1918: The year that turned the tide in WWI

Following Russia's exit from World War One in 1917, the Germans were in a strong position.

Since they no longer had to station soldiers on the Eastern Front, the Germans were able to relocate all of their fighting units to the Western Front.

The increase in available troops meant that the German army could prepare for new attacks where they could potentially out-number the Allies.

At the beginning of 1918, as the winter ended, the German army decided to launch a major offensive with the goal of pushing the Allies back and winning the war. 

The German Spring Offensive, also known as Kaiserschlacht ('Kaiser's Battle') was launched on the 21st of March 1918.

It consisted of several phases, each with its own codename: Michael, Georgette, Blücher-Yorck, Gneisenau, and Marne-Rheims.

During the offensive, the German Army made significant advances into France, but they also had suffered heavy casualties.

The first, and one of the most important military operations of Kaiserschlacht, was known as Operation Michael, during which the Germans attacked the British and French lines near Amiens.

They were able to make some initial gains, but they eventually ran into heavy resistance from the Allies. 

Australian troops held the town Villers-Bretonneux against German attackers during Operation Michael and, on two separate occasions, were able to seize back control of this strategic location. 

The offensive stalled by July 1918 due to a lack of new soldiers and limited supplies from Germany.

This left the German army in a vulnerable position.

As the Germans were making advances as part of their Spring Offensive, the newly arrived American armed forces were used in strategic roles along the Western Front to try and slow their advance.

Some of these early battles indicated how inexperienced the Americans were in comparison to British and French troops who had been fighting for over three years.

However, the American soldiers turned out to be a decisive factor in stopping the German attack.

There are a number of battles in which the Americans took part which resulted in high German losses.

The most famous of them was the Battle of Belleau Wood.

The Battle of Belleau Wood was fought from 1st-26th June 1918, near the Marne River in France.

It was the first major engagement of the war for the American Expeditionary Force on the Western Front.

This was a defensive battle that became an American-led counteroffensive.

The goal was to halt the German advance towards Paris.

The fighting between the two sides occurred in a thick wood, which obscured visibility for both sides.

The US forces, particularly the Marines, launched several attacks to seize control of Belleau Wood from the Germans.

However, German machine gun emplacements made any movement dangerous for the Allies.

Despite repeated counterattacks and out-flanking manoeuvres, the American marines were able to hold their positions and push the Germans back.

At the end of the fighting, almost 2000 Americans had been killed and over 5000 Germans.

The AEF was outnumbered and outgunned by the Germans, but they were able to win a decisive victory at Belleau Wood.

This battle is considered to be one of the most important in the history of the United States military.

The Allies started to adopt a new strategy in 1918 known as 'combined arms warfare'.

This strategy involved using all of the resources at their disposal to achieve victory.

It included using infantry, artillery, tanks, and aircraft together in order to overwhelm the enemy.

While each of these elements of the armed forces had been used separately in the past, it took a while for commanders to understand the best way to use them together for greatest effectiveness on the battlefield.

In combined arms warfare, each element used its strength to counter the weaknesses of the others.

For example, tanks were often used to shield the approaching infantry from enemy fire, while artillery provided covering fire for the moving tanks and infantry.

Aircraft would then be used to attack enemy targets and provide support to the ground troops.

When used together in this way, the Allied armies became a much more effective attacking force.

Rather than just remaining in trenches, the soldiers could now advance with confidence and hold onto the gains they achieved.

The Allies started to use the combined arms strategy more and more throughout 1918, and it helped the Allies start to make real progress against the Germans.

Combined arms warfare was used to great effect during the Second Battle of the Marne, which occurred between the 15th and 18th of August 1918.

This battle would be the last major offensive by Germany on the Western Front.

The German plan had been to attack the French lines at multiple points and divide the Allied armies.

However, the attack ultimately failed when the Allies counterattacked by sending their infantry, supported by hundreds of tanks, against them.

This combined attacking force quickly overwhelmed the Germans, which resulted in high casualties. The Germans realised their failure and retreated from the fight.

Their defeat marked the end of German advances and the beginning of the Allied advance against them.

The Hundred Days Offensive was a series of major offensives launched by the Allies on the 8th of August 1918.

The goal of this offensive was to push back the Germans and retake control of ground that had been lost earlier in the war. 

Overall command of this strategy had been handed to Field Marshal Ferdinand Foch of France, who was appointed Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in March 1918.

This meant that he would coordinate the efforts of British, French, American, and other Allied troops.

The offensive was successful, and it eventually led to the Armistice of 11 November 1918.

This offensive is considered to be one of the most important in the history of World War I.

The Battle of Amiens was the first of the Hundred Days Offensive and would be one of the most important battles of 1918.

It was here that the effectiveness of combined arms warfare was first seen. In particular, the Allies were able to use a large number of tanks in this battle, and they were able to achieve a decisive victory. 

It took place between the 8th and 12th of August, during which the Allied forces managed to advance over 11 kilometres on the first day. 

The British Fourth Army, supported by Australian and Canadian troops, were instrumental in the victory, which forced 50,000 German troops to surrender.

The victory at the Battle shocked the German high command, and one of their generals, Erich Ludendorff, famously described it as "the blackest day of the German Army".

In September 1918, the Germans were forced to retreat to the Hindenburg Line, their last line of defense on the Western Front.

This would lead to the Battle of the Hindenburg Line, from 17 September to 15 October 1918.

However, the Germans had invested a lot into building these defensive trenches and they were difficult for the Allies to capture.

Three waves of attacks were required by the Allied forces to finally break through the defenses.

Each wave relied upon heavy artillery bombardment, followed by infantry advances which were supported by tanks and aircraft.

At the end of each wave, the Germans had suffered four times the casualties in comparison to the Allies.

With the fall of the Hindenburg Line, the Hundred Days Offensive was over.

It resulted in over 1.2 million casualties, including approximately 765,000 German troops.

The official cessation of fighting in World War One was arranged in an agreement called an 'armistice'.

The Armistice of 11 November 1918 was an agreement, consented to by both sides, that ended the fighting in World War I.

It was signed by representatives of Germany and the Allied Powers in a railway carriage in the Forest of Compiègne, France, at 5:00 am and came into effect at 11:00 am the same day.

However, the official end to the state of war was not until the Treaty of Versailles was signed on 28 June 1919.

World War One had finally come to an end.