World War I

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1918: The Final Year

The early part of 1918 did not look propitious for the Allied nations. On March 3 Russia signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which put a formal end to the war between that nation and the Central Powers on terms more favourable to the latter; and on May 7 Romania made peace with the Central Powers, signing the Treaty of Bucharest, by the terms of which it ceded the Dobruja region to Bulgaria and the passes in the Carpathian Mountains to Austria-Hungary, and gave Germany a long-term lease on the Romanian oil wells.

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Bulgaria and Austria-Hungary Withdraw

On the Balkan front, however, the result of the fighting of 1918 was disastrous to the Central Powers. In September a force of about 700,000 Allied troops, consisting of French, British, Greeks, Serbs, and Italians, began a large-scale offensive against the German, Austrian, and Bulgarian troops in Serbia. The Allied offensive was so successful that by the end of the month the Bulgarians were thoroughly beaten and concluded an armistice with the Allies. The German success in Romania was nullified in November when, with the support of Allied troops who had advanced into Romania after the Bulgarian capitulation, Romania re-entered the war on the Allied side. After the conclusion of the Bulgarian armistice, the Serbian part of the Allied army continued to advance, occupying Belgrade on November 1, while the Italian army invaded and occupied Albania.

On the Italian-Austro-Hungarian front, the Austrians, in June, attacked on the Piave and succeeded in crossing the river, only to be driven back with the loss of about 100,000 men. In October-November the Allies definitely gained the victory in Italy, routing the Austrians in an offensive that culminated in the Battle of Vittorio Veneto (October 24-November 4). The Allies completely shattered the Austrian army in this campaign; they took several hundred thousand prisoners and the remainder of the Austrian army fled into Austria. On November 3 the Italians at last took Trieste, and on November 5 they occupied Fiume. The shock of the defeat precipitated revolutionary events in Austria-Hungary. The Czechs and the Slovaks had already set up a separate state; in October the South Slavs proclaimed their independence, and in December set up an independent kingdom, later part of Yugoslavia (now Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Yugoslavia). In November the Hungarians established an independent government. The Austro-Hungarian government at Vienna concluded an armistice with the Allies on November 3 and nine days later the last Habsburg emperor, Charles I, abdicated; on the following day the Austrian Republic was proclaimed.

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Turkey Withdraws

During 1918 the Allies also brought the campaigning in Palestine to a successful conclusion. In September the British forces broke through the Turkish lines at Megiddo and routed the Turkish army and the German corps that was assisting it; after being joined by Arab forces under Lawrence, the British took Lebanon and Syria. In October they captured Damascus, Aleppo, and other key points, while French naval forces occupied Beirut, and the Turkish government asked for an armistice. An armistice was concluded on October 30, and by its terms the Turks were obliged to demobilize, break relations with the Central Powers, and permit Allied warships to pass through the Dardanelles.

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Last German Efforts

Despite the German victories over Russia and Romania in 1917, at the outset of 1918 the Allies, principally through their spokesman Woodrow Wilson, formulated war aims drastically opposed to those already stated by the Central Powers; Wilson's peace policy was enunciated in an address to the US Congress and comprised 14 points designed to bring about a just peace, which were of considerable influence in inducing the Central Powers to cease hostilities later in the year. At the beginning of 1918 the Germans, realizing that victory by means of submarine warfare was impossible, and that they must force a decision on the western front before American troops might take up positions there in force, planned for the spring of the year an all-out effort to break through the Allied lines and reach Paris. The opening drive of their powerful offensive, which began on March 21, was directed at the British front south of Arras. The drive hurled the British lines back 65 km (40 mi) before it was halted, on April 5, principally by hastily summoned French reserves. The fear of a German breakthrough aroused among the Allies by the German success in the first week of the offensive caused the Allies to appoint General (later Marshal) Ferdinand Foch in charge of assuring coordination of Allied operations; in the following month he was made commander in chief of the Allied armies—French, Belgian, British, and American—in France. During April a second German thrust took Messines Ridge and Armentières from the British, and in June a powerful German surprise attack against the French on the Aisne drove a salient 65 km (40 mi) deep into the French position and enabled the Germans to reach a point of the Marne only 60 km (37 mi) from Paris. During this battle American troops first went into action in force; together with French troops, the US Second Division halted (June 4) the German advance in the Battle of Château-Thierry. The Germans made additional gains of terrain in June, but by the middle of July the force of their offensive had largely been spent. In the Second Battle of the Marne, they succeeded in crossing the river, but once they were across their progress was halted by French and American troops. Sensing that the German drive had lost its power, General Foch on July 18 ordered a counter-attack. The attack drove the Germans back over the Marne, and the Allies took the initiative on the western front that they retained to the end of the war.

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End of the War in Europe

Beginning with a British drive (August 8-11) into the German lines around Amiens, the Allies began the offensive that three months later resulted in German capitulation. During the last week of August and the first three days of September, British and French forces won the Second Battle of the Somme and the Fifth Battle of Arras, and drove the Germans back to the Hindenburg line. A particularly strong German salient was then reduced by American troops (September 12-13) in the Battle of Saint-Mihiel, and more than 14,000 prisoners were taken. In October and early November the British moved towards Cambrai and the Americans advanced partly through the Argonne Forest. The latter thrust broke the German lines between Metz and Sedan. As a result of these offensives, Ludendorff requested his government to seek an armistice with the Allies. The German government initiated armistice talks (October) with the Allies, but they failed when President Wilson insisted on negotiating only with democratic governments. The British advance meanwhile made rapid progress in northern France and along the Belgian coast, and on November 10, US and French troops reached Sedan. By the beginning of November the Hindenburg line had been completely broken, and Germans were in rapid retreat on the entire western front. The defeat of the German army had domestic political repercussions that were catastrophic to the established German government. The German fleet mutinied; an uprising dethroned the king of Bavaria; and in November Emperor William II abdicated and fled to the Netherlands. The German republic was proclaimed on November 9. An armistice commission had already been dispatched to negotiate with the Allies. At 5 a.m. on November 11, an armistice was signed in the Forest of Compiègne between Germany and the Allies on terms laid down by the Allies; at 11 the same morning hostilities ended on the western front.