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German Spring Offensive
The German spring offensive, also known as ''Kaiserschlacht'' ("Kaiser's Battle") or the Ludendorff offensive, was a series of German Empire, German attacks along the Western Front (World War I), Western Front during the World War I, First World War, beginning on 21 March 1918. Following American entry into World War I, American entry into the war in April 1917, the Germans decided that their only remaining chance of victory was to defeat the Allies of World War I, Allies before the United States could ship soldiers across the Atlantic and fully deploy its resources. The Imperial German Army, German Army had gained a temporary advantage in numbers as nearly 50 Division (military), divisions had been freed by the Russian defeat and withdrawal from the war with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. There were four German offensives, codenamed ''Operation Michael, Michael'', ''Operation Georgette, Georgette'', ''Gneisenau'', and ''Blücher-Yorck''. ''Michael'' was the main attack, which wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Front (World War I)
The Western Front was one of the main Theatre (warfare), theatres of war during World War I. Following the outbreak of war in August 1914, the Imperial German Army, German Army opened the Western Front by German invasion of Belgium (1914), invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in Third Republic of France, France. The German advance was halted with the First Battle of the Marne, Battle of the Marne. Following the Race to the Sea, both sides dug in along a meandering line of fortified trench warfare, trenches, stretching from the North Sea to the Swiss frontier with France, the position of which changed little except during early 1917 and again in 1918. Between 1915 and 1917 there were several offensives along this Front (military), front. The attacks employed massive artillery bombardments and massed infantry advances. Entrenchments, machine gun emplacements, barbed wire, and artillery repeatedly inflicted severe casualties ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ferdinand Foch
Ferdinand Foch ( , ; 2 October 1851 – 20 March 1929) was a French general, Marshal of France and a member of the Académie Française and French Academy of Sciences, Académie des Sciences. He distinguished himself as Supreme Allied Commander#World War I, Supreme Allied Commander on the Western Front during the World War I, First World War in 1918. A commander during the First First Battle of the Marne, Marne, First Battle of Ypres, Flanders and First Battle of Artois, Artois campaigns of 1914–1916, Foch became Supreme Allied Commander in late March 1918 in the face of the all-out German spring offensive. He successfully coordinated the French, British and American efforts, deftly handling his strategic reserves. He stopped the German offensive and launched a Hundred Days Offensive, war-winning counterattack. In November 1918, Marshal Foch accepted the German cessation of hostilities and was present at the Armistice of 11 November 1918. At the outbreak of war in August 1914 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Treaty Of Brest-Litovsk
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a separate peace treaty signed on 3 March 1918 between Soviet Russia and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria), by which Russia withdrew from World War I. The treaty, which followed months of negotiations after the armistice on the Eastern Front in December 1917, was signed at Brest-Litovsk (now Brest, Belarus). The Soviet delegation was initially headed by Adolph Joffe, and key figures from the Central Powers included Max Hoffmann and Richard von Kühlmann of Germany, Ottokar Czernin of Austria-Hungary, and Talaat Pasha of the Ottoman Empire. In January 1918, the Central Powers demanded secession of all occupied territories of the former Russian Empire. The Soviets sent a new peace delegation led by Leon Trotsky, which aimed to stall the negotiations while awaiting revolutions in Central Europe. A renewed Central Powers offensive launched on February 18 captured large territories in the Baltic reg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Division (military)
A division is a large military unit or Formation (military), formation, usually consisting of between 10,000 and 25,000 soldiers. In most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades; in turn, several divisions typically make up a corps. Historically, the division has been the default combined arms unit capable of independent Military tactics, operations. Smaller combined arms units, such as the American regimental combat team (RCT) during World War II, were used when conditions favored them. In recent times, modern Western militaries have begun adopting the smaller brigade combat team (similar to the RCT) as the default combined arms unit, with the division to which they belong being less important. A similar word, ''Divizion, //'', is also used in Slavic languages (such as Russian, Serbo-Croatian, and Polish) for a battalion-size artillery or cavalry unit. In naval usage "division (naval), division" has a completely different range of meanings. Aboard ship ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Imperial German Army
The Imperial German Army (1871–1919), officially referred to as the German Army (), was the unified ground and air force of the German Empire. It was established in 1871 with the political unification of Germany under the leadership of Kingdom of Prussia, Prussia, and was dissolved in 1919, after the defeat of the German Empire in World War I (1914–1918). In the Federal Republic of Germany, the term refers to the German Army, the land component of the . Formation and name The states that made up the German Empire contributed their armies; within the German Confederation, formed after the Napoleonic Wars, each state was responsible for maintaining certain units to be put at the disposal of the Confederation in case of conflict. When operating together, the units were known as the German Federal Army, Federal Army (). The Federal Army system functioned during List of wars: 1800–1899, various conflicts of the 19th century, such as the First Schleswig War from 1848 to 1852. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Allies Of World War I
