Belleau Wood: The US Marines' Bloodiest Conflict Of World War One | History Of Warfare | Timeline

[Music] foreign in the final days of May 1918 the first world war seemed to have come full circle [Music] after four years of Slaughter unparalleled in history the Allied cause was on the brink of catastrophe once again as in 1914 The gray-clad Columns of the Imperial German Army were marching victoriously Into the Heart of France with the Allies seemingly faced by disaster all their hopes rested on their final reserves the untested soldiers of the United States of America [Music] the United States angered by the indiscriminate attacks by Germany's U-boats and the Kaiser's intrigues with Mexico had at last entered the war on the Allied side in April 1917. but though its young men were filled with enthusiasm for the fight they were painfully almost frighteningly unprepared the USA had not been involved in a major world conflict since the war of independence over a century before President Woodrow Wilson of the United States had said it is not an army we must shape and train for war it is a nation in fact it was both and one of the greatest social and economic upheavals in history had followed as America geared itself up for war but time had been short and many on both the Allied and German sides doubted what the outcome would be when the U.S troops were tested in battle as its men were thrown into action against the Kaiser's Victorious veterans the USA would make its entrance as a world military power in the bloody struggle babelo would [Music] as the new year of 1918 dawned Europe reeled under the effects of almost four years of the most terrible war in history nowhere had its impact been more devastating than on the Western Front here for a length of almost 450 miles between the North Sea and the borders of Switzerland the opposing trench line snaked like an angry scar across Flanders and northern France the psalm they're done passchendale and a dozen other bloody engagements had all failed to produce The elusive breakthrough dreamed of by the generals and the deadly stalemate continued [Music] the Allied Powers had been bled white by the cost of the war in Britain foodstuffs and fuel were in short supply and the deprived population would fall easy prey to the great influenza epidemic later in the year in France food was more plentiful but scarcely a family had not lost one or more of its men folk in the war War weariness was everywhere as he surveyed the prospects for the coming year the commander-in-chief of the British armies in Belgium and France Field Marshal Douglas Hague could find few reasons for optimism the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George fearful of the cost of more seemingly futile attacks on the Western Front was denying Hague reinforcements as a result the British Army on the Western Front would face the coming campaign 600 000 men under strength Hague and his commanders were doubtful if they could even hold their ground discover the past with exclusive history documentaries from history hit and uncover the secrets of some of the most famous people and events in history history hit brings you the stories that shaped the world through exclusive documentaries from the world's top historians travel with us to the bloody Battle of Stalingrad or uncover the lives of the people who called Pompei home we also aim to bring you the stories and legends that shaped our world through our award-winning podcast Network sign up now for a free trial and timeline fans get 50 of their first three months just be sure to use the code timeline at checkout the position of the French army was even worse since the beginning of the war the lifeblood of France had been spilled in a series of vain attempts to drive out the German Invader and in 1917 morale had finally cracked in a series of mutants almost miraculously the news had been kept from the Germans until the new French commander-in-chief General only Pata by a mixture of firmness and concessions restored order but patan knew that the French army remained a fragile instrument likely to break in his hand if it came under two great oppression like hey he could attempt no offensive and viewed the future with foreboding the war had begun with the might of the Russian Empire firmly on the side of the allies and the tsar's armies poised to invade Germany the next three years brought little bit disaster for Russian arms defeat at the front turned to Revolution at home and Russia's last faltering contribution to the Allied cause came to an end when the Bolshevik seized power in October 1917. the Germans were free to turn virtually their full attention to the West Germany's defeat of Russia in 1917 had given them the chance to fight a war on just one front but the German High command knew that once America's Manpower and reserves got into the war fully their chance of Victory would be gone and this was particularly true because of America's massive industrial potential which was as yet only partially used in an attempt to strangle Britain's overseas lifelines and starve her into submission the Germans on February 1st 1917 had introduced unrestricted submarine warfare this meant that any vessel neutral or not thought to be trading with the Allies could be sunk without warning but the campaign carried with it grave risks not least of war with the United States of America the Americans began the war very firmly neutral in their attitude towards what was going on in Europe