What was the 100 Day Offensive in World War 1?

Answer 1

This term is often used to describe the period (actually 95 days) from the opening of the Battle of Amiens on August 8th, 1918 to the signing of the Armistice by Germany on November 11th, during which time the German Army was virtually in constant retreat on the Western Front.

Amiens is seen by many as the first "modern" battle, involving the use by the British (and Empire) Army of over 500 Tanks (mostly fighting tanks, both Heavy and Medium, but also including tanks adapted for a number of specialised support roles), sophisticated tank-infantry cooperation, and other innovations such as the use of aircraft to drop supplies and ammunition to forward positions. A simultaneous French attack using about 70 of their light Tanks took place immediately to the south in what was in effect part of the same offensive.

The attack was an appreciable success, although it actually only retook territory that the Germans had gained during their offensives of March-June that year, and the advance was assisted to some extent by the Germans falling back to strongly fortified positions known as the Hindenburg Line. However, Erich Ludendorff, the German C-in-C, is said to have described August 8th as "the black day of the German Army", since it became clear that any chance of German victory or a negotiated peace had gone.

Thereafter the Allies launched a series of offensives at numerous places along the Front. With the French Army recovered from its collapse of morale in 1917, and large numbers of American troops now trained and armed, it was possible to mount a number of attacks against a Germany Army that had lost many of its best men during its own offensives earlier in 1918.

Such was Allied superiority in numbers and materiel that it was possible to press home an attack until German resistance stiffened and then switch to a different sector of the line, subjecting the enemy to enormous pressure. Although Allied losses were severe (1918 was the heaviest year of the war for British casualties) the Germans were approaching the end of their strength.

In September the Hindenburg Line was breached and in the north the Belgian Army joined the advance after nearly 4 years on the defensive. Gradually the Germans were pushed back all along the most important section of the Front.

It was not, however, beaten "in detail" and was retiring in reasonably good order. How long it could have continued to resist will never be known, but Germany's allies dropped out one by one and in Germany itself there were strikes, mutinies in the Navy, and uprisings, as well as starvation among the population.

The Germans had captured so much territory in early 1918 that by November the Allies had advanced only to the positions held at the very start of the War, and the Front still ran through Belgium and France. It has been suggested that if Germany had continued to resist, the Allies might have found their supply lines stretched and Germany could have prepared defenses strong enough to continue the War in 1919. But time was not on Germany's side; the Home Front was collapsing, and she was desperately short of raw materials. Vast numbers of fresh American troops were in the pipeline, and troops were being released by the surrender of Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey.

A German delegation met the French on November 7th, 1918 to negotiate an Armistice. The Allied terms amounted to unconditional surrender, and the German government authorised acceptance on the 10th. The Armistice was signed in the early hours of the following day, to come into effect at 11 a.m., the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.