THE WESTERN FRONT

COMPLETION OF THE HINDENBURG LINE:  SEPTEMBER 1916 – MARCH 1917

WITHDRAWAL FROM THE NOYON SALIENT:  FEBRUARY – MARCH 1917

    It was in Septemberx1916 that work began on “Operation Alberich”, an ambitious plan by Field Marshal Hindenburg and General Ludendorff to withdraw from the Noyon Salient (stretching from Arras to Soissons), and construct a new, far stronger defensive position (the “Hindenburg Line”) situated some six to thirty miles from the original front line (see map below). Completed in March 1917, this impressive series of fortified redoubts, up to eight miles deep and ninety miles long, included a vast number of steel-reinforced concrete dug-outs, artillery observation posts, and concrete pillboxes for machine gun nests and small arms fire. In addition, good use was made of camouflage; telephone cables were deeply buried; a light railway was provided to carry supplies to the front; and three wide belts of barbed wire entanglements, up to 100 yards in depth and in a zig-zag formation, defended the front line trenches. It is said that the building works alone absorbed most of the cement, sand and gravel production of occupied France and Belgium plus that of west Germany! (Perhaps not surprisingly the Hindenburg Line was not breached and held until late in 1918.)

    This withdrawal from the Noyon Salient, and the building of a much reduced front line, were motivated by two sound and pressing reasons. Firstly, it was to meet a serious shortage in German frontline troops. The Battles for Verdun and the Somme in the west; the Brusilov Offensive in the east; the entry of Romania into the war; and the ever present need to give military support to Austria-Hungary, had seriously overstretched the German army. Despite the transfer of men from the Russian front, by the beginning of 1917 the number of divisions on the Western Front was put at around 150, compared with the 190 held by the French, British and Belgians, many of which were bigger than the German equivalents. In these circumstances, the successful defence of the Noyon Salient could not be guaranteed. Indeed, in January, a German corps commander, General von Fuchs, declared that the army could not withstand another battle like the Somme. The need, it was becoming clear, was for shortened fronts that could be held with much less troops (fourteen fewer divisions were needed to hold the Hindenburg Line), and – for the remainder of the year at least – the adoption of a strategic policy based purely on defence.

    And secondly, there was an urgent need for more ammunition and weapons, particularly machine guns, trench mortars and artillery. This fact was highlighted in the Hindenburg Programme of August 1916, but it soon became clear that only 60% of the required increase was likely to be met by the summer of 1917, due to the lack of labour in the production of war material. And this despite an increasing use of slave labour, and the fact that the army released 125,000 skilled workers and exempted 800,000 men from military service from September 1916 to the following July in order to boost the production of munitions.

    Surprisingly, in fact, Operation Alberich went virtually unnoticed by its Allied neighbours. During the building of the Hindenburg Line and especially during the time of the final withdrawal, the weather was unusually bad, with snow and strong winds. This not only kept ground movement to a minimum, but also prevented the use of reconnaissance aircraft. One or two did manage to get airborne, and the pilots did report some activity in parts of the salient, but this was seen as making improvements on existing fortifications. There was no suggestion at that stage that the Germans were in the throes of a complete withdrawal. This only came to light when British and French patrols discovered that border outposts were unoccupied and cautiously advanced into the interior. The Germans had certainly left, but before leaving they had razed much of the salient to the ground. Buildings, railways and roads had been blown up, wells had been polluted, and a mass of booby traps had been planted. Children and the elderly had been left with little if any food and shelter, and 125,000 able bodied men had been transported to work as labourers in other German-occupied zones. Such devastation meant that the Allied plans for a Spring offensive had to be postponed, together with a subsidiary French attack in the Oise valley. This was welcome news for the German high command, but this scorched-earth policy was condemned by countries across the globe. It took its place alongside the Belgian atrocities committed by German troops in the early months of the war.

