Lesson video

Hello, everyone.

Welcome back to History here at Oak national Academy.

I'm Ms. Barnett, and thank you for joining us for our third lesson into our inquiry about why WWI came to an end in November, 1918.

The focus of today's lesson is looking at the Spring Offensive of 1918 and how far that contributed to the end of WWI.

So, here is your title a bit bigger for you, so you can get that written down into your notes for today's lesson.

Pause here if you need a bit longer to get that completed, if you are happy and ready to begin, then we will move on.

Okay.

So, to start off today's lesson then, we're going to do a quick, true or false based on our knowledge from the last few lessons, just to activate it prior to today's lesson.

So, on the screen in front of you, you will see four statements and you need to work out if these statements are true or false or not.

So, take a second here to pause the video, work out, which ones you think are correct, and which ones are not.

And then when you're ready, unpause the video and we'll go through the answers.

Okay, then.

So, let's have a look at these four statements.

Here they are then.

So, statement A, and the Zimmerman telegram encouraged Brazil to join the war against the USA on Germany's side is false.

The correct answer here is the telegram encouraged Mexico to join the war against the USA on Germany's side.

Statement B is true.

So, the USA declared war on Germany in April, 1917.

It's a really important detail because quite regularly students assume that the United States declared war on all the Central Powers, but actually just on Germany.

Statement C is false.

The Russians had stopped fighting the Central Powers in 1916.

The correct answer for this is in 1917, towards the end of it.

And then the final statement is correct.

So by the end of WWI, 10,000 US troops were arriving in France daily.

Okay.

So, the point where we left lesson two then, and is by the end of 1917.

So, let's have a very quick recap of that before we add in any new content from today's lesson.

By the end of 1917, resources were running low on the home front and for troops.

This photograph here and taken in Germany, shows people collecting scrap metal for the German war effort in 1916 and all home fronts were experiencing similar problems. The war had been going on far longer than expected by this point.

And so, there was low morale at home amongst the civilians who were suffering from shortages, but there's also starting to be low morale for the troops fighting on the front lines too.

By the end of 1917, we have also seen the Russian revolutions.

The czar of Russia has abdicated and the Bolshevik party, has emerged as the new leaders of Russia making it the world's first communist country.

And one of Lenin, the new leader of Russia's priorities, was Russian withdrawal from WWI.

So, by the end of 1917, we have a scenario where Russia has agreed to an armistice with the Germans and the Central Powers.

No formal peace treaty yet and the Russians have stopped fighting.

Now, although the USA joined the war in April, 1917, which was a very big boost for the Allies, they still haven't sent over their troops on mass yet.

They are training their troops.

They are preparing for war, they're expanding their army.

And so, they haven't really arrived in Europe in the huge numbers we see later on.

Now, one could therefore argue that by the end of 1917, Germany and the Central Powers have somewhat of an advantage.

This is because on the Eastern front, Russia are no longer fighting.

And on the Western front, the USA as yet have not fully joined.

So, you could argue that by the end of 1917, going into 1918, the Germans and the Central Powers have an advantage.

So, let's just double check.

We've picked out our key point from that previous section.

So, a quick multiple choice question here.

Why might Germany have had an advantage in WWI by the end of 1917? So, quickly pause here, have a read through the options.

Think which one you think is correct, and then once you're happy with your answer, unpause the video.

Okay.

Option three is the correct answer here.

So Germany, it could be argued, had an advantage because the Russians had stopped fighting and the US hadn't fully mobilised as yet.

Now, Germany's advantage then, or potential advantage becomes even clearer when we revisit and remind ourselves of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918.

So, in November 1917, the Russians have agreed an armistice, a temporary halt to fighting.

Then in the following year, March, 1918, they sign a formal peace treaty with Germany and the Central Powers, which is the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

Now, why does this seem to give Germany an advantage apart from the fact that the Russians are no longer fighting? And this can be seen really clearly in this map that you're currently looking at, and this has to do with the territory and the resources that the Russians had to give to Germany and the Central Powers as part of this treaty.

