Radcliffe

WW1By the summer of 1918 the war that many had predicted would be over by Christmas 1914 had been raging for four years. A conflict that initially had been between Austro-Hungary and Serbia alone, now involved over 30 nations, fighting in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and at sea. Truly a World War.'The war to end all wars' seemed to be turning into 'The war without end'. Yet the finale was to be sudden and swift.

HOW THE

The collapse of the Central Powers was now rapid: Bulgaria surrendered on 29th September, the Ottoman Empire on 30th October and what was left of the Austro-Hungarian Empire on 3rd November.

Germany was able to move its troops from the Eastern to the Western Front, hoping to defeat the French and British there, before reinforcements could arrive from across the Atlantic. They were confident in any case that the German U boats would sink these troop convoys but they were wrong.

The Germans carried out in March a Spring Offensive that broke through the Allies lines and took them to within 75 miles of Paris. So successful was the offensive that Kaiser Wilhelm declared a national holiday, with many Germans thinking that victory was near.

However, the German drive was halted and the Allies counter attacked from July, creating gaps in the German front lines. The German army retreated to the Hindenburg Line. US troops were now arriving in Europe at the rate of 10,000 a day.

WAR ENDED

Russia had, after its two revolutions in 1917, withdrawn from the war.The loss of Russia to the Allies was compensated by the entry into the conflict, in 1917, of the United States.

Morale in the German army was low, with threats of mutiny, and at home there was also discontent, with anti-war protests becoming more frequent. Supplies of oil from the Balkans were also under threat on account of the Central Powers' defeats there.

By now the German High Command realised that victory could not be won and started the process of negotiating for peace.

American soldiers disembarking at Le Havre (Photograph courtesy of IWM)

There was revolution in Germany, with the proclamation ofa republic on 9th November and the Kaiser fleeing to the Netherlands.

Russian soldiers surrendering in 1917

German prisoners in 1918 (Photograph courtesy of IWM)

Celebrating peace

At 5am on November 11th an armistice with Germany was signed in a railway carriage in Compiegne. At 11am 'the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month' came the ceasefire. 863 more soldiers died between 5am and 11am that day to add to the terrible waste.

Peace had come but at a terrible price, with over nine million combatants being killed. Among these over 60 were from Radcliffe, including eight soldiers killed in this last phase of the war between August and November 1918.

Armistice signed at Compiegne