WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.040 Imagine you're watching the final seconds of 00:00:02.040 --> 00:00:04.919 a tied game, right? Okay, yeah. One team decides 00:00:04.919 --> 00:00:07.900 to throw this blind, desperate Hail Mary pass, 00:00:08.820 --> 00:00:11.460 just risking absolute everything on a single 00:00:11.460 --> 00:00:14.419 improbable play. Right, the ultimate gamble. 00:00:14.640 --> 00:00:17.140 Exactly. If it works, they win it all. If it 00:00:17.140 --> 00:00:20.519 fails, they lose their future. But in this case... 00:00:20.219 --> 00:00:22.519 We're not talking about a trophy. The stakes 00:00:22.519 --> 00:00:25.039 are the survival of entire nations. Yeah, the 00:00:25.039 --> 00:00:27.280 stakes literally could not be higher. In the 00:00:27.280 --> 00:00:29.940 spring of 1918, Germany was starving, the clock 00:00:29.940 --> 00:00:32.259 was ticking, and they basically threw the most 00:00:32.259 --> 00:00:34.859 colossal desperate punch in military history. 00:00:35.810 --> 00:00:38.850 Today, we're taking a deep dive into Operation 00:00:38.850 --> 00:00:41.210 Michael. It's such an intense topic. It really 00:00:41.210 --> 00:00:43.229 is. We're going to look at how the most massive 00:00:43.229 --> 00:00:45.869 artillery bombardment in human history, combined 00:00:45.869 --> 00:00:48.670 with this total reinvention of battlefield tactics, 00:00:49.450 --> 00:00:52.070 shattered a trench warfare deadlock that had 00:00:52.070 --> 00:00:54.869 just paralyzed the world for years. A deadlock 00:00:54.869 --> 00:00:56.630 everyone thought was permanent, by the way. Right. 00:00:56.670 --> 00:00:59.070 So if you want to understand how seemingly permanent 00:00:59.070 --> 00:01:02.289 stalemates are suddenly broken and the terrifying 00:01:02.289 --> 00:01:04.250 price of breaking them, this deep dive is for 00:01:04.250 --> 00:01:07.069 you. The scale of that desperation is really 00:01:07.069 --> 00:01:09.750 what makes this moment so pivotal. I mean, by 00:01:09.750 --> 00:01:12.709 early 1918, trench warfare on the Western Front 00:01:12.709 --> 00:01:15.549 had been this static, grinding nightmare for 00:01:15.549 --> 00:01:18.349 years. Millions of lives had already been fed 00:01:18.349 --> 00:01:20.849 into a meat grinder for territorial gains you 00:01:20.849 --> 00:01:23.349 could literally measure with a yardstick. Just 00:01:23.349 --> 00:01:26.189 brutal, stagnant attrition. Exactly. And then 00:01:26.189 --> 00:01:29.730 suddenly, Operation Michael redraws the map by 00:01:29.730 --> 00:01:32.629 dozens of miles in a matter of days. Which is 00:01:32.629 --> 00:01:35.409 mind -blowing. Right. But to grasp why that happened, 00:01:35.469 --> 00:01:37.549 we really have to look at the immense pressure 00:01:37.549 --> 00:01:39.890 cooking inside the German empire at the time. 00:01:40.269 --> 00:01:43.109 This wasn't some confident empire expanding its 00:01:43.109 --> 00:01:46.030 borders. This was an empire racing against a 00:01:46.030 --> 00:01:49.370 very loud ticking clock. OK, let's unpack this 00:01:49.370 --> 00:01:52.150 because why early 1918? Yeah, good question. 00:01:52.370 --> 00:01:55.090 What made this specific moment the tipping point 00:01:55.090 --> 00:01:57.989 where Germany decided to just bet the house on 00:01:57.989 --> 00:02:00.870 one massive all or nothing push? It reminds me 00:02:00.870 --> 00:02:02.989 of like a startup burning through its absolute 00:02:02.989 --> 00:02:05.290 last dollars of runway. Oh that's a great analogy. 00:02:05.590 --> 00:02:08.189 Right. They know a massive rival is about to 00:02:08.189 --> 00:02:10.669 get a huge infusion of cash, so they have to 00:02:10.669 --> 00:02:12.949 capture the market today or they're completely 00:02:12.949 --> 00:02:15.409 done. And that runway was running out way faster 00:02:15.409 --> 00:02:18.110 than most people realize. The German home front 00:02:18.110 --> 00:02:21.949 in early 1918 was quite literally starving. Starving, 00:02:22.009 --> 00:02:24.729 like actual famine conditions. Yes. The British 00:02:24.729 --> 00:02:26.870 naval blockade had completely choked off their 00:02:26.870 --> 00:02:29.930 resources, and the civilian population was just 00:02:29.930 --> 00:02:32.430 exhausted, malnourished, and basically on the 00:02:32.430 --> 00:02:35.780 brink of collapse. But however, amidst that slow 00:02:35.780 --> 00:02:40.120 strangulation, this sudden golden window of opportunity 00:02:40.120 --> 00:02:42.939 just opens up in the East. Right, because of 00:02:42.939 --> 00:02:44.840 Russia. Right. Exactly. Russia collapsed into 00:02:44.840 --> 00:02:48.099 revolution and surrendered. They signed the Treaty 00:02:48.099 --> 00:02:51.939 of Brest -Litovsk. And that treaty freed up General 00:02:51.939 --> 00:02:54.159 Erich Ludendorff, he was the chief of the German 00:02:54.159 --> 00:02:57.219 general staff, to secretly pack up nearly 50 00:02:57.219 --> 00:02:59.219 divisions from the Eastern Front and just put 00:02:59.219 --> 00:03:01.680 them on trains heading west. I mean, 50 divisions 00:03:01.680 --> 00:03:04.379 moving across Europe in secret. It's massive. 00:03:04.539 --> 00:03:07.080 The logistical nightmare of that alone is staggering. 