after all we have to remember that a lot of them were the descendants of recent immigrants who'd gone to the United States in the first place to avoid European troubles and they really didn't see any reason why they should get involved again and this attitude was to some extent compounded by President Woodrow Wilson as head of state of the leading neutral nation in the world he saw his role as a mediator he hoped to bring about some sort of peaceful settlement between the combatants the sinking of the liner Lusitania in 1915 and the death of a large number of American citizens was of crucial importance in changing American public opinion from being isolationists and anti-war to belief that something had to be done about German power at sea in February 1917 the Germans renewed the U-Boat campaign and Wilson broke off diplomatic relations with Germany we were now getting very near to a war situation and the final straw came shortly afterwards with the infamous Zimmerman Telegram this had been carefully leaked to the Americans by British intelligence and in the telegram Zimmerman the German foreign minister had offered support to Mexico if she were to declare war on the United States in an attempt to recover her lost territories well this proved the final straw and in April 1917 the United States declared war on Germany America's entry into the war did not at first greatly alarm the Germans they thought that even if they succeeded in running the U-Boat Gauntlet it would be many months before United States troops could reach France in significant numbers to Britain and France However the fact that they now had a potentially powerful new ally across the Atlantic brought fresh Grounds for Hope the U-boats were tamed by increased ship production and the convoy system and the first American troops disembarked in France in the Autumn of 1918. the words of one of the first staff officers to come ashore Lafayette we are here recall the contribution of France towards the United States own fight for independence and were greeted with Rapture by the listening crowd [Music] the French and British military commanders were equally delighted by the prospect of being able to fill out their depleted ranks with thousands of young fit American soldiers but in this hope they were to be bitterly disappointed Pershing in the American government began their involvement in the war determined that the American Army would act as an independent formation in France but they faced enormous difficulties one was the problem of getting the troops across to France in the first place it was a great deal of concern that the U-boats might hinder this operation though in fact they didn't have very much effect the other problem was equipping the troops once they got there America had terrific industrial potential but this was going to take quite some time to bring on stream and in the interim the American troops were going to have to depend almost entirely on Britain and France for equipment and also for training in the realities of trench warfare all of this was going to take a long time and the question was would Germany give them long enough to do it the fundamental difference was that the Americans were fresh unlike the British and French they hadn't been ground down throughout years of hard war and they were Keen they wanted to do well and they had lots of ideas as to what they were going to do unfortunately because they were fresh they lacked experience and although they are willing to learn it cost them a lot of time and a lot of lives before they realized what they should be doing so the Allied commanders faced the prospect of having to continue the war at least until the summer of 1918 without significant American Military help the question asked by all was could they hold out the end of the war with Russia had released nearly 1 million German troops for use elsewhere it was a glittering opportunity for the German High command headed by Field Marshal Paul Von Hindenburg and his nominal Deputy quartermaster General Eric ludendorff at first glance Germany seemed to be in quite a favorable position at the beginning of 1918. now it's true that the U-Boat offensive hadn't had the success that they'd been hoping for but the German Army had withstood some massive Allied offensives on the Western Front in the previous year and even more importantly Russia had now been knocked out of the war quite apart from anything else this meant that Germany was no longer faced by the dreaded threat of a war on two fronts but there's another factor which is often forgotten and that's the effects of the of the Allied economic blockade it's generally said yes that this did cause starvation and as a result there were food riots in in Germany and among our Allied countries as well now this is true but a bigger effect was the fact that the supply of raw materials which the German war machine needed were cut off there's no real way of getting around this and quite apart from these factors political unrest was growing in Germany so Germany was facing a number of serious problems but her allies were in an even worse situation they were very close to collapse and one factor which the Germans could not forget was the influence of the United States the American Army was like a time bomb which was going to explode in their face sooner or later so looking at the options which were open to them the German High command which was now effectively running the country decided they had to stake