The 1918 German Spring Offensives

The Hundred Days Offensive The Canadian Corps’ accomplishments from August 8 to November 11 were truly impressive—more than 100,000 Canadians advanced 130 kilometres and captured approximately 32,000 prisoners and nearly 3,800 artillery pieces, machine guns and mortars.

Canadian Sacrifice More than 6,800 Canadians and Newfoundlanders were killed and approximately 39,000 wounded during the last three months of fighting

Conditions at the Front by Fall 1918

Conditions at the FRONT 1918

Berlin

German Revolution 1. The Navy Revolts 2. Workers’ Unions lead labour stoppages 3. Revolution and revolt spreads to major German Cities "It is often said that a true revolution in Germany in 1918 never took place. All that really happened was a breakdown. It was only the temporary weakness of the police and army in the moment of military defeat which let a mutiny of sailors appear as a revolution. At first sight, one can see how wrong and blind this is comparing 1918 with 1945. In 1945 there really was a breakdown. Certainly a mutiny of sailors started the revolution in 1918 but it was only a start. What made it extraordinary is that a mere sailors' mutiny triggered an earthquake which shook all of Germany; that the whole home army, the whole urban workforce and in Bavaria a part of the rural population rose up in revolt. This revolt was not just a mutiny anymore, it was a true revolution. (…)

Kaiser Wilhelm II is forced to abdicate the German Throne A Republic is declared on November 9th, 1918 New Republicans involved in signing of Armistice, Nov. 11th Eventually, Weimar Republic created as new Government

November 11th, 11AM, 1918 The Armistice

Forest at Compiegne The German Delegation Was given no options at the signing Naval blockades

Terms of the Armistice Germany was to evacuate immediately all occupied territory and German troops were to withdraw behind a line of the frontiers of August 1914. Germany was to hand back Alsace Lorraine to France. Allied soldiers could enter these territories without hindrance. The west bank of the Rhine River was to be evacuated and a neutral zone was to be established on the east bank. Vast quantities of war material were to be surrendered to the Allies. All Allied prisoners were to be repatriated, without immediate Allied reciprocity with regard to German prisoners. All German submarines were to be surrendered; but the Allied blockade would continue. Treaties which Germany had signed during the war, such as Brest-Litovsk, were declared null and void. The Germans were to pay 'reparations for damage done'. This was to include all valuables seized from the invaded territories.

Stab in the Back Theory But even after the defeat of 1918, many Germans, and especially those who had played leading parts in political and economic life up to 1918, preserved...a political and historical image of themselves which was coloured by illusions. Because the German army on the western front had held to the last hour an unbroken defensive front outside the frontiers of the Reich, and had marched home in order, these people failed to understand that Germany had been defeated. Thus the idea took root and spread that the cause of the collapse of Germany was not her own policy or exhaustion in the face of an enemy army made stronger than her own by active American intervention, but a 'stab in the back' behind the front. The accusation was [eventually] levelled . . . against the Weimar democracy which had been forced to accept the 'dictated Treaty of Versailles' owing to 'treachery at home'. This view . . . had been propagated by the German Army Council and the press...since November, 1918. The Evangelische Kirchenzeitung, for example, wrote on October 20 -­ before the November revolution: 'Collapse behind the front ­ not collapse of our heroic front, that is the shattering phenomenon of these last days . . . . The home has not held out.'

1919 Austrian Postcard

The Armistice -- Issues 1. The German Army did not actually surrender? 2. Those that negotiated the Armistice for the Germans were not in power during the war. 3. “November Criminals” propaganda. 4. “Stabbed in the Back” Theory 5. Who is to blame for the war?