Thanks so much for coming back, Beasts of War history fans, to our continuing series on the 1918 campaigns of World War One. Specifically focusing on the spring and summer of 1918, Sven Desmet (BoW: @neves1789) and I are looking at gaming the 100th anniversaries of these battles, so vital to ending this “War to End all Wars.”

Read The Series Here

If you’re just joining us, in Part One we introduced the project and summarised the Great War up to this point, highlighting how some of the factors typical of the conflict can be brought to the tabletop. In Part Two we reviewed the “St. Michael” offensive, where the Imperial Germans made a massive push to win the war in early 1918.

St. Michael was a gigantic, sixty-five-division offensive named for Germany’s patron saint. Hitting the British Third and Fifth Armies, it had actually smashed open the stalemate of the trenches. Yet the British had finally stopped the Germans (at horrific cost) at places like Villers-Bretonneux, short of their intended breakthrough at Amiens.

In stopping the Germans, the British had been greatly assisted by sizable French reinforcements from the south and British reserves from the north. It was these reserves concentrating against the German salient that concerned the German commander, General Erich Ludendorff, and would be the object of his next attack.

The Georgette Offensive

The Fourth Battle Of Ypres

Ludendorff’s second massive hammer-punch of 1918 would be called the “Georgette Offensive.” As more and more British reserves were pulled into the Amiens sector to contain St. Michael, it was hoped that other British armies further north were be left without adequate support, and thus vulnerable to attack.

The Georgette Offensive would strike through Flanders, hitting the British First and Second Armies, along with the Belgian Army holding the extreme northern end of the Western Front. There were even Portuguese divisions in place. Most of these Allied formations, though, were badly understrength.

Georgette would see Ludendorff hit this line with forty-six divisions from the German Fourth and Sixth Armies. The attack opened on 9th April 1918, just as St. Michael was slowing down near Amiens, and as Allied reserves were leaving Flanders to reinforce Amiens.

The German plan was to open a breakthrough, then pivot northwest toward the Channel coast to take port cities like Boulogne and Calais. If this is starting to sound like “Dunkirk - The Prequel,” you’re dead right. But this kind of manoeuvre is much tougher to do when you have no panzer divisions in your spearhead.

What the Germans did have, however, were stosstruppen, their elite shock troops or “stormtroopers.” Thus, initial German progress was again bloody but brisk, with the British even losing Passchendaele Ridge for which they’d spilt a generation’s worth of blood for in earlier years.

But would the Germans make that breakthrough, complete that encirclement, pin the northern Allied wing against the Channel coast? Everything depended on whether the British and Belgians would hold along the Flanders line.

Sven Takes The Field

“Do Or Die”

As has been discussed earlier, the Spring Offensives were a strategic do or die for the German Army at this point. Operation Michael had ground to a halt in front of Amiens, thus Operation Georgette was launched to maintain the offensive momentum and keep the Allies on the back foot.

One of the main objectives, besides reaching the Channel ports, was the small town of Ypres. This little-known Belgian town had been the centre of several major engagements and by the time Georgette launched, people were talking of the Fourth Battle of Ypres. Four battles in as many years means this place has some importance, right?

Why Ypres?

The First Battle of Ypres had come in 1914 when the Germans tried to take the town during the “Race for the Sea” but were repelled by the British, Belgians and French marines. Most of the fighting had taken place in the last piece of unoccupied Belgium, north of Ypres in the area between the North Sea and the town itself.

King Albert I, Supreme Commander of the Belgian forces, recognised the gravity of the situation. His forces were depleted and had their backs against the wall, the distance between Ypres and the French border only being fifteen kilometres. To prevent any further German advances, a “scorched earth” policy was put into action.

The plain between the river Yser and an almost parallel rail embankment was flooded. In practical terms, this would put a large body of water between the Belgian and German frontlines and make the entire area north of Ypres almost impassable. Only with the Hundred Days Offensive would this area of the front see major action again.

The Second Battle of Ypres (spring, 1915) saw the Germans try to break the resistance around the town with the first mass gas attack. The town was an ideal target as it was the furthest to the German right (being denied the Yser plain) and was situated on lower ground than the German's own positions near Passchendaele.

The Canadians bravely held their positions and prevented the Germans from capturing the town. The sector would then stay relatively quiet until 1917 when Field-Marshal Douglas Haig tried for the small ridges overlooking Ypres and a breakthrough to the Roulers rail hub. This Third Battle of Ypres is also known as the Battle of Passchendaele.

Despite the great loss in life, the Battle of Passchendaele did not provide the breakthrough that was hoped for. Ypres had by that time become more than a strategic position, it became a symbol of British doggedness to hold fast. This would in turn only increase its strategic value for a new German offensive in 1918.

