I'm pretty much a Great War noob, but I have heard that the war was contentious throughout...

I'm pretty much a Great War noob, but I have heard that the war was contentious throughout, and that while things didn't look good for Germany during most of the war, they were competitive through the first part of 1918. So much so that US forces were afraid of a large-scale German offensive in 1918 and were planning on a major offensive themselves in Spring 1919. How did things collapse so much for the Germans? The fact that their allies fell apart and/or internal problems?

why most threads here are about nazis, germans, jews and the holocaust?

Hello, Dominican.

What sparked this thread was a discussion of the M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle. OP pic related. I don't really care about Germany all that much t/b/h

Ancient history gets some love too.
Can't say the same about other topics. I know I start them sometimes.

The blockade. The blockade had been a constant frustration for Germany. But in 1918, the blockade had been in effect for so long that it was no longer possible to keep the country running. Civilians were dying of hunger because all available food was been sent to soldiers in the field, but rations kept getting smaller and smaller. German soldiers were not longer getting enough food to continue fighting. As Napoleon said, an army fights on its stomach.

A telling story from this period: during an offensive, a group of German soldiers passed by a french house, recently abandoned by whoever owned it. They looked inside, even though they were ordered not to, and they found food. This was shocking to them, because they had been told that the u-boats were strangling the Entente, and that the u-boats would soon bring German victory. How could this French house still have food if the Entente were being strangled? But they quickly put that thought aside and starting eating.

The soldiers then entered what can only be described as a "food euphoria." It was like the food was drugs and they were high. They mentally checked out and started behaving like they'd just smoked a shitload of marijuana. Their captain kept angrily trying to order them onward, but they were gone, lost in some kind of dream world. They started trying on clothes that they found in the house, and keep in mind that the battle was still going on around them. Nothing the captain said could persuade them to put their uniforms back on.

>TLDR: They ran out of food

>The blockade.

Thanks, f@m

A communist revolution in Germany did a number on their warring abilities desu.

>this meme again
There was no communist revolution in Germany until 1919, and that one was small and quickly crushed.
There were communist-organized strikes in Germany during WW1, but they were completely understandable given the mess the German government had gotten its people into (millions dying at the front, workers laboring overtime in factories for the war economy, etc.), and they did not contribute significantly to the German defeat.

What would you call the spartacist uprsisng then?

Germany was winning until the Jews backstabbed Germany and bought America into the war

Start date: January 5, 1919

why jews would fight along with the most antisemtic country that exist in those times, Russian Empire?

fug

Anyone who says Germany had a chance to win after kaiserscliaght is deluding themselves. France and Britain would of broken their back eventually but The US entry practically guaranteed that Berlin would either starve or be occupied if they didnt surrender

Lol Russia hardly fought in WW1. They withdrew and forfeited from the war.

Germany was in a problematic state from the very beginning of the war. The whole plan was breeze through Belgium, hit France as hard as possible, double back and make the Russians fuck off. They were in a really bad tactical position, being squeezed between Russia and France, and having the Brits up north. It was honestly a kind of early idea of Blitzkrieg, being to just do everything as quickly as possibly and then regroup.

The plan seemed solid, but was dependent on various crucial things. The first being that Austria would actually do their fucking job and at least hold the line one the eastern front against the Serbs and shit, and the second being that Russia would take fucking forever to deploy like they always do. They also were hoping Britain would not enter the war since they didn't have a serious alliance with France, beyond "Yeah we might help who knows"
So the first problem was that Belgium didn't surrender like Germany thought they would, and put up a decent fight, which slowed the Krauts down. Not only did this piss of GB, but it also gave the Russians more time to mobilize. So now GBs in the war, supporting France, and they have these elite units (I forget the name) who ambush and seriously fuck up German troops, despite being extremely outnumbered, multiple times.
So Germany's finally in France, and they're slowly but surely pushing farther into France, and get really close to Paris. Now all the problems occur. The Kaiser (who is regarded as a total retard and incompetent leader) says fuck the Schlieffen Plan, we're winging it. This causes various holes to open up in the German line, allowing France to retaliate. Also, Russia has mobilized way fucking faster than anticipated. German have to pull battalions that were meant for the front line, send them northeast. ALSO, Austrias commanders refuse to listen to Germany and keep screwing up everything, and are losing their offensive against a shitty Serb army. (cont)

