World War One: Germany's Spring Offensive 1918

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2018

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In early 1918, Germany launched a huge offensive on the Western Front in a last great gamble to win the war. Following Russia's withdrawal from the war, Germany could move up to a million soldiers from the Eastern Front to the West to launch a decisive attack. Their plan was to break through British and French lines and force an end to the war, before American power could bolster the Allied cause. They came close to succeeding. Using recordings from the BBC Archive, we hear from German and British soldiers who faced each other in the spring of 1918. Photo: German troops advance in the sector near Villers-Bretonneux during Germany's Spring Offensive 1918. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Transcript

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1:08.9	from the BBC World Service with me Alex Last.
1:12.4	And as part of our centenary series on the First World War,
1:15.6	we use archive recordings to tell the story of the 1918 Spring Offensive,
1:21.3	Germany's last great gamble to win the war.
1:25.0	We hoped for victory and fair peace. foreboding to peace.
	...

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