Germany’s next mistake – also involving a certain factor of risk – was made in 1915 when German General Erich von Falkenhayn came up with the idea of attacking a place which seemed most dear to the French. With this idea, Falkenhayn hoped that France would send in hundreds of thousands of men to defend its important historical place of Verdun, taking attrition of war to a new level. Falkenhayn got his troops ready and on February 21st, 1916, started bombardments on French troops. German troops started to cross fields into Verdun, yet they had underestimated the amount of kills caused by the bombardment as French survivors shot down open targets on the fields. For ten months, gruesome fights took place as both sides gained, lost and regained territory. At this point, neither France nor Germany was gaining land yet losing a lot of men. Britain and Russia aided France as they made offensive moves on Germany, releasing pressure off Verdun as German troops were reassigned to different locations at the Battle of the Somme and the Eastern Front. Germany was in a bad situation, and France was able to counter-attack. Germany was forced to retreat. At this point the Kaiser of Germany saw the errors and failures of the German army and reappointed a new General – Hindenburg. Hindenburg felt no reason to stay in Verdun and retreated the remaining troops. Again, Germany had not planned carefully in advance and had lost 440,000 men without any tatical advances. This could be seen as another factor which ultimately led to the defeat of Germany and her allies.
During 1917 there was not much advancements from eitherside and there was a stalemate throughout the Western Front. On the Eastern Front, the Russians were putting up a good fight up until November 1917 when communists known as “the bolsheviks” started a revolution and overthrew the government with a coup. This led to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. It was a peace treaty between Russia and the Central Powers that stated a truce between the two without any conditions. It turned out that Russia’s terms were harsh and turned out that Russia lost much of its land, population, and resources. At this point Germany could concentrate on the Western Front, and in March, 1918 started an offense bringing them approximately 60km from Paris, yet again. And as many times before, poor planning and calculations resulted in failure. Germany had resently created a new special force known as “Stormtroopers”. These forces were specialized in trench-warfare and effectively used gasses to take over weak points in the opponents trenches and knock out any form of defense. Successfully, German troops penetrated deep into the French defense taking 70,000 prisoners in 7 days. Never the less, due to the speed at which the German forces were advancing, they could not capitalize their gains, and supply lines could not keep up. German generals had not planned well enough before hand, and had miscalculated the needs of the soldiers. Eventually the “Stormtroopers” were worn down from endless fighting and little food. Although a very successful advance was made by the German troops, ironically they exposed their weakness.
Sea blockades which were originally set up by Germans to attempt to starve out the British population, worked against the Germans, causing a great food shortage in Germany. This certainly did not give the Germans any form of benefit, and effectively caused an economic depression. At this time, Germany was in a very bad state and there was unrest amongst the German population. All this resulted in anti-war demonstrations as they demanded “Peace at Any Price”. Morale in Germany was at its lowest possible, and out in the battlefield things weren’t any better. There was word amongst the Greman troops that the American forces were to join the war. In the situation they were in, they were in no state to fight off the American forces which were effectively in better physical condition. This was the perfect moment for a counter-offensive from the Alied side. With a new centralized command structure and American forces, the Allied troops were able to push the Germans back to where they had started their March 1918 offense. By August 6, 1918, the Allied counter-offense was halted with Germans entrenched. It was on November 11, 1918 that an “armistice” was signed between Germany and her allies and the Entente. The conditions required Germany to pull her troops back out of French territory and a newly neutral area to be created on the right bank. Germany’s army was to be reduced in size. Germany was in no state to oppose these conditions and was forced to accept. Ultimately, this was the defeat of germany and her allies.
When one steps back and looks at all these factors, one can conclude that Germany and her allies made to many failure and false planning. Starting with the Schlieffen plan, Germany made wrong decisions which led to a new problem. When one puts all these factors together it was inevitable that Germany would eventually have to sign the armistice and be declared defeated. Possibly the main factor was the underestimation of supply. As historian Jay Winter put it, “"The paradox of World War I was that Germany fought a war to gain an empire, but needed an empire in order to win the war.” The situation with food shortage led to the greatest problems both on the battlefield and within Germany itself. Hunger allowed for a downfall in Morale and led to a fall in German power. In the end, one cannot conclude that Germany and her allies lost because of one thing. It is obvious that only a combinations of the factors led to the final defeat.
