THE WESTERN FRONT
GERMANxNAVAL MUTINY: 28th OCTOBER 1918
UPRISINGS ACROSS GERMANY: OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 1918
THE KAISER ABDICATES: 9th NOVEMBER
ESTABLISHMENT OF REPUBLICAN FORM OF GOVERNMENT: 9th NOVEMBER
THE ARMISTICE OF COMPIÈGNE ENDS THE WAR: 11th NOVEMBER
It was late in October that the German Admiralty’s chief of staff, ReinhardtxScheer, decided – somewhat surprisingly one might feel – to launch a “do or die” attack on the British North Sea Fleet. Under the code name of Plan 19, two German destroyer groups, though destined to be out numbered and out gunned, would go out in search of the enemy fleet. Given the present state of the war, he argued, this was a worthy course of action to take. There could be no future for a fleet “fettered by a dishonourable peace”. As he saw it, it was better to die an honourable death; to go down fighting.
GERMAN NAVAL MUTINY: 28th October 1918
The vast number of his officers, it seemed, supported this plan, but his enlisted men did not quite see it that way. The order to leave port, given on the 28th October (and repeated four times!), was totally ignored by them, and within forty-
Thisxflagrant breakdown in military discipline was bound to have wider consequences. Encouraged by workers’ councils, it triggered off a wave of uprisings – Bolshevist in style – across the length and breadth of Germany. These were particularly violent in the cities of Hamburg, Berlin, Lubeck and Munich, and, in a matter of days, culminated in the overthrow of the Imperial government, the abdication of the Kaiser, and the establishment of a republican-
ARMISTICE OF COMPIÈGNE: 11th November 1918
As we have seen, negotiations between Germany and the Allies began at the end of October, and were concluded at Foch’s Headquarters, a railway carriage in Compiègne Forest, about 40 miles north of Paris (illustrated). They were completed at 5 a.m. on November 11th, and fighting ceased on the Western Front at 11 a.m. the same day (this being the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month). From immediate effect, Germany was ordered to evacuate Belgium, France, Luxembourg and, not surprisingly Alsace-
Incidentally, following Germany’s victory over France in June 1940 (in the Second World War), Hitler insisted on having the armistice signed in the same railway carriage! It was a moment of sweet revenge and satisfaction for that “Bohemian lance-
KaiserxWilhelm II, the son of Prince Frederick Wilhelm of Prussia and Victoria, daughter of Queen Victoria, was born in Berlin in 1859. In 1888 he became the 9th King of
Prussia and the 3rd Emperor of Germany. Under both titles he acted as an autocratic monarch, ever anxious to strengthen Germany’s military capability and increase its boundaries. He is especially remembered for his sacking of the German Chancellor, the maker of the German Empire, Otto von Bismarck (with whom he fell out), and for his support of Alfred von Tirpitz in his bid to build a navy to match as much as possible that of Great Britain. His strong support of Austria-
Acknowledgements
Mutiny: slideplayer.com Armistice: en.wikipedia.org Kaiser: alphahistory.com End of War: forces-
WW1-
To go back to the Dateline, click HERE
But,xeuphoria apart, for both the victor and the vanquished the ending of the war brought an incredible amount of relief, (see Sassoon’s poem above.) Both sides had suffered greatly. In particular, the human and material cost of the conflict had been utterly devastating. At least, it was an end to the constant fear of death and injury; the appalling conditions endured in the battle zones day upon day, and, eventually, the shortage of food and the appalling living conditions on the home fronts.
Over the past five years the cost in human life was unprecedented. The number of war dead is put at above 9.4 million – about 6,000 deaths for every day of the war! Based on that figure, the Allies suffered the greater loss, estimated at 5.4 million. And these estimates took no account of the 15 million or more men crippled by permanent disability or suffering from mental breakdown (many of whom spent the rest of their lives in hospitals or care homes).
And to these figures, of course, has to be added the civilian casualties. In Germany, for example, it is estimated that 750,000 civilians died of starvation due entirely to the Allied blockade. And to this must be added, for example, the number of deaths associated with the Armenian genocide (put as high as 1.3 million); the atrocities committed in Belgium; and the large number of civilian deaths – estimated at 82,000 – during the evacuation of Serbia. And these figures do not include those who died (soldiers and citizens alike), from the influenza pandemic of 1918/19, greatly exacerbated by the mass movement of troops at that time. And difficult to assess, but yet so real, were the thousands of families who lost loved ones, bringing not only heartache but, in many cases, great hardship. These had been years of deep suffering, no matter what side you were on.
In economic terms, the war caused the greatest world depression of the 20th century, and for the major combatants it took up to 20 years to recover from the cost of the conflict, just in time, in fact, to take part in the Second World War, an even longer and wider conflict. Inflation ran high, and particularly so in Germany, saddled as it was with a large burden of reparations and industrial restrictions. For Europe in particular, the 1920s and the 1930s were not the best of times.
Work on the Versailles Treaty began in January 1919. Held in the famous Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles, delegates from 32 countries met to hammer out the peace settlement. Given the length and size of the conflict, it was a mammoth task. It was officially completed on the 28th June 1920, but some issues took somewhat longer to resolve. Versailles dealt almost exclusively with the terms related to Germany. As expected, it soon became clear that the German government was going to pay for the damage caused by the war, and, more understandably, be severely restricted as to the size of its armed forces. In addition, five minor treaties were concluded concerning the other members of the Central Powers – held in or around Paris – and from these emerged five new national states. Once fully completed, the evaluation of the settlement – long term as well as short – became a bone of contention, and it has remained so to this day. Certainly one of the treaty’s new measures, the formation of the League of Nations – the first international organisation aimed at maintaining world peace – failed in its mission.