The Great War: 1918 - Crisis and Conclusion

Concluding part of the documentary series looking at the course of the First World War. This volume examines the events of 1918, the last year of the war, when Germany was on the verge of starvation following the successful British naval blockade of the North Sea ports. Gambling everything on a final knockout blow, the German army launched a series of lightning-fast attacks on the Western Front that were initially successful but that lacked the supplies needed to keep them going. When the Allies successfully counter-attacked it saw an end to the static warfare of the previous three years, and a return to the mobile warfare of 1914. By the 11th of November, the Germans were defeated and preparations were in place for the Peace Conference at Versailles.