americans with the assurance that the message would only have been enacted if the Americans had declared war. It didn’t work.

With U-Boats once again active in the Atlantic, and two American ships being sunk in February, combined with a German attempt to incite Mexico and Japan to wage war against America, public opinion ferociously turned against Germany. At the same time, France had dispatched Marshal Joseph Joffre, former commander of the French army, to lead a mission designed to boost popular opinion in favour of the Entente Alliance. Joffre emphasised the shared revolutionary and republican heritage between America and France and effectively charmed large numbers within the populace.

On 2 April 1917, President Wilson called a special session of Congress. In his speech he declared that ‘the World must be made safe for peace and democracy‘ and asked that Congress vote to declare war on Germany. On 6 April 1917, Congress voted overwhelmingly to support President Wilson’s request and a state of war was declared between the United States of America and Germany.

All that Zimmerman had hoped to avoid, had come to pass.

Aftermath

‘Uncle Sam Wants You!’ – American Recruitment Poster

Whilst America was now at war it was not ideally suited to it. Building a new army would take time even with British and French assistance.

In Europe, the recent Russian Revolution and subsequent peace treaty between them and Germany had removed the Eastern Front from consideration. Germany was able to refocus all its efforts towards the Western Front and the fight against Britain and France. The Germans knew that whilst it would take the Americans time to build momentum, if the war were not quickly won then doing so would become impossible.

At the end of March 1918, the Germans unleashed their Spring Offensive, beginning with Operation Michael. These attacks were designed to split the British and French armies apart, drive towards Paris and win the war. At the time, the American army in Europe only numbered 284,000 men.

However, the German army was exhausted and despite impressive success in the earliest days and weeks of the offensives they could not claim victory.

Even worse, the Americans were beginning to arrive in increasing numbers. By 30 July 1918, the American army numbered 1 million men. By the start of November it would be 1,872,000. At one point over 10,000 Americans were arriving in Europe every day.

Against such numbers, and faced with a resurgent British and French military whilst their own army was beaten and exhausted, the Germans realised they could not win and began the process of seeking peace.

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At the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, the United States of America maintained a long-standing reluctance to involve itself with the affairs and conflicts of Europe. This isolationism served its function in preventing an early American entry into the conflict but, as the war expanded, made neutrality increasingly difficult.

The American President in 1914 was Woodrow Wilson. A Democratic President, he had won the 1912 election against the incumbent President William Howard Taft, a Republican, and Theodore Roosevelt who had been President until 1909. Wilson took office in 1913. During this Presidential term, Wilson found repeated obstacles arising to America’s attempts to remain isolated from wider international affairs.

Outbreak of War in Europe

President Woodrow Wilson

At the onset of war in Europe in 1914, there was no great clamour for American involvement. However, the make-up of the American population at the time did lead to the possibility of split allegiances. Many Americans could trace their roots back to Europe and with large British, Irish, and German populations within the United States there was no universal backing for any of the combatants. With a lack of appetite for military intervention, President Wilson attempted to maintain America’s standing as a neutral power.

What support there was for involvement in the war was also largely restricted to the eastern states. American civilians who lived further to the west of the country were much more likely to oppose intervention in a war that was so far from home.

Despite this, the German strategy of unrestricted U-Boat warfare against vessels sailing towards Britain and Europe resulted in a number of American ships being sunk, including the passenger liner RMS Lusitania which resulted in the deaths of 128 American citizens. American anger at this event managed to, temporarily, halt the German attacks on neutral shipping.

However, fears that America may be dragged into the conflict heavily impacted the campaigns for the presidency in 1916

1916 Presidential Campaigns

The previous presidential election of 1912 was unusual in American politics in that it was fought between four different candidates and this trend impacted the nomination process for 1916.  Woodrow Wilson, as the President, maintained the Democratic Party’s nomination and the Republicans nominated Charles Evans Hughes, who was at the time a United States Supreme Court Justice.

In 1912, the former President Theodore Roosevelt had failed in his bid to win the nomination of the Republican Party. In response he had formed his own ‘Progressive Party‘ and achieved a nomination for President from them. In 1916 he was once again nominated by the Progressive Party for the Presidency, but he refused their nomination leaving the party he had helped found in disarray and unable to field a candidate. The group was completed by Allan L Benson, a newspaper editor, who stood for the Socialist Party.

