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Western Front: 1915 – 1917: Stalemate
Operations in 1917
1. Nivelle's
Offensive
2. Battle
of Arras
3. Battle
of Messines
4. Third
Battle of Ypres
5. French
Victories
6. Battle
of Cambrai
OPERATIONS IN 1917
Short Summary:
ALLIED OFFENSIVES IN 1917. The principal Allied offensive
of 1917 was to be a great French attack on the Aisne, preceded by a
British attack in the Arras area to draw German reserves away from the
river. The Germans, apprised of the plan, withdrew voluntarily to the
Hindenburg Line. The French attack on the Aisne was repulsed with such
enormous losses as to cause widespread mutiny in the French Army. Primarily
to occupy the Germans while the shattered morale and confidence of the
French were being rebuilt, the British launched successive offensives
at Messines, Ypres, and Cambrai. These attacks made moderate gains and
succeeded in preventing a German offensive against the disorganized
and weakened French.
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The year 1917 opened with several promising peace proposals.
First came that of President Woodrow Wilson. On Dec. 18, 1916, he had
addressed circular notes to the American diplomatic representatives
accredited to the belligerent governments. These were not offers of
mediation but requests for statements of terms; in fact, the governments
of the Central Powers did not venture to disclose their terms, while
those of the Allies sent Wilson wholly inacceptable terms that included
the division of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. On Jan. 22, 1917, Wilson
addressed to the Senate a speech that called on the belligerents to
accept "a peace without victory," and reached its apogee in
its delineation of the American people as peacemakers. Only 10 weeks
later, however, the president led the United States to war. This change
of view was due to the German decision, announced on January 31, to
reintroduce unrestricted submarine warfare. Another peace appeal, that
of Pope Benedict XV, also failed, as did that of the new Austrian emperor,
Charles I, made through the medium of his brother-in-law, Prince Sixte
(Sixtus) of Bourbon.
The British people hoped that the aid of the United States would be
instant and overwhelmingly strong, but the government and the fighting
forces were well aware that this was impossible. The one powerful and
immediate military aid that the United States could afford was naval.
By June 5, 34 American destroyers were based on Queenstown (now Cobh),
from which they joined in the antisubmarine warfare in the Atlantic.
By far the most important event of the year, however,
was the revolution in Russia. The Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers'
Deputies, formed on March 12, compelled Czar Nicholas II to abdicate.
He was replaced by a provisional government in which Alexander Kerenski
became minister of war and, later, prime minister. Kerenski was determined
to maintain the war against the Germans, Austrians, and Turks. He found
Gen. Aleksei Brusilov, the best of the Russian generals, ready to become
commander in chief and confided to him all the most reliable troops,
especially the Siberian. The offensive, which was launched on July 1,
began with a heartening success, but the process of demoralization had
gone too far, and the bulk of the troops were soon streaming homeward.
The end came with the Bolshevik Revolution of November 6-7, and the
accession of Lenin and Leon Trotsky to power. Armistice talks with the
Central Powers opened at Brest-Litovsk (now Brest) on December 3. Russia
had been driven from the war in the same year that the United States
entered it, but Russia was armed and, unfortunately for the Allies,
the United States was not.
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