00:03:07.560 --> 00:03:09.300 That has to fundamentally change the math on 00:03:09.300 --> 00:03:11.360 the Western Front, doesn't it? Oh, it shifted 00:03:11.360 --> 00:03:14.000 the balance of power overnight. For the first 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:16.900 time in years, Germany actually possessed a numerical 00:03:16.900 --> 00:03:21.520 advantage. By March 21st, they had 192 divisions 00:03:21.520 --> 00:03:24.439 staring down these much smaller British and French 00:03:24.439 --> 00:03:26.120 armies. So they finally have the upper hand. 00:03:26.250 --> 00:03:28.710 They do, but going back to your startup analogy, 00:03:29.169 --> 00:03:31.389 having a momentary advantage doesn't really mean 00:03:31.389 --> 00:03:33.509 anything if you know the competition is about 00:03:33.509 --> 00:03:35.729 to outscale you permanently. Right. The Germans 00:03:35.729 --> 00:03:37.590 knew the Americans were coming. Right, because 00:03:37.590 --> 00:03:39.830 the United States had entered the war, but it's 00:03:39.830 --> 00:03:42.129 not like you just flip a switch and an army teleports 00:03:42.129 --> 00:03:44.620 across the Atlantic. No, not at all. It takes 00:03:44.620 --> 00:03:48.379 months to draft and train and equip and ship 00:03:48.379 --> 00:03:50.680 millions of men. And the German High Command 00:03:50.680 --> 00:03:53.099 was tracking that shipping schedule obsessively. 00:03:53.659 --> 00:03:57.379 They expected 318 ,000 fresh American soldiers 00:03:57.379 --> 00:04:00.699 to land in France by May. Just by May. Yeah. 00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:04.139 And by August, they expected a million. A million 00:04:04.139 --> 00:04:06.659 fresh troops. Wow. And it wasn't just the sheer 00:04:06.659 --> 00:04:09.460 numbers that terrified Ludendorff. It was the 00:04:09.460 --> 00:04:11.919 untouchable industrial capacity behind those 00:04:11.919 --> 00:04:14.039 numbers. Right, the factories back in the U .S. 00:04:14.539 --> 00:04:17.300 Exactly. Germany realized they were about to 00:04:17.300 --> 00:04:19.459 fight a factory they couldn't bomb. They knew 00:04:19.459 --> 00:04:21.959 they could not survive a war of attrition against 00:04:21.959 --> 00:04:24.500 American manpower. So they had to win the war 00:04:24.500 --> 00:04:26.939 before the summer. So the Hail Mary has a hard 00:04:26.939 --> 00:04:29.920 deadline. What was the actual play they drew 00:04:29.920 --> 00:04:33.110 up to beat the clock? They called the overarching 00:04:33.110 --> 00:04:36.149 plan the Kaiserschlacht, which translates to 00:04:36.149 --> 00:04:38.899 the Kaiser's battle. Operation Michael was simply 00:04:38.899 --> 00:04:43.100 the first and the largest of four planned offensives. 00:04:43.500 --> 00:04:46.019 Okay. And Ludendorff's goal was breathtakingly 00:04:46.019 --> 00:04:48.860 ambitious. He wanted to punch a massive hole 00:04:48.860 --> 00:04:51.000 right through the British Expeditionary Force, 00:04:51.100 --> 00:04:53.160 the BEF, along the Somme River. It's right at 00:04:53.160 --> 00:04:55.560 the middle. Right. And after breaking through, 00:04:55.800 --> 00:04:58.240 the German armies would wheel northwest, sever 00:04:58.240 --> 00:05:00.240 the British supply lines to the channel ports, 00:05:00.519 --> 00:05:02.899 and physically drive the British army into the 00:05:02.899 --> 00:05:05.819 sea. Wow. Literally pushing them off the continent. 00:05:06.480 --> 00:05:08.259 Exactly. And by doing that, they would permanently 00:05:08.259 --> 00:05:10.420 split the British forces from the French forces. 00:05:10.639 --> 00:05:12.639 That brings up a massive mechanical problem, 00:05:12.819 --> 00:05:15.040 though. Well, how do you actually punch a hole 00:05:15.040 --> 00:05:17.759 through a wall that's been reinforced since 1914? 00:05:18.660 --> 00:05:21.040 The Allies were deeply dug in by this point. 00:05:21.519 --> 00:05:23.620 The sources mentioned the British had established 00:05:23.620 --> 00:05:27.480 this defense in depth system. How does that actually 00:05:27.480 --> 00:05:29.920 work in practice? What's fascinating here is 00:05:29.920 --> 00:05:33.480 how defense in depth completely changed the geometry 00:05:33.480 --> 00:05:36.199 of the battlefield. OK, how so? So the British 00:05:36.199 --> 00:05:38.860 Fifth Army was holding a massive stretch of the 00:05:38.860 --> 00:05:42.139 front. Instead of packing thousands of men shoulder 00:05:42.139 --> 00:05:44.759 to shoulder in a single frontline trench, which, 00:05:44.939 --> 00:05:47.079 by the way, is just begging to be obliterated 00:05:47.079 --> 00:05:50.980 by artillery. They built a three -zone system. 00:05:51.180 --> 00:05:53.160 A three -zone system. Yeah, you have a forward 00:05:53.160 --> 00:05:55.439 zone, a battle zone, and a rear zone. And if 00:05:55.439 --> 00:05:57.220 you aren't packing the front line with soldiers, 00:05:57.500 --> 00:05:59.019 I mean, aren't you just inviting the enemy to 00:05:59.019 --> 00:06:01.079 walk right in? You are inviting them into a trap. 00:06:01.300 --> 00:06:03.639 Oh, interesting. You hold that forward zone very 00:06:03.639 --> 00:06:05.980 lightly, just, you know, scattered snipers and 00:06:05.980 --> 00:06:08.779 machine gun posts. Their job isn't to stop the 00:06:08.779 --> 00:06:11.120 attack. Then what are they doing? Their job is 00:06:11.120 --> 00:06:14.000 to slow it down and act as an alarm. The real 00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:16.959 killing happens in the battle zone. OK, the second 00:06:16.959 --> 