• The great war, also the forgotten war or world war1
    many people discuss wether the axis could or could not have won WW2
    But the great war was far closer
    could the centrals have won the great war?
    in 1914, and or in 1916?
    it’s a far harder question ;)


  • Yes they could’ve won the war in 1918 France and Italy were on the brick of collapse all the Austria and Germany had to do is hold on a little longer. The allies would have had to surender. As with the collapse of Italy and France the balkans would soon be finished and America would Lilly pull out for having nothing to gain and wouldn’t want to be on the losing side. Then Britain by her self would likely make peace for fear her people might follow France or Italy’s example.

    In this senario the French empires collapsed the kingdom of Italy’s callapsed the Russian empire has collapsed. The German empires Lilly to have gotten most of there colonies back plus parts of the French colonies Austria would have more or less takin the Balkans and the ottomans would Likely still be alive for another 12 ish years.


  • Also in 1914 if the Germans managed to take Paris the French would have surrendered leaving Germany free to fight in the Balkans and Russia. With France out of the war Britain would have nothing to do but focuse on the ottomans effectively ending them. Finally Italy would have likely have sided with there alliance because at this point there clearly winning.

    In this senario France is out of the war, Italy is In the central powers camp and Russia’s basicly fighting by them selves against Germany. The ottomans Likely would have callapsed faster with the whole of the britsh empire focused in that theater. Italy might have lost most of there colonies.


  • I love the Great War. It’s sad, that this huge event is in the shaddows of WWII.

    The Central Powers could have won. Germany was by far the most impressive country during the War, holding France and England in stalemate, while ripping huge sections of the Czars Army apart, while keeping Austria-Hungry on life support. Romania and Serbia fell to the Central Powers.

    Had the British Blackade not been so strong, the Germans may have won that War.


  • @i:

    Yes they could’ve won the war in 1918 France and Italy were on the brick of collapse all the Austria and Germany had to do is hold on a little longer. The allies would have had to surender. As with the collapse of Italy and France the balkans would soon be finished and America would Lilly pull out for having nothing to gain and wouldn’t want to be on the losing side. Then Britain by her self would likely make peace for fear her people might follow France or Italy’s example.

    In this senario the French empires collapsed the kingdom of Italy’s callapsed the Russian empire has collapsed. The German empires Lilly to have gotten most of there colonies back plus parts of the French colonies Austria would have more or less takin the Balkans and the ottomans would Likely still be alive for another 12 ish years.

    i don’t see germany taking any colonies, neither from british or french.
    in 1918, they tried the ludendorfoffensive. afterwards they were pushed back deep into belgium, with little american aid.
    and americans were arriving, what was the reason they did surrender
    also, there was a large famine in both german and austrian empire at the time (1917-1919)


  • and americans were arriving, what was the reason they did surrender
    also, there was a large famine in both german and austrian empire at the time (1917-1919)

    No sir…not because of the arriving of American. You over estimated the US presence.
    Yes the German people would starve and to avoid the uprising of the population and avoid a revolt, the German government
    has decided to stop the war.


  • @crusaderiv:

    and americans were arriving, what was the reason they did surrender
    also, there was a large famine in both german and austrian empire at the time (1917-1919)

    No sir…not because of the arriving of American. You over estimated the US presence.
    Yes the German people would starve and to avoid the uprising of the population and avoid a revolt, the German government
    has decided to stop the war.

    i know, i know US had almost nothing to do with great war
    but the prospect of a few new million doughboys did help germany sign the treaty, no?


  • but the prospect of a few new million doughboys did help germany sign the treaty, no?
    No, Germans lost the initiative after the battles of summer 1918.
    The bad moral of german population and spanish flu call off the war.


  • As I recall, the first two or three pages of Barbara Tuchman’s book The Zimmermann Telegram give a vivid portrait (well worth reading) of the state in which the European combatants were in early 1917: all of them drained, Germany beginning to starve, revolution stirring in Russia, and so forth.  France and Britain were looking towards the untapped resources of the U.S. and seeing America as the only thing that could change the situation before the European nations had exhausted themselves beyond the point of recovery, and were frustrated by President Wilson’s efforts to negotiate a peace settlement; Germany, on the other hand, was keeping Wilson talking in order to keep him neutral.

