Changes

The Germans failed for a variety of reasons. First, Ludendorff failed to set out clear objectives. He constantly changed his mind and deviated from his original plans and goals. This caused some confusion in the German chain of command. Then there was the over-reliance on the Stormtroopers, they were among the finest soldiers of the First World War, but after the first assaults they suffered heavy casualties and the Germans could not effectively replace them with the same quality of troops.<ref> Gray, 212</ref> This meant that the Stormtroopers quickly lost their effectiveness due to the high casualty rate. This reality was demonstrated at the Second Battle of the Marne, when they failed to achieve any sort of breakthrough. Ludendorff also failed to support the Stormtroopers when they did advance. The German army lacked mobile units, such as cavalry made to reinforce the newly captured territories.<ref>Gray, 214</ref> This made the Stormtroopers very vulnerable to any counterattacks during the offensive. Furthermore, after the first battles the allies reinforced their defensive positions and this made any German breakthrough even harder to achieve.

The German military during the offensive faced a critical shortage of supplies. The German economy was on the verge of collapse, and it could barely feed its people. This was perhaps the main reason why the German Offensive in Spring 1918 ultimately failed. The German army was often hungry , and its advances were often slowed as hungry troops pillaged captured allied supply depots. There was also a critical shortage of fuel for tanks and the German planes. This allowed the allies to retain air superiority during the course of the offensives. Then as the German-made rapid advances , their supply lines were unable to keep pace , and this results in shortages of everything that slowed the advance. On several occasions , the Germans simply stopped their progress, not because of ally’s resistance but because they had run out of supplies.<ref> Zabecki, p 345</ref>