SYMHC Classics: Battle of Amiens

This 2018 episode covers the Battle of Amiens, near the end of World War I. It was the start of what came to be known as the 100 Days Offensive, which was the Allies’ final push to win the war. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.

• 0:04Tracy V. Wilson?

  You already like YouTube, so how could YouTube get any better? Premium is the supercharged way to experience YouTube. There are a lot of additional features and benefits, including ad-free, uninterrupted videos, background play so you can keep listening even when the screen is locked on your phone. I know when I have a YouTube video playing and I'm walking around the kitchen and I instinctively turn the screen off, having the video stop is annoying. You can also download your videos to watch anywhere. Whenever I'm traveling, if I'm going to be away from Wi-Fi for a while, I love having things that are loaded up and ready to go, so I don't have to worry about it. Whether you are relaxing at home or on the go, it is built for you because your YouTube experience got even better with Premium.

• 0:48Tracy V. Wilson?

  So if you like YouTube, you'll love Premium. Sign up now for your free trial. Terms and conditions apply.

• 0:54Holly Frey?

  We've all tumbled down an internet rabbit hole trying to self-diagnose, and it leaves us more anxious than informed. Our feeds are full of wellness trends, but how do we know what's real, what's exaggerated, and what's just wrong? Health vs. Hype from the American Medical Association breaks it all down. Emmy-nominated science communicator Trace Dominguez talks to doctors, influencers, and real people trying these trends, not to cancel them, but to understand them. Because when it comes to your health, who you listen to matters. So listen to Health vs. Hype wherever you get your podcasts.

• 1:26Tracy V. Wilson?

  The Old Gays are back with Silver Linings, their lovable podcast from iHeart's Ruby Studio in partnership with Vive Healthcare. Robert, Mick, Bill, and Jessa strut back down memory lane for season two, sharing lessons on life, love, and loss. These are the kind of insights that only come from experience. So tune into Silver Linings with The Old Gays on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Whether you're calling the wise women in your life, video calling your girlfriends across the country, or checking in on someone who always knows how to make you smile, staying connected matters. Those small conversations, shared laughs, and quick hellos are what keep relationships strong even when life gets busy.

• 2:08Tracy V. Wilson?

  Some of the most life-giving conversations start with just a phone call. That's why AT&T guarantees the network you can rely on, so you can focus on the moments and people that matter most. That's the AT&T Guarantee. AT&T: Connecting Changes Everything. Terms and conditions apply. Visit att.com/guarantee for details.

• 2:30Tracy V. Wilson?

  Happy Saturday. The Battle of Amiens started on August 8, 1918, or 108 years ago today. Our episode on that battle came out eight years ago on August 8, 2018, for its 100th anniversary.

• 2:46Holly Frey?

  We are bringing it out today as a Saturday classic. Enjoy.

• 2:52Holly Frey?

  Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of iHeart Radio.

• 3:03Tracy V. Wilson?

  Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson.

• 3:07Holly Frey?

  And I'm Holly Frey.

• 3:08Tracy V. Wilson?

  We are coming up on the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Amiens, which started what came to be known as the 100 Days Offensive. That was the Allies' final push to win World War I. And this particular battle and the 100 Days Offensive aren't really talked about as frequently as some of the other big moments in World War I. All of our other World War I-related episodes are from much earlier in the war, a lot of the time because it was the 100th anniversary of that thing. So we're going to set the stage a little bit in this episode before we get to the battle itself, especially with how events that played out in 1917 led to all of this, and how the Battle of Amiens ultimately led to the end of the war.

• 3:52Tracy V. Wilson?

  Also, World War I was massive. There was a lot going on in other parts of the world during the time period that we're talking about. So we are really just focused on Europe here, particularly the Western Front, with the key players being the British Empire, France, the United States, and Germany. It is much too large to also talk about all of the other battles going on in all of the other places with all of the other countries in 1917 and 1918.

• 4:22Holly Frey?

  So World War I started, of course, in 1914. Although international tensions had been rising in Europe for years before this point, things shifted with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie. They were shot to death in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip.

