Spring Offensive (World War I) war movies

Spring Offensive 21 March 1918

Spring Offensive, called by the Germans Keiserschlacht (Keiser’s Battle), was last big offensive undertook by the Germans during World War 1. All available forces and supplies were moved to the Western Front near the Somme.

The situation of the civilians and soldiers in Germany were desperate, there were food shortages, the steel and rubber products were hard to obtain, which pushed the generals to find a solution that would break the impasse on the front and put an end to the war. They chose the spot on the verge of two Allied armies, British and France, as the best place to make the final push and drive a wedge between the two. The aim was to reach the ports on the coast and break the spirit of the enemy.

The offensive started on 21st March 1918 and quickly gained a lot of terrain (comparing to stalemate that was present for years). The Germans soldiers that were hungry and tired of the constant fighting were motivated by the propaganda that British and French forces were on the brink of collapsing due to lack of supplies. But when the German units actually reached the enemy positions, where they found the storages full of food and alcohol it became obvious that the informations they were given were absolutely false.

With each day and each week the offensive was losing the impact and the Allied forces were able to stop the Germans. Within four months of the offensive Germans gained terrain, but at the same time their forces were stretched even more to cover the new area, not to mention they have lost in the attack their best trained soldiers and the whole operation was rather disastrous.

Spring Offensive, despite the early successes, not only did not reached its target (breaking up the enemy lines), but also put Germans in worse position, with limited supplies and reinforcements they were unable to take on another attack, not to mention they would need extra men even to defend their new lines.

Journey’s End 2017

In 1918 Germans are preparing their final do-or-die push in the western front. Young British officer joins his unit just few days before offensive is about to start and tries to adapt to life in trenches.