The election itself came to be dominated with discussions about potential American involvement in the war. Wilson’s campaign regularly made use of the slogan ‘He Kept Us Out of the War’. Whilst Hughes advocated for wider expansion of the American armed forces in case of war, Wilson’s peace platform was popular. Therefore, Hughes leveled most of his criticism at Wilson for the ongoing American role in the Mexican Civil War. Earlier in the year, Mexican forces led by Pancho Villa had attacked the American town of New Mexico and President Wilson had sent portions of the American Army to end the attacks and bring Villa to justice. Whilst Villa’s forces had left the area by the election, he still had not been captured and America was giving support to several different groups aiming to seize control of Mexico.

More problematic for President Wilson was the ongoing popularity of Theodore ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt. Whilst Roosevelt had left the Republican Party to further his own chances of regaining the presidency, by refusing to stand again for the Progressive Party he was able to assist Hughes’ presidential campaign. Additionally Roosevelt had been a strong advocate of American involvement in the war at its outset and had passionately believed that it was an opportunity to dispense with the perceived split loyalties of citizens who still identified themselves in relation to their European past, particularly those of Irish or German descent. Roosevelt repeatedly labelled the foreign policy of Wilson to have been a failure. These military debates made for a charged election.

The Republican Party that Hughes represented was still the largest in the country at the time and a Democratic President had not won immediate re-election since 1832.

Despite this, and in part because of the failure of Charles Hughes to win the support of the Californian Governor during the election, Wilson was able to secure victory by the slimmest of margins.

President Woodrow Wilson’s Second Inauguration, January 1917

Needing 266 votes from the electoral college Wilson secured 277 to Hughes’ 254. Out of the 48 states (neither Alaska nor Hawaii had yet gained Statehood in America), Wilson won 30 states against Hughes’ 18. Wilson’s votes were tallied at just over 9.1 million with Hughes taking 8.5 million. Despite the narrowness of the electoral college vote, Wilson had managed to increase his number of votes from the people by around 3 million.

Aftermath

With President Wilson’s second term secured, his attempts to keep America out of the war were placed under immediate strain. Military setbacks for Germany at the Somme and Verdun had cost the lives of thousands of their soldiers and so they decided to re-commence unrestricted U-Boat attacks in the Atlantic Ocean. To counter any potential repercussion from the United States, members of the German government began to formulate a plan to divert American attention elsewhere.

The failure of this plan in April 1917, would result in President Woodrow Wilson, the man who had campaigned on the fact he had kept America out of the war, requesting that the United States Congress support a vote in favour of declaring war against Germany and Austro-Hungary.

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The Battle of the Somme marked the beginning of the British and French contribution to what has become known as the Grand Allied Offensive of 1916. However, the path to the Somme was marked by difficult negotiations between the participants and hindered by German attacks in early 1916.

The Chantilly Conference

Allied powers during the First World War

By the end of 1915, both Britain and France had made multiple attempts to breach the German lines only to sustain huge casualties and achieve little notable success. With the clear realisation that the war was now likely to stretch on into 1916, the different nations that comprised the Entente alliance, France, Britain, Italy, Russia, and Serbia, gathered at Chantilly in Paris from 6th-8th December to plan their strategy for the year ahead.

Between these countries it was decided the best path forward was to co-operate in what would come to be known as the Grand Allied Offensive of 1916. In essence, each of the allies would commit to an attack against the forces of Germany and Austria-Hungary during 1916.

These multiple attacks would help wear down the enemy numbers by forcing them to defend on all fronts. By coordinating these attritional attacks the allied forces would soon destroy the combined armies of their enemy without causing irreparable damage to their own. Russia agreed to attack Germany and Austria-Hungary from the east. Serbia agreed to attack from the south-west, with Italy attacking from the South. Britain and France agreed to a joint attack on German lines from the west.

The British-French plan proved to be the most complicated and controversial aspect of these negotiations. Since the beginning of the War the French had borne the bulk of responsibility for fighting on the Western Front. This had resulted in them sustaining heavy casualties throughout 1915, and they were now keen for Britain to begin sharing the burden. The British had, through mass recruitment of willing civilians, managed to raise a substantial new fighting force referred to as Kitchener’s New Army. Lord Kitchener, however, had wanted to save this fighting force until 1917 when it could be fully trained and then play a decisive role in winning the war. As a result, the British were unwilling to commit this new force without the French also sharing the offensive duties. The French weren’t willing to fight any more battles alone and insisted on British participation as well.

