Ludendorff's Own Story

The second volume of Erich Ludendorff's memoirs of World War I begins with the Entente Offensive of early 1917, and concludes with the armistice which marked the end of the horrific conflict. By the later stages of the war, several new technologies plus the United States joining the Entente Cordial shifted the balance. Tanks were seen in far greater numbers than before, German submarines were deployed en masse, while poison gas and aerial bombardments became commoner. Mechanized mobility and the presence of automatic rifles changed the tempo of combat; while static trench warfare remained dominant along the front, breakthroughs became more achievable. Battles such as Cambrai, where massed French and British tanks punched through a large section of front, plus the evermore numerous American forces, placed heavy stresses upon the German army and its high command. Ludendorff acknowledges the deteriorating conditions in Germany; the economy became exhausted by the insatiable demands of war for both men and materiel. By late 1918 he realized that the Allies had simply to wait for the inevitable collapse; German soldiers taken as prisoners of war revealed the chaos behind their front lines, as battle groups were hastily mobilized and reformed amid unrelenting casualties. At the conclusion of the book Ludendorff delivers some patriotic words, looking ahead to the future recovery of his nation.