00:06:19.970 zone. Right. This area is filled with readouts, 00:06:20.189 --> 00:06:22.629 which are these heavily fortified, mutually supporting 00:06:22.629 --> 00:06:25.009 strong points. Think of it less like a solid 00:06:25.009 --> 00:06:28.110 brick wall, and more like a deadly obstacle course 00:06:28.110 --> 00:06:30.329 designed to channel the attacking infantry into 00:06:30.329 --> 00:06:32.589 pre -sighted kill zones. Oh, so they get shredded 00:06:32.589 --> 00:06:35.569 by overlapping machine gun fire. Exactly. It 00:06:35.569 --> 00:06:38.529 breaks their momentum completely. It sounds like 00:06:38.529 --> 00:06:41.639 a brilliantly engineered meat grinder. But the 00:06:41.639 --> 00:06:43.879 sources note a pretty severe vulnerability here. 00:06:44.040 --> 00:06:46.420 Yes, they do. The British had recently taken 00:06:46.420 --> 00:06:49.420 over this specific sector from the French against 00:06:49.420 --> 00:06:51.300 the advice of their own military leadership. 00:06:51.949 --> 00:06:54.870 And this three -zone fortress, it wasn't actually 00:06:54.870 --> 00:06:57.389 finished. And that incomplete construction is 00:06:57.389 --> 00:06:59.910 the hinge upon which the entire battle swings. 00:07:00.209 --> 00:07:02.709 Really? Oh, yeah. The forward zone was mostly 00:07:02.709 --> 00:07:05.050 ready. The battle zone's readouts were operational. 00:07:05.649 --> 00:07:08.569 But that crucial rear zone, it was essentially 00:07:08.569 --> 00:07:10.730 just white tape and outlined markings on the 00:07:10.730 --> 00:07:13.730 mud. Just tape on the ground. Unbelievable. And 00:07:13.730 --> 00:07:16.629 worse, the British Fifth Army was critically 00:07:16.629 --> 00:07:20.339 undermanned. Due to a severe winter sickness 00:07:20.339 --> 00:07:23.060 and just a total lack of replacement troops coming 00:07:23.060 --> 00:07:25.680 from London, some battalions that were supposed 00:07:25.680 --> 00:07:28.360 to field 1 ,000 men were holding the line with 00:07:28.360 --> 00:07:31.639 fewer than 500. Half strength. So you have a 00:07:31.639 --> 00:07:34.839 stretched, exhausted British army holding a fortress 00:07:34.839 --> 00:07:38.060 that is still under construction. Exactly. But 00:07:38.060 --> 00:07:40.899 even against an incomplete obstacle course, the 00:07:40.899 --> 00:07:43.459 old German method, sending those massive slow 00:07:43.459 --> 00:07:45.740 -moving waves of men walking shoulder to shoulder 00:07:45.740 --> 00:07:48.019 across no man's land, that would just result 00:07:48.019 --> 00:07:50.220 in another massacre. Yes, absolutely. So they 00:07:50.220 --> 00:07:52.420 had to rewrite the mechanics of the attack. And 00:07:52.420 --> 00:07:55.120 they did. They looked at what had worked in their 00:07:55.120 --> 00:07:57.199 recent victories on the Eastern front and the 00:07:57.199 --> 00:07:59.819 Italian front. And they formalized the use of 00:07:59.819 --> 00:08:02.819 elite infantry units known as Stoßtruppen or 00:08:02.819 --> 00:08:05.060 storm troopers. The original shock troops. Yep. 00:08:05.379 --> 00:08:07.139 I know the pop culture image of a storm troop. 00:08:07.149 --> 00:08:10.089 But what did these units actually do differently 00:08:10.089 --> 00:08:12.370 on the ground to break a trench network? Their 00:08:12.370 --> 00:08:14.689 entire doctrine was built on speed and bypass. 00:08:14.949 --> 00:08:18.170 Speed and bypass. Right. Instead of human waves 00:08:18.170 --> 00:08:21.029 designed to overwhelm a trench by sheer mass, 00:08:21.529 --> 00:08:24.250 stormtroopers were highly trained, heavily armed 00:08:24.250 --> 00:08:27.269 infiltration units. They were carrying flamethrowers, 00:08:27.470 --> 00:08:29.610 light machine guns, and satchel charges. Just 00:08:29.610 --> 00:08:32.429 packing as much firepower as possible. Exactly. 00:08:32.730 --> 00:08:35.769 If we use a visual analogy, imagine a flood hitting 00:08:35.769 --> 00:08:38.799 a valley full of boulders. The floodwater doesn't 00:08:38.799 --> 00:08:41.100 stop to destroy every single boulder, right? 00:08:41.100 --> 00:08:42.899 Right. It flows around them, finding the path 00:08:42.899 --> 00:08:45.519 of least resistance. Exactly. So the boulders 00:08:45.519 --> 00:08:48.840 are the British redoubts. You got it. When stormtroopers 00:08:48.840 --> 00:08:51.539 hit a heavy machine gun nest, they didn't stop 00:08:51.539 --> 00:08:53.720 and launch a costly frontal assault. They just 00:08:53.720 --> 00:08:56.759 bypassed it. Oh. They slipped through the weak 00:08:56.759 --> 00:08:59.820 gaps in the British lines, racing as fast and 00:08:59.820 --> 00:09:02.620 as deep into the enemy rear as possible. Their 00:09:02.620 --> 00:09:04.779 targets were the nervous system of the British 00:09:04.779 --> 00:09:07.539 Army. Like cutting telephone lines. telephone 00:09:07.539 --> 00:09:10.500 lines, overrunning artillery batteries, destroying 00:09:10.500 --> 00:09:13.480 command headquarters. They left those bypassed 00:09:13.480 --> 00:09:16.480 British readouts isolated and cut off to be mopped 00:09:16.480 --> 00:09:19.120 up later by the regular slower German infantry 00:09:19.120 --> 00:09:21.220 following behind them. Wait, hold on. There is 00:09:21.220 --> 00:09:24.379 a glaring fatal flaw in that logic. OK, let's 00:09:24.379 --> 00:09:28.639 hear it. If you are skimming the absolute best, 00:09:28.779 --> 00:09:32.139 most athletic, most experienced veterans from 00:09:32.139 --> 00:09:35.500 across your entire army. Yeah. and you concentrate 00:09:35.500 --> 00:09:37.740 them all into these elite units at the very tip 00:09:37.740 --> 00:09:39.879 of your spear. Yeah. I mean, doesn't that mean 00:09:39.879 --> 00:09:42.220 your A team is going to take the absolute brunt 00:09:42.220 --> 00:09:44.460 of the casualties? That is exactly what it means. 