• 4:43Tracy V. Wilson?

  The Archduke had been the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Empire suspected that the Serbian government was involved in the assassination. So Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and soon, much of Europe was involved in this conflict. Within two weeks, the Allies of Russia, Belgium, France, and Great Britain had all sided with Serbia. Germany had sided with the Austro-Hungarian Empire as part of what would be called the Central Powers, and more declarations of war followed from there.

• 5:15Holly Frey?

  This quickly became a war of attrition, with the war on land in Europe being fought primarily along the eastern and western fronts. Battles went on for months, with millions of casualties and catastrophic effects for the civilian population, including famines and food shortages all over Europe. For most of it, the situation between the Allies and the Central Powers was essentially a stalemate. This was especially true along the Western Front, which ran from the English Channel to Switzerland, primarily through France.

• 5:46Tracy V. Wilson?

  Something started to shift at the end of 1917, though. Russian involvement in the war had never been popular there, and the war had compounded ongoing economic problems and food shortages in Russia. The February Revolution started on March 8 of 1917. It's called the February Revolution because Russia was still on the Julian calendar, so from the Russian point of view, that was February. The February Revolution started with strikes and riots, and it led to the abdication of Czar Nicholas II.

• 6:18Holly Frey?

  Unrest continued after the February Revolution. The Bolshevik Revolution followed in November of 1917, and that was followed by the Russian Civil War. With all of this going on, Russian involvement in World War I effectively ended, and Russia signed an armistice with the Central Powers in December of 1917.

• 6:39Tracy V. Wilson?

  A lot of the fighting along the eastern front at this point had been between Russia and Germany. So with Russia out of the picture, German forces were freed up to move to the western front instead. More than 40 divisions of German troops prepared to do exactly that after Russia withdrew from the war.

• 6:58Holly Frey?

  The United States had also declared war on Germany in April of 1917. Although the US had avoided becoming directly involved in the war until that point, it had been providing supplies and other aid to the Allies for quite some time. So at first, the United States' declaration of war didn't do much to shift the balance of power. But the US committed troops to the war effort as well, and those troops started arriving in June of 1917 and entered combat that October.

• 7:27Tracy V. Wilson?

  In terms of actual troops, the American presence in the war was pretty small in 1917. That first arrival of troops was only 14,000 men. By July of 1918, though, there would be more than a million American troops in France alone. And unlike their counterparts who were already there, these American troops weren't necessarily experienced, but they were fresh. Most of the Allied troops who were already in Europe were exhausted after months or years of fighting.

• 7:57Holly Frey?

  So in late 1917, with Russia out of the war and the United States ramping up to join it, Germany recognized that it had a limited window of opportunity. The German military was running out of everything, including people. But with a quick, decisive action, it might be able to force the Allies to negotiate for peace before so many American reinforcements arrived. Or failing that, Germany might be able to level the playing field, putting it on more equal footing with the Allies during negotiations later on, rather than being at a clear disadvantage.

• 8:32Tracy V. Wilson?

  The Allies also recognized that Germany had this one last opportunity to try to break out of the stalemate. So at the start of 1918, Allied leaders were confident that a major German attack was on the way, and soon, but they weren't really sure exactly when or where.

• 8:49Holly Frey?

  It came on the first day of spring. That was March 21, 1918. German forces attacked a stretch of the Western Front south of the French city of Arras. This was at a point where French and British forces met on the Western Front, and it was the weakest point along that line. Part of the German objective was to cut these two forces off from one another. And then, at least in theory, Germany could fight French and British forces separately, overcoming both of them.

• 9:18Tracy V. Wilson?

  The German attack incorporated airstrikes, a massive artillery bombardment, and gas, including tear gas, chlorine, and phosphine, in this attempt to break through the Allied line. And they were immediately successful. The morning they attacked was foggy and the Allies were caught by surprise. The British Third and Fifth Armies were forced to retreat. And on March 21st alone, the British military saw 38,500 casualties. That included 21,000 soldiers taken prisoner. Germany was able to advance about four miles or six and a half kilometers, reclaiming in one day all the ground that they had lost over the previous two years.

