Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of maps
- List of tables
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Birth of a modern army
- 2 World war and American preparedness
- 3 Coercive power and Wilsonian diplomacy
- 4 “You’re in the army now”
- 5 US army doctrine and industrialized trench warfare
- 6 Over where?
- 7 American Expeditionary Force organization, overseas training, and deployment
- 8 Will the Americans arrive in time?
- 9 Failed expectations: “the military establishment of the United States has fallen down”
- 10 Atlantic ferry
- 11 Neck of the bottle
- 12 Uncertain times
- 13 Cantigny
- 14 Into the breach
- 15 American soldiers in north Russia and Siberia
- 16 The beginning of the end
- 17 Establishment of the American First Army and Saint-Mihiel
- 18 Meuse-Argonne, September 26–October 31
- 19 Breakout, November 1–11
- 20 Epilogue
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
19 - Breakout, November 1–11
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2014
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of maps
- List of tables
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Birth of a modern army
- 2 World war and American preparedness
- 3 Coercive power and Wilsonian diplomacy
- 4 “You’re in the army now”
- 5 US army doctrine and industrialized trench warfare
- 6 Over where?
- 7 American Expeditionary Force organization, overseas training, and deployment
- 8 Will the Americans arrive in time?
- 9 Failed expectations: “the military establishment of the United States has fallen down”
- 10 Atlantic ferry
- 11 Neck of the bottle
- 12 Uncertain times
- 13 Cantigny
- 14 Into the breach
- 15 American soldiers in north Russia and Siberia
- 16 The beginning of the end
- 17 Establishment of the American First Army and Saint-Mihiel
- 18 Meuse-Argonne, September 26–October 31
- 19 Breakout, November 1–11
- 20 Epilogue
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
At the beginning of October Ludendorff bombarded his government with repeated appeals for an immediate armistice, which he viewed as a temporary cessation of the fighting to allow the German Army time to recover from its recent setbacks. The result had been the first German peace note, transmitted through the Swiss chargé d’affaires, that reached Washington on October 6.
Wilson cautiously responded on October 8. Bliss had warned him that more was required than a withdrawal of German forces from occupied territory on the Western Front. The German Army (as indeed Ludendorff desired) might use an armistice to improve its position by retiring to “strong positions behind the Rhine with their armies and armaments and supplies intact” while retaining troops in the former Tsarist Empire. This might give Berlin leverage to retain some of its eastern conquests. On October 12 Prince Max of Baden, who had replaced Count Georg von Hertling as Chancellor, accepted Wilson’s Fourteen Points in principle as a basis for peace negotiations. Wilson then responded with a demand that the Germans withdraw from all conquered territory.
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- Information
- The American Army and the First World War , pp. 355 - 380Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014