October 11, 1917, was a big day for the Allies, for the war as a whole.

Under the all-out offensive of the Allied troops, the Second Battle of the Marne made good progress.

In only ten days, the German army was pushed back more than 50 kilometers, not only completely relieving the predicament of Paris, but even having the intention of counterattacking into German territory with great courage.

Although the German army did not stop its defense, it was no longer able to stop the offensive of the Allied troops.

The state of the German army at this time was to be in one blow, then to decline, and then to exhaustion. The soldiers seem to be exhausted, and even most of them are no longer optimistic about this doomed war.

The success of the Second Battle of the Marne also gave the Allied Command an opportunity.

On the premise of maintaining the offensive on the northern front, the French army mobilized a large number of troops accumulated at Verdun and advanced directly in the direction of Alsace Lorraine with the southern front.

For the French, being able to recover Alsace and Lorraine in the first place was definitely one of the best rewards in this war.

On October 27, 1917, the Allied forces broke through Nancy after half a month of fighting, pushing the German army back to the pre-war Franco-German border.

But it was clear that the restoration of pre-war order was not the pursuit of the French army, and without even any rest, the high-spirited French army, shouting the slogan of recovering Alsace Lorraine, rushed directly to Alsace and the Lorraine region.

With the land behind them, the German army's willingness to fight was restored. But it was obvious that the German army at this time could no longer stop the attack of the Entente, even if the Germans were not afraid of death, but the French were even more enthusiastic about fighting.

At the end of October, the first French soldier officially set foot in Alsace, and the French flag was replanted in the region after a decades hiatus.

Along with Alsace was the region of Lorraine, which was annexed by Prussia in 1871 and was the heart of all French people.

You know, it was also in this year that Prussia stepped on France to establish the German Empire, which was a shame in the hearts of all French people and one of the cores of the Franco-German contradictions.

The fact that this land has now been regained is even more exciting for most French people than the victory in the war.

General Thomas was also very intrigued, and not only gave the French army the opportunity to set foot in Alsace and Lorraine first, but also proposed that the French should directly administer the region.

By the tacit view of all the Entente powers, the land was under the administration of the French, and no one could compete with the French for ownership of the land.

The occupation of Alsace and Lorraine excited not only all the French and the French press, but also all the Entente newspapers and media and the population.

This was the first time since the outbreak of the war that the Allies had invaded Germany on the Western Front, and it was also the first piece of German land that was actually occupied, which was of great significance to the war.

It was also on the day that the French army officially entered Alsace and Lorraine that the media of all the Entente countries adopted a unified headline: "Victory is coming!" ”

The fall of Alsace and Lorraine overwhelmed the Germans, but they had no more troops to move at this time.

Both the Belgian region and the Eastern Front faced onslaught from the Allied armies.

Even the mobilization of even one division is likely to put these two fronts in danger. But if reinforcements are not sent to southern Germany, I am afraid that Bavaria will fall next.

The German Empire was a special form of government, which was formed by the former Kingdom of Prussia and the states of the German region.

Kaiser Wilhelm II was not only emperor of the German region, but also the king of the real heartland, the Kingdom of Prussia.

In addition to the Kingdom of Prussia, the German Empire had important states such as Bavaria, Hesse, Baden, Hanover, etc.

These states not only had autonomy in peacetime, but also had their own armies. However, in times of war, they were under the unified administration of the imperial government, which was also a restriction on these states.

Bavaria has its own king, and if it were in crisis, it is not known whether it would become as independent as Hungary in Austria-Hungary.

But for the Entente, the more chaos in Germany, the better. The more chaotic Germany was, the less manpower and material resources the Entente would have to consume to defeat Germany.

After the complete occupation of Alsace and Lorraine, the Allied forces divided into two routes, one part went north to Frankfurt and the Rhine, occupied the more important German Frankfurt and Ruhr areas, and joined up with the British army in Belgium to encircle the German front-line army.

The other part continued eastward and occupied the entire South German region.

The German states of Bavaria, Fortenberg and Hesse, Baden, and further north were not so closely related to North Germany.

You must know that the German Empire was established because the Kingdom of Prussia defeated Austria-Hungary, and Austria, which was also a German region, was excluded from the German Empire.

The states of Bavaria and other states in South Germany had better relations with Austria-Hungary before the establishment of the German Empire, and opposed the North German League led by the Kingdom of Prussia.

On November 11, 1917, after capturing Offenburg, Allied forces advanced towards Stuttgart.

The army in charge of moving north headed north to Mannheim, encircling the nearby areas of Mannheim, Mainz and Frankfurt.