    This withdrawal (or “retreat”, as the Allies would have it), was indeed a defensive measure, prompted by the comparative weakness of German forces on the Western Front. In fact, both Hindenburg and Ludendorff saw the campaign of unrestricted submarine warfare – reintroduced in February and proving increasingly successful – as the only possible means of driving Britain out of the war in six to twelve months, assisted by a strategic bombing offensive upon the British mainland. Indeed, as early as September 1916, Ludendorff had agreed with his Chief of Staff that a large scale, positive outcome was no longer possible. German strength was failing. This being the case, then ground forces only needed to avoid defeat and hold the line. Every day that an Allied offensive was delayed or repulsed gave more time for the U-boat campaign to do its work. However, just over two weeks after the completion of the line, the United States entered the war, and many in the German military and the government feared that the odds had been seriously shortened against them. This said, it was at this time that the British government, acutely aware of the serious shortage of wheat (along with other essential items) produced a series of posters encouraging the general public to eat less bread! The U-boat was achieving its aim. The war still had some way to run, and, for the present, its result remained in the balance.

     Incidentally, inxresponse to the German blockade, the British government had to introduce bread rationing in stages as from December 1917, and early in 1918 ration books were produced restricting the purchase of meat, butter, sugar, flour, margarine and milk. At first, rationing was restricted to London, but it was operating across the country by the end of the war.

    Paulxvon Hindenburg was born into a military family at Poznan, Poland, in 1847. He was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Prussian army in 1866, and saw service in the Austro-Prussian War of that year, and the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. After serving as a member of the General Staff, he retired from the army as a Lieutenant General in 1911. Not surprisingly, he was recalled to active service in 1914 and, as commander of the German Eighth Army in East Prussia, became a national hero following his victories at the Battles of Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes …… though it is generally accepted that others played a more prominent part in the planning and execution of these encounters, especially his chief aide General Erich Ludendorff. Appointed Chief of the General Staff in 1916, he then set up, together with his deputy Ludendorff, what amounted to a military dictatorship. This proved successful in bringing about the defeat of Russia in the east, and making some limited gains on the western front. However, by early 1917, both feared that Germany was beginning to lose the land war. As we have seen, lacking men and material, they reduced the front line (pulling back to the “Hindenburg Line”), and put their faith in the blockade being imposed upon the British and French by Germany’s unrestricted submarine campaign. It failed in its mission, however, and, Hindenburg was obliged to oversee the general withdrawal of German troops. That was a deeply humiliating experience for him, and he was later to insist that the German army had not been defeated, but “stabbed in the back” by liberal elements at home.

    He retired from the army in 1919, but following unrest throughout the country, he was elected president of the German Weimar Republic in 1925. A much admired public figure, he held this post until 1933, but it was in that year that, despite his disdain for the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler (that “Bohemian corporal”), he was persuaded, against his better judgement, to appoint him as his successor. He did so (ironically enough) in the interests of avoiding political unrest. He did not live to see the full implications of this appointment. He died in 1934.

    As we shall see, it was just seventeen days after the completion of the Hindenburg Line (20th March), that the United States declared war on Germany (6th April). It did so on two counts: Germany’s violation of its pledge to suspend its unrestricted submarine warfare in the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean, and, secondly, its discovery that Germany was seeking a military alliance with Mexico. The first would inevitably lead to the loss of more American lives at sea, and the second clearly opened the threat of war on the American continent itself. For the Allies, the U.S. decision was welcome news indeed, but the German blockade remained a serious threat, and, at that juncture, could well force Britain out of the war before the Americans could make a meaningful contribution on the Western Front. In both camps, the outcome of the war remained precariously in the balance.

Acknowledgements

The Noyon Salient: thetimes.co.uk Map of Hindenburg Line (detail): longlongtrail.co.uk Widespread Destruction: iwm.org.uk Poster: npr.org Hindenburg: commons.wikimedia by German artist Curt Agthe, 1915 Hitler: imgbin.com Poster: you tube.com

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