00:09:44.679 --> 00:09:47.899 If this offensive stalls out after a month, haven't 00:09:47.899 --> 00:09:50.700 you just gutted your own military talent pool, 00:09:51.120 --> 00:09:52.860 leaving yourself with nothing but a depleted 00:09:52.860 --> 00:09:55.419 B team for the rest of the war? There is a brutal 00:09:55.419 --> 00:09:58.080 logic to it, but you are absolutely right. The 00:09:58.080 --> 00:10:01.279 sources highlight this as the hidden catastrophic 00:10:01.279 --> 00:10:04.080 cost of the stormtrooper doctrine. It's just 00:10:04.080 --> 00:10:07.340 so risky. Very. They stripped their regular divisions 00:10:07.340 --> 00:10:10.019 of their most capable men and their best equipment 00:10:10.019 --> 00:10:13.179 to build these shock units. It gave them an incredibly 00:10:13.179 --> 00:10:15.799 sharp spearhead for the initial thrust, but it 00:10:15.799 --> 00:10:17.980 guaranteed that their most irreplaceable troops 00:10:17.980 --> 00:10:20.860 would suffer disproportionate devastating casualty 00:10:20.860 --> 00:10:23.700 rates. It's the ultimate all in bet. But flowing 00:10:23.700 --> 00:10:26.899 around strong points is great in theory. How 00:10:26.899 --> 00:10:29.100 did these stormtroopers even cross No Man's Land 00:10:29.100 --> 00:10:31.679 in the first place without getting shredded by 00:10:31.679 --> 00:10:33.720 the artillery that has dominated the war so far? 00:10:33.779 --> 00:10:35.299 Right, that's the good question. They must've 00:10:35.299 --> 00:10:37.159 had to change the artillery playbook, too. They 00:10:37.159 --> 00:10:40.879 did, largely thanks to an artillery genius named 00:10:40.879 --> 00:10:45.120 Colonel Jorg Brüthmüller. Before 1918, a typical 00:10:45.120 --> 00:10:48.120 World War I bombardment lasted for days, sometimes 00:10:48.120 --> 00:10:50.480 a full week. A week of just constant shelling. 00:10:50.700 --> 00:10:53.100 The idea was to just pound the enemy trenches 00:10:53.100 --> 00:10:56.250 into dust. But that strategy had two massive 00:10:56.250 --> 00:10:59.210 problems. First, it completely eliminated the 00:10:59.210 --> 00:11:01.809 element of surprise. The enemy knew exactly where 00:11:01.809 --> 00:11:03.909 the attack was coming from and had days to bring 00:11:03.909 --> 00:11:05.750 up reserves. Right, they can just see you preparing. 00:11:06.169 --> 00:11:09.049 And second, it churned the ground into a muddy, 00:11:09.289 --> 00:11:11.889 impassable moonscape, making it impossible for 00:11:11.889 --> 00:11:13.909 your own attacking troops to actually advance 00:11:13.909 --> 00:11:16.289 through it. You essentially build a moat of mud 00:11:16.289 --> 00:11:19.250 protecting the enemy. Exactly. So how does Bruchmiller 00:11:19.250 --> 00:11:21.809 solve that? He orchestrated what became known 00:11:21.809 --> 00:11:25.309 as hurricane bombardments. These were unimaginably 00:11:25.309 --> 00:11:28.710 intense, but incredibly brief. Like lasting hours, 00:11:28.830 --> 00:11:32.289 not days. Hours. That's a huge shift. And they 00:11:32.289 --> 00:11:34.929 were highly orchestrated into phases. First, 00:11:35.429 --> 00:11:38.029 a sudden concentrated barrage of gas and high 00:11:38.029 --> 00:11:40.250 explosives targeting command centers and communication 00:11:40.250 --> 00:11:42.330 lines. To blind the enemy leadership. Right. 00:11:42.750 --> 00:11:45.389 Second, counter battery fire to destroy the British 00:11:45.389 --> 00:11:48.309 artillery. Only at the very end would they pound 00:11:48.309 --> 00:11:50.669 the frontline infantry trenches. So they saved 00:11:50.669 --> 00:11:54.070 the infantry for last. Yes. And crucially, they 00:11:54.070 --> 00:11:57.590 utilized a terrifying chemical cocktail. Oh, 00:11:57.590 --> 00:12:00.169 God. Yeah. Tear gas to force the British soldiers 00:12:00.169 --> 00:12:02.610 to tear off their masks in irritation, followed 00:12:02.610 --> 00:12:05.429 immediately by lethal phosgene, chlorine, and 00:12:05.429 --> 00:12:07.850 mustard gas. OK, here's where it gets really 00:12:07.850 --> 00:12:10.809 interesting. Because that theoretical flaw we 00:12:10.809 --> 00:12:13.049 talked about. The A -Team flaw. Right. The one 00:12:13.049 --> 00:12:14.809 where the German A -Team takes all the casualties. 00:12:15.090 --> 00:12:16.960 That wouldn't matter. on day one, because when 00:12:16.960 --> 00:12:20.620 this entirely new mechanized nightmare hit those 00:12:20.620 --> 00:12:23.600 incomplete British lines on March 21st, 1918, 00:12:24.019 --> 00:12:26.840 the result was an apocalyptic success. Apocalyptic 00:12:26.840 --> 00:12:29.100 barely captures the reality of that morning. 00:12:29.320 --> 00:12:32.320 At exactly 440 a .m., the largest artillery barrage 00:12:32.320 --> 00:12:35.639 of the entire war began. The Germans fired over 00:12:35.639 --> 00:12:38.440 three and a half million shells in just five 00:12:38.440 --> 00:12:41.259 hours. Three and a half million shells in five 00:12:41.259 --> 00:12:46.279 hours. over a 400 square kilometer area. I mean, 00:12:46.340 --> 00:12:47.879 try to wrap your head around that volume of fire. 00:12:48.000 --> 00:12:51.000 It's almost mathematically impossible to comprehend. 