Fall of the German Empire: Hundred Days Offensive | Animated History

hi i'm griffin johnson the armchair historian during the final months of the first world war a series of allied offensives finally broke the bloody stalemate on the western front civil unrest in germany surged while its demoralized and exhausted armies were sent into a headlong retreat kaiser wilhelm ii was forced to abdicate in the face of imminent revolution and on november 11 1918 the new german republic signed a humiliating armistice which saw much of its former territory partitioned by the victorious nations various circumstances had influenced the empire's collapse but it was the unrelenting pressure from the massive allied offensives that had proven most fatal today we are taking a closer look at what is known as the hundred days offensive the offensive that ended the german empire given today's discussion about the fall of the german empire it's only fitting that the sponsor of today's video is iron order 1919 a free online pvp strategy game that lets you choose from one of the many nations involved in the great war and lead them to victory in a compelling alternate history scenario in this universe the great war never actually ended leading to new technologies being developed like advanced tanks warplanes and even mechs and landships construct an army from a wide range of units both historical and fantastical conduct diplomacy with your fellow players and engage in huge epic battles to determine the fate of the world if you think you have what it takes to break the deadlock in this endless war you can download the game now for both pc and mobile devices armchair historian fans who answer the call within 30 days are also eligible for an exclusive gift of 13 000 gold and one month premium subscription for free [Music] the year 1918 started with a series of political earthquakes in germany the united states had entered the war one year prior on the side of the allies and a german defeat seemed inevitable on the home front thousands of war-weary starving german citizens took to the streets to protest the once glorious conflict that now seemed little more than a meat grinder supplied by the nation's youth but right when all seemed lost miraculous news arrived from the eastern front the nascent soviet union had signed a peace treaty with germany officially ending its participation in the war the commander of the german army general eric ludendorff suddenly sensed an opportunity to end the war before morale broke down and american troops in europe could arrive in force having freed up his forces on the eastern front he quickly seized the opportunity to prepare a massive spring offensive against the western allies the plan for operation michael was to deliver a knockout blow to the british expeditionary force in the ross sector driving the tommy's back to the english channel ludendorff assured the german people that final victory was now once again finally imminent on march 21st an elite vanguard of specially trained german stormtroopers advanced across no man's land and found themselves aided by a thick layer of fog as they infiltrated deep into the british lines the stunned british were put on the back foot as german morale sword but the offensive gradually petered out in the face of logistical issues tactical mistakes and the timely arrival of french reinforcements unwilling to concede an agitated ludendorff doubled down and launched a series of increasingly costly and incoherent follow-up offensives which although they saw tactical successes ultimately failed to achieve operational breakthroughs when the dust had finally settled on july 18th the exhausted and stretched out germans had suffered some 700 000 casualties while the allies had to contend with a combined loss of nearly 865 000 men of their own although a numeric victory the depleted german empire could ill afford to replace their losses while the allies could count on 250 000 fresh american troops arriving on the continent each month to make matters worse the onset of the spanish influenza hit the german lines hard with over 1 million soldiers falling ill between may and july alone and when on july 20th french units under general ferdinand fox forced the battered germans to retreat from the river marn the stage seemed set for the allies to pull an uno reverse card and embark on an offensive of their own gathered at the town of bonbon the allied commanders agreed to a series of limited attacks across the front the amya salient was to be the site of the first push as the open and hard terrain there was considered to be especially favorable for tank maneuvers and the german forces in the area were considered to be only lightly entrenched and suffering from poor morale the veteran canadian and australian corps were tapped to shoulder the main weight of the offensive in contrast to their german opponents they were well rested highly motivated and equipped with some 500 tanks including the new mark v in addition the attack would be supported by a well-prepared mass of artillery and would enjoy clear air superiority to maintain the element of surprise the appearance was given that the canadians would strike in flanders instead as a result german intelligence had little notion of what was to come on august 8th at 4 20 am 2 000 allied guns rudely woke the germans with a devastating bombardment that silenced the majority of german artillery pieces so stunned were the defenders by the shelling that the canadians and australians were upon them before they had a chance to recover to the south the french first army saw similar success and made rapid gains in the meantime german general georg van der marwitz frantically tried to figure out what was going on as his reserve forces struggled to get past the remnants of the shattered front-line divisions however by the end of