everything on one massive offensive in the Western Front this must knock the Allies out before America could intervene in the war ludendorf's belief was that if the British army could be knocked out France bereft of her principal Ally would be forced to sue for peace his first plan therefore was to launch a great offensive in Flanders aimed at breaking through the British front rolling up their line and destroying them in detail all through the winter and early spring The Troop trains moved westwards from the former Eastern front and feverish preparations and training continued for the offensive in which ludendorff said he was prepared to sacrifice a Million Lives to ensure a German victory in order to make success more certain radically new tactics would be employed the Germans began World War one with the most professional and highly trained Army in Europe now it's true that in this obsceding years this suffered heavy losses but they retained their cohesion and organization probably better than any of their opponents that did and by 1917 they were experts in defensive Warfare however they now needed some means to take the offensive to bring Mobility back to War the British had tried this with tanks with only limited success the Germans decided to go for Infantry the famous stostropen or Stormtroopers now these were highly trained men the elite of the German Army most of them under 25. they were equipped with all the best weapons the best equipment they were given better rations than the other troops they were armed with submachine guns semi-automatic rifles or the equivalent of in those days grenades the idea of Stormtroopers was to search for the weak spots in an enemy's defensive positions to pierce through the weak spots to avoid areas of effective resistance which would be mopped up by succeeding waves of conventionally armed infantry but these tactics had some disadvantages in the first place the Germans lacked the resources adequately to supply the troops when they begun their advance and another factor which was to prove fatal in the end to ludendorff's plans was that they lacked the transport to move their men and guns quickly from one offensive side to another this gave the Allies the breathing space they needed to recover between the successive offensives and finally and probably most fatally in the end was the fact that the Stormtroopers suffered enormous casualties and these were Irreplaceable losses of Germany's youngest and fittest men when the Allies went over to the offensive later in the year they were faced by second-rate German troops mostly men in their 30s and 40s who just could not withstand the impact of the massive assaults which the British French and Americans were to deliver against them ludendorff's plan to strike in Flanders was thwarted by heavy mud instead his gaze fell on the sector around San Quentin where the Old Battleground of the psalm was thinly held by the British Fifth Army behind inadequate defenses the Germans would break through then swing North to roll up the entire British front on March 21 1918 in what was popularly known as the Kaiser schlot the emperor's battle over 40 German divisions supported by the fire of six thousand guns in the greatest bombardment in history launched the offensive which was intended to win the war but by early morning fog and surprise they made the most sweeping gains achieved on the Western Front since 1914. all along the line British positions were penetrated and the Defenders killed or driven back the pattern repeated itself during the following days as in bitter fighting the hard-pressed British attempted vainly to stem the tie yet gradually the pace of the German Advance slowed desperately the British shifted units from quietest stretches of the front to plug the Gap while the French sent troops to take over other sectors the Germans were encountering increasing difficulties in bringing up supplies and reinforcements across the devastated ground of former Battlefield while the opportunities of loot cause breakdowns of discipline among German soldiers for so long starved of luxuries by the beginning of April the German Drive had lost its impetus though ludendorf's troops had Advanced over 40 miles and taken a vast swath of territory with over a hundred and seventy thousand prisoners they had failed to capture any vital strategic objective the British army though battered was still on its feet while the Germans had suffered High losses among their Irreplaceable storm troops but ludendorff believed that the British army had been fatally weakened he resolved to strike again this time in Flanders early on April 9 once again aided by concealing fog the German assault broke through the British lines in the Valley of the river lease but again the Germans were halted once more without taking any of their vital objectives and having suffered further heavy losses [Music] a German general admitted no great strategic movement had become possible and the channel ports had not been reached the second great offensive had not brought about the hoped for decision if Germany was to achieve the victory on which it was staking everything time was running short despite the deepening crisis Pershing still refused to do more than take over one quiet sector of the front with part of a division however events were soon brought to a dramatic change of heart despite his failure so far to inflict a decisive defeat on the British general ludendorff was determined to adhere to