00:12:51.320 --> 00:12:53.320 It really is. Winston Churchill was actually 00:12:53.320 --> 00:12:55.500 present that morning. Really? Yeah, he was serving 00:12:55.500 --> 00:12:57.580 as the Minister of Munitions and happened to 00:12:57.580 --> 00:13:00.039 be inspecting a Scottish division near the front 00:13:00.039 --> 00:13:02.960 lines. He left this chilling description of the 00:13:02.960 --> 00:13:05.860 sound. He compared it to a pianist running his 00:13:05.860 --> 00:13:08.419 hands rapidly across a keyboard from treble to 00:13:08.419 --> 00:13:11.220 bass. That haunting. He described a tremendous 00:13:11.220 --> 00:13:15.019 cannonade creating an unending curve of red leaping 00:13:15.019 --> 00:13:17.179 flame where the explosions were so dense they 00:13:17.179 --> 00:13:19.039 seemed to physically touch each other. And as 00:13:19.039 --> 00:13:21.200 if a wall of red leaping flame wasn't terrifying 00:13:21.200 --> 00:13:23.519 enough, there was a devastating X factor that 00:13:23.519 --> 00:13:26.820 morning. Nature actually intervened. Yeah. Thick, 00:13:27.019 --> 00:13:29.779 dense morning fog rolled in. The weather heavily 00:13:29.779 --> 00:13:32.460 favored the attacking Germans. By five point 00:13:32.460 --> 00:13:35.539 a .m. visibility in some sectors was barely 10 00:13:35.539 --> 00:13:37.950 meters. Ten meters. You can't see anything. Nothing. 00:13:38.470 --> 00:13:40.789 And because of the hurricane bombardment, that 00:13:40.789 --> 00:13:43.509 thick natural fog trapped the artillery smoke 00:13:43.509 --> 00:13:45.649 and the heavy chemical gas close to the ground. 00:13:45.710 --> 00:13:48.629 Oh, making it even worse. It created an impenetrable, 00:13:48.730 --> 00:13:51.690 toxic white blanket that didn't lift until the 00:13:51.690 --> 00:13:54.710 early afternoon. I want you to imagine the sheer, 00:13:55.029 --> 00:13:58.370 suffocating psychological terror of that experience 00:13:58.370 --> 00:14:01.029 for a British soldier. It's hard to even picture. 00:14:01.149 --> 00:14:03.769 Put yourself in an isolated redoubt in the forward 00:14:03.769 --> 00:14:07.039 zone. The noise of the bombardment is so intense 00:14:07.039 --> 00:14:10.820 it is vibrating your teeth. The telephone wires 00:14:10.820 --> 00:14:13.240 linking you to your commanders have been literally 00:14:13.240 --> 00:14:15.779 vaporized. Gone. Runners can't carry messages 00:14:15.779 --> 00:14:17.659 because they can't see 10 feet in front of them 00:14:17.659 --> 00:14:20.580 in the toxic fog. Your headquarters has no idea 00:14:20.580 --> 00:14:22.460 if you're alive or dead. You're completely cut 00:14:22.460 --> 00:14:24.879 off. Utterly alone in a 10 meter bubble of white 00:14:24.879 --> 00:14:27.340 smoke, deafened, breathing through a restrictive 00:14:27.340 --> 00:14:30.279 gas mask, and you know that elite German storm 00:14:30.279 --> 00:14:32.600 troopers are silently slipping past you in the 00:14:32.600 --> 00:14:34.700 dark, cutting off your only route of escape. 00:14:35.039 --> 00:14:37.559 That sensory deprivation was the ultimate weapon 00:14:37.559 --> 00:14:40.200 that morning. The British forward zone completely 00:14:40.200 --> 00:14:43.480 collapsed. Because communications were severed 00:14:43.480 --> 00:14:46.299 instantly, British command headquarters couldn't 00:14:46.299 --> 00:14:48.860 influence the battle at all. The storm troopers 00:14:48.860 --> 00:14:51.759 used the fog to infiltrate deep behind the front 00:14:51.759 --> 00:14:55.279 positions entirely undetected. Thousands of British 00:14:55.279 --> 00:14:57.639 troops in those redoubts were completely surrounded 00:14:57.639 --> 00:15:00.659 and bypassed before they even realized the German 00:15:00.659 --> 00:15:03.019 infantry had left their own trenches. And from 00:15:03.019 --> 00:15:07.299 there... The grand organized strategic plan essentially 00:15:07.299 --> 00:15:10.840 dissolves into chaos. We move into this harrowing 00:15:10.840 --> 00:15:14.120 period from March 22nd to the 25th, which the 00:15:14.120 --> 00:15:16.500 sources describe as a fighting retreat across 00:15:16.500 --> 00:15:18.980 a totally fragmented landscape. The chain of 00:15:18.980 --> 00:15:21.570 command just shattered. Brigade and battalion 00:15:21.570 --> 00:15:24.529 control vanished entirely. It stopped being an 00:15:24.529 --> 00:15:27.330 organized army executing maneuvers, and it devolved 00:15:27.330 --> 00:15:30.669 into a war of isolated platoons, sections, and 00:15:30.669 --> 00:15:32.750 even individuals. Which is fighting desperate, 00:15:32.950 --> 00:15:34.990 stubborn survival actions in the fog and the 00:15:34.990 --> 00:15:37.289 ruins. Exactly. Imagine being a manager where 00:15:37.289 --> 00:15:39.269 every single communication line to your team 00:15:39.269 --> 00:15:41.409 is severed overnight. You can't issue orders, 00:15:41.769 --> 00:15:43.690 you can't get status updates, and you just have 00:15:43.690 --> 00:15:45.629 to blindly trust that your people are holding 00:15:45.629 --> 00:15:47.610 their ground in the dark. It's a leadership nightmare. 