Editing German spring offensive (section)

==Operation Michael==<!-- This section is linked from [[Western Front (World War I)]] -->
{{Main article|Operation Michael}}
On 21 March 1918, the Germans launched a large offensive against the British Fifth Army and the right wing of the [[Third Army (United Kingdom)|British Third Army]].

{{blockquote|The artillery bombardment began at 4.40am on March 21. The bombardment [hit] targets over an area of {{convert|150|sqmi|km2|disp=sqbr}}, the biggest barrage of the entire war. Over 1,100,000 shells were fired in five hours...<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_sommeII.html|title=Second battle of the Somme, 21 March-4 April 1918|website=www.historyofwar.org|access-date=2 September 2018}}</ref>}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-P1013-316, Westfront, deutscher Panzer in Roye.jpg|thumb|German [[A7V]] tank at [[Roye, Somme|Roye]], March 1918]]

The German armies involved were—from north to south—the [[17th Army (German Empire)|Seventeenth Army]] under [[Otto von Below]], the [[2nd Army (German Empire)|Second Army]] under [[Georg von der Marwitz]] and the [[18th Army (German Empire)|Eighteenth Army]] under [[Oskar von Hutier]], with a Corps (Gruppe Gayl) from the [[7th Army (German Empire)|Seventh Army]] supporting Hutier's attack. Although the British had learned the approximate time and location of the offensive, the weight of the attack and of the preliminary bombardment was an unpleasant surprise. The Germans were also fortunate in that the morning of the attack was foggy, allowing the stormtroopers leading the attack to penetrate deep into the British positions undetected.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}

By the end of the first day, the British had lost 7,512 dead and 10,000 wounded and the Germans had broken through at several points on the front of the British Fifth Army. After two days the Fifth Army was in full retreat. As they fell back, many of the isolated "redoubts" were left to be surrounded and overwhelmed by the following German infantry. The right wing of Third Army became separated from the retreating Fifth Army, and also retreated to avoid being outflanked.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}

Ludendorff failed to follow the correct stormtrooper tactics, as described above. His lack of a coherent strategy to accompany the new tactics was expressed in a remark to [[Rupprecht, Crown Prince of Bavaria]]—commander of [[Army Group Rupprecht of Bavaria|one of his Army Groups]]—in which he stated, "We chop a hole. The rest follows." Ludendorff's dilemma was that the most important parts of the Allied line were also the most strongly held. Much of the German advance was achieved where it was not strategically significant. Because of this, Ludendorff continually exhausted his forces by attacking strongly entrenched British units. At [[Arras]] on 28 March, he launched a hastily prepared attack (Operation Mars) against the left wing of the British Third Army, to try to widen the breach in the Allied lines. In this sector, the British defences in depth were complete and fully manned, some of the opening German bombardment hit only empty positions and there was no fog to give cover to the attacking stormtroopers. After a day, the Germans had achieved only minor gains and had suffered heavy casualties. Operation Mars was immediately cancelled.<ref>Blaxland, pp.84-86</ref>

The German breakthrough had occurred just to the north of the boundary between the French and British armies. The French commander-in-chief, General [[Philippe Pétain]], sent reinforcements to the sector too slowly in the opinion of the British commander-in-chief, Field Marshal [[Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig|Douglas Haig]], and the British government, though the historian Elizabeth Greenhalgh disputes this, arguing that Petain sent the six additional divisions quicker than had been arranged with Haig – in 2 days instead of 4 – and arranging for extra divisions several times – 12 divisions on 23 March and 13 on the 25/26 March – before requests came in from Haig.<ref>Greenhalgh 2004, pp. 771–820.</ref> The Allies reacted by appointing the French General [[Ferdinand Foch]] to coordinate all Allied activity in France, and subsequently as commander-in-chief of all Allied forces everywhere.

The success of Operation Michael led German infantry to advance too far from its supply bases and railheads. The stormtrooper units leading the advance carried supplies for only a few days, to avoid being overburdened, and relied on supplies delivered quickly from the rear. The advance was slowed by supply shortages, which gave Allied commanders more time to reinforce the threatened areas and to slow the advance still more.<ref>Brown 1998, p. 184</ref> German supply difficulties were made worse by the direction of advance, which crossed the wasteland created during the [[Battle of the Somme]] in 1916 and by [[Operation Alberich]], the German retirement to the [[Hindenburg Line]] from February to March 1917.<ref>Middlebrook 1983, pp. 347–348.</ref>

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R29407, Westfront, Stellungskrieg.jpg|thumb|left|Germans passing a captured British trench]]
After a few days, the German advance began to falter, as the infantry became exhausted and it became increasingly difficult to move artillery and supplies forward to support them. Fresh British and [[Australia]]n units were moved to the vital rail centre of Amiens and the defence began to stiffen. After fruitless attempts to capture Amiens, Ludendorff called off Operation Michael on 5 April. By the standards of the time, there had been a substantial advance. It was, however, of little value; a [[Pyrrhic victory]] in terms of the casualties suffered by the crack troops, as the vital positions of Amiens and Arras remained in Allied hands. The newly-won territory would later be difficult to defend against Allied counter-attacks.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}

The Allies lost nearly 255,000 men (British, British Empire and French). They also lost 1,300 artillery pieces and 200 tanks.<ref name=marix63>Marix Evans, p.63</ref> All of this could be replaced, either from French and British factories or from American manpower. German troop losses were 239,000 men, many of them specialist shocktroops (''Stoßtruppen'') who were irreplaceable.<ref name= marix63/> In terms of morale, the initial German jubilation at the successful opening of the offensive soon turned to disappointment, as it became clear that the attack had not achieved decisive results.