THE GREAT RETREAT ANNIVERSARY SUPPLEMENT, NAVY NEWS, MARCH 2008 i
‘Much blood will flow’
TThe Kaiserhe Kaiser’s BattleBattle
A DECISIVE BLOW
TIME RUNNING OUT
A FATEFUL DECISION
IT WAS barely light in Mons on a
dank autumn day.
The heart of the Belgian town was
pleasant enough but its environs had
little to recommend them, for Mons
sat amid Belgium’s coalfields and its
slag heaps.
Here three years earlier the
Old Contemptibles of the British
Expeditionary Force had entered the
name ‘Mons’ in the proud annals of
the Empire’s military history.
And now, on Sunday November
11 1917, the brains of the German
Army conspired once again to strike
in the West.
It was 8am when Erich Ludendorff,
Erster Generalquartiermeister –
First Generalquartermaster – of the
Imperial German Army strode into
the headquarters of Crown Prince
Rupprecht of Bavaria, located in a
château in Hardenpont, just outside
Mons.
A serious, sober leader, Rupprecht
was by far the ablest of Germany’s
royal commanders – a realist, not a
man to be roused by tubthumping
and patriotic clarion calls.
Now he listened as Erich
Ludendorff outlined Germany’s
grand strategy for the months to
come.
For more than a year, the German
soldier had stood on the defensive
on the Western Front, that 450-mile-
● ‘The brazen spirit of the attack swept through the massed troops’... Stosstruppen on the attack during Germany’s gamble for victory
long man-made barrier which carved
in 1918
its way from the Franco-Swiss border
to the North Sea between Dunkirk
and Ostend. The poilu, the general argued, however. On the penultimate day of But for the moment the Allies Ostlandkämpfer – eastern warriors
Twice, the Imperial Army had would fight to the last for his sacred the old year, the German guns barked were weak, worn out by fighting – believed them to be.
sought outright victory in the West: in
soil. Not so the Tommy. Besides, the and pummelled the 6,800 yards of coupled, in France’s case, with unrest Perhaps the officer’s misgivings
the autumn of 1914 when it marched
Tommy lacked the skill of his French trench the sailors held. Before 1918 in the ranks. were compounded by the knowledge
on Paris and in the spring of 1916
counterpart. Beating the English was rung in, one company alone in The first four months of 1918 that his son was now a Frontkämpfer
at Verdun when it looked to bleed
appeared “easier, more certain”. the Hood Battalion had lost 30 men. would be critical to the Allies’ – front-line warrior.
France white. Twice, the Imperial
The where was more problematic. But then life daily on the Western fortunes, Douglas Haig warned his “It’s becoming harder and harder
THIS was the man Germans
Army had failed.
Staff officers suggested another blow Front ate at the soul of the British political masters. to deal with the horrors of war – the
believed would bring victory to the
Since then the ordinary German
at Verdun, but they were quickly soldier. Even when it was supposedly The Germans enjoyed a superiority dead, the wounded, the dying,” Thaer
Reich in the spring of 1918: the
soldier, the Landser, had been
dismissed. (Aside from being French quiet, there were casualties. In the of one million men – a figure, in wrote to his wife.
Stosstrupp.
ordered to hold the ground he stood
it was the toughest nut on the Western
fi ve months between the end of the
reality, Erich Ludendorff could only Surely, he argued, there had to be
Stosstruppen (literally ‘thrust’
on as the Tommy and poilu battered
Front to crack.)
fi ghting at Passchendaele and the
dream of. a better way of ending the war than
or ‘assault troops’) – commonly
against him.
Instead, German eyes fell upon
unleashing of the German spring
But what would the foe do with sending young men against a steel
referred to in English as
But this was no way to win a
Picardy and British Army holding the
offensive, the RND lost fi ve battalion
such a surplus, Haig wondered.
hail of enemy bullets and shells.
‘stormtroops’ – were the German
war. Slowly, inexorably, the Kaiser’s
line around the town of St Quentin.
commanders. Lower down, the
Surely he would not risk them to
“Is this not, perhaps, the last good
Army’s antidote to the stalemate
Army was being ground down. The
And so, after three hours,
situation was even worse: there
seek a decision on the Western Front.
card that we hold in our hands and
of trench warfare.
weight of numbers, the weight of
Ludendorff had made his mind up.
simply were not enough junior
That, Douglas Haig reasoned, would
wouldn’t a Bismarck be able to bring
While the Allies experimented
matériel against him was too great,
“Our general situation demands
offi cers to lead the men – and what
be the act of a gambler playing his
things to a rapid conclusion without
with mechanised warfare,
while sitting in trenches and bunkers
that we strike as soon as possible,”
the Germans reinvented the
offi cers there were seemed to have
last card.
so much blood being shed?”
gnawed at his morale.
he told the gathered array of
infantryman.
rolled straight off a production line. Germany did not possess a
As 1917 drew to a close, Erich
commanders, “before the Americans
They were fi ne men, but they lacked THE LAST CARD Bismarck. She did, however, possess
After a ferocious but relatively
Ludendorff was certain that the
can bring their weight to bear. We
short bombardment of gas
initiative. Erich Ludendorff.
German soldier in France and
must strike the English.”
and high explosive shells, the
One such junior offi cer undergoing
‘WE’LL SMASH A HOLE’
Field Marshal Paul Ludwig Hans
Belgium “pined for the offensive”.