00:15:47.870 --> 00:15:50.470 General Gough ordered a fighting retreat to buy 00:15:50.470 --> 00:15:52.809 time to bring up reserves, but the reality on 00:15:52.809 --> 00:15:55.929 the ground was a series of tragic, heroic last 00:15:55.929 --> 00:15:58.649 stands. There's the story of Manchester Hill. 00:15:58.889 --> 00:16:01.870 Yes, the 16th Manchesters. They were commanded 00:16:01.870 --> 00:16:05.250 by Lieutenant Colonel Wilfrid Elstob. As the 00:16:05.250 --> 00:16:07.470 German army swarmed around them, bypassing them 00:16:07.470 --> 00:16:10.309 on all sides, they realized they were entirely 00:16:10.309 --> 00:16:13.629 cut off. But instead of surrendering, they fought 00:16:13.629 --> 00:16:17.039 literally to the death. to buy time for the units 00:16:17.039 --> 00:16:19.960 retreating behind them. Elstob himself was killed 00:16:19.960 --> 00:16:21.799 late in the afternoon holding that position, 00:16:22.259 --> 00:16:24.820 deliberately imposing the maximum possible delay 00:16:24.820 --> 00:16:27.220 on the German advance. And it wasn't just isolated 00:16:27.220 --> 00:16:29.940 stands where people fought to the last man. There 00:16:29.940 --> 00:16:32.779 was an incredible, almost unbelievable resilience 00:16:32.779 --> 00:16:35.720 in the face of total physical exhaustion. The 00:16:35.720 --> 00:16:37.860 story of the 54th Brigade really stuck with me. 00:16:37.899 --> 00:16:40.740 Oh, if we connect this to the broader human element 00:16:40.740 --> 00:16:42.440 of the battle, the 54th Brigade is one of the 00:16:42.440 --> 00:16:44.320 most remarkable anecdotes. Yeah, tell us about 00:16:44.320 --> 00:16:47.259 them. They had been retreating, fighting rearguard 00:16:47.259 --> 00:16:50.700 actions, and marching continuously for four solid 00:16:50.700 --> 00:16:54.259 punishing days. By March 24th, their battalions 00:16:54.259 --> 00:16:57.639 were decimated. One specific battalion, the 11th 00:16:57.639 --> 00:17:01.100 Royal Fusiliers, had been reduced to just 27 00:17:01.100 --> 00:17:05.390 standing men. 27 men left. They are completely 00:17:05.390 --> 00:17:08.470 war -worn, starving, and running on zero sleep. 00:17:08.630 --> 00:17:11.210 Zero sleep! And then on March 25th, they receive 00:17:11.210 --> 00:17:13.849 a surprise order to turn around and counter -attack 00:17:13.849 --> 00:17:16.480 a village called Baboof. By all physiological 00:17:16.480 --> 00:17:18.900 metrics, they should have been incapable of executing 00:17:18.900 --> 00:17:21.099 that order. It should be falling over. But three 00:17:21.099 --> 00:17:24.140 small, determined British battalions formed up 00:17:24.140 --> 00:17:26.359 and advanced. The Germans had already captured 00:17:26.359 --> 00:17:28.859 the village and were entirely relaxed, expecting 00:17:28.859 --> 00:17:31.960 to find only broken, disorganized forces fleeing 00:17:31.960 --> 00:17:33.460 ahead of them. Right. They thought the British 00:17:33.460 --> 00:17:36.640 were routed. Exactly. The exhausted British troops 00:17:36.640 --> 00:17:39.000 completely caught them off guard. They engaged 00:17:39.000 --> 00:17:41.960 in 20 minutes of vicious hand -to -hand combat, 00:17:42.420 --> 00:17:45.380 secured the village, and somehow took 200 130 00:17:45.380 --> 00:17:47.559 German prisoners. It's an incredible testament 00:17:47.559 --> 00:17:50.420 to human endurance. But despite these pockets 00:17:50.420 --> 00:17:53.119 of heroic pushback, the broader German advance 00:17:53.119 --> 00:17:55.819 was moving at a terrifying speed. They were. 00:17:55.920 --> 00:17:59.359 They were gobbling up miles of territory a day 00:17:59.359 --> 00:18:04.019 across the old 1916 -some battlefield. This brings 00:18:04.019 --> 00:18:06.740 us to a massive turning point. The Hail Mary 00:18:06.740 --> 00:18:09.400 is in the air, the receiver is sprinting down 00:18:09.400 --> 00:18:12.220 the field, and the sheer terror of it forces 00:18:12.220 --> 00:18:14.940 the Allies to drastically change their entire 00:18:14.940 --> 00:18:18.119 power structure. The crisis was so severe that 00:18:18.119 --> 00:18:20.480 it finally forced the Allies to do something 00:18:20.480 --> 00:18:23.059 they had stubbornly resisted for four years. 00:18:23.259 --> 00:18:26.230 Which was? Unify their command. Up until this 00:18:26.230 --> 00:18:28.210 point, the British fought under British commanders 00:18:28.210 --> 00:18:30.529 and the French under French commanders. Working 00:18:30.529 --> 00:18:33.069 together, but totally separate. Right, but on 00:18:33.069 --> 00:18:35.980 March 26th... At the Dolans Conference, the threat 00:18:35.980 --> 00:18:38.220 of the armies being physically split apart forced 00:18:38.220 --> 00:18:41.099 their hands. They made French General Ferdinand 00:18:41.099 --> 00:18:43.779 Foch the Generalissimo of all allied forces on 00:18:43.779 --> 00:18:46.500 the Western Front. One unified leader to coordinate 00:18:46.500 --> 00:18:49.359 the defense. Exactly. And right around this time, 00:18:49.539 --> 00:18:51.740 the sources note the debut of a new piece of 00:18:51.740 --> 00:18:54.500 technology that drastically shifts the psychological 00:18:54.500 --> 00:18:56.900 momentum on the battlefield. Yes. This was the 00:18:56.900 --> 00:18:58.660 introduction of the British Whippet Tanks at 00:18:58.660 --> 00:19:01.750 a village called Collin Camps. Now, wait. The 00:19:01.750 --> 00:19:03.630 Germans had been fighting against tanks since 00:19:03.630 --> 00:19:07.809 1916. Why would a tank suddenly cause a panic 00:19:07.809 --> 00:19:11.730 now? We always picture those massive, incredibly 00:19:11.730 --> 00:19:14.990 slow, lumbering metal boxes from the early war. 00:19:15.109 --> 00:19:17.769 Right, but the Wippet was a fundamentally different 00:19:17.769 --> 00:19:21.029 beast. It was lighter, and crucially, it was 00:19:21.029 --> 00:19:23.690 much faster than anything the Germans had encountered. 