1918.

This is coolbert:

"instantly the whole sky burned
With fury against them; and soft sudden cups
Opened in thousands for their blood; and the green slopes
Chasmed and steepened sheer to infinite space.
Of them who running on that last high place
Leapt to swift unseen bullets, or went up
On the hot blast and fury of hell's upsurge" - - Wilfred Owen.

From a previous blog entry:

"THOSE GREAT GERMAN OFFENSES [Michael, Blucher, Georgette] OF 1918 - - WHICH ALMOST TIPPED THE WAR IN FAVOR OF GERMANY"

These are the German “grand offensives” of 1918 on the western front:

* Michael.

* Georgette.

* Blucher.

And to a lesser extent:

* Gneisenau.

* Second Marne.



“Grand” offensive actions, on an epic scale, the intention was either a breakthrough and total rout of allied forces or to bring the French and British to the bargaining table. Put the allies in such a disadvantageous position that negotiation was preferable to further combat.

Offensives that HAD TO succeed before American military forces could arrive in significant numbers and be deployed into battle.

Offensive actions that put into effect proven demonstrable techniques that the German believed, with some justification, would break the stalemate of trench warfare! Techniques, proven the previous year [1917] with German victory at Riga and Caporetto!

Battlefield techniques to include:

* The use of massed artillery, centrally commanded, not firing a general barrage, but selectively targeting the critical command structure and select units of the enemy, unannounced, without registration, accentuating the element of surprise, allowing for maximum destruction.
A feuerwalze, literally, a "fire dance"!!

* The use of poison gas as delivery by an artillery round.

* The use of sturmabteilung! Battalion-sized units comprised of the most physically able [stature and fitness] experienced and aggressive German troops. Soldiers of proven worth and ability, those battalion-size units [strosstruppen] using infiltration tactics [Hutier tactics], bypassing enemy strong points, rupturing defenses, moving forward as quickly as possible, maintaining momentum.

* The use of specially designated ground-strafing aircraft.

The German “Grand Offensives” of 1918 nearly did succeed as envisaged by the German High Command and Ludendorff! The line nearly broke, disaster ONLY narrowly being averted!

"The line . . . was held . . . [in part] by little groups of clerks, cooks, mess waiters, signallers, batmen and drivers who fought like veteran riflemen until they were overwhelmed."

Whoa boy!!

And, not properly appreciated or understood - - at the time or even now [?] - - was the role the Swine Flu played in defeating the German “unstoppable” juggernaut?

German troops, infected, ill, sick, exhausted to the point of NOT BEING ABLE TO MOVE FORWARD WITH THAT DEGREE OF ALACRITY SO DESIRED BY THE SENIOR COMMANDERS, just becoming so debilitated from unexpected illness that further offensive action was IMPOSSIBLE??

To me, this sounds like H.G. Wells and the “War of the Worlds”. The implacable, seemingly relentless and invincible enemy run-to-ground by invisible microbes!

Read in entirety the poem written by the British officer, Wilfred Owen, on the occasion of the German offensives, 1918.

coolbert.