Operation Michael

Operation Michael
Part of the German Spring Offensive in World War I
Evolution of the front line during the battle
Date 21 March – 5 April 1918 Location Northern France Result See Aftermath section Territorial changes Germans penetrate British lines up to 40 mi (64 km) while seizing 1,200 sq mi (3,100 km2) of territory
Belligerents
German Empire	British Empire  Australia  Canada  New Zealand  United Kingdom  France  United States
Commanders and leaders
Erich Ludendorff	Douglas Haig Ferdinand Foch Hubert Gough
Strength
72 divisions	26 divisions 3 cavalry 23 French divisions later
Casualties and losses
239,800	254,816 : 177,739 : 77,000 : 77

Operation Michael (German: Unternehmen Michael) was a major German military offensive during the First World War that began the German Spring Offensive on 21 March 1918. It was launched from the Hindenburg Line, in the vicinity of Saint-Quentin, France. Its goal was to break through the Allied (Entente) lines and advance in a north-westerly direction to seize the Channel Ports, which supplied the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), and to drive the BEF into the sea. Two days later General Erich Ludendorff, the chief of the German General Staff, adjusted his plan and pushed for an offensive due west, along the whole of the British front north of the River Somme. This was designed to first separate the French and British Armies before continuing with the original concept of pushing the BEF into the sea. The offensive ended at Villers-Bretonneux, to the east of the Allied communications centre at Amiens, where the Allies managed to halt the German advance; the German Army had suffered many casualties and was unable to maintain supplies to the advancing troops.

Much of the ground fought over was the wilderness left by the Battle of the Somme in 1916. The action was therefore officially named by the British Battles Nomenclature Committee as The First Battles of the Somme, 1918, whilst the French call it the Second Battle of Picardy (2ème Bataille de Picardie). The failure of the offensive marked the beginning of the end of the First World War for Germany. The arrival in France of large reinforcements from the United States replaced Entente casualties but the German Army was unable to recover from its losses before these reinforcements took the field. Operation Michael failed to achieve its objectives and the German advance was reversed during the Second Battle of the Somme, 1918 (21 August – 3 September) in the Allied Hundred Days Offensive.^[a]

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