Grand Offensive

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Grand Offensive
Part of the First World War
Date September 26 – November 11, 1918 Location France and Belgium Result Allied Victory
Combatants
British Empire  United Kingdom  Canada  Australia  South Africa  New Zealand France  United States  Belgium	German Empire
Commanders
Ferdinand Foch	Paul von Hindenburg Erich Ludendorff

The Grand Offensive is a common, if informal, term for the series of attacks by the Allies and Associated Powers on the Western Front, commencing on September 26, 1918. Allied attacks between mid-July and mid-September had been conducted sequentially, and Germany was able to resist them by shifting reserves from other parts of the Front. Foch's intention was to deprive Germany of the chance to shift their reserves by launching a number of simultaneous attacks, in the hope that at least one would result in a breakthrough. In the event, there were no breakthroughs, but the operations were generally successful, and resulted in Germany suing for terms.

The Grand Offensive includes the following separate battles:

• Meuse-Argonne Offensive launched by the American Expeditionary Force on September 26
• Operations in Champagne by the French IV Army from the same date
• Battle of the Hindenburg Line by the BEF's 4th Army and US forces from September 27
• Battle of Ypres 1918 by the BEF's 2nd Army and Belgian forces from September 28

With the Allies attacking at four separate points, a conference was held at Spa on September 29. At this conference, Ludendorff advised Kaiser Wilhelm II that an armistice should be sought, as German defeat was now inevitable. Foreign Secretary Hintze went further by suggesting that in view of the situation on the Western Front, revolution would break out if Germany did not reform her constitutional systems. The result of this conference would be the Kaiser's abdication on November 9.

[edit] References

• To Win a War, John Terraine, 2000, Sterling Publishing, ISBN 0-304-35321-3
• Imperial War Museum Book of 1918: Year of Victory, Malcolm Brown, 1998, Sidgwick and Jackson, ISBN 0-283-06307-6
• Pyrrhic Victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War, Robert Doughty, 2005, Harvard University Press, ISBN 067401880X