the day the allied forces had reached their objectives and had advanced close to 8 miles or almost 13 kilometers into enemy territory according to von der marvitz the aggressive use of tanks which he called evil weapons had been the major factor in the decimation of the defending german second army moreover their rapid advance into the enemy's rear left the neighboring 18th army's flank positionally unhinged and served as an indicator for the way tanks would be utilized in the next war german losses that day were so high that the 8th of august would become known as the black day after having lost a staggering 48 000 men on top of 400 guns and hundreds of machine guns and trench mortars fueled by this unprecedented success the allies widened the attack on the northern and southern shoulder although the british and french armies managed to push on for several more miles the following day the advance was slowed due to the fact that the supporting artillery simply could not keep pace with the infantry and many tanks were beginning to suffer mechanical failures the australians in the meantime were pinned down at the village of hamel by german artillery fire coming from the shipya ridge the shelling from the heights would continue until the end of the day when a daring assault by elements of the 33rd u.s infantry silenced the guns however by the end of august 10th the advance had ground to a final halt as arriving german reinforcements managed to stabilize the situation and allied supply lines were stretched thin nevertheless the offensive had been a major success as the town of monte die which had been the offensive's main objective had been encircled by the french and all the territory that the germans had gained during operation michael had been retaken in a matter of days at the german supreme army command or the ohl the mood had turned sour the previously triumphant ludendorff now advised the kaiser that germany ought to seek a negotiated peace the german army would however need to hold its present ground on french soil in order to obtain favorable terms in an urgent meeting with reich chancellor georg von hertling and the kaiser the leaders of the ohl general ludendorff and field marshal paul von hindenburg insisted that the army would be able to do so provided the german people continued to support them on the other side of no man's land general fock had gotten an appetite for victory and urged the allied commanders to press the attack into the sam region his colleagues however cautioned against this idea as intelligence had indicated that the german positions in the area had now been significantly reinforced unwilling to consider alternative plans the unyielding frenchman ultimately got his way and on the 21st of august the british third army under general sir julian bing advanced through a thick layer of fog into the battle-scarred territory that had haunted the tommy's two years prior although initially aided by the lack of visibility the attack gradually slowed down as entire waves of men lost their way in the mist as expected german resistance was stiff and losses were high especially among the tanks and the advance was finally stopped dead in its tracks in the face of relentless artillery fire nonetheless the british advanced three miles or nearly five kilometers in one day and managed to secure several of their objectives in the process in the following days a renewed push saw the further capture of albert and bao pama and carried the australian corps to the banks of the soam river which they reached on august 31st after having found a lone rail head among the destroyed bridges and railways on the river the mast aussies queued up to continue their unparalleled advance and by september 4th the men from a land down under had smashed the german defensive line at the battles of montson county and peyron with the germans now in a headlong retreat from the somme the allied armies were in position to attack the famed hindenburg line the final german defensive position on the western front the following month brought more bad news for the kaiser as his retreating armies were caught with their pants down on several occasions at saw miaow the american first army with support from the elite french second colonial corps completely overwhelmed the withdrawing germans news arriving from germany's allies was equally catastrophic the austro-hungarians had started sending peace proposals to the united states and the bulgarians were similarly pleading for a ceasefire in the face of imminent military collapse on the solenica front faced with a whopping 460 000 casualties in the months of august and september alone ludendorff was noted to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown on the front line the mood had soured too peering towards no man's land demoralized german soldiers now awaited inescapable defeat or death the anticipated allied assault on the hindenburg line came in the final week of september on the 26th a combined franco-american force advanced up the thickly wooded hillsides of the argol forest although conscious of the difficult terrain and intricate defenses in front of his men us general john jay pershing intended to force his way through the 61 000 defenders with his numerically overwhelming assault force of 330 000 although seeing some initial success the advance of the inexperienced americans ground down to a crawl in the face of tenacious resistance and the arrival of significant german reinforcements and the fighting in the forest would continue right up until the end of the war to the north america's allies had more success with the canadian corps capturing the canal du nord on the 27th and general fox launching an assault on the song contact canal two days later the canal formed a formidable obstacle at 35 feet or nearly 11 meters wide littered with barbed wire