00:19:23.910 --> 00:19:26.589 Oh, speed was the key. The sources, detail and 00:19:26.589 --> 00:19:29.109 incident were just 12 of these whippet tanks 00:19:29.109 --> 00:19:32.589 suddenly roared out of cover, moving at speeds 00:19:32.589 --> 00:19:35.549 the German infantry hadn't anticipated. It caused 00:19:35.549 --> 00:19:38.589 300 attacking Germans to completely panic and 00:19:38.589 --> 00:19:41.630 flee the field. The speed shocked them. But the 00:19:41.630 --> 00:19:43.910 sources revealed that an even bigger shock was 00:19:43.910 --> 00:19:45.910 happening to German morale behind the lines. 00:19:46.130 --> 00:19:48.170 And it had absolutely nothing to do with Allied 00:19:48.170 --> 00:19:50.569 weapons. This is one of the most fascinating 00:19:50.569 --> 00:19:53.170 psychological turning points of the war. As the 00:19:53.170 --> 00:19:55.849 German stormtroopers advance. they began to overrun 00:19:55.849 --> 00:19:58.569 British rear area positions and supply dumps. 00:19:58.769 --> 00:20:00.630 So what does this all mean? Remember the ticking 00:20:00.630 --> 00:20:02.670 clock we talked about at the beginning? These 00:20:02.670 --> 00:20:04.930 German soldiers have been starving at home. Their 00:20:04.930 --> 00:20:07.170 families are starving. Their government has been 00:20:07.170 --> 00:20:09.849 feeding them propaganda for years telling them 00:20:09.849 --> 00:20:13.029 that the ruthless German U -boat campaign is 00:20:13.029 --> 00:20:15.650 starving the British Empire into total submission. 00:20:15.829 --> 00:20:18.289 That was the official line. But when these elite 00:20:18.289 --> 00:20:20.890 shock troops kick in the doors of these captured 00:20:20.890 --> 00:20:23.569 British supply depots, what do they actually 00:20:23.569 --> 00:20:27.009 find? They find a staggering abundance of luxury. 00:20:27.049 --> 00:20:30.509 They found massive stores of writing paper, preserved 00:20:30.509 --> 00:20:32.930 meats, wine, chocolate, and crates of champagne. 00:20:33.210 --> 00:20:35.849 They break through the enemy lines, risking their 00:20:35.849 --> 00:20:38.490 lives in the ultimate offensive. And instead 00:20:38.490 --> 00:20:40.849 of finding a defeated, starving enemy on the 00:20:40.849 --> 00:20:43.250 brink of collapse, they find a well -stocked 00:20:43.250 --> 00:20:47.160 grocery store overflowing with champagne. That 00:20:47.160 --> 00:20:49.579 has to be the most demoralizing victory in military 00:20:49.579 --> 00:20:52.539 history. It was a profound psychological blow. 00:20:53.119 --> 00:20:55.799 The German troops suddenly realized the full 00:20:55.799 --> 00:20:58.339 scale of the lie they had been living. The Allies 00:20:58.339 --> 00:21:01.140 were incredibly well supplied. It caused a wave 00:21:01.140 --> 00:21:05.019 of tremendous despondency. Some units actually 00:21:05.019 --> 00:21:07.200 abandoned the attack and slowed their advance 00:21:07.200 --> 00:21:09.680 entirely, just so they could loot the Allied 00:21:09.680 --> 00:21:12.039 supply depots and gorge themselves on food they 00:21:12.039 --> 00:21:14.740 hadn't seen in years. I mean, you can't really 00:21:14.740 --> 00:21:17.160 blame them. The physical exhaustion of the rapid 00:21:17.160 --> 00:21:20.640 advance, combined with this sudden crushing realization 00:21:20.640 --> 00:21:23.660 of the enemy's material wealth, began to sap 00:21:23.660 --> 00:21:26.519 the momentum of the entire Kaiserschlacht. Which 00:21:26.519 --> 00:21:28.900 brings us to the ultimate price of this Hail 00:21:28.900 --> 00:21:32.970 Mary. By early April, the explosive energy of 00:21:32.970 --> 00:21:36.410 the offensive finally begins to bog down. Ludendorff 00:21:36.410 --> 00:21:39.829 tried one final desperate push on April 4th toward 00:21:39.829 --> 00:21:41.990 the vital Allied rail and communication center 00:21:41.990 --> 00:21:45.009 of Amiens, specifically targeting the town of 00:21:45.009 --> 00:21:47.740 Willers -Brittany. This engagement is famous 00:21:47.740 --> 00:21:50.079 because it actually saw the very first simultaneous 00:21:50.079 --> 00:21:52.640 tank versus tank battle in history. Oh, wow. 00:21:52.799 --> 00:21:55.619 But a hastily organized nighttime counterattack 00:21:55.619 --> 00:21:58.059 by Australian and British units, which actually 00:21:58.059 --> 00:22:00.960 included that same exhausted 54th Brigade we 00:22:00.960 --> 00:22:03.460 mentioned earlier, managed to recapture the town 00:22:03.460 --> 00:22:05.700 and halt the German advance for good. They stopped 00:22:05.700 --> 00:22:08.539 them in their tracks. Yeah. By April 5th, Operation 00:22:08.539 --> 00:22:10.559 Michael was officially terminated. Let's look 00:22:10.559 --> 00:22:12.579 at the final statistics of this offensive because 00:22:12.579 --> 00:22:15.150 on paper they are absolutely staggering. The 00:22:15.150 --> 00:22:17.930 Germans captured 1 ,200 square miles of territory. 