The Allied blockade of Germany, which was initiated soon after the beginning of the war, had taken a serious toll on food supplies to Germany. The German civilians were nearing starvation level as Germany struggled to create enough food from its own farmland. This was hard as although there was arable land, many farm labourers had been conscripted to fight in the German Army. Although civilians were worse off than the soldiers, German soldiers still had an insufficient diet considering the conditions they were fighting in. This meant poor stamina and strength and poor moral for the soldiers and also sapped away the will of the German people to continue the war. To try and make up for this shortage, supplies were made from substitutes, which meant even poorer quality supplies. The moral was dragged down even further when German troops realised how much better off the British soldiers really were during the Ludendorff offensive. To make things worse the 1917-18 harvests failed leaving Germany in a terrible position.
Although Germany was effectively holding up her Allies opposed to the other way around, the disintegration of them had affected her in many ways. As fronts closed down, more and more Allied troops were being sent to the Western Front, although some German troops fighting on these fronts were also freed up. This also meant that Germany had no one to help her with supplies and that Germany had to fend for herself. The fall of German allies meant that her supply and trade routes were cut of as she was surrounded by enemies and her only sea front was blockaded.
The USA entered the Great War in 1917 and this meant that Allied ranks were bolstered with American troops, and supplies were more readily available. However, the US only had a regular army of about 100,000 strong, no where near enough to make a considerable impact in the Great War. This meant that the US also had to conduct a massive conscription scheme to build up a sizable army. It would take at least a year to complete a new recruits training and so this gave the Germans time to put forward one last offensive. The USA’s entry meant an influx of fresh troops to the Western Front, which in turn means stronger long lasting Allied offensives.
Communications also played a big part in transforming the war. Radios were used more often and each allied aircraft was fitted with a radio so artillery could react quickly to changes on the battlefield. Improved accuracy of British artillery made this even more effective. These radios could also be used to direct companies of infantry so they do not outrun friendly artillery support. Generals began to organise these communications so that telephone lines were in underground tunnels to the front so they could not be cut by artillery. This heavy improvement meant well organised battles could be carried out on a large scale opposed to before where these battles often reached a very messy end for the attackers when troops overran their artillery and became isolated and consumed by a counter attack.
Allied tactics had much improved since 1914, and there was also the introduction of the tank, which proved to be very effective in destroying German moral. Artillery accuracy had been much improved and the rolling barrage had also improved a lot meaning that targets on the battlefield could be picked off and infantry would not get caught up in their own barrages. Since Plumer took command of 3rd Ypres, the approach to an offensive changed. His armies took small steps so that the artillery could move forward; therefore his infantry would never be beyond the supporting artillery. Tanks were also coordinated better so that they didn’t outrun the infantry they were supposed to be supporting. In an offensive the army would change its point of attack a few times to draw reserves to one area leaving another place in the enemy lines weak. This was extremely effective in the last few months of the war when the German Army had few reserves.
German tactics had changed a lot in 1917, and the new tactic used on the Western Front, which had been used in Italy was this. First there was a short, highly concentrated barrage, which would take the enemy by surprise, opposed to previously long barrages, which gave the enemy time to organise reserves and a counter attack. This would be followed by screen of smoke shells to cover the offensive. Lightly equipped storm troops would search for weak spots in the enemy lines and penetrate them avoiding all strong points. They were ordered to keep moving forward and not to slow down as this would disrupt the enemy severely especially since he was not used to defending in depth, having defensive positions only along the frontline. These strong points, now isolated, could be dealt with using standard infantry who would push forward behind the storm troops. This, however, killed the best of the German troops as the storm troops were the most experienced of the army and left only mediocre infantry who were to hold the newly gained territory.
Out of all of these reasons, the most significant one would be the change in German tactics. This effectively broke the stalemate as Allied troops had to reorganise deep defences to counter this new tactic. The offensive drained most of the German Army’s last strength meaning that German troops had to retreat and fall back into defensive positions. This combined with all the improvements in Allied tactics brought the war briefly back to a war of movement before the war ended. This quick change happened because of the German Army’s weakness and the Allies’ quick reaction to take advantage of the situation. Once the Allies broke through the Hindenburg Line, the German army was in full retreat.