• 10:00Holly Frey?

  This March 21st assault was the start of what came to be known as the Spring Offensive, or the Ludendorff Offensive, that was named after Quartermaster General Eric Ludendorff, who was leading the German military with Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg. In Germany, it was called Kaiser Schlacht, or Kaiser's Battle, and the first phase was codenamed Operation Michael. Because it covered some of the same territory as the Battle of the Somme in 1916, sometimes it is also called the Second Battle of the Somme.

• 10:30Tracy V. Wilson?

  Operation Michael ended on April 5th. And by that point, the German army had captured about 12,000 square miles of territory. That's about 31,000 square kilometers. This had come at a great cost, though, with about 240,000 casualties that the German army just had no good way to replace. Together, French and British forces, including those from Canada, Australia, and other parts of the British Empire, had suffered nearly 250,000 casualties. Just to be clear, casualty numbers include everyone killed, wounded, or captured.

• 11:03Holly Frey?

  That initial goal of splitting the British and French troops didn't ultimately work out, because Germany didn't have the manpower to really divide and fight against both armies. The Allies also quickly realized the threat and united the Allied troops under the command of French General Ferdinand Foch to better coordinate their efforts. So rather than facing an army that was divided and left in chaos, Germany instead faced a force that was united under one command.

• 11:32Tracy V. Wilson?

  The overall Spring Offensive ended on July 15th, 1918, with the Second Battle of the Marne. General Ludendorff tried to capture the city of Rem, hoping to divide the French forces and set a stage for an assault on Flanders. But unlike on March 21st, General Foch anticipated this attack. He and the Allies mounted a counterattack, and by July 18th, German forces were retreating.

• 11:57Holly Frey?

  Germany could not afford this loss, especially since American troops were now arriving in France at a rate of about 300,000 per month. The 1918 flu pandemic was also sweeping across the globe at this point, including through all of the armies involved in the war. But the war was not over yet, which brings us to Amiens. And we're first gonna pause and have a sponsor break before we dig into that.

• 12:25Speaker 03

  This episode is brought to you by YouTube Premium.

• 12:28Speaker 04

  Samantha, you know I watch a lot of YouTube. I watch a lot of it for fun, but I also watch a lot of it for research for this show. And I also put on a lot of stuff in the background, videos in the background to set a mood. I find it very relaxing, or sometimes kind of hype, you know, if you're looking to get ready to go out.

• 12:48Speaker 03

  Yeah, I use it too. And YouTube Premium takes something you already love, YouTube, and makes it even better. The content, the creators, the feeling of finding exactly what you're into for every mood and moment of your day. Premium transforms that experience into a more supercharged, enhanced way to enjoy YouTube.

• 13:07Speaker 04

  Yes, a YouTube Premium subscription gives you access to exclusive YouTube features and benefits, including but not limited to being ad-free, so uninterrupted videos, background play, so that lets you keep listening with your screen locked, and offline downloads, so you can download your videos to watch anywhere.

• 13:25Speaker 03

  So if you like YouTube, you'll love Premium. Sign up now for your free trial. Terms and conditions apply.

• 13:31Speaker 05

  First thought is like, wow, how are we gonna do all this?

• 13:34Tracy V. Wilson?

  Hey, everybody, it's Tracy from Stuff You Missed in History Class. That's Alan Goya, a planning engineer at AT&T. He's talking about Intuit Dome, home of the Los Angeles Clippers, where every seat, screen, phone, and transaction is connected with AT&T fiber and 5G, defining the fan's experience. And Alan's master plan made it all possible.

• 13:55Speaker 05

  It was gonna rival anything that was already built. And that takes quite a bit of people and different teams to all be on the same page.

• 14:02Tracy V. Wilson?

  That includes Field Services Manager Drexel Jones. His team made sure it all came together and held up on game day.

• 14:09Speaker 06

  Through what Alan's whole crew designed, we connected the event visitors to the world.