his original plan of inflicting a knockout blow in Flanders but first he needed to weaken the Allies still further what was needed first he felt was a massive diversionary attack designed to attract the full attention of the French an obvious sight for such an attack quickly presented itself a breakthrough on the thinly held shamanda Dam Ridge North of Reems would seem to threaten Paris and draw in every available French unit in order to safeguard their capital in conditions of absolute secrecy ludendorff switched his artillery and Stormtroopers southwards and on May 27 launched another massive assault operation blooker sweeping aside all opposition over 30 German divisions raced Southwest three days ludendorf's men were approaching the mines only 50 miles from Paris by The Lure of the French capital and believing that its capture would end the war just as surely as a British defeat ludendorff threw caution to the winds and urged his weary troops on the French appealed once more for American Health it was not to be in pain by the spring of 1918 a hundred and twenty thousand American troops a month were arriving in France a carefully organized training program had been in operation since the previous autumn each newly formed division spent six months in basic training in the United States before being sent overseas [Music] on arrival in France a further two months were needed to become accustomed to its new French and British arms and equipment and finally another month was spent in a quiet sector of the front where under French or British command the Doughboys would begin to come to terms with the realities of trench warfare there are several theories for the origination of the word Doughboy to describe the American infantryman and my favorite is his term of abuse given to American infantry by their own cavalrymen to the dust cake infantrymen and they thought the Infantry looked like the Adobe Huts that were prevalent on the Mexican border and Adobes became changed into Dobies and hence Doughboys and infantrymen always disliking cameraman they used as a badge of Pride as a sort of nickname rather than a term of abuse though some American Engineers did see action in the final stages of ludendorff's push toward Amir Pershing was still unwilling to commit his men who he proudly if tactlessly described as the best damned divisions in anyon but by the end of May with the Allied cause plainly faced by its greatest crisis of the war the time for hesitancy was passed on May 31st the first United States troops began to move up towards the river mine in support of the hard-pressed trench the effect on the weary French soldiers who witnessed them was Electric as Winston Churchill later described it suddenly the roads between Prova and the front towards Muir and towards Columbia began to be filled with endless streams of Americans the impression made upon the hard-pressed French by this seemingly inexhaustible flood of gleaming youth in its first maturity of health and vigor was prodigious none were under 20 and few were over 30. as crammed in their lorries they clattered along the road singing the songs of the new world at the tops of their voices burning to reach the bloody field I've trained half organized with only their courage their numbers and their magnificent youth behind their weapons they were to buy their experience at a bitter price but this they were quite ready to do when the Americans came over they quite naturally wanted to fight as an American army they didn't really fancy the idea of being split up amongst British divisions French divisions and so on they felt as if that happened they'd just be Cannon father in fact they'd be very Expendable because whereas a British commander or a French Commander might look after British or French troop respectively they might not be quite careful about foreigners and it was very important for both my practical as well as an emotional point of view for the Americans to stick together on the other hand both the British and French commanders were skeptical about this because the Americans had absolutely no experience of Modern Warfare on the Western Front Pershing believed that the British and French generals had failed in their professional Duty and all they had succeeded in doing was killing millions of their men the Americans had a new way of doing things a new world way of doing things they wanted to get away from European ideas of what should and should not be done and to do everything they could to break the deadlock of the Western Front and end the war as quickly as possible there were a number of differences between the United States Army of 1918 and its German opponents the Germans were highly disciplined highly experienced troops they probably had more combat experience than any of the other participants in the 1918 events if they'd fought all over Europe they'd been on the Western Front they'd also brought Russia to her knees it was probably very little to compare with them The Americans on the other hand were completely fresh to the whole business a few of them had been involved in irregular operations against Pancho Villa and these Mexicans a couple of years previously but we have to remember that the regular United States Army was very small only about 26 000 officers and men they were coming to the whole business completely fresh we've got a situation where we're matching American enthusiasm great willingness and keenness to learn against German discipline and hard combat