after shelling the area for several days with thousands of guns a joint american australian and british force crept forward to cover the advance allied artillery fired some 30 000 rounds of mustard gas toward the german defenders whose understrength divisions had by that time been reduced to the size of regiments still the attackers struggled immensely until the british ninth corps to the south managed to cross the canal and capture the recaval bridge the feared hindenburg line had been broken and the allies now possessed a crucial supply line to advance even further into german-held territory the intensity of the attacks in the south forced the germans to pivot crucial forces away from other sectors of the front this opened up lucrative opportunities for the opposing allied armies to advance in places that had been at a standstill for years at the eep salient which had been the site of four major battles in the years prior the combined british belgian force broke out on the 28th of september and overran the lightly held german lines in a single day netting another 10 000 prisoners further south at cambray the british also sensed opportunity and pressed the attack the withdrawn german defenders attempted to buy time by booby-trapping the area even setting fire to the town itself but they too were quickly overrun with the hindenburg line decisively broken and the imperial army in disarray ludendorff realized that the war was now inevitably lost in the north belgian french and british forces in the eep sector further exploited their breakthrough by pushing deeper into flanders they were met with little resistance from the exhausted and demoralized germans and by mid-october the british fourth army had crossed the river cell with ease meanwhile the situation on the german home front began to move in tandem with the rapid breakdown on the front in early october the newly appointed chancellor of germany maximilian von baden initiated negotiations with the american government of president woodrow wilson to request an immediate ceasefire but when the german government conceded to demands for political reforms and unconditional surrender the ohl lashed out by flat out rejecting any of the humiliating terms proposed by the wilson government and instead ordered its troops to fight on until the bloody end to break the deadlock baden convinced the kaiser to dismiss ludendorff from the ohl on october 26th a day later the german government accepted wilson's conditions for an armistice however the wheels of revolution were already turning and these developments did but little to temper the growing civil unrest on the very day the conditions were accepted a mutiny broke out in wilhelmshofen when hundreds of sailors refused to weigh anchor for one final suicide clash with the royal navy within a week their ranks grew to some 40 000 heavily armed men who now occupied much of the city's civil and military institutions and were demanding the abdication of the kaiser as well as radical political reforms with the authorities unwilling and incapable of stopping them revolutionary unrest spread like wildfire into the interior even reaching as far as the southern kingdom of bavaria on november 8th its war reary population ousted its king ludwig iii and declared itself a folkstat were the people state of bavaria on that same day panicked government officials in berlin could see with their own bulging eyes that the situation was in danger of completely spiraling out of control baden urged the kaiser to abdicate immediately to preempt a revolutionary triumph the latter consented to giving up his title as king of germany and set out to prepare an official declaration the impatient and unsatisfied chancellor decided to take matters into his own hands taking the stage to not only announce the abdication of the kaiser as both the king of germany but also the king of prussia as well as the crown prince's renunciation of rights to both titles with the kaiser gone the conditions for signing the armistice were finally met however the german delegation was in no position to demand any significant amendments in its final terms which among other things demanded hefty reparations to the allies and the seeding of much of the former empire's territory despite this the new german government instructed them to sign the armistice regardless and on november 11th at 5 a.m an agreement was reached exactly six hours later the guns that had ceaselessly roared for over four years finally fell silent and the bloody war that had cost the lives of millions had come to a sudden end although various factors played a role in the fall of the german empire it was the unrelenting pressure of the allied hundred days offensive which ultimately broke the eagle's back with ludendorff's promise of imminent victory bombarded to a crisp the exhausted german people had finally had enough the end of the first world war however did not immediately bring peace to the german homeland from his new home in the netherlands the former kaiser helplessly watched as his empire descended into a bitter revolution which would not finally end until august of the following year with the ratification of the weimar constitution the new government however would prove equally ill-equipped to deal with the many social and political hardships that lay ahead and its disgruntled population would soon look to a more radical alternative to put their humiliated nation back on the top thanks again to iron order 1919 a free online pvp strategy game for sponsoring this video download the game within 30 days and receive an exclusive gift of 13 000 gold and one free month of premium subscription now [Music] [Music] you

Channel: The Armchair Historian

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Length: 20min 4sec (1204 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 29 2022