Generals Joffre, Haig, and Foch (l-r). Image courtesy of Imperial War Museum: Q 951

These requirements resulted in an agreement to launch the attack around the River Somme. Whilst not strategically important, the location did have the benefit of being the place where the British and French armies met. This meant that both could attack and rely on the other to do the same thing.

No sooner had the rough outline of the assault been agreed between the French General Joseph Joffre and Britain’s General Sir John French on the 8th December, then Sir John French was replaced as the British commander by General Sir Douglas Haig. General Haig had always favoured an attack in Flanders, Belgium in an attempt to capture German U-Boat pens and secure the channel ports.

More negotiations were required but agreement was finally achieved on 14th February 1916, for a planned attack along the Somme in July of the same year.

One week later the preparations for 1916 were dramatically changed.

Verdun and plans for the Somme

On 21st February 1916, the German’s launched an all out attack on the French fortress city of Verdun. The fighting at Verdun would become the longest-running battle of the entire war. By the end of May the French announced that, due to the casualties being sustained at Verdun, they could no longer participate at the Somme in a 50-50 battle with the British. As a result the French involvement in the battle was dramatically scaled down and the British took up a greater section of the front line than had originally been intended.

Map of the Battle of the Somme

Whilst relieving the pressure on Verdun was not one of the original objectives for the planned Somme attack, the General Joffre now made it clear that the British must press ahead with the attack or risk the slow destruction of the French army.

The two British generals in charge of the planning for the Somme were Douglas Haig and Henry Rawlinson, with Haig holding the senior role. Much of the controversy that has followed from the Somme Offensive stems from the seemingly mixed objectives that Haig and Rawlinson claimed for the battle. The original operational objective, aside from to help destroy significant sections of the German Army, was to assist the French Army in crossing the river near Péronne.

However, additional objectives were also considered and rose and fell in favour. Haig began pondering the possibility of actually breaking through the German lines and into the open ground behind. Such a breakthrough would threaten the entire German Army and could dramatically shorten the length of the war. This potential objective did not sit comfortably alongside the fact that both Haig and Rawlinson seemingly had differing concerns over the ability of their new soldiers to carry out anything but the most simple of orders.

Additionally, whilst the British section of the front line had increased, Haig did not scale up his artillery contribution to match it. The British had a significant number of artillery pieces arrayed around the Somme, but they were now being forced to cover a much larger area with fire than had previously been planned.

Three 8 inch howitzers of 39th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA), firing from the Fricourt-Mametz Valley during the Battle of the Somme, August 1916. – Image Courtesy of Imperial War Museum: Q 5818

On the 24th June 1916 the British and French began a preparatory artillery bombardment of German trenches. The aim of this bombardment was to destroy German trenches and barbed wire to such an extent that the attacking infantry would easily be able to capture enemy positions. It was also believed that the bombardment would break German morale and leave the surviving soldiers with little ability to resist the attack. Originally scheduled to last for 5 days, bad weather extended it to a full week. The bombardment was the heaviest in history at that point and could be clearly heard from the south coast of England.

The British also staged diversionary attacks on other parts of the Western Front to try and draw German soldiers away from the Somme.

When the guns stopped on 1st July 1916, British and French soldiers went over the top.

The First Day of the Somme

At 7:20am on 1st July 1916, the British Army detonated stacks of explosions that had been tunnelled beneath German trenches. These explosions were so loud they rattled windows in London. These explosions, timed for 10 minutes before British and French infantry would attack, marked the beginning of what we now consider to be the Battle of the Somme.

At the south end of the front line where the British and French armies met most objectives were easily captured on the first day. The French Army at the Somme was commanded by General Ferdinand Foch, a man who would play a key role in the war ending in 1918. After years of fighting the French Army was highly accomplished and British soldiers benefited from sharing the area with them. More to the point, the French had placed as much artillery as they could spare on their front line and used it to destroy a small area of German defences so that infantry could easily capture enemy positions.

Further to the north, however, things were going badly.

