One Hundred Days - 5: The Last Weeks for Germany

Lille was liberated by British forces on 18th October

Of all the blows suffered by Germany between July and November, the breaking of the Siegfried Zone was the most shattering, militarily. At the end of September denial still flickered among a few in the German hierarchy, but most realised their military position was now hopeless. Plans to prolong the war until 1919 had been replaced by the desperate objective of lasting out to strengthen the negotiating position of the German politicians. Hindenburg and Ludendorff shifted position to make strident demands that peace negotiations should be accelerated. On 28^th September, the Kaiser sacked the recently appointed Chancellor, von Herzig, and his foreign minister. Prince Maximilian von Baden – a 51 years old aristocrat and self confessed liberal democrat – was handed the poisoned chalice, amid military despair and civil unrest.

At their first meeting, on 3^rd October, Hindenburg and Ludendorff informed von Baden that a debacle was imminent, owing to Allied tank strength and the weakness of German reserves. The Prince immediately cabled a note to President Wilson, accepting Wilson’s Fourteen Points* and pleading for a just peace. Wilson replied, seeking clarifications of Germany’s intentions and, as the days passed anxiously, von Baden conceded further on previous soundings and offered withdrawal of the Army behind German Borders. Wilson’s final reply on 14^th October refused any unhindered German withdrawal without an armistice on the Allies’ terms. In effect, Germany now had to surrender or be crushed.

On the evening of 10^th October, Foch’s forces were pressing on the Germans from all sides. Haig was with the British 1^st, 4^th and 5^th Armies on the outskirts of Le Cateau – scene of Smith-Dorrien’s 2^nd Army Corps heroic stand in August 1914 (see Post 8/12/2014). Pershing and Gouraud were threatening the great German railway junction ay Longwy in the south; and Germany’s main northern centre at Lille was now menaced by a pincer movement by advancing British, French and Belgian forces. Ludendorff’s last ditch plan was to put most of his resources into the defence of Longwy in the south and Lille in the north. This meant that other places – for so long key strongpoints of the German occupation – fell with relatively little resistance. Mangin’s army pushed forward between the upper rivers Aisne and Oise, and across the Gobain massif. Haig advance east in the centre towards Valeniciennes, and on 17^th October the Germans evacuated Douai – a moment of great significance. King Albert, commanding the Belgian, Plumer’s 2^nd British and Degoutte’s 6^th French armies, began to move rapidly across Belgium. By 16^th October they were along a line well to the east of Ypres and Diksmuide – from Ostend on the coast, through Bruges to Harlebeke on the river Lys. All these troops were now in open country, and the Germans had neither time nor resources to build defensive positions.

With Plumer in Harlebeke and Horne in Douai, Lille was threatened from the north and the south west, and was untenable. Following a further breakthrough at the canals junction at Pont-à-Vendin, south of the city, the Germans retreated, and Lille was liberated amid joyous scenes on 18^th October. To the south, Mangin continued; having taken Laon on 13^th October, he pushed the Germans further back. Paradoxically, their lines were now becoming so shortened they were able in several key points to increase their resistance as they fell back, and the fighting was still fierce.

Now Lille had fallen, Haig had his long dreamt of opportunity to plan an advance into Belgium. He knew he would face determined defences in Valenciennes and in the Mormal Forest, and decided to bypass them, forcing a ten mile passage in the gaps between; past Maubeuge and into southern Belgium and its symbolic town of Mons. Haig made his move on 17^th October. Centred on Le Cateau, he advanced with Rawlinson’s 4^th; Byng’s 3^rd and part of Hornes 1^st armies on a thirty miles front from Bohain to Denain. The German defence was strong and they fought bravely against superior forces, but by 23^rd, Haig had converged on the gap that he wished to force. On that day he launched his last full scale action of the war on a fifteen miles front.

The only area where dramatic advances were not made was in the Argonne, where Pershing’s 1^st USA Army was mired in attritional struggles against well set defensive positions throughout the forest. This was ironic, given Pershing’s earlier stance and comments (see Post 15/9/2018). His own army was now in a position similar to that of the inexperienced British army at the Somme in 1916. The Germans held out until the end of the month, but inevitably conceded ground as, elsewhere, the wider front crumbled. The Germans were being corralled into the flat plain around Liege, where they would be trapped unless they retreated across their own borders. If the Americans completed their mission, it seemed likely the German army would be split into two large groups, with the southern armies being pushed out of Lorraine.

Prinz Max von Baden.
A brief and unhappy stint as the
Kaiser's last Chancellor.

By the end of the month, defeat was very close. Realising the impossibility of avoiding it, Ludendorff resigned on 26^th, leaving it for others to sort out his mess. His successor was von Groner, who was a staff officer rather than a field General, and could do nothing to alter the tide of events. He found himself sharing his HQ at Spa with Kaiser Wilhelm, who was finding the civil unrest in Berlin too hot for his liking.

Foch was now ready to make his final moves. On 1^st November, Pershing and Gouraud finally broke out of the Argonne. Foch unleashed the new American 2^nd Army, under General Bullard, across the Woeuvre plain, driving the planned wedge between the two halves of Germany’s armies. Haig’s final moves began on 4^th November along a thirty miles front. He swept up Valenciennes, and surged forward with gains all along his lines. The defence was still strong, but the Allies were not to be denied. Thirty two weakened German Divisions were crushed and a further 20,000 prisoners were taken.

On 6^th November the separate halves of the Germany military machine were in flight, heading for their own borders.

*As set out in Wilson’s famous speech to Congress in January 1918 – See Post 3/1/2018