The Allies or the Entente (, ) was an international military coalition of countries led by the French Republic, the United Kingdom, the Russian Empire, the United States, the Kingdom of Italy, and the Empire of Japan against the Central Powers of the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria in World War I (1914–1918). By the end of the first decade of the 20th century, the major European powers were divided between the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance. The Triple Entente was made up of the United Kingdom, France, and Russia. The Triple Alliance was originally composed of Germany, Austria–Hungary, and Italy, but Italy remained neutral in 1914. As the war progressed, each coalition added new members. Japan joined the Entente in 1914 and, despite proclaiming its neutrality at the beginning of the war, Italy also joined the Entente in 1915. The term "Allies" became more widely used than "Entente", although the United Kingdom, Fran ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Entry Into World War I
The United States entered into World War I on 6 April 1917, more than two and a half years after the war began in Europe. Apart from an Anglophile element urging early support for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, British and an anti-Tsarist element sympathizing with German Empire, Germany's war against Russian Empire, Russia, American public opinion had generally reflected a desire to stay out of the war. Over time, especially after reports of The Rape of Belgium, German atrocities in Belgium in 1914 and after the Sinking of the RMS Lusitania, sinking attack by the Imperial German Navy submarine (U-boat) torpedoing of the trans-Atlantic ocean liner off the southern coast of Ireland in May 1915, Americans increasingly came to see Imperial Germany as the aggressor in Europe. While the country was at peace, American banks made huge loans to the Allies of World War I, Entente powers (Allies), which were used mainly to buy munitions, raw materials, and food from acros ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
German Empire
The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperial Germany, the Second Reich or simply Germany, was the period of the German Reich; . from the unification of Germany in 1871 until the German revolution of 1918–1919, November Revolution in 1918, when the German Reich changed its form of government from a monarchy to a Weimar Republic, republic. The German Empire consisted of States of the German Empire, 25 states, each with its own nobility: four constituent Monarchy, kingdoms, six Grand duchy, grand duchies, five Duchy, duchies (six before 1876), seven Principality, principalities, three Free imperial city, free Hanseatic League, Hanseatic City-state, cities, and Alsace–Lorraine, one imperial territory. While Prussia was one of four kingdoms in the realm, it contained about two-thirds ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Albert I Of Belgium
Albert I (8 April 1875 – 17 February 1934) was King of the Belgians from 23 December 1909 until his death in 1934. He is popularly referred to as the Knight King (, ) or Soldier King (, ) in Belgium in reference to his role during World War I. Albert was born in Brussels as the fifth child and second son of Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders, and Princess Marie of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, Albert succeeded his uncle Leopold II of Belgium, Leopold II to the Belgian throne in 1909. He married Elisabeth of Bavaria, Queen of the Belgians, Elisabeth of Bavaria, with whom he had three children. Albert ruled during an eventful period in the history of Belgium, which included the period of Belgium in World War I, World War I (1914–1918), when most of Belgium was German occupation of Belgium during World War I, occupied by German forces. Other crucial events of his reign included the adoption of the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919, the ruling of the Belgian Congo as an overseas po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig
Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig (; 19 June 1861 – 29 January 1928) was a senior officer of the British Army. During the First World War he commanded the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the Western Front from late 1915 until the end of the war.Sheffield 2002, p. 21.Sheffield 2002, p. 263.Hart 2008, p. 2. Haig's military career included service in the War Office, where he was instrumental in the creation of the Territorial Force in 1908. In January 1917 he was promoted to the rank of Field Marshal, subsequently leading the BEF during the final Hundred Days Offensive. This campaign, in combination with the Kiel mutiny, the Wilhelmshaven mutiny, the proclamation of a republic on 9 November 1918 and revolution across Germany, led to the armistice of 11 November 1918. It is considered by some historians to be one of the greatest victories ever achieved by a British-led army. Haig gained a favourable reputation during the immediate post-war years, with his funer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Noël Édouard, Vicomte De Curières De Castelnau
Noël Édouard, vicomte de Curières de Castelnau (24 December 1851 – 19 March 1944) was a French military officer and Chief of Staff of the French Army, Chief of Staff of the French Armed Forces during the First World War. Elected deputy in 1919 and president of the Army Commission in the legislature, he then took the head of a confessional political movement, the ''Fédération Nationale Catholique''. During the Second World War, he opposed Marshal Pétain and the Vichy France, Vichy regime and supported the French Resistance. For a long time controversial because of a Catholicism that was considered outrageous by his opponents, historians have moderated that portrait by emphasising his great loyalty to republican institutions and disputed in particular that he could have been reactionary or anti-Semitic. Early life The son of Michel de Castelnau, mayor of Saint-Affrique, Noël Édouard Marie Joseph de Curières de Castelnau was born in Saint-Affrique, into an aristocratic fa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Maistre
Paul André Marie Maistre, (20 June 1858 – 25 July 1922) was a highly decorated French general who fought in World War I. He graduated from Saint Cyr in 1877, first in his class. He later returned as an instructor. He was promoted to captain in 1887, major in 1898, and general in 1912. In 1914 he was chief of staff for the Fourth Army. When the war began he was promoted to general of division and took command of XXI Corps, fighting numerous battles on the Western Front. In May 1917 Maistre was given command of the Sixth Army after the failure of the Nivelle Offensive. His combat troops, however, were mutinous, and let known their opposition to his planned offensive against the German line. He backed down. By June 1917, there was serious unrest in 11 of his 17 divisions. By October 1917, however, he had restored discipline and went on the offensive. He was victorious at Battle of La Malmaison. Maistre briefly commanded French forces in Italy, but in Spring of 1918 he was giv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