So, the area in pink here is territory given to Germany and the Central Powers as part of the treaty.

This included about a quarter of the population and industry of the Russian empire.

And it's also where the majority of the Russian coal mines are too.

So in this treaty, we see a lot of natural resources and territory given to Germany and the Central Powers.

So, it becomes potentially clearer as to why Germany could be seen to have a clear advantage going into 1918.

Now, we've seen this image before, and we've talked throughout this inquiry about the importance of resources to success in the war.

And we know that resources are running low for all of the countries involved.

There has been a boost to the Allies with the USA joining.

But if we think about the impact of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, then Germany and the Central Powers certainly seem to gain quite a few significant resources that could help them win.

By gaining control over quarter of the population and territory, they're able to use those to their advantage, as well as the coal mines, which have been very important as an energy source during the war.

However, for Germany, it's not as straight forward as this.

It's not as straightforward as all of these things seeming to give them the advantage.

Now, the reason for that is because of conditions on the German home front.

Now, a quick reminder that the home front is the name given to the civilians who stay behind during the war and Germany refers to conditions in the home country.

So, when we're talking about the German home front, we're talking about conditions in Germany whilst the war is going on.

Now, since war broke out in 1914, both sides wanted to try and force the other into an early surrender.

And so, one of the ways that that was attempted, was either sides' navies blockading ports.

Ports are on the coast of countries.

It's where goods and essential stuffs are brought into the country that's needed.

Now, Germany is largely a landlocked country and has a very small coastline with ports on.

And from 1914, the British Navy, has been blockading those ports.

So, blocking them off, not allowing any resources to get in.

And if you think back to lesson one, we know that the Central Powers are encircled by the Allied countries.

And so consequently, it's very difficult for Germany to get any goods in, and that's been the case since 1914.

Now, the key impact of this has been food shortages, and this in turn has led to malnutrition.

Malnutrition is illness caused by lack of food.

And what we see on the home front is people suffering to get basic food stuffs.

Meat and potatoes gradually running out by this time.

Consequently in Germany, we have what's called the Turnip Winter of 1916 to 1917.

The image on your screen is a ration card from Germany in 1917, which gives the owner two pounds of turnips a week.

Now, the reason this is an issue, is because turnips are traditionally been fed to livestock, so cattle and so the fact that the Germans are having to resort to eating turnips, which is something they'd usually only give their cows, suggests about how demoralising the situation is at this particular time.

And this is also having a knock-on effect on troops on the front line.

They too are finding that their food is becoming increasingly rationed and cut.

And so, as a consequence of this, on the German home front, we have very low morale.

There is not much hope in Germany, that things are going to get better.

And we see that start to spread to the troops, as rations start to be inflicted on them too.

Now, because of this combination of low morale and problems at home, but the more positive element of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the Germans decide that once that treaty with the Russians has been signed in March, 1918, they are going to try and take advantage of that situation.

Remember on the Eastern front, they're no longer having to fight the Russians, and by the spring of 1918, although some American troops are starting to make their way over to France, they are not there in the numbers we see at the end of the war.

And so, the Germans decided to try and take advantage of this and go on the offensive.

So, they decide to go on the attack.

It's called the Spring Offensive because it's launched in spring.

It lasts throughout the spring of 1918.

Now, the Spring Offensive seems to be a success, particularly if you're looking at it on paper.

So, here you can see a map of the Spring Offensive.

Those areas that are shaded in a kind of light pink towards left hand side is the territory that the Germans gained during the Spring Offensive.

Now, remember we're back on the Western front, which had been characterised by stalemates, not much progress, huge casualties.

So, during the Spring Offensive, as the Germans pushed through and managed to take more land than has been seen in years on the Western fronts, this seems to be very successful.

At its largest extent, the Germans capture 64 kilometres of territory, which may not seem very much, but in the context of the war, that is a significant breakthrough.

