Kreuznach and Spa

Abstract

Autumn, 1916. The German armies on the defensive on every front, their allies but little removed from defeat and already showing a tendency to bicker amongst themselves; Rumania added to the ranks of the enemy and capable of putting three-quarters of a million fresh troops into the field; Germany herself apprehensive, beginning to show signs of war-weariness, with a government divided against itself on many vital issues; the sinews of war unorganized and the fundamentals of such organization not understood; army commands in the West in the hands of incapable generals and a General Headquarters Staff shaken in its confidence in the Supreme Command; above all, a growing shortage of food; such was the heritage to which Hindenburg and Ludendorff succeeded at Pless.