The German Offensives of 1918

On March 21, 1918 the German Army launched a massive offensive on the Western Front in a last desperate attempt to score a decisive victory. The results were spectacular. They advanced up to 60 kilometers, further by far than the British and French had managed in their offensives on the Somme, the Aisne, and at Ypres. Then the offensive gradually lost momentum, the French counter-attacked in July, the British in August, and the Germans finally lost the initiative. Martin Kitchen, a leading authority on the military history of Germany, provides a gripping account of this critical campaign during which the Germans seemed so close to victory and yet were soon to face a humiliating defeat.