• 14:15Tracy V. Wilson?

  And after years of hard work and collaboration, it was opening night.

• 14:18Speaker 06

  To actually see the whole stadium light up and data's flowing is a beautiful thing.

• 14:23Speaker 05

  What the fans experience is incredible. It gave me a lot of pride.

• 14:26Tracy V. Wilson?

  AT&T, connecting fans to what they love.

• 14:29Speaker 03

  Connecting changes everything. AT&T.

• 14:32Tracy V. Wilson?

  So you're considering getting a home security system, but you want something that fits your space. Well, with ADT Blue, it's easy to customize a system that's right for you and set it up yourself. Just pick the kit and monitoring plan that makes sense for your home. Let's say you're worried about package theft. The ADT Plus app can walk you through setting up a new doorbell camera kit. Once it's installed, ADT Pros can help you keep tabs on it 24/7, or you can manage it yourself from the ADT Plus app. There are no long-term contracts, so you can change your monitoring plan whenever you want. The flexibility doesn't end there. You can add to your system as you need to with things like extra cameras or motion sensors. Some life decisions are hard, but thanks to ADT Blue, you can DIY trusted ADT home

• 15:17Tracy V. Wilson?

  security in a snap. Head to ADT.com/BLU to build your system today. And to hear more about home protection and other grown-up topics, check out new episodes of Grown Up Stuff on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 15:39Holly Frey?

  We've all done it, tumble down an internet rabbit hole trying to self-diagnose. And sometimes doing our own research can leave us more anxious than informed. Your feed is packed with wellness trends telling you to cold plunge, protein max, detox, track your sleep. But what's actually real? What's exaggerated? What's just wrong? That's exactly what Health vs. Hype from the American Medical Association and iHeartMedia's Ruby Studio is here to find out. Each episode, Emmy-nominated science communicator Trace Dominguez, who's racked up billions of views across PBS, Discovery Channel, and YouTube, talks to doctors, influencers, and real people trying these trends.

• 16:21Holly Frey?

  Not to cancel them, not to hype them more, but to actually understand them. Because when it comes to your health, who you listen to matters. Start asking better questions and listen to Health vs. Hype on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 16:47Tracy V. Wilson?

  The Spring Offensive and the Allied counterattacks at the Second Battle of the Marne were a shift in how the war was being fought on the Western Front. For years, that had been defined by the trenches. Trenches had been used during battles in one way or another for centuries, and they continued to be a part of warfare after this point. But in World War I, they were a side effect of evolving military technologies, specifically machine guns and artillery. Trenches were a way for troops to gain some measure of protection from these devastating weapons, even though it meant that they couldn't really move once they were dug in.

• 17:25Holly Frey?

  During those years of stalemate, an attack on the enemy's trench had usually combined a preliminary bombardment, called a creeping barrage, with an advancing infantry. The barrage was supposed to lay down artillery just ahead of the soldiers' advance, providing cover and clearing out the opposition.

• 17:42Tracy V. Wilson?

  But a lot of the time, this didn't work. Barrages got too far ahead of the troops, effectively serving as an advance warning for the opposite side. Or they tore up the terrain so much that the soldiers had trouble crossing to get to the enemy. Or barrages might move too slowly or fall short, and the advancing infantry were killed as a result. Regardless, though, armies wound up facing huge casualties in exchange for a few yards of territory or none at all.

• 18:13Holly Frey?

  By the spring and summer of 1918, though, World War I's opposing armies were starting to make better use of all the available military technology to effectively assault the other side's trenches. And the Allies' first truly effective use of all that technology was at the Battle of Hommel, led by Australian Corps Commander Lieutenant General John Monash.

• 18:35Tracy V. Wilson?

  Monash planned the early morning attack in absolute secrecy. He added smoke shells to the creeping barrage to obscure the battlefield. He also used tanks, which had been introduced in 1916, to plow through the Germans' barbed wire and fortifications, and to deliver supplies from behind the infantry advance.

• 18:55Holly Frey?