However, the 64 kilometres come at the expense of 400,000 German casualties.

There is a huge sacrifice made by the German forces to be able to gain this territory.

And if we think about the context of the home fronts, Germany, doesn't have the troops at home to replace these numbers, and the troops that end up surviving the Spring Offensive, are also suffering from low morale because of conditions back in Germany and also suffering from things like lack of food.

We see during the Spring Offensive, many of the German troops stopping to loot food, steal food from villages that they end up capturing because they're hungry, because they haven't been given enough from their army commanders.

And as well as that, many of the troops that remain are quite poorly disciplined and don't really follow orders.

And so, although we have this significant breakthrough during the Spring Offensive of 1918, by August, because of this combination of conditions on the home front and a poorly disciplined army, by August 1918, the Spring Offensive has come to a halt.

Now, let's have a quick check to see the key details that we should have picked up from that section of explanation.

So again, we've got a series of multiple choice questions.

So question one, why did Germany decide to launch the Spring Offensive in 1918? Pause the video here to read through your options and decide upon your answer.

And then when you're happy with your answer, unpause the video and we'll see if we've got it right.

Okay.

Option three, exactly the same as the last one.

So, as well as kind of thinking about why Germany seemed to have the advantage is also the reason why Germany decides to launch the Spring Offensive.

It's largely down to the actions of Russia and the United States.

Next question, how successful was the Spring Offensive? So pause here, read through the options, and then when you are happy with your answer, unpause.

Okay.

So, it could be argued it had some success.

Obviously there'll be some of you out there thinking, no that was really successful or some of you thinking, well no, that wasn't very successful.

The key detail here is that they did advance 64 kilometres, but at the expense of 400,000 casualties.

Okay, next question then.

Why couldn't the German sustain their advantage in 1918? There are two answers to this question.

So, pause here and think about which of these two options are the correct ones.

Okay, so option one and option two.

So, although they managed to have this breakthrough on the Western fronts, they are not able to sustain it.

This is largely due to the casualty numbers from the Offensive and that the troops by this time are poorly disciplined and didn't follow orders.

Okay.

Now, not going to go into this into too much detail because we're going to look at this more in lesson four, but after the Spring Offensive has ground to a halt by August, 1918, we see the Allied push back, and this becomes known as the hundred days.

Now, from spring 1918, US troops are beginning to arrive in France and there is obviously a significant difference between these well rested, well fed and well led troops and the troops of the Central Powers, predominantly Germany who have been fighting since 1914, who are struggling from food shortages and who are poorly disciplined.

And so, once the Allied Forces kind of organised themselves, we see the push back began in August, 1918.

So, lesson four, we'll be looking at this in more detail, and we we'll be looking at how that 100 days goes, but we are going to reflect on today's lesson first.

So, five questions then the answers of which are in your reading worksheet.

As always, I would like these in full sentences, which means including the question in your answers.

So, why did Germany possibly have an advantage in WWI by the end of 1917? For question two, what were conditions like on the German home front by 1918? How successful was the Spring Offensive to begin with in spring 1918 for question three.

And then question four, why could the German army not maintain their advantage after the Spring Offensive? And then question five is looking at it from the perspective of the Allied Forces.

So, what resources did the Allied Forces have in 1918, which helped them to push back the German Spring Offensive? So, pause the video here, go and read the worksheet, answer those five questions in full sentences.

And then when you're done, bring yourself back and we'll go through the answers.

Okay.

So, as always two reminders.

I always recommend having a pen of a different colour just to give yourself a big tick and to edit anything in case you need to add in some details.

And remember my wording will be different to your wording.

You are scanning your answer to make sure you have got the most important details.

There is an acceptable answer on the screen, which is an answer that is somewhat lacking in detail, and a good answer on the screen, which is a full answer, including words from the question and including all of the key details.

So, we will go straight to the good answer each time.

So, question one.

