Five Days from Defeat

A historian explores "with forensic precision" the dramatic turning point that changed the course of the Great War (The Scotsman).

 


On March 21, 1918, Germany initiated one of the most ferocious offensives of the First World War. During the so-called Kaiserschlacht, German troops advanced on Allied positions in a series of attacks that caused massive casualties, separated British and French forces, and drove the British back toward the Channel ports.


 


Five days later, as the German advance continued, one of the most dramatic summits of the war took place in Doullens. The outcome was to have extraordinary consequences. For the first time, an Allied supreme commander—the French General Foch—was appointed to command all the Allied armies, while the statesmen realized that unity of purpose rather than national interest was ultimately the key to success. Within a few months, a policy of defense became one of offense, paving the way for British success at Amiens and the series of unbroken British victories that led Germany to plead for armistice.


 


Victory in November 1918 was a matter for celebration; excised from history was how close Britain came to ignominious defeat just eight months earlier.