  Eighteen aircraft were involved as well, including some older ones specifically chosen because their engines were loud enough to cover up the sound of the tanks. The planes dropped bombs and flares, providing covering fire, and reported back with information about the Germans' positions. The plan also included faking troop movements and using dummy installations to further disguise what they were doing, and sending messages back and forth by pigeon.

• 19:21Tracy V. Wilson?

  This battle was an enormous success for the Allies. The Allied troops, including American and Australian forces, attacked early in the morning on July 4. Within two hours, they had obtained all of their objectives. This was really the first time that all of the available military technology had been put into use at once in such a coordinated way. It was so effective that all of the commanders of the British Expeditionary Force got a report about it detailing what had gone so well after the battle was over.

• 19:53Holly Frey?

  The Battle of Amiens built off these same strategies that Monash had put into place at Hommel. The city of Amiens was a major junction for railroads and communications, and Germany had repeatedly tried to take it during the Spring Offensive. Germany had not succeeded, but it had stretched out its line in the attempt, creating a bulge that it didn't have the manpower to thoroughly defend.

• 20:17Tracy V. Wilson?

  The Allies' attack on the salient was, as before, planned in total secrecy. Before it started, they used fake radio transmissions and phony troop movements to disguise their activity during the day, while putting the men into their real positions at night. The assault combined air support, artillery, tanks, and infantry. In terms of numbers, the Allies had 75,000 men, more than 500 tanks, and nearly 2,000 aircraft. The troops included British, Canadian, Australian, and French infantry, tank brigades, British cavalry divisions, the Royal Air Force, and American troops that were held in reserve.

• 20:56Holly Frey?

  Australian and Canadian troops formed the spearhead of the infantry attack at Amiens. By this point, Australia's military had distinguished itself as part of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, that's ANZAC, in the Gallipoli Campaign, and the Canadian units had developed a reputation as the British Empire's shock troops.

• 21:16Tracy V. Wilson?

  Germany was out everything in this battle. Exact numbers are in dispute. It is difficult to track down precise numbers in a conflict like this, but they had a much smaller fighting force with only about 530 guns and 370 aircraft. They had three lines of trenches, but these trenches weren't well fortified, and the communication networks among them were really spotty. When the attack started at 4:20 in the morning on August 8, 1918, it came as a total surprise.

• 21:46Holly Frey?

  Fighting at the Battle of Amiens went on for three days. By that point, the Allies had advanced eight miles, about 13 kilometers. They had liberated more than 100 towns and villages from the Germans. They'd also captured a 280-millimeter or 11-inch Krupp naval gun that had been used to shell Amiens from about 25 kilometers, or that's 16 miles away. This gun had been mounted on a railway carriage, and the Australian 31st Battalion 5th Division captured it by commandeering the carriage and driving it back into Allied territory.

• 22:20Tracy V. Wilson?

  They're very proud of capturing this gun. I mean, it's not surprising that they were, but it comes up a lot in accounts of this day. After this hugely effective first day, the Allied advance slowed over August 9 through 11. The German forces started to regroup and offer a stronger resistance, and on the 11th, Sir Arthur Currie of the Canadian Corps convinced General Sir Henley Rollinson of the British 4th Army that they should consolidate their gains instead of continuing to try to push ahead against increasingly tougher resistance.

• 22:54Holly Frey?

  But before that decision, the battle had devastated the German Army. Ludendorff called August 8 "the black day of the German Army in the history of the war." He also said that it, quote, "put the decline of that fighting power beyond all doubt, and in such a situation as regards reserves, I had no hope of finding a strategic expedient whereby to turn the situation to our advantage."

• 23:18Tracy V. Wilson?

  This wasn't just because of the tens of thousands of casualties that the German Army saw that day. It was also that it revealed the terrifically terrible morale among the German troops. At least 12,000 of them were taken prisoner with huge numbers of soldiers surrendering at once. There were even stories of whole groups of Germans surrendering to a single Allied soldier, or surrendering even when they had the Allies in that particular spot vastly outnumbered.