experience the Americans would do well when they got the opportunity and when they'd learned but they were going to pay a very high price in in this learning experience first United States troops to see serious action were the men of the seventh machine gun battalion who reached the South Bank of the mon just before the Germans arrived opposite them at Chateau Tri and helped repulse their attempted Crossing it was an encouraging beginning but the real test was being faced to their right where the main Paris Chateau Thierry Road was being held by the soldiers and Marines of the second U.S division the United States second division included some of the best troops in the United States Army they were a mixture of regular army personnel and Marines and it was the Marines who were to cause the greatest controversy their first problems with their commanding officer General Pershing he didn't like the Marines he regarded them as grossly overrated in fact he hadn't wanted them in France at all it was only the intervention of the secretary for war that actually led to them being there and even them Pershing refused his requests that they should form a separate division they were brought over as the fourth Marine Brigade of the second division but in order to keep them firmly under his thumb Pershing decided to appoint his Protege as their commanding officer this was a colonel John a harboard U.S army and this led to problems right from the beginning Harvard was outranked in seniority by his two Marine Battalion commanders and they and their men very much resented his presence there was a bad working relationship among them from the beginning and this was to have very inauspicious results German offensive though slowing was not yet over all through the long summer day of June 2nd the men of the second division bore the brunt of the last desperate lunge of the German seventh Army towards Paris by the end of the day the Germans had been halted and ludendorff pulled off the offense the Germans knew they were facing a formidable new opponent both sides were shaping up for a trial of strength which would have much more than local significance its outcome might well influence the entire course of the war the scene of this contest was to be Bellow wood lying some eight miles to the northwest of Chateau Tri Velo wood was a 600 acre area of closely growing trees set amidst a tangle of rocks steep-sided Ravines and narrow streams before the war it had been a hunting Reserve but now was to be home to a much more deadly game the veteran troops of General vonkota's Reserve Corps who held bellowood lost no time in putting their long experience of defensive Warfare into practice a complex system of interlocking machine gun and mortar posts was established and in the small village of boresh just to the west of bellowood the stone-built Cottages were turned into mutually supporting strong points the senior Allied Commander in the bellowood sector the French General Jean degut was concerned about German reserves reported to be massing Northeast of the ridge crowned by Bello wood during the afternoon of June 5th the goat ordered the second division to launch an attack early the next morning aimed at disrupting enemy preparations and clearing the wood their first objective was to be Hill 142 on the left of the position held by the fourth Marine Brigade Major John a Hughes commanding the first Battalion of the six Marines was not happy with the plan of attack which committed his men to advancing for several hundred yards across an open Wheat Field before they could reach the enemy positions to him it seemed uncomfortably reminiscent of Pickett's Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg however Brigadier General James J harboard the regular army officer whom Pershing had placed in command of the fourth Marine Brigade was adamant and during the night in preparation for the assault the first Battalion was pulled back five miles to the Village of nontui here the men stripped off their sodden clothing ate their first hot meal for a week and snatched what rest they could in the houses in haylofts of the village [Music] already they could hear the explosions of the preliminary Allied artillery the Americans because of their failings in reconnaissance believe Bella would only be lightly defended whereas in fact the reverse was true it was a mass of German machine gun poles trenches and fortified bunkers now this probably wouldn't have mattered so much if the artillery bombardment had been on target but it wasn't a lot of the shells overshot belhams and those which actually hit the German defenses didn't do a lot of damage they uprooted trees and branches and so forth with the result that the American Advanced would be even more difficult than it would have been in any case the Americans are very keen but at bellowood they discovered that the best way to learn is combat experience they began by advancing in wave formations and they ended by attacking in small groups using the Firepower of their light machine guns and basically fighting in a very different manner from the failed discredited tactics that have been used in previous years on the Western Front at about 4 30 on the morning of June 6th the assault began initially all went well after a stiff fight men of the fifth Marines took Hill 142 and beat off enemy counter-attack by 9 am fighting had died down and harbored prepared to go ahead with the assault on bellowood itself as the afternoon of June 