Map of the 1918 German offensives on the Western Front from The Memoirs of Marshall Foch by Marshall Ferdinand Foch. © 1931 by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc.

German Offensives

Of Mar. 21 (Picardy)

Of May 27 (Aisne-Marne)

Of July 15 (Champagne-Marne)

Of Apr. 9 (Flanders)

Of June 9 (Compiegne)

Front and situation of the German Armies March 20, 1918 (on the eve of the offensive)

Front at the end of the offensive

Scale of miles

Other views: Larger, Detail

Sunday, April 14, 1918

". . . Foch remained adamant that French reserves must be husbanded for his offensive schemes. No pleas, no threats, no reports of danger or disaster would move him, and at a conference held at Abbeville on April 14th he refused pointblank to allow any reliefs of the divisions fighting the Lys battle; 'the operation would immobilize the relieving troops and those being relieved during the time required for the operation, and this at the very moment when the size of the Allied reserve is barely sufficient.'"

Quotation Context

The British were in increasingly difficult straits on April 14, the sixth day of German commander Erich Ludendorff's second great offensive of 1918, Operation Georgette, the Lys Offensive. The offensive, a pared-down version of a previously rejected plan, was an attack on the Lys River in Flanders along the Franco-Belgian border. British commander was Douglas Haig already badly weakened by Operation Michael in March, looked to newly appointed Commander-in-Chief Ferdinand Foch for reinforcements. Foch had for months pressed for a unified command and a reserve force that could seize the offensive when the opportunity presented itself. In mid-April 1918, he held both.

Source

1918, the Last Act by Barrie Pitt, pp. 125–126, copyright © 1962 by Barrie Pitt, publisher: Ballantine Books, Inc., publication date: 1963

Tags

1918-04-14, 1918, April, Foch, Ferdinand Foch, Operation Georgette, Georgette, Lys Offensive, map of 1918 German offensives