Kaiserschlacht

A series of German attacks along the Western Front during the First World War, beginning on March 21, 1918, known as the German Spring offensive, was also known as the Ludendorff offensive or Kaiserschlacht, which translates to Kaiser’s Battle. When the Americans entered World War I, in April 1917, the Germans knew that their days were numbered. It was decided that there was really only one way to have a chance of defeating the Allies, and that was an attack that would take place before the United States could ship soldiers across the Atlantic and fully deploy its resources. The German Army gained a temporary advantage in numbers as nearly 50 divisions had been freed by the Russian defeat and withdrawal from the war in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

As parts of the German Spring offensive, there were four separate offensives. They were codenamed Michael, Georgette, Gneisenau, and Blücher-Yorck. The main attack was Michael, which was intended to break through the Allied lines, and outflank the British forces. The British forces held the front from the Somme River to the English Channel. The ultimate goal was to defeat the British Army. Once that was achieved, it was hoped that the French would seek armistice terms. The other offensives were secondary to Michael and were designed to divert Allied forces from the main offensive effort on the Somme. The Germans really had no clear objective established before the start of the offensives and once the operations were underway, the targets of the attacks were constantly changed, depending on the tactical situation. It was clearly not well planned.

Nevertheless, the Germans began advancing, and immediately struggled to maintain the momentum, mostly due to logistical issues. The fast-moving stormtrooper units could not carry enough food and ammunition to sustain themselves for long, and the army could not move in supplies and reinforcements fast enough to assist them. It left them wide open to failure. For their part, the Allies concentrated their main forces in the essential areas, such as the approaches to the Channel Ports and the rail junction of Amiens. The areas considered strategically worthless ground, which had been devastated by years of conflict, were left lightly defended. The danger of a German breakthrough passed within a few weeks, although related fighting continued until July.

While largely unsuccessful, the German Army, nevertheless made the deepest advances either side had made on the Western Front since 1914. They re-took much ground that they had lost in 1916–17 and took some ground that they had not yet controlled. I suppose that could have been considered at least a partial success, but despite these apparent successes, the Germans also suffered heavy casualties in return for land that was of little strategic value and hard to defend. In the end, the offensive failed to deliver a blow that could save Germany from defeat, meaning it came at such a significant cost to the Germans that it was basically a defeat. In July 1918, the Allies regained their numerical advantage with the arrival of American troops and by August, they used this and improved tactics to launch a counteroffensive. The ensuing Hundred Days Offensive resulted in the Germans losing all of the ground that they had taken in the Spring Offensive, the collapse of the Hindenburg Line, and the capitulation of Germany that November. They didn’t stand a chance.