The ensuing blow, the monocled
Stosstruppen would storm forward
training was Royal Marine Capt Anton von Beneckendorff und von
It wasn’t just the Landser who
general proclaimed, would be “a
in small groups.
Harold Horne, sent to V Corps’
IN A RIGHT PICKLE
Hindenburg was the Chief of the
pined for the offensive. So too did
decisive operation”.
They would probe the weakest
school mid-way between Doullens General Staff but it was his deputy
their commander. “The offensive is
It would indeed be a decisive
part of the Allied line, then punch
and Albert. Albrecht von Thaer agreed. The son Ludendorff who ran Germany’s war.
through, avoiding combat and
the most effective means of making
operation. The war would end a year
Life away from the front for of a Silesian landowner, 49-year-old Ludendorff could be, and
invariably bypassing strongpoints
war,” he believed. “It alone is
to the day of the Mons conference, but
Horne was almost pleasant. There Thaer had served with distinction as frequently was, brilliant, incisive,
such as bunkers.
decisive. Military history proves it on
not as Erich Ludendorff expected.
were lectures every day, parades, a staff offi cer in the West – so much inspired. But he could also be – and
Those Allied bunkers would be
every page.”
Among the last towns to be
drill, and almost daily instruction in distinction, indeed, that he earned frequently was – tired, irrational, and
dealt with by subsequent waves of
And so, Erich Ludendorff
liberated from the German yoke
the art of horse riding. And if the Germany’s highest military honour, prone to fits of mental collapse. All
specialist troops, such as machine-
explained, the moment had come
would be Mons and among its
delights of Albert did not distract the Pour le Mérite, the Blue Max in these traits, and more, would reveal
gunners or flamethrower units,
to strike once more. For time was
liberators would be British sailors.
the officers under training, there was common parlance. themselves in the coming months.
while the Stosstruppen continued
against the Reich. The American always the Tank Corps’ concert party, Thaer’s mood in the winter of
And the monocled general’s
their forward thrust.
doughboys would soon flood across NO REST FOR THE 63
RD
The Idle Willies. 1917-1918 swung violently between greatest strength was also his greatest
Typically, a Stosstrupp wore a
the Atlantic and tip the scales of war Harold Horne’s ultimate master hope and despair.
weakness: he would micro-manage
feldgrau (field grey) jacket and
against Germany.
DAILY LOSSES
was also enjoying life away from “We stand on the eve of a future battles down to the smallest detail,
trousers, plus puttees and ankle
The Americans were coming into the front. just as someone stands in front of a
but invariably fail to look at the
boots (rather than jackboots).
the war. The Russians were going
100 CIGARS
The new year of 1918 opened for dark curtain,” he noted in his diary.
bigger picture. Woe betide anyone
The Pickelhaube spiked helmet
out. It was the sworn intent of the Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig in the “Coming events will bring huge
who asked what his grand plan was.
had been replaced by the more
Bolsheviks to make peace. The men of the 63rd (Royal Naval capital of the British Empire, amid a upheaval and, for many, horrors.
“I object to the word ‘operation’,”
practical Stahlhelm (steel helmet)
Peace in East fuelled war in the Division) cared little for grand plans flurry of high-level conferences and Much blood will flow – hopefully
he scolded Rupprecht. “We’ll smash
– often referred to as the ‘coal
West. The end of war with Russia and decisive blows. dinner parties. not on our side.”
a hole and see what happens. That’s
scuttle helmet’.
would allow Germany to ferry The sailors and marines were Secretary of State for War Lord Sometimes he praised his nation’s
what we did in Russia!”
He would carry an assault
soldiers westwards. And with these weary of war. The Somme, Arras, Derby squabbled with Prime Minister leadership. Sometimes he chastised
Like Albrecht von Thaer, the
pack, a haversack, gas mask, a
men, the Reich would strike. Passchendaele... all had promised Lloyd George over the war’s length. it.
Bavarian Crown Prince had grave
canteen, water bottle, entrenching
“We hope to be able to deliver the victory but delivered little more than Derby was convinced the Allies What troubled Thaer above all
doubts about the impending
tool, ammunition, bayonet and
enemy a blow he’ll feel,” Ludendorff mud and blood. would be victorious before the year was confidence bordering on hubris
offensive.
sometimes cutters to deal with
declared brashly. The 63rd left Flanders behind as was out – and promised the prickly which possessed Germany’s military
The attack, he told Kaiser Wilhelm
barbed wire.
But where to strike and against the curtain came down on 1917 and Welsh premier 100 cigars if he was leaders.
II, Germany’s impetuous ruler, would
The Mauser rifle was his
whom? found themselves in a bulge in the right. Veterans of the Eastern Front and
do little more than to drive a bulge
constant companion as well as the
To Erich Ludendorff the whom German line – the Flesquières salient Douglas Haig agreed with his Italy expected a rapid breakthrough
into the Allies lines at the cost of
Steilhandgranate (stick grenade)
was easy. The ‘English’. Germans – before the town of Cambrai. war minister. The conflict would be in France. Albrecht von Thaer
horrific losses.
favoured by the German Army,
always spoke of the English, never Escape from Flanders brought over before 1919; Germany’s parlous shared none of their optimism. The
Wilhelm II agreed, but he did not
although the men also carried
the British. no relief from the horrors of war, internal situation guaranteed it. English were not the pushovers these Continued on page imarina British-style ‘egg’ grenades.
MMarch Offensive.indd 1arch Offensive.indd 1 118/2/08 10:43:328/2/08 10:43:32
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