• @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.


  • @Frontovik:

    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.

    The Kaiser’s love for his navy hurt Germany in WWI. Germany had the best armor-cruisers at the time: great for commerce raiding. Germany should have tried to break out more warships into the Atlantic.


  • @Frontovik:

    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.

    The best shot that Germany got at fighting a decisive naval action against Britain was at the Battle of Jutland in 1916.  The battle was a tactical victory for Germany in terms of tonnage sunk, but it was a strategic defeat: the High Seas Fleet had to withdraw twice in the face of Britain’s greater numbers.  Germany never again tried to challenge the British Grand Fleet.  By 1918, the High Seas Fleet was in a sorry state compared to 1916, due to the losses suffered at Jutland combined with two years of inactivity.  In late 1918, the German naval command planned to send out the High Seas Fleet on what its sailors correctly interpreted to be a futile, suicidal gesture meant to salvage the Fleet’s honour.  The sailors promptly mutinied and the last sortie never took place.


  • @CWO:

    @Frontovik:

    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.

    The best shot that Germany got at fighting a decisive naval action against Britain was at the Battle of Jutland in 1916.  The battle was a tactical victory for Germany in terms of tonnage sunk, but it was a strategic defeat: the High Seas Fleet had to withdraw twice in the face of Britain’s greater numbers.  Germany never again tried to challenge the British Grand Fleet.  By 1918, the High Seas Fleet was in a sorry state compared to 1916, due to the losses suffered at Jutland combined with two years of inactivity.  In late 1918, the German naval command planned to send out the High Seas Fleet on what its sailors correctly interpreted to be a futile, suicidal gesture meant to salvage the Fleet’s honour.  The sailors promptly mutinied and the last sortie never took place.

    that was after the ludendorff offensive.
    but point taken ^^


  • Favorite WWI commander?
    Favorite WWI weapon?
    Favorite WWI battle?


  • My favorite ww1 commander is: hmmm I’d say aurthur currie.
    My favorite ww1 weapon is: lee enfield smle
    My favorite ww1 battle is: I’m hopping you mean most interesting, for me that would be first battle of Ypres (this was the one with first every gas attack right?)


  • @i:

    My favorite ww1 commander is: hmmm I’d say aurthur currie.
    My favorite ww1 weapon is: lee enfield smle
    My favorite ww1 battle is: I’m hopping you mean most interesting, for me that would be first battle of Ypres (this was the one with first every gas attack right?)

    Ieper is indeed the place where germans used it the first time (on the western front)
    also the start of a bombartment that would last for 4 years and bombs are still found by the thousands
    gotta love our clay :P


  • Favorite commander: Paul Emil Von Lettow-Vorbeck, only German commander never to be defeated in battle.

    Favorite weapon: the French Canon de 75 modele 1897, by far the best artillery in the war, hands down. It has been said that World War 1 was an artillery mans war fought by the infantry, hence the choice. In terms of small arms, I think the British lewis gun was the best, being able to lay down heavy fire while still light enough to move quickly and fire from the hip.

    Favorite Battle: Verdun. It is the battle which gave us the immortal words Ils ne passeront pas, or in english, They Shall Not Pass! Truely amazing what men endured there, and it really was a titanic sturggle, of two nations, two peoples, fight to the death.


  • Favourite Weapon: the Renault FT-17, the first tank in the world to use the modern conventional tank configuration (an armoured hull with a caterpillar track on each side, a driving compartment in the front, an engine compartment in the rear, and a central fighting compartment topped with a rotating turret in which the tank’s main armament was mounted).


  • reviving the topic, as i’m working on my own great war map :P


  • I hope your map isnt copied from mine!

Suggested Topics

  • 7
  • 6
  • 3
  • 7
  • 1
  • 1
  • 6
  • 9
Axis & Allies Boardgaming Custom Painted Miniatures

39

Online

17.0k

Users

39.3k

Topics

1.7m

Posts