6 wore on the Marines rested smoking were talking quietly and peering through the heat Haze toward the crest topped with a line of trees which marked the position of bellow wood the assault was to begin at 5 pm starboard was unimpressed by the tough fight which the Germans had put up that morning for he expected Colonel albertus W Catlin commanding the six Marines to take his objective with a force of only three battalions no more than two thousand men [Music] much of the line of Advance lay across Open Fields of Green Spring wheat dotted with the Scarlet of Poppy as another largely ineffective Allied artillery bombardment ended the Marines went forward in a formation which had not been seen since the bloodbath of the psalm in 1916. rifles at the Port the Marine skirmishes pushed their way through the wheat in four ranks 20 yards apart with five yard intervals between each man for the first hundred yards not a shot was fired and then suddenly the German machine guns opened up the Marines wavered under the first impact of enemy fire but were rallied by their officers and ncos in small groups and squads giving each other covering fire the Marines pressed on toward the edge of the wood but at the point where the Third Battalion was attacking enemy fire was so intense that the advance was halted a hundred yards short of the tree to their right major Britain Sibley's Third Battalion of the sixth Marines had more success advancing deliberately and four carefully formed lines the Marines pushed forward steadily into the southern fringes of the wood though at a high cost the fighting of the afternoon of June 6th was to characterize the course of most of the battle groups of Marines armed With Grenades would crawl through the undergrowth and Rocky outcrops toward the German machine gun nests they would hurl their grenades and then go in with the bayonet the German Gunners would frequently keep up their fire until the last moment and then attempt to surrender other machine gun nests which had initially been undiscovered would open fire into the rear of the attacking troops on the right in a desperate Rush two companies of the sixth had reached the outskirts of the village of boresh but found that their troubles were only now beginning at first the Marines tried to take advantage of their generally Superior Marksmanship to shoot the enemy through the narrow Windows of the houses this had little success so next the Marines attempted in small groups to storm the German strong points this effort also made little impression and casualties were mounting eventually aided by Darkness the survivors of the Battalion under Lieutenant Robinson the only officer still on his feet made a renewed assault the night was filled with the sounds of bitter hand-to-hand fighting as one by one the cottages of boresh were cleared of their Defenders by 2 am the village was in American hands but only 20 of the original assault Force were still on their feet and growing desperately short of ammunition in the nick of time they were reinforced and resupplied and managed to beat off a series of German counter-attacks but if boresh was for the moment secure the American situation in bellowood deteriorated after Nightfall lack of reliable Maps had already caused serious problems as unwary parties of Marines lost their bearings and became entangled with each other during the fighting of the past 12 or so hours the Marine Brigade had suffered over 1 000 casualties more than had been suffered by the Marine Corps in the whole of its previous history harboard felt the position to be generally favorable and even when the reality began to emerge his reaction was angrily to order the attack to be resumed however in bitter day-long fighting the exhausted Marines could make little progress against the skillfully positioned German machine guns and heavy Mortals and Von konta meanwhile responded with his own series of counter-attacks by the early morning of June 9th the Marines had once again been driven back out of bellow wood but there was no thought in Harvard's mind that the action should be halted possession of bellowood had now become a matter of symbolic importance to both sides which far outweighed its actual military value before launching yet another infantry assault on the stubborn German defenses Harvard tried the effects of a sustained artillery Baron throughout June 9th Bellow wood was subjected to the fire of 200 guns but this served only to make the going even more difficult for the attackers the debris of Fallen trees made the already Tangled undergrowth still harder to penetrate the battle for Bella Wood continued for more than two weeks gradually displaying customary American Flair for improvisation tactics changed the close-packed ranks of attackers seen in the earlier assaults the wood was infiltrated by smaller squads of troops armed With Grenades bayonets and even cudgels conditions were primitive until their survivors were withdrawn for rest and recuperation units were frequently denied even the basic necessities One Survivor remembered food was not a problem there just wasn't any during our first week in the wood as well as the constant threat from German machine Gunners and snipers the continual danger of gas attacks forced the troops to either wear their stiflingly uncomfortable gas masks or risk the terrible consequences and to add to their miseries and dangers there were frequent German artillery barrages as well on the night of the 12th and 13th of