1. Chapter 12: Mutiny and Mud – The Western Front in 1917
Bryant

2. Current events America getting ready to fight Revolution in Russia
Western Front looked for ways to break out of trenches

3. The Nivelle offensive

4. General Nivelle, French comander, thought he had the answer:
Find weakest spot in German trench line and attack, thus chasing Germans out of France
But Germans got wind of this plan and retreated to new line of trenches – the Hindenburg line
April 9th: British attacked town of Arras and Canadian troops captured Vimy Ridge.
But Germans brought in reserved troops.
Battle caused ¼ million casualties.
Down south, French attacked German Trenches but they were empty and were caught in a trap.
Nivelle, refusing defeat, sent more soldiers in but it was hopeless.
Ten days later, 34,000 French soldiers were dead and 90,000 were

5. Mutiny French soldiers turned against Nivelle
Thousands of soldiers deserted and half of the army refused to obey orders
Nivelle replaced with General Petain
Petain was ruthless and court-marshaled thousands of soldiers (who were sent to Devil’s Island) and hundreds of other soldiers were executed
Once controll was restored, Petain doubled the soldiers’ leave and improved the food rations

6. British victories
To draw attention away from the French mutiny, the British attacked the North.
Their target: a hill in Messines. 140m high. The Germans could view everything from there.
The British dug 19 holes and packed them with 1,000,000 kg of TNT. It was detonated on June 7th.
This cleared the way for the British.
Pleased with the results, General Haig advanced his army to Ypres.

8. Ypres
Ypres (AKA Passchendaele), was the most horrible of the war due to all the mud that the soldiers sank into.
400,000 British were killed or wounded.
At the end of battle, they only won 800 metres of mud.

10. Cambrau
November: Haig tries new attack by sending 381 tanks to German Trenches in Cambrai.
Tanks smashed a gap 8 km wide and 10,000 Germans taken prisoner.
But tanks went to fast for British sldiers to keep up.
Germans counter-attacked and regained all lost ground.