World War I: Spring Offensive 2/4

The story of the German offensive of March 1918, a desperate gamble to grab victory at a stroke.

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[Andiish08]

04.45 I would'nt like to be a british soldier of the 5th army at that moment, it must be hell on earth!

[Blindanddumb]

@xxstefanx interessant. weiter bitte :)

[xxstefanx]

part 4

And even if this main factor - Amiens - had been correctly analyzed it would have been far away from a sure thing!

There were some other important factors that would have made the separation of the French and British forces very unlikely!

(but that would really take too long here...!)

[xxstefanx]

part 3

Both were basically absent! Ludendorff was a (just) a tactical genius! He was perfect in taking advantage of opportunities suddenly arisen out of the battle (which was exactly the thing for the Eastern front: Tannenberg, Masurian Lakes)., but not in this situation.

And he was totally exhausted with nervous breakdowns all along the planning of the offensive!

General von Manstein (WWII) wrote: A wrong operational plan is almost impossible to correct in the operation itself!

.

[xxstefanx]

part 2:

Prince Max von Baden and Ludendorff just prior to the offensive: After the prince had asked about the strategy for the whole operation Ludendorff furiously replied the following: "Das Wort Strategie verbitte ich mir! Wir schlagen ein Loch hinein! Danach sehen wir weiter!" (I vehemently refuse the word strategy! We blow a hole into the line! Then we'll see!")

What was needed to turn the odds in favor of the Germans was a brillant strategist and a well thought out operational plan! .

[xxstefanx]

@Andish08

Historical consensus is that it was not effective despite the biggest territorial gains since 1914. It ought to be concepted for decision, but instead ran out of steam in nomansland!

In fact, the Michael offensive was plagued by Ludendorff not realizing Amiens as THE operational - and decisive (!)- goal from the outset. Foch on the contrary was well aware of the situation and even brought up reinforcements behind the British lines!

There was a famous conversation between ...

[SIEGFFFF]

From 00:55 it "Drei lilien", a German song. Does anyone know where can I find this particular version?

[vetdino]

@ElliotWrightMusic BBC made in the 1960s I think

[Withnail1969]

@Andiish08 This offensive was brilliantly effective but it could never have broken the naval blockade which was starving Germany.

[ElliotWrightMusic]

may I know when this set of documentaries was made, and by whom? I've really enjoyed them - thank you for posting!