The War to End All Wars: Chapters 13–15

In February 1918, after a meeting of the Allied Supreme War Council, the American representative reported: “I doubt if I could make anyone not present at the recent meeting...realize the anxiety and fear that pervades the ranks of political and military men here.”

The Reichstag, the German parliament, had passed a Peace Resolution, calling for “a peace of understanding and the permanent reconciliation of peoples without the forcible acquisition of territory.”

The Reichstag, the German parliament, had passed a Peace Resolution, calling for “a peace of understanding and the permanent reconciliation of peoples without the forcible acquisition of territory.” But the German High Command was not prepared to surrender the territories in Belgium, France, and Russia occupied by German armies.

But then their offensive sputtered to a halt as infantrymen and horse-drawn artillery became ensnared in the obstacle course of churned-up fields, abandoned trenches, and shattered roads left from the Battle of the Somme.

But the British lines held, and again Ludendorff called off the attack. So far he had lost 350,000 men. The British had lost almost that many, but they had blocked the German offensive.
Stymied by the British, Ludendorff turned on the French.

Even before the United States officially entered the war, American volunteers were fighting alongside the Allies in Europe. Some adventurous young Americans had enlisted in the Canadian or British armies or joined the French Foreign Legion.

And as millions of men left the labor force to enter the armed services, American women, like their counterparts in Europe, went to work in war factories and at other jobs that had been traditionally reserved for men.

The government decided at the outset that the American Expeditionary Force would be made up mostly of draftees. Conscription was introduced in May 1917, and by the war’s end, nearly 4 million men were serving with the United States ground forces.

The Sedition Act, passed a year later, outlawed statements that criticized the government or showed disrespect for the flag.

English author Vera Brittain, then serving as a volunteer nurse in France, remembered watching a large contingent of soldiers pass by one afternoon and wondering where they were from...

During the three-day battle, two hundred Americans were killed and another two hundred incapacitated by German gas attacks.

“The exaltation in our minds that here, at last, after seventeen months of effort, an American army was fighting under its own flag was tempered by the realization of the sacrifice of life on both sides.”

Nothing else was heard from the beleaguered Americans, who had become known to the world as the Lost Battalion. In an effort to rescue them, two divisions moved out toward the German lines, and as they approached, the Germans withdrew.

This relentless push by British, French, Belgian, and American armies fighting side by side finally broke the spirit of the German army and ended its willingness to continue a hopeless fight.

“The roads and fields were strewn with dead Germans, horses, masses of artillery, transport, ammunition limbers, helmets, guns and bayonets,” Private Rush Young recalled.

On November 9, the generals, fearing the kind of full-fledged revolution that had occurred in Russia, informed Kaiser Wilhelm that he no longer commanded the confidence of the army.

“The Kaiser must abdicate, otherwise we shall have the revolution,” he was told. “Your abdication has become necessary to save Germany from civil war.”

In Berlin, a delegation was formed to meet with Allied war leaders and ask for surrender terms.

Bulgaria, deprived of German and Austrian support, was the first to surrender to the Allies, signing an armistice agreement on September 29.
Turkey capitulated a month later, on October 30.

On November 7, with Berlin and other German cities in turmoil and Kaiser Wilhelm about to abdicate, a German delegation crossed the frontline under a flag of truce to meet with Marshal Ferdinand Foch, commander in chief of the Allied armies, in his railroad carriage in the forest of Compiègne, north of Paris.

An armistice would end the fighting but not necessarily the war. In theory, it would have been possible for the Germans to refuse the Allied terms and continue the battle.

All occupied territories in France and Belgium were to be evacuated immediately, and all territory conquered in eastern Europe since 1914, including lands ceded by Russia at Brest-Litovsk, was to be surrendered.

Allied forces would temporarily occupy a band of German territory along the Rhine River, and Germany would be required to pay reparations, or damages, for the loss and destruction caused by the war.

In every Allied capital, and cities all over the world, exuberant crowds poured into the streets, cheering and hugging soldiers in uniform, singing, dancing, and rejoicing.

“We cheered and cheered again and again, while church bells rang out in a peal of jubilation.”

Dozens of nations were invited to attend, but in the end the conference was dominated by three men: French premier Georges Clemenceau, British prime minister David Lloyd George, and American president Woodrow Wilson.

Germany must be punished, Lloyd George agreed, but not so severely that the country would be left destitute or vulnerable to the spread of communism from Russia.

The Germans were required to disarm, to surrender their overseas colonies, and to pay massive reparations for the losses suffered by the Allies.

Britain administered Palestine, opening it to immigration by European Jews, and created a new puppet kingdom called Iraq (formerly Mesopotamia), planting the seeds for future generations of discord and strife.

French premier Clemenceau had failed to achieve all the demands of the French people, who complained that the peace terms were too lenient and that Germany should have been partitioned into smaller, weaker states.

“The Second World War was the continuation of the First,” writes historian John Keegan, “and indeed [World War II] is inexplicable except in terms of the rancor and instabilities left by the earlier conflict.”

“The Second World War was the continuation of the First,” writes historian John Keegan, “and indeed [World War II] is inexplicable except in terms of the rancor and instabilities left by the earlier conflict.”

What rankled most was the treaty’s humiliating “war guilt” clause, placing the blame entirely at Germany’s feet.

What rankled most was the treaty’s humiliating “war guilt” clause, placing the blame entirely at Germany’s feet.

President Wilson was disappointed in his hope that the League of Nations would preserve world peace. Established by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, the League was beset with problems from the beginning.

When other nations failed to limit their own forces, Germany denounced the arms restrictions that had been imposed upon it and began to rearm in earnest.

When other nations failed to limit their own forces, Germany denounced the arms restrictions that had been imposed upon it and began to rearm in earnest.

Many Germans were still bitter about the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. The Allies’ insistence that Germany pay billions in war reparations was a source of festering resentment.

A large part of the electorate turned to the Nazi party and its leader, Adolf Hitler, who condemned the peace treaty and vowed to regain Germany’s lost territories and restore its military might.

Instead of resisting Nazi Germany’s demands, France and Britain followed a policy of appeasement; by giving in to Hitler’s lesser demands, they hoped to avoid greater demands in the future.