• 23:48Holly Frey?

  Altogether, this was the worst German defeat since the start of the war. Until this point, Allied leaders had thought the war would last at least until 1919. But this was the start of the final 100 days offensive that finally ended it. And we're going to talk more about that after we pause for a little sponsor break.

• 24:10Speaker 07

  So YouTube Premium, it takes something you already love, that being YouTube, and it makes it even better. Not just the experience, but the content, the creators.

• 24:20Tracy V. Wilson?

  The feeling of finding exactly what you're into for every mood, every moment of your day. Premium transforms that experience into a more supercharged, enhanced way to enjoy YouTube.

• 24:31Speaker 07

  Yeah, folks, a YouTube Premium experience gives you access to exclusive YouTube features and benefits, and these are real game changers for us.

• 24:40Tracy V. Wilson?

  Oh, yeah, that includes what is not limited to ad-free viewing of YouTube. Imagine no more ads popping up in the middle of videos or at the end of videos, uninterrupted videos.

• 24:50Speaker 07

  And now think about this. Let's say you're using YouTube on the go. You're exercising, you're washing dishes. You can have YouTube playing in the background with Premium, which means you can keep listening while your screen is locked.

• 25:04Tracy V. Wilson?

  Also, you can download videos offline, so you don't even need Wi-Fi connection to watch your stuff.

• 25:10Speaker 07

  I love this on plane flights.

• 25:11Tracy V. Wilson?

  Ben, how have you been using YouTube Premium?

• 25:14Speaker 07

  Oh, man. Well, Matt, you know, I like to take a night walk, and YouTube Premium is perfect for this because of the background play. So I can pull up a documentary about the neighborhood I'm walking around in, put the phone in my pocket, and still hear everything perfectly.

• 25:30Tracy V. Wilson?

  Amazing.

• 25:31Speaker 07

  So don't delay. Sign up now for your free trial. Terms and conditions apply.

• 25:36Holly Frey?

  We've all done it, tumble down an internet rabbit hole trying to self-diagnose. And sometimes doing our own research can leave us more anxious than informed. Your feed is packed with wellness trends telling you to cold plunge, protein max, detox, track your sleep. But what's actually real? What's exaggerated? What's just wrong? That's exactly what Health vs. Hype from the American Medical Association and iHeartMedia's Ruby Studio is here to find out. Each episode, Emmy nominated science communicator Trace Dominguez, who's racked up billions of views across PBS, Discovery Channel, and YouTube, talks to doctors, influencers, and real people trying these trends. Not to cancel them, not to hype them more, but to

• 26:21Holly Frey?

  actually understand them. Because when it comes to your health, who you listen to matters. Start asking better questions and listen to Health vs. Hype on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 26:39Tracy V. Wilson?

  Guess who's back in the house? The old gays return for season two of Silver Linings, their hit podcast from iHeart's Ruby Studio in partnership with ViiV Healthcare. Just wait until you hear what hosts Robert McMillan and Jess A. have in store this time around. They strut back down memory lane, navigating life, love, loss, and everything that shaped them along the way. And as usual, someone just might break into song. From leather bars to bathhouses, dance floors to drag brunch, nothing stays off limits. These are the kinds of insights that can only come from experience. So listen to your elders, honey, and discover the silver linings you can take with you. All sass, zero filter, and decades of perspective from four friends proving that queer joy only gets

• 27:24Tracy V. Wilson?

  better with age on the podcast that never gets old. Listen to Silver Linings, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 27:38Tracy V. Wilson?

  Okay, chicken nugget fans, I've got huge news.

• 27:42Speaker 03

  The new Burger King Chicken Nuggets just dropped, and they are the crispiest, the juiciest, and the tastiest chicken nuggets ever at Burger King. Burger King heard that a lot of you didn't like the old chicken nuggets, so they got to work and reinvented them. To go along with the new chicken nuggets, a lot of the sauces were reinvented too, because better chicken nuggets deserve better sauces. We're talking new buffalo sauce, honey mustard, sweet and sour, and even a whole new option too, the new special savory sauce, which is only available for a limited time at participating US restaurants. I mean, you need to taste it all for yourself. This new chicken nugget, reinvented based on real feedback, is made with 100% white meat chicken and is now

• 28:27Speaker 03

  better than ever. You gotta try the new Burger King Chicken Nuggets and sauces today.

