Turning Point - Sekigahara: Toyotomi's Global Expansion and its Consequences

Phase 30 - Great War (7)

The Russian Revolution triggered a swift movement in the war.

The revolution of March 1917 toppled the Russian Empire and gave birth to a new government of a coalition of mainly socialists, the substance of which was still unclear from abroad. From the perspective of that time, this was the "February Revolution" in Russia.

For the Entente, it was fortunate that a leader named Kerensky continued the fight against Germany.

However, the traditional Russian soldiers and officers were no longer interested in the war for various reasons. What most Russians wanted was not the outcome of the nation but a quick end to the war.

Although the post-revolution Russian army was supposed to be new, the Entente believed it was weaker than before. They decided to end the war before the German army, which had completely defeated the Russian army, flooded the Western Front.

Fortunately, the Entente received reinforcements from various parts of the world, including the Japanese army with 3 million troops, the Oceanian army with 2.5 million, the Indian army with 1.2 million, and others totaling 300/000 colored troops. Out of these, 5 million were deployed to the front lines or rear areas of the Western Front. There were 60 divisions deployed to the front lines, and the Japanese army and the Oceanian army (with a majority of Japanese descendant soldiers) were significant forces due to their substantial troop numbers.

With the deployment of these reinforcements to the front lines, the Entente on the Western Front managed to outnumber the German army by approximately two times. Moreover, countries like Japan had their own production capacity for weapons and supplies, so Germany's disadvantage extended beyond troop numbers.

This situation was created in the winter of 1916, so at that time, no offensive action was taken. However, as spring arrived, they began planning a major offensive. It was decided to expand the scale due to the Russian Revolution, and there was a strong desire, particularly among the French army, to decisively determine the outcome of the war all at once.

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There were three main fronts for the offensive.

The ambitious plan was to start the offensive simultaneously in order to not give the entire German army time to respond, exhaust the German field army into a war of attrition, and push the entire front line back rapidly. The British in the north, whose density had become extraordinarily high due to the massive arrival of the Oceanian army, launched an offensive from the front of a city called Asla. The French, who had also increased their combat strength due to reinforcements, initiated the offensive in the opposite direction of the German army's salient in the Aisne region. Additionally, as a kind of diversionary tactic, the Japanese army went all out and launched an offensive in the southern direction of Reims, well south of the main French forces.

The order of theoffensive was such that the Japanese army, being the diversion, went first,followed by the French army, while the British army moved last. In thebest-case scenario for the offensive, the German army, which had beenapproaching Compiègne (around 100 kilometers northeast of Paris), with thepotential to threaten Paris, would have been forced to retreat by several tensof kilometers. Over 100 divisions were scheduled to participate in theoffensive, which was comparable to the entire German army present on theWestern Front at that time. Furthermore, the German forces on the front of the Ententeaccounted for at most about 60% of the total German forces.

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On March 20, 1917, the Japanese army, due to its limited ammunition reserves (which were significantly lower than other countries and had limited capacity to transport more), initiated a sudden assault without any prior artillery bombardment or preparation.