June for example the enemy guns fired no less than five thousand shells at the Marine positions in Bellow wood totally exhausted the Marines were pulled out two days later and replaced by Army units yet fittingly it was to be the fifth Marines who on June 26th mounted the final attack to clear the last German strong points in the northern edge of the world From First to Last the battle for Bello wood had cost the fourth U.S marine Brigade 5711 casualties including almost half of its offices and almost half of its original strength German losses may have been even heavier [Music] but at last harboard was able to report Bella Wood now U.S Marine Corps entirely and the United States press could and did rejoice officially possibly reflecting General pershing's attitude towards the Marines the significance of bellowood tended to be played down most highly prized however was an official order of the day issued by the French General degut decreeing that Bellow wood would henceforward be known in orders as the wood of the Marines militarily bellywood wasn't any more significant than any number of similar divisional level actions fought all through the first World War but it was a first American victory admittedly on a small scale but it was the start of things to come it was the first great media battle for the United States in World War One the Press Corps followed it very closely much to Pershing is disgust we might attack because he just saw it as further unmerited publicity for the Marines but it did have wider significance than this it was the first major test in combat of the American Army the Germans thought it would be no match for their veterans but in fact the opposite had proved to be the case the Americans had not only coped with everything the Germans had thrown at them but had given as good as they got them better after that would come America's involvement with NATO the Gulf War and a position in the world as one of the great superpowers much hard fighting still lay ahead but the Allies were at last learning to deal with the German tactics both time and resources were running out for Germany the initiative was passing to the Ally and it was now their turn to take the offense progress was steady and as the days went by more and more Allied troops went over to the attack on August 8th near Amir it was the turn of the British there was a rapid breakthrough and for the first time in the war entire German units surrendered without a fight to the robotic German ludendorff the news was devastating 8th August was the black day of the German army our war machine was no longer efficient throughout August and September the pace of the Allied Advance quickened an increasingly important part was played by the ever-increasing numbers of American troops Pershing formed the first Army in August and in September his vision of an independently operating American command came to fruition when the first Army launched its offensive against the sun mihel salient in the largest American Military operation since the Civil War and incorporating some of the Lessons Learned at Bello wood the U.S first Army cleared the Salient in four days of fighting taking fifteen thousand prisoners and 250 guns these operations involved United States troops in some of the bitterest fighting they experienced in the whole War but progress though slow and sometimes costly was steady by early November the American forces were poised to drive into Belgium it's arguable what the result of the first world war would have been without American intervention it's quite probable that the ubo campaign would have brought Britain to her knees by the end of 1917 in any case and even if she'd somehow succeeded in holding out it's difficult to see how the Allies would have withstood the great German offensive of the following year the only thing which made this possible was the influx of American troops and even more so the consequent rise in Allied morale but we have to remember that even at the end of 1918 there were not all that many American troops actually engaged in combat what was much more significant was their potential the new campaigning season of the following year would see massive American forces in place and the Allies were planning huge offensives which would surely have brought Germany to a knees anyway ludendorff and the German High command knew this they knew really that having lost their gamble in 1918 they had no option but to make peace the defeat of the German offensives in by the middle of 1918 meant that Germany had lost its chance to win the war bellowood was an important stage in the defeat of the German offensives and it brought home the fact that America was now beginning to play a real part in winning the war for the allies by now German ability to resist was almost at an end at home Revolution was spreading through the cities the Kaiser was forced to abdicate on November 9th and the German Republic was proclaimed ludendorff broken by defeat had already resigned when on November 11th the German delegation signed the Armistice at companion the war to end Wars was over and the United States had come of age as a world-class military power but amidst the rejoicing General Blackjack Pershing voiced an uncannily prophetic warning they never knew in Berlin that they were beaten we'll have to do it all over again foreign

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Length: 47min 7sec (2827 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 27 2023