00:22:18.430 --> 00:22:21.089 They advanced up to 40 miles deep into allied 00:22:21.089 --> 00:22:24.009 lines, an unthinkable distance in trench warfare. 00:22:24.210 --> 00:22:27.769 Unheard of. They took 75 ,000 British prisoners, 00:22:28.410 --> 00:22:31.690 captured 1 ,300 artillery pieces and 200 tanks. 00:22:32.329 --> 00:22:34.450 If you just look at a spreadsheet, it looks like 00:22:34.450 --> 00:22:36.869 a massive, overwhelming victory. But the hidden 00:22:36.869 --> 00:22:40.839 costs were apocalyptic. Both sides suffered roughly 00:22:40.839 --> 00:22:43.259 a quarter of a million casualties in just over 00:22:43.259 --> 00:22:45.920 two weeks. In two weeks? That's horrifying. The 00:22:45.920 --> 00:22:48.660 Allies lost about 255 ,000 men and the Germans 00:22:48.660 --> 00:22:51.500 lost roughly 250 ,000. But the math of those 00:22:51.500 --> 00:22:53.519 losses is entirely different for each side, right? 00:22:53.619 --> 00:22:55.559 It's the ultimate lesson in measuring the wrong 00:22:55.559 --> 00:22:58.619 metrics for success. Consider the strategic reality 00:22:58.619 --> 00:23:00.440 behind those numbers. The Allies were losing 00:23:00.440 --> 00:23:03.200 men, yes, but the United States was landing fresh, 00:23:03.319 --> 00:23:05.579 well -equipped troops by the thousands every 00:23:05.579 --> 00:23:07.420 single day to fill the gaps. They could replenish. 00:23:07.579 --> 00:23:10.599 Exactly. The Allies could absorb and replace 00:23:10.599 --> 00:23:14.039 their losses. The 250 ,000 men the Germans lost 00:23:14.039 --> 00:23:17.200 were their absolute best. They were those irreplaceable, 00:23:17.440 --> 00:23:20.779 highly trained, elite stormtroopers. Germany 00:23:20.779 --> 00:23:24.359 spent its entire future, its A -Team, to capture 00:23:24.359 --> 00:23:27.960 ground. And the ground they captured was functionally 00:23:27.960 --> 00:23:30.519 useless. Exactly. They advanced into the ruined, 00:23:30.799 --> 00:23:34.059 shell -torn wasteland of the old 1916 Somme battlefield. 00:23:34.329 --> 00:23:36.349 When the Germans had retreated from this exact 00:23:36.349 --> 00:23:39.210 area a year earlier, they had deliberately poisoned 00:23:39.210 --> 00:23:41.549 the wells, destroyed the roads, and blown up 00:23:41.549 --> 00:23:43.690 the bridges. They scorched the earth. Now they 00:23:43.690 --> 00:23:45.890 had expended their best men to conquer a poisoned 00:23:45.890 --> 00:23:47.849 desert that was a logistical nightmare to move 00:23:47.849 --> 00:23:50.690 supplies across. They won the territory, but 00:23:50.690 --> 00:23:52.930 the territory was toxic, and the victory cost 00:23:52.930 --> 00:23:54.829 them the very men they needed to win the war. 00:23:54.970 --> 00:23:57.529 It was a catastrophic tactical success. This 00:23:57.529 --> 00:23:59.710 brings us to the tragic aftermath for the leadership 00:23:59.710 --> 00:24:02.299 on the Allied side. History often has the terrible 00:24:02.299 --> 00:24:04.180 habit of punishing the wrong people in the heat 00:24:04.180 --> 00:24:06.900 of the moment. During the chaos of that 40 -mile 00:24:06.900 --> 00:24:09.319 retreat, the commander of the British Fifth Army, 00:24:09.579 --> 00:24:11.680 General Hubert Goak, was essentially offered 00:24:11.680 --> 00:24:14.410 up as a political scapegoat. Yes. He was still 00:24:14.410 --> 00:24:16.630 embossed, which was the contemporary British 00:24:16.630 --> 00:24:19.069 slang for being sacked and sent home in disgrace. 00:24:19.809 --> 00:24:22.109 Politicians in London used to fighting for months 00:24:22.109 --> 00:24:24.710 over a few yards of mud, looked at a map showing 00:24:24.710 --> 00:24:27.769 a 40 mile retreat and saw sheer incompetence. 00:24:27.829 --> 00:24:29.650 They just looked at the map and fired him. Right. 00:24:30.329 --> 00:24:33.329 But this raises an incredibly important question 00:24:33.329 --> 00:24:37.369 about how we judge success and failure. History 00:24:37.369 --> 00:24:40.170 eventually recognized the agonizing truth of 00:24:40.170 --> 00:24:42.250 what Goff and his fifth army accomplished. What 00:24:42.250 --> 00:24:44.549 did they really accomplish? Manning an incomplete 00:24:44.549 --> 00:24:47.009 defensive line, utterly lacking in reserves, 00:24:47.670 --> 00:24:51.069 they fought a grueling 38 -mile rearguard action 00:24:51.069 --> 00:24:54.109 against 80 attacking German divisions. 80 divisions. 00:24:54.329 --> 00:24:56.690 They bent, they fragmented, they retreated through 00:24:56.690 --> 00:25:00.039 the fog, but they utterly refused to break. By 00:25:00.039 --> 00:25:02.500 trading space for time, they absorbed the shock 00:25:02.500 --> 00:25:04.759 of the greatest bombardment in human history, 00:25:05.299 --> 00:25:07.460 bled the elite German shock troops completely 00:25:07.460 --> 00:25:10.519 dry, and halted the advance just before the vital 00:25:10.519 --> 00:25:12.420 rail hubs fell. So they actually did what they 00:25:12.420 --> 00:25:15.960 needed to do. Exactly. That humiliating, chaotic 00:25:15.960 --> 00:25:18.740 retreat is exactly what saved Paris and bought 00:25:18.740 --> 00:25:21.900 the Allies the time needed to win the war. It 00:25:21.900 --> 00:25:24.039 leaves us with a profound realization, I think. 00:25:24.140 --> 00:25:26.039 Sometimes the greatest, most vital victories 00:25:26.039 --> 00:25:28.299 of our lives look exactly like humiliating defeats 00:25:28.299 --> 00:25:29.480 while we are living through them.