Including 2 answered questions (1x10 marker and 1x20 marker) on the events of the First World War.
Q1: Which of the following years were more important in leading to the Allied victory in the First World War:
i) 1917 or
ii) 1918?
Q2: Assess the reasons why the fighting in the First World War on...
Which of the following years were more important in leading to the Allied victory in the First World
War: i) 1917 or ii) 1918?
1917 was a crucial year in terms of bringing about the Allied victory on 11 th November 1918.
Firstly, in January 1917, Germany gambled on declaring unrestricted submarine warfare in the hope
that this would drive Britain out of the war. By April this strategy appeared to be working as over 1
million tonnes of Allied shipping was destroyed. However, the risk that unrestricted submarine
warfare would draw the USA into the conflict was realised as American exports to the Allies, on
which it relied for economic growth, suffered severely as a result of the German policy. As a direct
consequence, President Wilson declared war on Germany on 6 th April 1917 as an ‘associated power’;
this was extremely significant in terms of leading to the Allied victory since the manpower reserves
and economic strength of the USA would now be available to the Allies. In the war of attrition that
was the First World War, this was of immense importance and facilitated the rupture of the
deadlock in 1918. Another vital event in 1917 was the Battle of Cambrai, in which 381 British tanks
crushed the German barbed wire flat and rolled forward along a 10km front on the Hindenburg line.
Although a lack of infantry reserves limited the success of the manoeuvre, the Battle of Cambrai
provided a glimpse of the future that was to characterise the rest of the war; the successful
deployment of Allied tanks demonstrates that the power who most effectively exploited the
technological advances necessitated by the war would eventually emerge victorious. Cambrai
showed that the Allies had done this most effectively, and left Germany on the back-foot throughout
1918 and ultimately led to their defeat at the end of the year.
The Russian Revolutions were a crucial event of 1918 which left the outcome of the war in
the balance. The overthrow of the Provisional Government in the October Revolution led to the
Russian withdrawal from the First World War under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, signed on 3 rd March.
The need to no longer supply divisions to the Eastern Front left Germany with the numerical
advantage; after the Russian surrender, there were 193 German divisions against 173 Allied.
Subsequently, Germany were able to make huge advances of over 65km in March 1918 alone and
claimed to have shelled Paris. It looked as if the Allies would be defeated, however American aid
together with the resolute reactions of the British and French governments helped to ensure a
consistent repulse of German forces thereafter. The setting up of a joint Allied command under
General Foch gave them the unity that the Germans lacked with no real allies, and allowed the
coordination of joint Allied campaigns that would bring together vaster numbers of troops. Allied
cooperation meant that on 8th August a Franco-British using over 400 tanks counter-attacked at
Amiens – Ludendorff called it ‘the blackest day of the German army’. By September, the Germans
were in full retreat, so the success of the Allied counter-attack in 1918 was vital to leading to their
victory at the end of the year. As a result, Germany and their allies had no choice but to seek an
armistice with the enemy; when the German public heard news of this, the demand for their
government’s surrender became unstoppable. The German Admiralty’s decision to send a fleet out
on a suicide mission against the British led to a sailors’ mutiny at the Wilhelmshaven base which
threatened the establishment of communism in Germany. Therefore, domestic unrest in Germany
throughout 1918 proved crucial in the nation’s defeat and by extension, the Allied victory.
Overall, the successful deployment of tanks for the first time in 1917 together with the US
declaration of war on Germany suggests that it was the more important of the two years in
ultimately leading to the Allied victory. Although 1918 contained significant events such as the
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