After two days of non-stop, all-out assault, the Americans finally managed to take back the positions the Germans had pushed them out of.
This got General Pershing and his officers hyped. They fired off the good news to higher-ups ASAP.
Compiegne Forest, France — Onboard the special train of Marshal Foch, Supreme Commander of the Entente Forces.
After reading the American victory report, Marshal Foch studied it for a minute, then nodded slightly:
"The Americans may not be great fighters, but with a seasoned commander like Pershing calling the shots, at least they won’t get completely wrecked."
Standing beside him, French Army Commander-in-Chief Marshal Petain grabbed the telegram, skimmed it, and sneered:
"Pfft. They’re just bullying the enemy with sheer numbers and firepower. If the Germans had the same troop count and supply lines as the Americans, the Yanks would’ve lost this one too — Pershing or no Pershing."
Foch didn’t bother arguing with Petain. Pointless.
Perfectly fair fights only exist in fantasy knight duels.
War ain’t a game. If you’ve got more men and guns, why the hell wouldn’t you use ’em?
Not only should you use ’em — you should bend over backwards to create situations where you outnumber and outgun the enemy at every turn.
Bottom line? As long as the Americans kept grinding like this, the Entente was gonna win in the end.
The German counterattack was just death throes. Back when the Second Reich was still standing, they couldn’t beat the Entente. Now that the Empire had crumbled, a rootless army floating like duckweed had nothing to fight with.
Compared to frontline action, Foch was way more interested in the upcoming armistice negotiations.
A few days ago, the Germans were stubborn as hell. With this victory report in hand, their attitude should soften up.
Foch didn’t care much about the frontline fighting. But Petain? He was all ears.
Especially about the German commander running that unit. Word was, it was the German Crown Prince himself. If that was true, that kid couldn’t be allowed to live.
With that thought, he picked up the phone and called an old friend to do him a favor.
London, Buckingham Palace.
King George V also got the frontline report. Hearing his nephew had taken a hit, he flipped through the battle summary with some interest.
The Americans had polished the report — exaggerated German casualties, covered up their own.
But even so, you could still tell from the details that the Germans had only taken light losses. Nothing crippling.
Huh. Interesting. Even with General Pershing personally commanding, paying this kind of price, he still couldn’t break the Germans.
Looked like his nephew actually had some skill.
"Your Majesty, the Germans have swallowed too much territory — especially in Eastern Europe. If they surrender, we need to make them cough it all up."
Prime Minister David Lloyd George’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts.
George V was meeting with his cabinet ministers, listening to their detailed proposals for post-war treaties.
He nodded and signaled for the PM to continue.
"Germany’s internal situation is a mess right now. The worker revolution is raging. If the frontline troops don’t get back soon to put it down, the revolutionaries might actually pull it off. And if Germany goes red, they’ll team up with the Soviets in the East. That’d be a disaster for the whole of Western Europe."
"So I think we need to pressure the Germans hard — make them sign the surrender papers fast so they can go home and crush the rebellion."
"Also, to keep post-war Germany from cozying up to the Soviets, we should prop up a friendly state between them. A buffer zone. That country should be — Poland."
Washington D.C., The White House.
President Woodrow Wilson’s stiff face finally relaxed a little when he got the victory report.
"Pershing did well this time. At least he salvaged some of the dignity we lost before."
Secretary of War Newton Baker read the telegram and winced:
"But the cost was steep. We took over a hundred thousand casualties in this battle alone. Add in the month and a half before that, and our total losses in this campaign are over 250,000 men."
"That’s the price of war," Wilson sighed.
Truth was, he’d been against the U.S. joining the war from the start.
Sitting on the sidelines across the Atlantic, watching the Central Powers and Entente tear each other apart — that was pure profit for America.
Before WWI, the U.S. owed a ton of money to European countries from the last economic crisis. And their industries had grown so fast they had massive overproduction — tons of goods they couldn’t sell.
Back then, American products were cheap knockoffs of European goods — especially German ones. Low quality, bad reputation. Nobody wanted them.
But once the war kicked off, Europe’s industries got hammered. Factories that used to make civilian stuff had to switch to war production. Civilian goods dried up, and Europeans had no choice but to buy from America.
Next thing you know, America went from being deep in debt to becoming everyone’s creditor. Now the Europeans owed them.
Watching other people fight while you get rich? That kind of luck doesn’t come around often. First time for America since the country was founded.
Wilson wanted to keep milking that cow.
But between 1916 and 1917, some ugly stuff went down between the U.S. and Germany.
First, Germany’s unrestricted submarine warfare seriously messed with American profits. Officially, America got mad because U-boats sank passenger liners and civilian ships, killing hundreds or thousands of innocent people.
But really? What pissed them off was that Germany was screwing with American trade — especially with Entente countries.
Mess with a man’s money and you mess with his life. Germany was costing America cash. So America got pissed.
Second thing that drove the relationship off a cliff: British intelligence intercepted and decoded a telegram showing Germany was secretly courting Mexico, trying to get them to declare war on the U.S.
Sure, it could’ve been a setup by the Brits to drag America into the war.
But at the time, U.S.-Mexico relations were already on fire. The year before, America had invaded Mexico under the pretense of helping them put down a rebellion. Mexicans were furious and hated America’s guts.
So it wasn’t impossible that Germany actually tried it. I mean, their emperor was Wilhelm II — that lunatic.
After the Zimmermann Telegram blew up, America — which had been sitting pretty on the sidelines — finally got dragged into the war.
Now looking back? Joining this war was definitely not the smartest move.
But since they were already in it, they had to fight for the biggest piece of the pie.
"Cable the French. Tell them I’m coming to Paris in person for the post-war peace conference."