Allied Troop Movements During Operation Michael
Introduction
This article traces the reaction of allied generals Douglas Haig and Philip Pétain to Operation Michael, the first assault by Germany during the German Spring Offensive against the Western Front on March 21, 1918. Having achieved peace and complete victory in the East by the Russian Revolution, the overthrow of the legitimate Russian Government and its replacement by a Communist one, and the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty, the Kaiser planned to secretly move as many of his combat divisions as possible from Germany's Eastern Front to her Western Front during the winter of 1917–1918, for a final, climatic assault against France to win the war. The attack nearly succeeded, and if it wasn't for the appointment of General Ferdinand Foch as Allied Supreme Commander on March 26, there is a good chance that it could have.Background
The World War was not going well for the British and French at the beginning of 1918, with the British just coming off the costly Flanders offensive, the French reeling with unhappiness in the trenches after the Nivelle offensive, and American troops slow in arriving to France. General Haig of the British Expeditionary Force, knowing the war was one of attrition, requested to continue his costly assaults in the Fall of 1917 and Spring of 1918 to wear down the German Army. However, Prime Minister Lloyd George had no troops to give him unless he asked for another round of the draft and greater sacrifices from the public by expanding conscription or diverting personnel from critical war industries. General Haig's requests to bring the B.E.F. up to full strength were denied, the Prime Minister thinking he would just have to make do until the Americans arrive in force, and for an Allied offensive to take place sometime in 1919. In the meantime, Prime Minister Clemenceau, fearing most of his army would be demobilized in nine months due to drafts ending, asked the British to take over an additional 28 miles of the Front from the French, which they did in January 1918. The area was occupied by the British Fifth Army, under the command of General Hubert Gough. Known as "The Fifth Army Front", it was poorly prepared for defense by the French, its natural barrier, the Oise River, had dried over the winter, and it was to receive the spearhead of the German assault.The Assault on the Western Front
In the early morning hours of March 21, 1918, German artillery rained down on the Western Front. The spearhead of a massive German assault of nearly 200 divisions then hit and broke the Allied line right at its weakest point. The exact area of the attack was predicted in January by the Supreme War Council, the Prime Ministers of England and France had ordered a reserve of 30 divisions to deal with it, but generals Pétain and Haig ignored the order. When this was discovered on March 15, it was too late to fire them, so they had their way. The Germans had been preparing for a massive attack for months. When it occurred, it caught the Allies by surprise. Due to good deception, in France General Petain was convinced it was a diversionary attack, that the main attack would be made in the middle of his sector, 50 miles to the south, and in England Prime Minister Lloyd George received reassuring messages on the first two days of the battle that the attack might just be "a big raid". Also, the General Reserve, that would have been available if General's Haig and Petain had followed their orders and contributed the soldiers, would have been deployed right where it was needed, and it would have been ready to respond. However, at the time of the attack, General Haig's reserve divisions were deployed way in the north, near the Channel Ports, General Pétain refused to use his reserves in Champagne, because he thought the attack would be there, which only made his divisions near Switzerland available for deployment. This meant it would take time, not weeks but in some cases months, to move them into position. Meanwhile, within days of the assault the Front had been breached along a 50-mile line, on March 24 General Petain issued orders for his army to retreat and cover Paris, on March 25 General Haig drafted an order for the British to retreat towards the English Channel, and the Germans were on the verge of winning the war.Allied Troop Movements (Details)
The British and French
The British Fifth Army bore the brunt of the German assault. Led by General Hubert Gough, it had taken over a section of the French Front during the winter, and it was the weakest part of the British line. Also, General Haig kept most of his reserve divisions near the English Channel, allowing Gough to make do with 17 divisions on the line, and 2 in his rear. This army was attacked by 50 German divisions, and outnumbered three to one it could not hold. The thought of a permanent break between the English and French was serious, and due to bad luck, Allied leadership in Paris and London didn't know this was the big attack they had feared until March 23. To meet the threat, General's Petain & Haig a month earlier arranged a verbal agreement to mutually support one another.In the evening of March 21 and early March 22, General Haig asked General Pétain for 3 divisions to support Gough. His request was immediately granted, with the French Fifth Corp, ordered to the breach to reinforce the English right flank. These troops were transported in lorries and started arriving on March 23. In a confidential report to General Haig after the battle, General Gough wrote that on the first day of the attack, "I could only expect one division at a time, at intervals of 72 hours, and that the first to arrive could not be expected for 72 hours...and...the French division...would not arrive any faster." Gough was referring to the British 8th Division, the only one General Haig could spare from his reserve, and the nearby French divisions of General Pétain's Third Army that were strategically positioned behind the Front in the French sector, but close to the English. Due to urgency from the attack, by March 26 seven French divisions and the one English division, coming on piecemeal and without their artillery, were fighting in the British Fifth Army Front.
