The Battle of Michael actually lasted for 16 days. By mid-April, the Yamei area returned to positional warfare.
Ludendorff tried to achieve a breakthrough, but made no progress and only in vain increased some casualties.
By mid-April, the German army occupied 1,200 square miles of land, captured 90,000 people, captured 1,000 artillery pieces, and a large amount of munitions.
The Allies suffered heavy losses again, with 160,000 British casualties and 60,000 French casualties.
At the same time, the German army itself suffered 160,000 casualties and about 70,000 prisoners.
Unlike the British and French armies, the German army lost all its elite troops, and these people could not be replaced.
Hubert Gough was sent back to Britain as a scapegoat. His warnings before the war were not mentioned and the British government never commented on them.
Haig actually should have been dismissed, but Lloyd George had no better candidate, so Haig was able to continue as Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force.
Although the British lost the war, Haig's efforts objectively made Ludendorff's idea of ending the war this year completely bankrupt.
The Germans do seem to have the advantage now, but they lack the stamina to launch a large-scale attack.
Ludendorff did not admit that his plan had actually failed. Although the Battle of Michael had actually deviated from the original plan from the moment he ordered Hutier to attack Yamin, Ludendorff still wanted to continue.
Perhaps in Ludendorff's subconscious mind, the Allies were at the end of their strength. As long as the Germans continued to invest troops, the Allied positions would collapse.
Ludendorff's consciousness is no longer clear enough. Whether Ludendorff admits it or not, the Germans are now at the end of their strength, and the Allies believe that with the continuous increase of U.S. troops, their current advantage is expanding every day.
Beginning in mid-April, the pace of U.S. military troop growth further accelerated. In the ten days at the end of April, 10,000 troops landed in France every day. These troops would first be reorganized in Paris and then put into the battlefield in batches.
Before the Battle of Michael was over, Ludendorff began to prepare for an attack in Flanders.
Because the troops originally prepared for the attack on Flanders were used in Ame, Ludendorff reduced the scale of the attack. At the same time, preparations for the attack were carried out hastily. There were neither enough artillery nor enough A7Vs.
The A7V is a large tank recently developed by Germany. This tank has a crew of 18 people. You can imagine how huge it is. It is simply a moving steel fortress.
Fortunately, due to the shortage of German resources, the Germans were unable to equip enough tanks. Only a small number of tanks were allocated to some of the troops and they were unable to carry out a large-scale assault. Otherwise, the Germans should have occupied Paris by now.
Ludendorff's plan to attack Flanders was called the Georgette Offensive by Ludendorff's staff, an ironic name that mocked Ludendorff's impracticality.
The Georgette Offensive began in late April. Nine German divisions launched an attack on an 11-mile-long position. Just like when the Battle of Michael was launched, there was thick fog on the morning of the bombardment. Bruchmuller personally commanded the artillery units.
The shelling lasted for five hours, focusing on the positions defended by two Portuguese divisions.
These two Portuguese divisions were discharged by the Portuguese government to show their friendship with Britain. The morale of these soldiers was very problematic. First of all, the soldiers did not understand why they wanted to participate in the war. Secondly, on the second day after the Germans launched their attack, these two divisions
The division was originally supposed to withdraw to the rear and rest, but was attacked at this critical moment. One can imagine the frustration of the Portuguese.
As a result, under the devastating German artillery attack, the positions of the two Portuguese divisions quickly collapsed. The soldiers fled in all directions carrying their packed luggage, leaving the positions undefended.
The German attack went very smoothly. They advanced 3.5 miles until the afternoon when they encountered hastily organized resistance from the British First Army.
The tactical purpose of the Georgette Offensive was to seize Hazebruck, which was also a railway transfer station and its geographical location was very important.
General Horn led the First Army to defend Hazebruck for two days. On the second night, the Germans used A7V tanks in the attack.
The appearance of tanks accelerated the collapse of the British army. That night, the Germans dug a 30-mile-wide gap in the First Army's defense line, and the First Army's defense line immediately collapsed.
From the first day of the campaign, Haig was aware of the danger.
On the one hand, Haig asked for help from the French army, and on the other hand, he ordered Plummer's troops to directly support the First Army.
At this time, the number of troops in Foch's hands was gradually increasing, so Foch sent four divisions to the direction of Azbruck, including two American divisions.
Knowing that reinforcements were about to arrive, Haig was determined and issued an order: Each post must be held until the last person, and no retreat is allowed. We have fallen into a desperate situation, but as long as we still believe in justice, everyone should hold on until the last person.
at last.