The Battle Of The Lys/Fourth Battle Of Ypres

Now in 1918, a breakthrough at Ypres would threaten the Channel ports and see the entire Belgian position and British First Army outflanked. Operation Michael had already proven that large advances could be made and many German troops felt the “do or die” nature of the offensive.

The Ypres sector had gone quiet shortly after the Battle of Passchendaele. The British First Army under Horne had been posted south of town but was in rough shape and recovering from 1917 battles. Among them were two Portuguese divisions who, just like their British allies, were in bad shape.

To the north and occupying the town itself was British Second Army under Plumer. During March they had slowly begun to make preparations to fall back from the Passchendaele ridge and shorten the front. After Georgette kicked off, it would take the German Fourth Army a week to figure out that the British were no longer actually there.

On 7th April 1918, the offensive began with a barrage (following the Bruchmüller recipe) that lasted until the morning of 9th April when the Stoßtruppen went over the top. In the south, the German Sixth Army outnumbered the British First Army almost three to one and thus quickly broke through the lines.

A number of British and a Portuguese division had to withdraw and by the end of the first day, the Germans had penetrated the line eight kilometres deep over a front fifteen kilometres wide. The stormtrooper methods were proven yet again to be successful, however they also greatly outnumbered their opponent thus giving them a false sense of superiority.

By 13th April British, Australian and French divisions were quickly brought up to plug some of these gaps. Field-Marshal Haig also issued his famous “backs to the wall” order, realising he only needed to hold on until the German offensive ran out of steam as it had done a month earlier.

On 17th April, the German Fourth Army moved forward towards Ypres. To the north of the town, it encountered stiff resistance from the Belgian Army near the village of Merkem. There the Belgians fought their hardest battle since 1914 and managed to repel the Germans, capturing over 700. The strategic point between the flooded area and Ypres had held.

The main thrust of the Fourth Army however came near a hill named Kemmelberg, dominating the region between Ypres and Armentières and provided an excellent vantage point for artillery spotting. It was one of the only major hills in the region worthy of the name and was not coincidentally at the centre of the German attack.

The first attack up the hill was repulsed by the determined British troops under Plumer. They were relieved by a French division who subsequently got attacked by three German divisions. This second attack succeeded, giving the Germans the hill that had thwarted them for four years. It would remain in their hands until the Hundred Days Offensive.

By the time the Kemmelberg was taken, the offensive had reached the end of its third week and had run out of steam. On 29th April Ludendorff called off Operation Georgette. Much like the Third Battle of Ypres, the Fourth Battle saw the attacker advancing less than twenty kilometres and only taking a tactical height but failing to score a strategic victory.

Both sides had suffered over 100,000 casualties. As with Operation Michael, true breakthroughs and the return to manoeuvre warfare had not been achieved. When viewed in that light, these operations were just as costly in human life and as much part of the learning curve to achieve a breakthrough as battles like the Somme and Verdun had been.

For Germany, the failure of both Michael and Georgette were a strategic loss. Not only had they not achieved their objectives, but a large portion of their best soldiers had become casualties. They would not have the time, resources, morale, or political support to recover whereas the Allies, thanks to American support, were only getting stronger.

When it comes to gaming, Operation Georgette offers some great opportunities. For example, the use of Belgian troops, which can be easily represented by painting French troops in khaki colours as both Belgians and French soldiers wore the famous Adrian helmet. It's one of the first engagements after 1914 where they go toe to toe with the German army rather than skirmishing in the flooded area.

Another opportunity lies in an uphill battle, representing the fighting for the Kemmelberg. Here you can use either the French or British to face off against your Germans. In any case, as with Operation Michael, Georgette offers enough inspiration to build, paint and game in true World War One fashion.

Oriskany’s Debrief

In all, the Georgette Offensive wreaked tremendous damage on the British and Belgian Armies in Flanders, but did not produce the decisive breakthrough that the Germans wanted toward the Channel coast. Even worse, the Germans had suffered some 330,000 casualties in St. Michael and Georgette and had no replacements for them.

Meanwhile, the French were continuing to send reinforcements from sectors further south. To stem this shift of reserves, Ludendorff resolved to give the French something else to worry about. He’d launch a third offensive in the south, along the Aisne River, toward the Marne River and possibly even Paris.

Come back next week when we see the French and even the Americans take their share of Ludendorff’s fury. The American Army earns a few stripes, and the United States Marine Corps gives birth to a legend at a place history will remember forever as “Belleau Wood.”

Meanwhile, please post your comments, questions, and feedback in the comments below. We know there are some World War One aficionados out there...

...so get out of that trench and tell us what you think!