Why did Germany possibly have an advantage in WWI by the end of 1917? The good answer, Germany possibly had an advantage in WWI world by the end of 1917, due to the actions of others.

The Russians had ceased fighting the Central Powers due to the Russian revolution and the USA hadn't fully mobilised yet.

So, pause here if you need to add anything to your answer.

If you're happy with your answer, give it a tick, and we're going to look at question two.

Okay.

What were conditions like on the German home front by 1918? Good answer, conditions on the German home front were poor by 1918.

There were food shortages due to the British blockade and farmers being transferred into the army.

There were energy shortages too.

Deaths registered as malnutrition were high and morale was low.

So again, pause here if you need to edit anything or add anything.

If you're happy with your answer, give it a tick, and we're going to look at question three.

How successful was the Spring Offensive to begin with in spring 1918? So good answer, the Spring Offensive was reasonably successful to begin with.

The German troops advanced 64 kilometres, making a much needed breakthrough on the Western Front.

However, they did have heavy casualties, 400,000 men, which they then struggled to replace.

So, the key details here talking about how far they advanced.

If you've got the bit in there about casualties, then great work because you've balanced out your arguments that the key bit here is thinking about why it was a breakthrough.

So, pause here if you need to add anything.

If you're happy with your answer, give it a tick, and we are going to look at question four.

Okay.

Why could the German army not maintain their advantage after the Spring Offensive? So, good answer, the advantages of the Spring Offensive couldn't be maintained due to the issues with the German army.

They didn't have enough replacements for the casualties they sustained in the Spring Offensive, and those soldiers in the army were poorly disciplined.

They refused to follow instructions, and so the Offensive came to a halt.

So, the key bit here about replacements and them not following instructions.

If you're happy with your answer, give yourself a tick.

If you need a bit longer, pause here to add it there, and we're going to think about question five.

What resources did the Allied Forces have in 1918, which helped them to push back the German Spring Offensive? The good answer, by 1918, the Allied Forces had been joined by US troops.

They arrived well rested with good leadership.

They also provided technologically superior tanks and aircraft as well as lots of armaments.

These all gave the Allied Forces an advantage over the tired troops of the Central Powers.

So, if you've got some specific examples in your answer, really great job.

if you haven't, maybe pause here and add in one or two specific details, just to make your answer more exact, However, if you're happy with your answer, give yourself a tick.

Okay, so let's revisit our enquiry question, which is why did WWI end in November, 1918? So, we've been thinking about this throughout our three lessons so far and revisiting it throughout, thinking about how each of these events contributed to WWI coming to an end.

And we have previously discussed this diagram and the idea that we're thinking of these three factors, these three big ideas and how they contributed to the end of WWI.

So military reasons, political reasons and economic reasons.

Now, for the last couple of lessons then, you have been setting up a notes page and you've either got it as a table or a mind map or three lists, and we're going to be finishing off today's lesson by revisiting it again and adding in details from today.

So, the focus of today's lesson has been the Spring Offensive and conditions on the German home front.

Now, I would like you to think through what you've learned from today's lesson, perhaps thinking about your reading worksheets and add in any military reasons from today's lesson of why the war came to an end.

Any political reasons connected to today's lesson that contributed to the end of the war.

And then finally, any economic reasons from today's lesson that helped bring WWI to an end in November, 1918.

So, pause the video here to add some examples underneath these three headings.

And then when you're done, unpause the video.

Okay.

Welcome back everyone.

So, we should be kind of collecting quite a few notes by now and have a big detailed notes page.

We have got one more lesson to look at, which is going to look at the hundred days push back and the armistice, and that's going to be less than four.

Then we're going to pull all of these ideas together in that lesson to see if we can come up with our own opinions, our own conclusions about why WWI came to an end.

So, keep your note sheets from today really, really safe, and I look forward to seeing you here for lesson four, where we wrap up all of these points and we come up with an answer to the question, why did WWI end in November, 1918? See you again soon.