(cont)

Now Germany's army is split three different ways. The offensives against the Serbs and the battles against the Russians are actually going very well. Russia is pretty unprepared and have shitty strategies, so they get their asses kicked.
A lot of shit is happening in the Serb territory, and further into the middle-east at this point. Ottomans have joined Germany, but GB has been sending reinforcements and has also gotten like 6 small countries to ally. While Germany/Austria did take Serbia, the Ottomans end up getting fucked and GB+Allies take back Serbia and push hard into Germany.
Somewhere during this period Russia pulled out, and Germany captured a bunch of more or less useless territory in the North. The problem is now that they're getting fucked from the bottom, and the latest push into France failed completely. From there they just kept getting pushed and pushed back until they lost the war.

To put it very simply, Germany had too many problems to deal with, too much land to cover, and incompetent allies. They had to do almost everything themselves, and it ended up wearing their forces way too thin, to the point where a once promising and vicious offensive turned into an utter stalemate, and from there fell apart.

Basically, they were fought to exhaustion and collapsed. Even though Russia was defeated in 1917, freeing up troops for the West, the Spring Offensives of 1918 incurred such huge casualties that they simply ran out of men. By autumn 1918, they had to resort to pulling replacements from the 1919 class of conscripts - 16-17 year olds who were untrained and unready. If they had not surrendered in November 1918, the remnants of the German Army would have been destroyed in 1919 by continuing allied offensives.

The morale of the army was already failing by the end of 1917; at least 250,000 soldiers simply jumped off the trains and deserted mid-transit from the Eastern Front that winter. The German Navy tried to sortie for a final decisive battle (referred to by the British as the Battle of Armageddon) in 1918, but their crews simply refused to obey the order because their will to fight was gone.
They held on for so long because after Verdun in 1916 they reverted to the strategic defensive in the West, and so conserved their strength. When they went over to the offensive in 1918 they were bled white very quickly despite making significant tactical gains.

...

>they have these elite units (I forget the name) who ambush and seriously fuck up German troops
I don't think these existed.

To put it simply, Germany needed Bismarck. They had Hindenburg, Ludendorff, and a superior army, but was outnumbered because of diplomatic mistakes before the war began.

>hardly fought
Russia didn't withdraw from the war until it was about three-fourths over. The Central Powers suffered about 5 million casualties on the East Front. I wouldn't say that backs up the idea that Russia "hardly fought".

Whoa

>They had Hindenburg, Ludendorff
This isn't an advantage

he meant them professional british troops, who got their exp from colonial wars.

fucking no-life grinding shits

I mean, I don't think there were really any ambushes on the western front. Unless trench raiding counts as ambushing, but everyone did that.

Did you forget the fact trenches only really became relatively static after Germany lost the Marne? The Battle of The Frontiers was fought in the woods quite often

I'm also forgetting these elite ambush troops, so please refresh my memory on that

>implying Afrocentrist bullshit isn't like 1/4 of Veeky Forums at various times

Elite British ambushing units seems borne from that anons mind but the BEF (whilst numerically insignificant) was highly professional and trained, and capable of checking otherwise undefended advances by the Germans, thereby being part of the reason why the French were able to stop the Germans at the Marne, which obviously prevented the Schlieffen plan from working. Which basically marked the end for the Germans, now that I think about it.

>implying either of them were bad generals
They may have lost the war but they weren't complete retards by any stretch

except it is when the allies have the likes of Haig and literal whos

>the BEF (whilst numerically insignificant) was highly professional and trained, and capable of checking otherwise undefended advances by the Germans, thereby being part of the reason why the French were able to stop the Germans at the Marne
That's honnestly British wishful thinking. The BEF was completely defeated and retreated. They participated at the Marne, but they were too few to really be significant. Russia did more at the Marne simply by invading quickly eastern Prussia.

>completely defeated
Hyperbolic nonsense, but sure.

...