World War I

D

The Russian Revolutions of 1917

In 1917 an event of far-reaching consequences took place in Russia. Although by this time some Allied supplies were arriving in Russia through the ports of Archangel (Arkhangel’sk) and Vladivostok, there were not enough of them. Russian administrative chaos prevented the supplies from being distributed in an orderly manner. The troops at the front were starving. Many were weaponless, shoeless, and in rags.

From February 23 to 27, 1917, disorder broke out in Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg) in which civilians and soldiers cried for peace and bread. In less than a week, Tsar Nicholas II abdicated and a Provisional Government was created that soon came under the leadership of Aleksandr Kerensky. (Dates for the February Revolution are given according to the Julian, or Old Style, calendar then in use in Russia. On January 31, 1918, the Soviet government adopted the Gregorian, or New Style, calendar, which moved dates by 13 days; therefore, in the New Style calendar the dates for the first revolution would be March 8 to 12.)

By the beginning of 1917 the Russian army was falling apart because of the inadequacy of its weapons and supplies and a succession of losses at the front. Many soldiers had lost confidence not only in the ruling Romanov dynasty but also in the cause of the war itself. But replacing the tsar with the Provisional Government headed by Kerensky did not remedy the situation once Kerensky pledged to keep Russia in the war. When he ordered another offensive in the summer of 1917, Russian soldiers streamed home from the front and joined antiwar demonstrations that were skillfully exploited by the Bolshevik Party, which ousted Kerensky in October (November, New Style), in a second revolution.

Once in power, the Bolshevik leader, Vladimir Ilich Lenin, sent delegates to the Polish city of Brest-Litovsk to negotiate an armistice with the Germans, which was signed on December 2 (December 15, New Style). The armistice’s terms included a 30-day peace, no troop movements that were not already ordered, and immediate peace negotiations. But when the Bolshevik government resisted the harsh conditions that the Germans demanded in the peace treaty, the German army marched eastward into Russia. Finally, the Central Powers and Russia concluded the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on March 3, 1918, which ended Russia’s participation in the war. The price that the Bolshevik government had to pay for peace was a heavy one: Russia was forced to cede to Germany the Baltic States, Russian Poland, and Ukraine, which briefly became part of a vast satellite empire of Germany. After Russia withdrew from the war, German military planners were able to transfer forces to France to prepare for a massive offensive against the British, French, and new American troops there.

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E

The British Fight Against the Ottomans

British forces continued fighting against the Ottomans, gradually taking over territory. In Mesopotamia a British army under Sir Frederick Maude recaptured the city of Kut-al-Imara (Al Kūt) early in 1917, pushed on to Baghdād in March, and inflicted a heavy defeat on the Ottomans at the city of Ramadi in September. In the region of Palestine, which the Ottoman Empire ruled, the British made two unsuccessful attacks in the spring of 1917 on the coastal fortress of Gaza. In November, British general Edmund Allenby outflanked and overwhelmed Gaza, and after hard fighting, captured Jerusalem in December 1917. German troops under General Falkenhayn reinforced the Ottomans, who tried to recover Jerusalem during the last week of December. However, Allenby and his troops defeated them.

During this campaign the Arabs of the Hejaz (Al Ḩijāz) region of Arabia revolted against the Ottomans in an attempt to gain their independence. They were aided by Englishman T. E. Lawrence, who became known as Lawrence of Arabia.

The British military campaign against the Ottoman Empire did not have a major impact on the outcome of the war, which would be determined on the fields of Belgium and France. But it had important consequences for the part of the world that would later be referred to as the Middle East. In order to obtain the support of the inhabitants of the Hejaz region in the war against the Ottomans, Britain had to pledge support for the creation of an independent state in the Arabic-speaking portions of the Ottoman Empire after the war. Although the Arabs did not get independence when World War I ended, the cause of national self-determination became a potent force in the Arab world.