In previous artillery bombardments it had been thought that shrapnel shells were best at cutting barbed wire. It wasn’t until British infantry discovered lines of undisturbed barbed wire when they approached German trenches on the morning of the Somme that this was found not to be true. Additionally, the German troops on the Somme had been living in well-constructed underground bunkers. As a result the majority of German troops were entirely unharmed by the week long artillery bombardment.

Additionally both Haig and Rawlinson had been so unsure as to what the partially trained British Army would be capable of they settled on keeping orders as simple as possible. Infantry were ordered to maintain a slow but steady pace across no man’s land and soldiers were told to keep in line with the men on both sides.

A support company of an assault battalion, of the Tyneside Irish Brigade, going forward shortly after zero hour on 1 July 1916 during the attack on La Boisselle. – Image courtesy of Imperial War Museum: Q 53

The British waited for 10 minutes after the detonation of their underground mines to ensure that there were no secondary explosions. At 7:30am they went over the top all along the line and began crossing towards German trenches. At the same moment German soldiers began to fire down upon the lines of British troops walking slowly uphill towards them.

The British began to take such casualties that their own front line trenches became blocked so subsequent attacks had to go over the top from trenches further away from the German lines. These trenches were still in range of German machine guns and artillery so they too because swiftly blocked.

By the end of the day a disaster had played out across the British lines. Many Pals Battalions had attacked at the north end of the British lines where German resistance had been strongest. The resulting casualties meant that towns lots hundreds of men.

Smaller nations within the British Empire also attacked on the Somme. The tiny dominion of Newfoundland had a population of 240,000 before the outbreak of war. In 1914 they had committed 1000 men to the British army but a number of these had been lost fighting in 1915 and had to be replaced. On 1st July 1916, 22 officers and 758 men of the Newfoundland regiment attacked on the Somme. By the end of the day all of the officers and 658 of the men were casualties. Only 110 men in total survived and only 68 of those were fit enough to attend roll call the following morning. The casualty rate for the Newfoundland regiment on the first day of the Somme was 90%.

By the end of the day 57,470 British soldiers had become casualties and 19,240 of those were dead. It remains the worst day in the history of the British Army.

After the first day.

Mouquet Farm, near Thiepval with trench systems surrounding it, prior to 1 July. – Image courtesy of Imperial War Museum: Q 27637

It became clear that the first day had been a disaster, with very little gained from any of the attacks north of the river. The British and French had to now decide how best to press on with their attack. To the south, where the British and French armies met, heavily defended German positions at Guillemont had slowed their advance. To the north, the German defences at Thiepval Ridge were able to continue firing down on British attacks.

The allies had to continue the attack but began to investigate more inventive ways of doing so.

On 14th July, two weeks after the first day of the Somme, the British staged a surprise night attack at Bazentine Ridge. Just after 3am British soldiers silently crawled from their trenches into no man’s land. Then, at 3:20am, British artillery launched a 5 minute heavy attack. As soon as the guns had stopped, British infantry rose from no man’s land and dashed into German trenches almost unopposed.

The battle itself would continue to run on for months as British, French, and German casualties continued to mount.

The high point for the British came on 27th September when, finally, they captured the German position at Thiepval. The French came to regard this as the moment when the British became capable of operating independently on the Western Front and it also dealt a tremendous blow to German morale.

Various portions of the battle had been filmed by British cameramen and millions of civilians back home visited cinemas to glimpse the action.

New British weapons called ‘tanks’ also made their debut on the Somme battlefields.

Aftermath

When the battle came to a close at the end of November all sides began to take stock of their losses.

The British had sustained 419,654 casualties up to 30th November. The French Army at the Somme had sustained 202,567 casualties by 20th November.

Thiepval Memorial to the Missing.

German casualties are harder to ascertain but from January to October 1916 the German Official History of the war puts their total casualties (including from both the Somme and Verdun offensives) at 1.4 million. 800,000 of these casualties came after July. German casualties around the Somme were probably in the region of 500,000 men.

Whilst the Grand Allied Offensive of 1916 had placed extreme pressure on the combined armies of Germany and Austria-Hungary, the hoped for collapse in these armies had not materialised.

As a result the war would have to continue into 1917 with all sides having been weakened by their exertions.

Many of the bodies of British soldiers who died at the Somme were never recovered. The names of 72,000 men who have no known grave are today commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing.

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