1-WWI+German+Offensive+1917

=**__Germany’s Home Front__** =


 * What did it mean for Germany to be under martial law after 1915? This should include political, social, and judicial concerns.
 * Martial law is the authorization of the military to rule over a country or region in case of an emergency. In late July of 1914, the Kaiser declared Germany under martial law shortly after learning of Russia’s mobilization.
 * At the beginning of the WWI, all German politicians adamantly supported the war. The military run government had made many plans preparing for the war, including having a large reserve of troops. However, the government was more focused on how they would do in the war than the well being of its people. The German government neglected to stockpile any food or critical supplies to help prevent their own populations from dying. Too many workers in vital industries (ie mining and textiles) were drafted into the military for Germany to keep up with a booming demand for warm clothing, army uniforms, and energy consumption.


 *  How did the Women’s Home Army and the Freikorps embody the attitudes of many Germans about the end of the war?
 * Freikorps -
 * The Freikorps originated during the 7 years war, and over the decades leading up to WWI had represented heros for German nationalism by shaking off the French during the Napoleonic Wars.
 * After the war, the Freikorps served as a refuge for former German soldiers who were both embittered by defeat and unable to function again in normal society. Many of the veterans joined the Freikorps to keep a military influence and structure within their lives. The Freikorps were very violent in the years after WWI ended, and were responsible for crushing the German Revolution 1918-1919 and several murders of members of the German Social Democratic Party. These young men were often bitter and angry towards their loss in WWI, a belief shared amongst many Germans. This atmosphere of hatred and violence allowed for Hitler to take advantage of the German situation and come into power several years later.
 * Women’s Home Army
 * Like the rest of Europe and North America, women needed to fill the labor positions that men had to leave because of the draft. However, in German society, women joining the workforce was looked down upon. The “Women’s Home Army” was an organization started by the military government in Germany in an attempt to discover spies and keep up morale around the women. Women were encouraged to find ‘traitors’ and report them to the government.
 * What was the significance of the “Turnip Winters” for the German population in 1916-17 and 1917-18?
 * The Turnip Winters were two periods of time where food shortages in Germany had reached their peak in the winters of 1916/17 and 1917/18. As of 1914, many of Germany’s farmers were drafted into service and the agricultural sector went way down. The autumn of 1916 presented a potato rot from an overabundance of rain, and the harvest was reduced in half. Many foods were also limited in households because of food rations or sky rocketing prices. To make matters worse, there was a naval blockade placed upon Germany by Britain and France, which cut down food supplies coming into the country. At this time, the only real food alternative was turnips - a commodity typically used for feeding livestock. With such poor nutrition over this period of time, many German citizens were prone to sickness and a pandemic of flu killed an estimated 750,000 people in a combination of sickness and malnutrition.
 * How should we place this within the context of the home front’s understanding of the progress of the war to that point?
 * As WWI drudged on, the public was very aware of the amount of human lives the war was costing them. More and more lives were lost, and more and more men were called to fight for Germany therefore leaving thousands of vital job positions needed to fill an ever growing demand for various goods. This created a domino effect within their society, because farmers and workers were now fighting it left no food and basic goods for the German people to consume and made them more vulnerable to death themselves. Because of the military government’s focus on the war, the German people felt neglected and angry that their well being was not taken into consideration going into this war. Once Germany lost the war, its people felt that they had suffered too much for a disappointing outcome of the war. This resentment, as best reflected by the Freikorps and its volatility, set the mood that allowed for Hitler to be democratically elected in the next few years.

//**Sources**// "Freikorps." Priceton.edu, n.d. Web. .

"Great War Timeline, 1870-1914." World War I Document Archive. N.p., 02 Aug. 1997. Web. 09 Oct. 2013. .

Kidner, Frank L. "Women in War." Making Europe: The Story of the West, Volume II: Since 1550. 2nd ed. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 765-66. Print.

"Landschaftsverband Rheinland - Qualität Für Menschen." First World War (1914. Kommern Lvr-freilicht Museum, n.d. Web. 09 Oct. 2013. <http://www.wir-rheinlaender.lvr.de/engl_version/firstworldwar/theturnipwinter.htm>.