Although the German army put up desperate resistance, the Entente army was already overwhelmed. Even if the German army had more than tens of thousands of casualties per day, it still could not stop the advance of the Entente.

On 27 November, Stuttgart was defeated, and the Allied forces headed east to Munich and Nuremberg.

Within a few days, Mannheim was also defeated, leaving only the German troops in Mainz and Frankfurt to hold out.

The news of the strength of the armies of other countries in Germany also stimulated the British, who intensified their offensive in Belgium and during this time regained the fortress of Liège and advanced towards Aachen.

At this time, the predicament faced by Germany made the German General Staff tingle, and made Hindenburg feel helpless.

What's more, the fall of the country has left Germany facing a material crisis, and workers' uprisings have erupted in many regions to protest against the government's drastic cuts in supplies to the population.

Although such a small workers' uprising was quickly extinguished by the government, a pessimistic atmosphere was already circulating among the people.

The German people began to criticize the rule of the military junta, angrily saying that it was precisely because of the extremes of the military junta that Germany faced such a predicament.

It is worth mentioning that many media and people in Germany have slammed directly at the junta and Hindenburg, and the goal is so clear that people have to suspect that there is someone behind it.

In fact, Wilhelm II, who lived in the Berlin Palace, was the most likely person behind these bangs, but Hindenburg did not have the heart to deal with Wilhelm II at this time.

On December 1, 1917, under the orders of Hindenburg and Ludendorff, the German General Staff demanded that the High Seas Fleet force the battle in order to obtain more favorable conditions for future German peace talks.

But such a request of the General Staff undoubtedly sent the soldiers of the High Seas Fleet to death, and with the addition of the Americans, the numerical gap between the German Navy and the Allied Navy was already very large, and the High Seas Fleet could not be the opponent of the Allied Navy.

Under the leadership of some middle-level naval officers and sailors of the High Seas Fleet, the German Navy, unwilling to die in vain, launched an uprising, directly occupied the port, and publicly telegraphed to the German government, demanding that Hindenburg return power to Wilhelm II.

The naval rebellion and uprising disgraced Hindenburg and made the German public more dissatisfied with the military junta's rule.

With the unscrupulous siege of cities and territories by the Allied armies in Germany, the government of the Kingdom of Bavaria finally could not hold on, and King Ludwig III of Bavaria sent envoys to meet with the Entente frequently, and the intention to unilaterally end the war was very obvious.

On 7 December, Munich was broken under siege by the Entente, and Ludwig III publicly announced the unconditional surrender of Bavaria.

The surrender of Bavaria was the beginning of the surrender of the German states, and the states of Hesse, Baden, and Württemberg all announced their surrender in early December.

This also caused the entire South German region to fall under the rule of the Allied powers, and also caused chaos among the states in the North German region.

At this time, Hindenburg also did not care about the fighting on the front, and hastily ordered the army to withdraw to the territory of North Germany and concentrate all its efforts on defending the most important areas of Germany.

On 9 December, with the defeat of Frankfurt, the Allied forces began to advance towards the Ruhr area.

The British army also officially broke through Aachen, joining forces with the French army, aiming at the whole of Westphalia.

Before the Entente troops could approach the Ruhr area, an uprising broke out among the workers and troops in the Ruhr area.

A large number of workers, shouting the slogan "Bread, not War", rebelled against some German soldiers and directly occupied most of the factories in the Ruhr area.

At the same time, rebellions broke out all over Germany, and the people could no longer eat, and naturally they no longer cared about the government.

On 11 December, Allied troops landed in Hanover, and the Commonwealth of Hanover immediately announced its surrender.

At this time, Hindenburg sat in the General Staff with a miserable face, knowing that the general trend of Germany was gone, so he could only bitterly give his own order to the heralds and declare a ceasefire on the front.

That same night, Wilhelm II, under the protection of his guards, quietly took refuge in Germany's neighboring Netherlands.

After the defeat of Germany, Hindenburg's military junta was bound to suffer a liquidation from the Entente, and Wilhelm II did not think that the Entente would let him go easily.

Rather than this, it is better to go to the Netherlands early and wait for the situation in Germany to develop.

The next day, December 12, 1917, the news of the German armistice spread throughout the Allied countries and the world, and brought all the Allied people together to rejoice.

At this time, the Europeans were surprised to discover that the words advocated by the Allied media to end the war before Christmas were really not a lie, and there was still half a month before Christmas.

Arthur was relieved to hear the news of the German armistice in Australasia.

This war, which has been held out for three years, is finally over, and it can finally make the people of Europe and even the world breathe a sigh of relief.

But the end of the war does not mean that it will be easy, and the next peace talks between the Entente and Germany are the most important and related to the interests of all countries.

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(End of chapter)