Haig's words indeed sounded very morale-boosting, but in fact, after Haig said these words, he found Wilson to discuss how to use the English Channel seaport to help their troops evacuate France.
This period was actually the most dangerous period for the Allied Powers. The French cabinet ordered that once the war became tense, French troops should give up supporting the British army to ensure the safety of Paris.
Although the British army shouted that they would fight to the end, they were actually planning to retreat at any time.
In the British army, not everyone obeyed Haig's orders. For example, Plummer did not follow Haig's order to persist to the end, even when the Germans attacked the position that Haig had gained at the cost of 250,000 casualties last year.
, Plummer retreated without hesitation.
Plummer's decisiveness prevented the British from suffering greater casualties, and for the next two weeks, Plummer continued to retreat.
Plummer did not run all the way. Whenever the retreat reached a certain level, Plummer would order the troops to stop and establish a position that would be difficult to conquer without artillery.
The Germans had to stop frequently and wait for the slow-moving artillery units to catch up and support them.
By the time the German artillery caught up, Plummer had already abandoned his position and continued to retreat to the rear.
This kind of mobile and flexible tactics made the German attack intermittent. Every effort of the Germans was like throwing a punch with all their strength, but hitting the soft cotton. Even if they won, there was no joy.
a feeling of.
Until early May, Plummer was still using this tactic. It was not until French reinforcements arrived that Plummer chose to hold on. In these two weeks, Plummer killed nearly 100,000 people on the Germans.
The casualties were only 40,000, which was already an incredible victory for the British.
By the beginning of May, the Germans seemed to have achieved a lot, but they did not control the strategically valuable fulcrum. By the beginning of May, the Germans were not far from Ame, not far from Hazebrouck, and far from Kemmer Mountain and
Mount Decatur is also not far away. As long as any place is captured, the German army can control Ypres and the surrounding areas.
Ludendorff had a huge appetite. He did not attack a certain point, or two points, but all areas of strategic value.
This seriously dispersed the increasingly limited strength of the German army. The attacks on Yame and Hazebruck failed, and only the attack on Kemmerberg was successful.
But after capturing Kemmer Mountain, Ludendorff did not have enough troops to continue attacking Decatur Mountain.
At this time, Ludendorff made another big mistake. If Ludendorff ordered the troops to continue the attack, then Decatur Mountain would never be able to stop the German attack. Even if Ludendorff was bolder and sent only one division, Decatur Mountain would
Become Ludendorff's bag.
But at this time, Ludendorff was extremely cautious. He ordered the German troops to stop attacking and stand by, and the fighter plane disappeared in a flash.
By the time the Germans received reinforcements and launched their attack the next day, Foch had already mobilized enough troops to defend Mount Decatur.
Ludendorff made the same mistake as he did in Amel.
When the northern region fell into a complete stalemate, Ludendorff had to turn his attention to Qin Zhiyuan in the south.
Opposite Qin Zhiyuan at this time were nearly 30 divisions led by the Bavarian prince, whose total strength was still more than twice that of Qin Zhiyuan.
Throughout May, the German army suffered greater losses than in April. So far, the German casualties have reached 350,000, with almost one in every ten German soldiers suffering casualties.
In contrast, the strength of the Allied Powers continued to grow. Throughout May, 250,000 American soldiers arrived in France. Among the mid-level officers under Pershing, there were some radiant figures in the future, such as Douglas MacArthur, such as
George Marshall, like George Patton.
The strength in Qin Zhiyuan's hands is also constantly increasing. In May, two more Chinese infantry divisions and one Annan infantry division joined active service. These soldiers only have some training subjects left to complete, but within the past two months in Reims,
Completing all these lessons is equivalent to receiving all the training content.
At the end of May, the troops in Qin Zhiyuan's hands were about the same size as before the war, with eight Chinese infantry divisions, one armored division, one air force division, three Annan divisions and two Senegalese divisions, and one American brigade.
Although the Bavarian prince across the river from Qin Zhiyuan had 30 divisions, these troops were not fully equipped. Some of the divisions even had less than 10,000 troops. For this reason, Ludendorff disbanded 100 troops in early June.
Create a battalion and integrate these troops into other troops to maintain sufficient combat effectiveness.
Ludendorff became more and more ridiculous, always making mistakes that he shouldn't have made.
In fact, what has the biggest impact on the morale of the German army now is not the lack of troops, but the lack of any hope. This is the biggest problem.
