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Germany’s Push for Paris
With Russia no longer a threat and forces arriving from the eastern front, Germany enjoyed superiority in numbers on the western front for the first time since the earliest days of the war. Nonetheless, all sides, including Germany, were exhausted. Their strength was limited, and fresh troops from the United States would soon be ready to join the fight on the Allied side. If Germany was going to somehow win the war, now was the time.
Germany therefore poured all its remaining resources into a massive offensive that began in the early morning hours of March 21, 1918. The goal was to push across the river Somme and then on to Paris. Like most land battles in World War I, the offensive began with a prolonged artillery barrage. In this case it lasted for five hours and included a heavy concentration of poison gas shells. When the German troops moved forward through a combination of heavy fog and poison gas clouds, visibility was near zero, and soldiers on both sides had difficulty distinguishing friends from enemies. By midday, the fog had lifted, and a furious air battle took place over the soldiers’ heads while the Germans relentlessly pounded the Allies.
As the Germans surged forward, they brought with them new long-range artillery cannons which could fire accurately upon Paris from the astounding range of 74 miles. On March 23, these shells killed more than 250 unsuspecting Parisians, who were baffled because they initially thought the blasts were coming from the ground. The long-distance German shells killed hundreds more in the following days. On March 24, the Germans raced across the Somme, capturing the bridges before the French could destroy them. On March 25, the Allied front broke at precisely the point where the French and British lines met.
The Battle of Lys
German momentum continued for another five days until a British advance halted the Germans at Moreuil Wood on March 30. The Allies pushed the Germans back for several more days, until the initiative was reversed once more at the Battle of Lys, which began on April 9, 1918. At Lys, the British and French began to lose ground once more, and the Germans recaptured places (such as Passchendaele and Messines) that the Allies had won in costly battles the previous year.
By the end of the Battle of Lys on April 29, the German army, despite recent successes, saw morale reach an all-time low. French and British morale was almost as bad. During this period of the war, whenever either side launched an offensive, it would only last a few days before the troops ran out of energy and began to fall back.
Nonetheless, neither British, nor French, nor German leaders would give up, so the war continued in this way for much of the summer.
Turmoil in the East
Although Russia had left the war, there was unfinished business in the territories along the old eastern front. On May 7, 1918, Romania signed a peace treaty with the Central Powers, giving up control of the mouth of the Danube River along the Black Sea coast. At the same time, German troops advanced to the southeast, through the Ukraine, southern Russia, and on to the Caucasus region. As the Bolsheviks still did not have effective control of this region, the Germans were able to proceed largely unchallenged.
On May 12, Germany and Austria-Hungary signed an agreement to share economic benefits from the Ukraine. Barely a week later, however, Austria-Hungary experienced the first in a series of mutinies in its army, carried out by nationalist groups. The first mutiny involved a group of Slovenes; almost as soon as it was suppressed, other mutinies broke out, led in turn by Serbs, Rusyns (Ruthenians), and Czechs.
Events Timeline
March 21, 1918
Germany launches spring offensive
March 23
German long-range guns begin shelling Paris
March 24
German forces cross the Somme
March 25
Allied front line is broken
March 30
Germans are stopped at Moreuil Wood
April 9–29
Battle of Lys
May 7
Romania signs peace treaty with Central Powers
May 12
Germany and Austria sign pact to exploit Ukraine
May 21
Mutinies begin in Austrian army
