Posted on 03/15/2018 11:07:59 AM PDT by Kaslin
One hundred years ago this month, all hell broke loose in France. On March 21, 1918, the German army on the Western Front unleashed a series of massive attacks on the exhausted British and French armies.
German General Erich Ludendorff thought he could win World War I with one final blow. He planned to punch holes between the French and British armies. Then he would drive through their trenches to the English Channel, isolating and destroying the British army.
The Germans thought they had no choice but to gamble.
The British naval blockade of Germany after three years had reduced Germany to near famine. More than 200,000 American reinforcement troops were arriving each month in France. (Nearly 2 million would land altogether.) American farms and factories were sending over huge shipments of food and munitions to the Allies.
Yet for a brief moment, the war had suddenly swung in Germany's favor by March 1918. The German army had just knocked Russia and its new Bolshevik government out of the war. The victory on the Eastern Front freed up nearly 1 million German and Austrian soldiers, who were transferred west.
Germany had refined new rolling artillery barrages. Its dreaded "Stormtroopers" had mastered dispersed advances. The result was a brief window of advantage before the American juggernaut changed the war's arithmetic.
The Spring Offensive almost worked. Within days, the British army had suffered some 50,000 casualties. Altogether, about a half-million French, British and American troops were killed or wounded during the entire offensive.
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
Imagine if they Germans had won. We’d have a European Union dominated by Germany. That would be completely different from what we have now.
Interesting thought. If Germany won WWI we would not have had Hitler and WWII. No WWII no Cold War.
“..The German army had just knocked Russia and its new Bolshevik government out of the war. ...”
Not entirely accurate... the German General Erich Ludendorff personally cleared the way and brought Lenin back into the country from Switzerland, where he’d be hiding out and then smuggled him back into Russia, knowing full-well the Hell he’d unleash there against the Kerensky regime and thus cause Russia to internally convulse and pull out.
They didn’t really “knock” them out of the war - it was agreed upon beforehand, with Lenin (and Trotsky as well) being active enthusiastic conspirators.
I've discussed possible histories from the standpoint of the Civil War either not being fought or having turned out differently, and I argue that with a separate North and South, it would have been less likely for the US to have interfered in World War I.
I then point out that a whole host of horrible things that happened as a result of world war I, would not have happened.
Indeed, it is hard to imagine how history could have turned out worse than it actually did in our timeline.
No Nazis, No Nukes, No Communist control of Russia, therefore no Communist control of China. 100 million people would not have been killed.
Yes, the path our history actually took seems to be about the worst path it could have taken.
Interesting thought. If Germany won WWI we would not have had Hitler and WWII. No WWII no Cold War.
Maybe. Then again, being on the losing side may have sparked a Marxist revolution in England and/or France. That’s where the smart money was betting on it happening until it kicked off in Russia first. Events would have turned out very different, but not necessarily better.
Accurate, and not widely known.
Communism was used as a weapon to destroy Russia and her ability to be the deciding power in WWI.
“..Communism was used as a weapon to destroy Russia and her ability to be the deciding power in WWI...”
Indeed... and the frigging Germans turned it loose. And then had their OWN little commie uprising a couple years later, which gave us the National Socialists.
Again, accurate and not well known.
Hitler came up as a Communist, but when he got control, portrayed his history as "Socialist" and declared himself a Nationalist who would not turn over control of Germany to the International Socialists, the Communists he came from and who expected he would do so.
Thus the "National Socialists", who are simply disobedient Communists, but are called the "Right" in all of Europe.
“...who are simply disobedient Communists,...”
And let’s not forget MUCH better dressed disobedient communists... why, their style was absolutely BITCHING, as we all know. I mean, if you’re going exterminate all those who those who disagree with being enslaved, you absolutely MUST be fashionable and stylish about it...
Otherwise... you get - shabby Stalin - Ugh.... How gauche. Simply won’t do.
RE “National Socialists” versus Communists:
When it comes to killing of innocent lives, Stalin, Mao and the other follow-on genocidal psychopath commies made Hitler look like a rank amateur.
Always have to chuckle when I hear someone trying to make a distinction between the two.
When the boot is on your face, it doesn’t matter if it’s a “left” boot or a “right” boot - You destroy the b*stard wearing the boot.
Mostly true, with the caveat being a Germanic Europe clearly would have been first to nuke up. And first to satellite launch. Perhaps a scary thought. Lol.
Why would America not intervening in the First World War mean no Communism in Russia (or China)?
And why would it mean no nuclear weapons?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1917_French_Army_mutinies
A hard shove exclusively at the French line might have worked.
EU? It would be called “Greater Germany”. One can only guess what direction the world would have taken..
The decision to send Lenin to Russia, (remember, the Original Russian revolution was not communist. When Lenin got there, he turned it into a communist revolution.) was made after the US announced it was entering the war on the side of the British.
I know post hoc ergo propter hoc is not perfect logic, but it seems accurate in this particular case.
And why would it mean no nuclear weapons?
No German loss in WWI, no Hitler. No Hitler, no mass persecution of the Jews. Szilard remains in Germany, as do a whole host of other important scientists that pushed for and developed this technology.
No Szilard and Einstein in the US, no push to create the Manhattan project.
Very likely the very wost things of the 20th century would have been avoided.
Reactors maybe, but not likely bombs.
And first to satellite launch.
Maybe, but it's possible von Braun wouldn't have gotten the funding to do his research without Hitler's war machine underwriting it.
Perhaps a scary thought. Lol.
What actually happened was terrifying. Again, I can hardly see how an alternative history could have been worse than that which we have now. Could it possibly have been bloodier than it was?
If we just take Hitler out of the equation, we gain probably 40 million lives that were snuffed out. If we take Lenin out of the equation, we gain perhaps an additional 100 million lives.
By what argument could you suggest we could have killed more people if history had gone differently?
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