• 28:39Tracy V. Wilson?

  After the Battle of Amiens, both General Erich Ludendorff and Kaiser Wilhelm II, the Emperor of Germany, agreed that there was no way for the German army to recover. Their goal became to avoid an outright surrender, and the German army continued to fight even as it fell back toward Germany. The Allied forces continued to press ahead in this final push to bring the war to an end.

• 29:02Holly Frey?

  The last major objective to this end was the Hindenburg Line, which was Germany's last large-scale fortification. The Hindenburg Line was a set of three well-defended trenches that had been established in 1917. The Allies planned their assault on the Hindenburg Line for a full month before actually attacking its forward outposts near Eiffre, France on September 18, 1918.

• 29:27Tracy V. Wilson?

  The Allied forces finally breached the Hindenburg Line on September 29 after four days of heavy fighting, including firing nearly a million artillery shells. And at that point, Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff told Kaiser Wilhelm that the war was lost. On October 1, at a meeting of representatives of all the major German political parties, Ludendorff and Hindenburg told the assembled group the reality of the situation. A lot of them were shocked to learn that things were going so badly for Germany. Germany requested peace negotiations on October 3.

• 30:02Holly Frey?

  Ludendorff revised his opinion a little later in October, as Allied attacks slowed down to allow the supply lines to catch up to the troops' advance. But by that point, word of the dire condition of the German military had spread through its civilian population. Like much of the rest of Europe, German civilians had faced extreme hardship during the war, including near-starvation conditions thanks to an Allied blockade. In the face of such grim news, the war just no longer had the support of the German people. Especially once he heard the terms of the Armistice, which involved making Germany completely unable to renew hostilities, Ludendorff wanted to renew

• 30:45Holly Frey?

  the fight. But on October 26, he was forced to resign.

• 30:50Tracy V. Wilson?

  By this point, there were rampant desertions going on all over the German military. A massive mutiny also swept through the Navy in late October and early November over orders that they staged an attack on the Royal Navy in an attempt to derail the Armistice negotiations.

• 31:07Holly Frey?

  The Armistice was finally signed on November 11, 1918, at 5:00 AM, and the war ended at 11:00 AM that same day. The Canadian Corps also liberated the city of Mont, France that day, which was where the last shot of the war was fired. It was also the site of one of the war's earliest battles, and there's actually an episode about that battle in our archive. By this point, Kaiser Wilhelm II had been forced to abdicate and had gone into exile, and German Chancellor Friedrich Ebert had started to form a provisional government.

• 31:39Tracy V. Wilson?

  During the last 100 days of the war, French forces saw 530,000 casualties. There were more than 400,000 casualties among the British troops, including the troops from the rest of the British Empire. That's not just from the UK. American forces saw 127,000 casualties. And there were 785,000 casualties just among the Germans, with 368,000 taken prisoner.

• 32:07Holly Frey?

  The German army was also very clearly defeated. After that initial rally in the Spring Offensive, the tide of the war had turned hard against it. And with millions of American troops on the ground in Europe dramatically increasing the Allies' numbers, there was just no way that Germany could have turned that around.

• 32:26Tracy V. Wilson?

  But the false idea spread through the German military that Germany had not been defeated. Instead, this idea took root, didn't take root as though it came out of nowhere. Like, it was intentionally spread that the German army had been stabbed in the back by civilian leaders who negotiated and signed the Armistice. According to this mindset, which was spread by Ludendorff and other high-ranking officers intentionally, the officials who signed the Armistice were traitors. Adolf Hitler would later brand them the November Criminals. This led to a whole conspiracy theory about a betrayal of the German military at the hands of Jews, which became part of Nazi propaganda in the years after the war.

