Rise of Australia

Chapter 458

October 1917, 10, was a big day for the Allied Powers and for the entire war.

Under the full attack of the Allied forces, the Second Battle of the Marne made good progress.

In just ten days, the German army was repelled by more than 50 kilometers, which not only completely relieved the plight of Paris, but even made great efforts to counterattack into Germany.

Although the defense of the German army did not stop, it could no longer stop the Allied forces from attacking.

The state of the German army at this time is to go all out, then decline, and exhaust three times.The soldiers seemed exhausted, and even most of them were not optimistic about this doomed war.

The success of the Second Battle of the Marne also gave the Allied Command an opportunity.

On the premise of maintaining the continued offensive on the northern front, the French army mobilized a large number of troops hoarded in Verdun, and cooperated with the southern front to advance directly towards Alsace-Lorraine.

For the French, being able to regain Alsace and Lorraine in the first place is definitely one of the best rewards in this war.

On October 1917, 10, after half a month of combat, the Allied forces broke through Nancy and pushed the German army back to the pre-war French-German border.

But restoring the order before the war was obviously not the pursuit of the French army, and without any rest, the high-spirited French army shouted the slogan of recovering Alsace-Lorraine, and rushed directly to the Alsace and Lorraine regions.

With the homeland behind them, the German army's willingness to fight has also been restored.But it is obvious that the German army at this time can no longer stop the attack of the Allied Powers. Even though the Germans are not afraid of death, the French are more enthusiastic about fighting.

At the end of October, as the No.1 French soldiers officially entered the Alsace region, the French flag was replanted in this region after decades.

Together with Alsace, the Lorraine region was recovered. These two regions were annexed by Prussia in 1871 and are also the heart knot of all French people.

You know, it was also in this year that Prussia stepped on France and established the German Empire. This is a shame in the hearts of all French people, and it is also one of the cores of the contradiction between Germany and France.

Now being able to regain this piece of land, for most French people, is even more exciting than winning the war.

General Thomas was also very savvy. Not only did he give the French army the opportunity to first step into the Alsace and Lorraine regions, he also proposed to let France directly manage this region.

In the acquiescence of all the Allied Powers, this land has been brought under the management of the French, and no one can compete with France for the ownership of this land.

The occupation of Alsace and Lorraine excited not only all the French and the French media, but also all the Allied newspapers, media and people.

This is the first time since the outbreak of the war that the Western Front of the Allied Powers invaded Germany, and it is also the first piece of German land that was actually occupied. It is of great significance to this war.

It was also on the day when the French army officially entered Alsace and Lorraine, the media of all the Allied countries adopted a unified headline: "Victory is coming!"

The fall of Alsace and Lorraine overwhelmed the Germans, but they had no troops to mobilize at this time.

Both the Belgian region and the Eastern Front faced onslaughts from the Allied forces.

The mobilization of even one division is likely to put these two fronts at risk.But if reinforcements are not sent to South Germany, I am afraid that Bavaria will fall next.

The political system of the German Empire is quite special. It is an empire formed by the original Kingdom of Prussia and the states in the German region.

Kaiser Wilhelm II was not only the emperor of the German region, but also the real core region, the king of the Kingdom of Prussia.

In addition to the Kingdom of Prussia, the German Empire has important states such as Bavaria, Hesse, Baden, and Hanover.

These states not only have autonomy in peacetime, but also have their own army.It's just that during the war period, it should be under the unified management of the imperial government, which is also a restriction on these states.

Bavaria has its own king. If Bavaria faces a crisis, it is not known whether it will become independent like Hungary in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

But for the Allies, the more chaos in Germany, the better.The more chaotic Germany became, the less manpower and material resources the Allied Powers would consume to defeat Germany.

After completely occupying Alsace and Lorraine, the Allied forces split into two groups, some went north to Frankfurt and along the Rhine River, occupied Germany's more important Frankfurt, the Ruhr area, etc., and merged with the British army in Belgium to encircle German frontline troops.

The other part continued eastward, occupying the entire South German region.

The German state has Bavaria, Fortenberg and Hesse, Baden, and the North German region further north is not so closely related.

You must know that the German Empire was able to be established because the Kingdom of Prussia defeated the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Austria, which is also a German region, was excluded from the German Empire.

Before the establishment of the German Empire, Bavaria and other states in South Germany had a better relationship with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and opposed the North German Alliance led by the Kingdom of Prussia.

On November 1917, 11, after the Allied forces captured Offenburg, they marched towards Stuttgart.

The army responsible for the northward march went north to Mannheim, besieging the nearby areas of Mannheim, Mainz and Frankfurt.

Although the German army resisted desperately, the Allied forces were already invincible.Even if the German army suffered tens of thousands of casualties every day, it still could not stop the progress of the Allied Powers.

