The Western Front by Nick Lloyd

Author:Nick Lloyd
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Liveright
Published: 2021-02-02T00:00:00+00:00

The possibility that France, like Russia, would fall to revolution was eagerly discussed at OHL, with every scrap of intelligence being pored over for evidence that the end was near. Ludendorff’s mood had been radiant since word had been received about the abdication of the Tsar, and even the news about America’s entry into the war did little to dampen his belief that the situation had now fundamentally changed in Germany’s favour. Ludendorff was confident that the arrival of a US Army on the Western Front, large and fully equipped, was simply not possible before 1918. He estimated that the transfer of half a million men would require 3–4 million tons of shipping space, with yet more needed to keep them supplied. ‘America’s involvement in the war changes little’, he thought. With a gradual decrease in the shipping tonnage available to the Allies, Ludendorff predicted a slow but inevitable strangulation. ‘The entire wartime economy of our enemies will drop to such an extent that a decision against us can no longer be forced. In addition to this, there is an increased risk for England that, with such a reduced tonnage, her peacetime economy could not function. This means the collapse of naval prestige, which relies upon a strong merchant navy.’ Therefore the ‘prerequisite for victory is merely that we remain united and keep our nerve’.38

Hindenburg agreed. ‘In a military sense our position is secure and will remain so’, he wrote to the Chancellor on 19 June.39 The main danger came from the threat of revolution at home, or at least a growth of feeling against the war, which became increasingly apparent during the summer. In a letter to the Kaiser, Hindenburg warned that the popular mood had to be lifted, ‘otherwise we will lose the war’.40 In Berlin, where shortages of food and basic supplies were now impossible to hide, the German Parliament was becoming increasingly restive. Matthias Erzberger, a prominent member of the Catholic Centre Party, was the first to break ranks, speaking on 6 July about the urgent need for ‘far-reaching reforms’ in Germany and a peace ‘without annexations or indemnities’. The effectiveness of the submarine war, he suggested, had been over-exaggerated and there was no doubt that the sounds of ‘something creaking, cracking, collapsing’ could now be heard in Germany. Erzberger’s speech was electrifying, bringing together a majority in the Reichstag (when the Catholic Centre Party voted with the Social Democrats) to pass a ‘Peace Resolution’ on 19 July calling for ‘mutual understanding and lasting reconciliation among the nations’ without ‘forced acquisitions of territory’ and based upon ‘international political organizations’.41

The resolution may not have been binding, but it served to annoy the High Command and brought to a head the crisis between Bethmann Hollweg and the Supreme Command that had been brewing for months. Hindenburg offered ‘the most serious objections’ to the declaration, while Ludendorff even threatened to resign. ‘In the most serious crisis which Germany and Prussia have ever known’, he wrote to the Kaiser, ‘Your Majesty has decided to retain in office the present political head, the Chancellor.

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