In March 1918, Germany's stormtroopers broke the Allied line with revolutionary new tactics. They advanced 40 miles in days — then ran out of food, horses, and time.
Germany was running out of time. With American troops pouring into France at 250,000 per month, Generals Hindenburg and Ludendorff knew 1918 was their last chance to win before Allied numbers became insurmountable. They devised a series of massive offensives on the Western Front, gambling that new infiltration tactics could break the stalemate that four years of fighting had failed to crack.
The offensive used revolutionary 'stormtrooper' tactics developed over years of small-unit experimentation. Instead of massed infantry attacks, elite units bypassed strongpoints, flooded through gaps, targeted artillery and headquarters, and let conventional troops mop up resistance from the rear. When Operation Michael launched March 21, 1918, with a five-hour bombardment of over a million shells, the British line collapsed.
In the first days, German forces advanced 40 miles — more ground than any attack since the war began. German troops reached positions they hadn't seen since 1914. Allied commander Ferdinand Foch was rushed to supreme command to hold the line as panic spread through British and French headquarters. For a brief moment, it seemed Germany might actually win.
The offensive contained a fatal paradox: success revealed how desperate Germany's situation actually was. As stormtroopers pushed through Allied lines, they discovered enemy supply depots stocked with food, equipment, and luxuries their own army hadn't seen in years. German troops stopped to eat, drink, and loot — discipline dissolving exactly when maintaining momentum was most critical.
Four major operations followed — Georgette, Blucher-Yorck, Gneisenau, and the final Friedensturm — each pushing further but falling short of the decisive breakthrough Ludendorff needed. Germany suffered 688,000 casualties in these offensives, burning through reserves it could never replace. By July 1918, the last German attack was repulsed at the Second Battle of the Marne.
The Kaiserschlacht consumed the last of Germany's offensive strength. The 1.5 million soldiers released from the Eastern Front after Russia's collapse had been spent in six months of failed attacks. When the Allies launched their own counter-offensive on August 8 — the Hundred Days Offensive — there was nothing left to stop them.