Hindenburg Line

Formation

Outcome

During the Spring Offensive of 1918, German troops arrived, like 1914 in the Battle of the Marne, the end of May 1918 again at 40 to 50 kilometers of Paris approach. But a result of this advance meant merely an overstretching of the German front lines. After the failure of the offensive " Marne -Reims protection " mid-July 1918, the German army was finally on the defensive. First, it came to the second Battle of the Marne ( July 15 to August 6 1918). On 8 August, the battle began at Amiens. It opened the Allied Hundred Days Offensive. Late August and early September, the German troops were pushed back to St. Quentin in the Somme section to their original positions before the spring offensive ( Hindenburg Line ). The end of September began, initiated by the American Meuse- Argonne Offensive, the attack on the Hindenburg Line.

The Siegfried Line was breached on 27 September 1918 by British divisions. Since there were no military fortifications of the German Empire more east of it, since there was an acute danger that the German western front would collapse. The Allied victory at the Siegfried Line was one of the reasons why Quartermaster General Erich Ludendorff September 29, 1918 called for the initiation of negotiations for an armistice and the parliamentary system of the empire. The strategic retreat was the only way to respond to the superiority of the Allies. He was only intended as a stopgap for future operations. November 9, 1918 the insistence of the OHL was granted for a ceasefire. The First World War was over in fact.