On November 11, Stuttgart was broken, and the Allied forces headed east to Munich and Nuremberg.

Within a few days, Mannheim followed suit, leaving only the German troops in Mainz and Frankfurt to hold on.

The news that the armies of other countries were in dire straits in Germany also stimulated the British. The British stepped up their offensive in Belgium, and during this time they also recovered the Liege Fortress and advanced towards Aachen, Germany.

The dilemma facing Germany at this time made the scalp of the German General Staff tingle, and made Hindenburg feel helpless.

More importantly, the fall of the country has caused Germany to face a material crisis. Worker uprisings have broken out in many areas, protesting against the government's sharp reduction in the supply of materials to the people.

Although such a small-scale worker uprising was quickly extinguished by the government, a pessimistic atmosphere has already begun to spread among the people.

The German people began to criticize the rule of the military government, expressing angrily that it was because of the extremeization of the military government that Germany faced such a predicament.

It is worth mentioning that many media and people in Germany slammed directly at the military government and Hindenburg. The target was so clear that one had to suspect that someone was behind it.

In fact, Wilhelm II, who lived in the Berlin Palace, was the most likely behind-the-scenes push for these slams, but Hindenburg was not in the mood to deal with Wilhelm II at this time.

On December 1917, 12, under the orders of Hindenburg and Ludendorff, the German General Staff requested the High Seas Fleet to fight forcibly in order to strive for more favorable conditions for future German peace talks.

However, such a request from the General Staff will undoubtedly cause the soldiers of the High Seas Fleet to die. With the addition of the Americans, the gap between the German Navy and the Allied Navy is already very large, and the High Seas Fleet cannot be the opponent of the Allied Navy.

Under the leadership of some middle-level naval officers and soldiers of the High Seas Fleet, the German navy, unwilling to die in vain, launched an uprising, directly occupied the port, and publicly telegraphed the German government, demanding that Hindenburg return power to Wilhelm II.

The navy's resistance and uprising made Hindenburg lose face, and also made more German people dissatisfied with the rule of the military government.

With the unscrupulous siege of the Allied forces in Germany, the Bavarian government finally couldn't hold on. The Bavarian King Ludwig III sent envoys to meet with the Allied Powers frequently. The intention to unilaterally end the war was already very obvious.

On December 12, Munich was broken under the siege of the Allied Powers, and Ludwig III also publicly announced Bavaria's unconditional surrender.

The surrender of Bavaria opened the prelude to the surrender of the German states. Hesse, Baden, Württemberg and other states also announced their surrender in early December.

This also caused the entire South German region to fall under the rule of the Allied Powers, and it also caused chaos in the states of the North German region.

At this time, Hindenburg also ignored the battle on the front line, and hastily ordered the army to withdraw to the range of North Germany and concentrate on defending the most important areas of Germany.

On December 12, with the collapse of Frankfurt, the Allied forces began to advance towards the Ruhr area.

The British army also officially broke through Aachen, joined forces with the French army, and aimed directly at the entire Westphalia region.

Before the troops of the Allied Powers approached the Ruhr area, the workers and army in the Ruhr area had already erupted in an uprising.

A large number of workers chanted the slogan of bread not war, rebelled some German soldiers, and directly occupied most of the factories in the Ruhr area.

At the same time, rebellions broke out across Germany, and the people could no longer eat, and naturally they no longer cared about the government.

On December 12, the Allied forces landed in Hanover, and the Hanoverian state immediately announced its surrender.

At this time, Hindenburg was sitting in the General Staff Headquarters with a pale face. Knowing that the situation in Germany was over, he could only bitterly issue his order to the messenger, declaring a ceasefire on the front line.

On the same night, under the protection of his personal guards, Wilhelm II quietly went to Germany's neighboring country, the Netherlands, to seek refuge.

After Germany's defeat, Hindenburg's military government was bound to suffer liquidation from the Allied Powers, and William II didn't think the Allied Powers would let him off easily.

Instead of this, it is better to go to the Netherlands earlier and wait for the development of the situation in Germany.

On the second day, December 1917, 12, the news of Germany's announcement of the armistice spread to all corners of the Allied countries and the world, and brought together all the people of the Allied countries to rejoice.

At this time, the Europeans were surprised to find that the Allied media's previous propaganda that the war would end before Christmas was really not a lie, and there was still half a month before Christmas.

Arthur could not help but breathe a sigh of relief when he heard the news of the German armistice in Australasia.

This war that has persisted for three years is finally over, and it can finally let people in Europe and even the world breathe a sigh of relief.

But the end of the war does not mean that it will be easy. The next step is the peace talks between the Allies and Germany, which is related to the interests of all countries.

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(End of this chapter)