On the afternoon of March 22, General Haig asked for 3 more divisions, and General Pétain responded by ordering his entire Third Army under General Humbert to the breach. In the evening, convinced that he was under attack by 81 German divisions, General Haig asked General Pétain for his entire Fifth Army. He also asked the French to take over the English sector south of the Somme, and for General Pétain to take over Gough's Fifth Army. However, General Pétain was certain only 26 divisions were attacking Haig, and the other 55 were about to attack him. For this reason, he spared his reserves around Champagne, and he ordered his First Army, stationed much further south, to proceed to the breach. This delayed the arrival of its six divisions. General Pétain also agreed to take over the entire area of the breach, and he placed its command under General Fayolle.
On March 23, Gough's Fifth Army, and the British Third Army on its left, were being swept away. Prime Minister Clemenceau visited General Pétain twice at French GQG in Compiègne, and returned both times telling President Poincaré that the government must evacuate Paris. Also, as the first French reserves started arriving at the breach by battalion, they were thrown in piecemeal. At 4pm, Haig and Pétain met at Dury Town Hall. Here, General Haig again requested 20 French divisions to be concentrated around Amiens, along the Somme River, to prevent his encirclement by the Germans and to secure a way to the Channel Ports. General Pétain, who had 30 divisions left in his reserve, refused. He wanted to keep this force to cover Paris. At this point, national interests superseded those of the Allies as a whole, and both sides planned to leave the Front open to the Germans.
On March 24, the French reserves arriving on scene couldn't hold a line at the Front or their link with the English. Keeping his reserves in Champagne, during the day General Pétain ordered 6 more divisions from further south in his line to be moved to the rear of the breach to thwart German advances inland. As earlier, this delayed their arrival. By the evening, the separation between the French and English armies was so bad that General Pétain ordered General Fayolle to hold his link with the French all costs, and to link with the English only "if possible". Pétain then visited General Haig at his Dury headquarters at 11pm, to tell him that if he continued to pull away from the French, he would be forced to draw back his own armies to cover Paris. In fact, orders for this were issued. General Haig, still thinking the B.E.F. was under attack by the entire German army, questioned General Pétain as to whether or not he would abandon him. Petain answered, "It is the only thing possible".
After lunch at French headquarters on March 25, French Minister of Munitions Louis Loucher estimated the chances of an Allied defeat at 90%; General Petain corrected him and said it was 96%. Pétain then told Loucheur that Prime Minister Clemenceau should be urged to ask for peace. Under orders from Paris, in the afternoon on an easel in his office, General Pétain was arranging the redeployment of his armies to protect the capital. The situation bottomed out as Pétain envisioned the separation of the French and British armies, with the British falling back to Calais to defend its supply routes near the English Channel, and the French having to extend its army to the ocean somewhere behind the British lines. This would result in a series of battles north of Paris, and a French loss would mean Paris would be abandoned, with very serious consequences for the country. To prevent this, it was necessary to defend the capital immediately, and orders for this were issued.