• 33:09Holly Frey?

  The terms of the Armistice and the Treaty of Versailles that ended the war also contributed to the run-up to World War II. Under that Armistice, Germany had to surrender territory and war materials, including thousands of pieces of artillery, guns, trains, aircraft, battleships, submarines, destroyers, and other naval vessels. Germany was also to surrender its prisoners of war immediately, but there were no reciprocal terms for the other nations to return German prisoners.

• 33:39Tracy V. Wilson?

  Under the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was prohibited from joining the League of Nations until 1926. The treaty also drew new borders that gave territory to Germany's neighbors, stripped Germany of its colonies, and required Germany to pay reparations that were economically disastrous. All of this ultimately contributed to Hitler's rise of power, which we talk about in our episode on the Night of the Long Knives. It's a really bummer place to end an episode, so if you were listening to this and you were like, "This reminds me of Wonder Woman," yes.

• 34:22Tracy V. Wilson?

  Obviously, Ludendorff in Wonder Woman is a fictionalized version of this guy, who we talked about in this show.

• 34:36Tracy V. Wilson?

  Thanks so much for joining us on this Saturday. If you'd like to send us a note, our email address is [email protected]. And you can subscribe to the show on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

• 34:58Holly Frey?

  A rare disease diagnosis can change your life, but it doesn't have to define your future. In season seven of Untold Stories: Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition, host Martine Hackett continues the conversation with people living with MG, CIDP, and the broader rare disease community, exploring what comes after diagnosis through stories of hope, progress, and connection. Produced by Ruby Studio in partnership with Argenx. Listen on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 35:29Tracy V. Wilson?

  Whether you're calling the wise women in your life, video calling your girlfriends across the country, or checking in on someone who always knows how to make you smile, staying connected matters. Those small conversations, shared laughs, and quick hellos are what keep relationships strong even when life gets busy. Some of the most life-giving conversations start with just a phone call. That's why AT&T guarantees the network you can rely on, so you can focus on the moments and people that matter most. That's the AT&T Guarantee. AT&T: Connecting Changes Everything. Terms and conditions apply. Visit att.com/guarantee for details.

• 36:04Speaker 06

  Snoring, gasping for air during sleep, daytime sleepiness. I'm Shaquille O'Neal, and this shouldn't be anybody's experience. Ask your doctor about Zepbound Trisepotide, the first and only FDA-approved prescription medicine for moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea in adults with obesity.

• 36:20Speaker 07

  Zepbound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity to help adults with moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, OSA, and obesity to improve their OSA. Zepbound is approved as a 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5, or 15-milligram injection. Zepbound contains trisepotide and should not be used with other trisepotide-containing products or any GLP-1 receptor agonist medicines. It is not known if Zepbound is safe and effective for use in children. Don't share needles or pens, or reuse needles. Don't take if allergic to it, or if you or someone in your family had medullary thyroid cancer, or if you've had multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2. Tell your doctor if you get a lump or swelling in your neck. Stop Zepbound and

• 37:02Speaker 07

  call your doctor if you have severe stomach pain or a serious allergic reaction. Severe side effects may include inflamed pancreas or gallbladder problems. Tell your doctor if you experience vision changes before scheduled procedures with anesthesia. If you're nursing, pregnant, plan-to-be, or taking birth control pills. Taking Zepbound with a sulphonal urea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. Side effects include nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting, which can cause dehydration and worsen kidney problems.

• 37:27Speaker 06

  Talk to your doctor. Call 1-800-545-5979, or visit zepbound.lily.com.

• 37:35Speaker 00

  Hola a todos. Soy Jamie Lynn Sigler. Cuando me diagnosticaron tenía veintitantos años y todo mi mundo cambió por completo. Pero con el tiempo decidí que no iba a permitir que eso frenara mi vida. Quise tomar las riendas. Y después de hablar con mi médico sobre mis opciones, la elección para mí fue obvia. Boom! Eso es KISSIMTA. Obtenga más información sobre KISSIMTA o fotumab en kissimta.com. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.