  • '10

    After the Revolution in Russia, similar movements and situations were gaining ground both in Germany and in France.  It was believed at the time that the Communist Revolution would spread from Russia to Western Europe if the War continued.

    The German Empire was already on shaky feet politically BEFORE 1914…  the deprivations of the war only added to the Kaisers weakened position.


  • @crusaderiv:

    but the prospect of a few new million doughboys did help germany sign the treaty, no?
    No, Germans lost the initiative after the battles of summer 1918.
    The bad moral of german population and spanish flu call off the war.

    The Ludendorff Offensive was a gamble to win the war before fresh U.S troops arrived in numbers. So the entry of the U.S into the War did have an decisive effect. Same outcome, just a quicker end.


  • The Ludendorff Offensive was a gamble to win the war before fresh U.S troops arrived in numbers. So the entry of the U.S into the War did have an decisive effect. Same outcome, just a quicker end.
    A gamble???, german called over 50 division from the eastern front. The attack was to broke up the allies wall once and for all but they failled because german army supplies were already poor.  If the attack would have succeeded, the allies would have been in trouble.


  • If I’m not mistaken, one of the factors which slowed the momentum of the German offensive was the fact that, as the hungry German troops overran the forward Allied lines and captured their supply dumps, they couldn’t resist the temptation of greater quantities of food than they had seen in a long time.  Instead of just filling their pockets and packs with captured rations and pressing onward, they stopped and feasted.

  • Liaison TripleA '11 '10

    I think the “old men” in Germany, the leadership of the country, thought surrendering was the right thing to do.

    They saw there young, nationalistic men going off to war, getting killed, over a few inches of mud.

    They called it, because they wanted people to LIVE, instead of die for pride.  The German Surrender, was also based on Wilson’s 14 points, all but 1 of which, they never recieved in the treaty of versailles.

    Talk about taking one for the team, that’s what the germans did, for everyone’s benefit, they saw that the war was stupid, and bore a heavy cost.  For this good deed, tey only recieved ridicule from within and without…

    For what it’s worth, they should have just hung on, letting all those people die would have done them better off in the long run, so it would seem?


  • The Ludendorff Offensive was a gamble to win the war before fresh U.S troops arrived in numbers. So the entry of the U.S into the War did have an decisive effect. Same outcome, just a quicker end.
    A gamble?Huh?, german called over 50 division from the eastern front. The attack was to broke up the allies wall once and for all but they failled because german army supplies were already poor.  If the attack would have succeeded, the allies would have been in trouble.

    yes it was a gamble, Germany didn’t have any other reserves so if it lost it could not sustain its current battle-lines. It gambled that these men could take paris before too many Americans proved an impossible wall of force for Germany to deal with. Those east front divisions were just put into a meat grinder sprinkled with a few Stosstrupen units that had specialized trench raiding skills.


  • @CWO:

    If I’m not mistaken, one of the factors which slowed the momentum of the German offensive was the fact that, as the hungry German troops overran the forward Allied lines and captured their supply dumps, they couldn’t resist the temptation of greater quantities of food than they had seen in a long time.  Instead of just filling their pockets and packs with captured rations and pressing onward, they stopped and feasted.

    Another huge factor for the slow German advance in the Ludendorff Offensive was that much of the German push crossed the old Somme battlefields of 1916. The area was a nightmare for lightning operations, vast forest of tree stumps, empty trench systems, ruins upon ruins of German and British war efforts from two years before.


  • so, before 1918 and its offensives then?


  • Let’s keep this World War One topics alive, World War One is my favorite war.

  • '10

    We also have to remember that Germany’s Allies were crumbling…  even before the 1918 offensive in the west.

    The Ottomans were losing ground in the Middle east, at the Austo-Hungarian Empire was falling apart from the inside.


  • bulgaria, ottoman empire and austria-hungary were already out of the war at start 1918 i thought
    or atleast played no more vital role.
    i always wondered why the germans didn’t launch the biggest navy assault at the same moment. if either of them was to fail, they’d have lost the war anyway.
    of course, it’s good that such butchering has been prevented, but it would have given the british quite headaches, as the supplies to france was already hard to maintain.

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