__** The German Offensive of 1917-18 **__

The Spring Offensive, also known as the Kaiserschlacht, lacked clear-cut objectives at its initiation. The main goal of the offensive was to launch attacks against the Western Front before British and French troops could be bolstered by American allies, who were just beginning to join in combat. The Kaiserschlacht was carried out by 63 German divisions that were directed to attack a 50-mile stretch of the Western Front. Germany utilized storm troopers to overwhelm British forces; the German Army cut communication lines with their artillery, isolating Britain’s forward troops from their commanders. These forward troops would then either capitulate or be annihilated (Cavendish). However, early successes of the Offensive failed to ultimately turn the war in Germany’s favor; tactical mistakes by the German Army’s commander effectively squandered Germany’s position, and the Allies’ counter-strike effectively recaptured all territory gained by the Kaiserschlacht. At the end of the Kaiserschlacht, the German Army was left diminished, starving, and demoralized. The failure of the Kaiserschlacht was due mainly to its lack of scope; the attacks were spread out over less than one-third of the Western Front and affected less than one-sixth of the Allied divisions stationed there. The Kaiserschlacht also did not create the element of “shock and paralysis” necessary for the Offensive to have a significant impact on the German war efforts (Willmott). http://answers.net.nz/Other/final.jpg Map of the German Spring Offensive
 * What were the objectives of the offensive? How was it carried out, and to what extent did it succeed or fail? **

The hunger and lack of supplies faced by the soldiers of the Kaiserschlacht reflected the food crisis suffered by Germany as a result of British blockade lines. As opposed to circumstances of traditional warfare, civilians and soldiers alike were intended targets of this blockade, and Britain intended to use starvation as a means to force German capitulation. Before the masses of German divisions suffered from delayed supply lines, however, they instituted battle tactics that broke from the traditional methods used in the trench lines previously in the war. These tactics, called Hutier tactics, utilized brief artillery rounds before relatively small units of infantry were used to strategically target weak spots in enemy trenches. This allowed for a German advance of 40 miles, breaking from previous trench deadlock (Travers).
 * How was the Offensive of 1917-18 indicative of the principals of total war? To what extent was it a continuation of the fighting that characterized the rest of the war, and to what extent was it a departure from it? **

The Kaiserschlacht could have been a successful offensive if German commander Ludendorff had made an executive decision regarding reserve troops after key German victories in the south. Ludendorff was faced with the decision to either exploit this unforeseen opportunity or to carry out the original plan and send the reserves to the intended main thrust of the offensive to the north. He instead attempted to split the reserve troops between the locations, to the effect that neither the north nor the south were adequately reinforced. Because the Kaiserschlacht lacked the scope to truly shock and paralyze Allied forces, the Allies had time to respond by reorganizing their troops. French divisions were brought to British-held Flanders to bolster the forces there, and increasing numbers of U.S. troops continued to reinforce the Western Front. The British Army, originally considered the strongest and most considerable enemy by Germany, became virtually impossible to defeat with these reinforcements. The exhaustion of the German Army also contributed to the growing implausibility of German victory (Cavendish). The German Army, deeply demoralized, degenerated to looting, deserting, and insubordination after the failure of the Kaiserschlacht. The following French counter-attack on the Marne effectively put an end to German offensive efforts in the war (Travers).
 * To what extent did the Offensive of 1917-18 seal a fate of defeat for the Central Powers? How might it have been turned into a victory? **

http://pierreswesternfront.punt.nl/_files/2008-02-26/sommeaustralpart1-image008.jpg Initial German victories in the Kaiserschlacht were afforded by the troops' lightweight packs and ability to mobilize quickly. This backfired when supply lines were unable to keep up with the troops (Willmott).

Sources:

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">Cavendish, Marshall. History of World War I. Vol. 2. New York: Marshall Cavendish, 2002. Print.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">Travers, Timothy. How the War Was Won: Command and Technology in the British Army on the Western Front, 1917-1918. London: Routledge, 1992. Print.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">Willmott, H. P. When Men Lost Faith in Reason: Reflections on War and Society in the Twentieth Century. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2002. Print.