Just Finished Reading: With Our Backs to the Wall – Victory and Defeat in 1918 by David Stevenson (FP: 2011)

They knew it was coming (how could they not?). Knowing that whole divisions were on their way West from the collapsed Russian Front the French and British awaited the expected German attack with a mixture of trepidation and confidence. Much had been learned by both sides in the preceding four years of war – both by the attackers and defenders. Taking a leaf from the German way of defending the Western Front the Allies (in the main) drew back from their front-line trenches and laid their defences in depth, sometimes miles deep with interlacing fire zones, mutually supporting concrete pillboxes and designated artillery support just a telephone call away. But the Germans had also learned a great deal from throwing back the massed Allied assaults. They had learned what did not work and, by extension, what would. So when the deluge was unleashed on a (largely) prepared Allied force it was overwhelmed in a matter of hours. Strong points where sidestepped, artillery neutralised by pin-point accurate gas attack, and trenches taken by a well equipped, well-armed and highly motivated new type of soldier – Stormtroopers. Along miles of front the Allies fell back losing men and equipment with every mile. Pushed back across battlefields that had cost tens of thousands of lives to take the retreat continued throwing the French and their British Allies into a panic. This could be it. This could be the end of the war. The French looked to protect Paris whilst the British looked to their exit routes of the Channel ports. But slowly the enemy advance paused and stopped. As the Allies scrabbled to stabilise the new front another attack erupted with further loss and then another and yet another. Bur retreat failed to become a flight for safety and each subsequent attack achieved less and less. Finally the German army had nothing more to give. They were spent. Now it was time for the Allies, the French, British, Commonwealth and Empire and the newly arrived Americans to counterattack with everything they had. Once the attack began it would not end until Germany and the rest of the Central Powers were defeated.

 After four years of stalemate and stagnation on the Western Front why, in mid-1918, did everything suddenly change and why, soon after, was it all over despite the belief that the war would extend into 1919 and, quite possibly, 1920? That is the question that this excellent book attempts to answer. With the first third recounting the events of the German attack and the Allied counterattack the rest of the work does the analysis of the factors that led the Allies rather than the Central Powers to victory in 1918. It was not just Intelligence, Technology or Logistics that turned the tide. Both sides exhibited strengths and weaknesses in all of those. There was both Manpower and Morale to be considered. With the British calling on their vast Empire and the Americans arriving in ever increasing numbers the manpower equation was, as both sides knew, tilting in the Allies favour. Likewise the morale boost provided by the American arrival as well as its use in political propaganda gave hope to those already fighting in the West. By 1918 the shipping war had been won and the U-boat menace (so central to the next war) had been effectively neutralised. With losses at manageable proportions men, machinery and food flowed across the Atlantic and from the rest of the world to feed, clothe and arm the Allies in ways that their enemies could only dream of. Money also flowed to a much greater degree amongst the Allies than it did within the Central Powers. Initially largely financed by Britain, and to a lesser extent France, American loans helped support the war effort long after the other allied countries would have bankrupted themselves. Lastly there was the Home Front where, for the first time, the idea of a total war economy took hold especially in Britain and where every resource was used to ensure final victory.

Despite being just under 550 pages long there’s a lot crammed in here with little padding. The level of relevant detail is amazing as the author explains not only what was happening – dramatic enough in itself – but why, when it looked like the Germans were about the deliver the knockout blow of the war failed to do so. It wasn’t for want of trying and it certainly wasn’t just down to Allied resilience under enormous pressure it was because of deep differences in approach to the war and many people across the Allied countries making often difficult and unpopular decisions. Told with great authority this was a gripping account of the end of World War One that could have been very different indeed – in more ways than one. Concentrating on the Western Front (for obvious reasons) other battle zones are not ignored with reports from Italy, Palestine and Macedonia. A must read for anyone who wants to understand how and why the war to end all wars came to an end. Highly recommended.