F

Other Events, 1917

With the Russian collapse, strong German reinforcements went to Italy to help the Austro-Hungarians. On October 24, 1917, covered by a heavy mist and a relatively short bombardment, Austro-Hungarian and Germans attacked in overwhelming force on both sides of the Austrian town of Caporetto (now Kobarid, Slovenia). They shattered the whole front of the Italian Second Army on the Isonzo River. It was more than two weeks before the Italians were finally able to make a stand on the Piave River, 200 km (100 mi) behind their original front. In the Battle of Caporetto, Italian casualties, including prisoners, were about 300,000 men. French and British troops arrived in early November to help stabilize the front.

In the Balkans, intermittent operations had continued on the Salonika front during 1916. During this time pro-German King Constantine I of Greece refused to allow the British and French to use Athens to supply their military forces fighting in Salonika. In June 1917, with vigorous intervention by the Allies, King Constantine abdicated. The same month, a pro-Allied government took over in Athens under Prime Minister Eleutherios Venizelos, and Greece declared war on Germany and Bulgaria. Henceforth Greece, which had stubbornly refused to assist the Allies in the Balkans, actively participated in the war against German and Bulgarian forces on the peninsula.

IX

Phase Four: Period of Decision

In 1918 two critical events brought an end to the long period of stalemate: the withdrawal of Russia and the intervention of the United States. When Germany forced Russia out of the war in March 1918 and transferred some of its military forces from east to west, the American Expeditionary Force had yet to participate actively in the Allied war effort in France. Germany promptly mounted a major western offensive in an effort to break through the Anglo-French defenses before American military power arrived on the western front. The German offensive failed, and the Allies followed it with a counteroffensive, in which U.S. forces actively participated for the first time. This counteroffensive brought an end to the war in the autumn of 1918.

A

Western Front, 1918

A

1

Germany's Gamble

At the beginning of 1918, German leaders were considering a plan to gain decisive victory on the western front. The plan was to take advantage of a temporary superiority in numbers of troops, which occurred because Germany was able to shift troops from the eastern front to the western front after Russia withdrew from the war. Germany wanted to mount a surprise offensive before the full force of the U.S. armies could be ready for action. The plan was a gamble—if the Germans failed, it would mean final defeat because Germany was running out of men and war materials.

Some German military leaders, notably General Max Hoffmann, the new commander in chief on the eastern front, felt that Germany should avoid the gamble, consolidate its gains in the east, and stand strictly on the defensive in the west. Under the terms of Russia’s withdrawal from the war, Germany gained predominant influence in a number of non-Russian states that were formed all along the Russian frontiers in the west and south, such as Ukraine, the Baltic States, Georgia, and Armenia. These areas had food and raw materials that could meet the needs of the German people and of German industry. Hoffmann believed that a reinforced German army in the west could hold the western front strongly enough to induce the Allies to grant tolerable peace terms if Germany offered to evacuate French and Belgian territory. Hoffmann and the other supporters of this strategy felt that if Germany obtained vast territorial gains in the east, it would soon regain a dominant position in Europe.

However, General Ludendorff refused to compromise, and his desire for victory on the battlefield won over Hindenburg. Hindenburg had grown to trust Ludendorff's judgment, and he felt that he owed Ludendorff loyal support against Hoffmann.

The new German plan was largely invented by General Oskar von Hutier and had been tested in battle on the Russian and Italian fronts, where it had been overwhelmingly successful. The plan of attack began with a relatively brief artillery bombardment in which chemicals launched in so-called gas shells were used to avoid breaking up the ground over which the infantry would have to advance. (Conventional shells broke up the ground, making it difficult for the infantry to cross.)

The Germans were not going to initiate the infantry assault by solid lines and masses of men but would begin it with a wave of troops. Their objective for the first day was not to capture the enemy's first line or intermediate line. They were to push straight ahead, bypassing strong points of resistance or working around them, and press on toward the hostile artillery positions. Reserves were to be put in wherever the first troops were making progress, not where they were held up. No attempt was to be made to preserve a continuous line, and no commander was to worry about his flanks.

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