AMA - Lau by SrtaaLauraa August 9, 2017 at 2:08 PM UTC

-Once the von Schlieffen plan failed it became a war of attrition in which the Germans had the weaker position.

- Food production is a good example. Before the war Germany, while still a new importer of food, was very much more self-sufficient than the UK which imported 2/3rds of its food.

When they mobilised their army, not only did the Germans take most of the fighting aged men, they also requisitioned the majority of draft animals to assist in army transportation, and then took huge numbers of farm livestock, including breeding stock, which were then slaughtered to feed the army. This would have been fine if the von Schlieffen plan had worked, but it didn't. Then the Germans were in a bind. They couldn't maintain food production without weakening the army. Food production in Germany fell dramatically, made worse by some bad harvests, and the British blockade prevented easy access to imports. By 1918 the situation was dire. In contrast the British stopped experienced farm workers from joining the army, and actually sent skilled men out of the army to farms at key times. Britain managed to increase food production during the war.

But the situation was exacerbated by the Kaiser and German High Command, who were totally out of touch with their own population and those of other countries. They really failed to understand how people would react.

Look at the neutral countries. At the beginning of the war public opinion in Scandinavia and the Netherlands was mostly in favor of Germany. But the actions of the Germans during the war alienated them, eg the atrocities in Belgium, the Wire of Death, sinking of neutral vessels by the U-boats, use of slave labour, etc. By the end of the war food from these countries that could have easily been transported to Germany went to the UK instead.

They misled their people about the war situation, eg officially the German Army never lost a battle in WW1 (thus helping build the myth that the German Army was stabbed in the back). As the war dragged on this became increasingly hard to believe, and it got to the point where many Germans no longer believed their Government. There was a general loss of trust.

A reflection of this is the rate of desertions. Before the Spring Offensive large scale desertions were already taking place from the army. Up to 10% of the German soldiers that were transferred from the Eastern Front to the Western Front deserted. During the mutinies of the German Navy in the last weeks of the war, many sailors, unwilling to see the war continue but unable to accept the radical politics of the mutineers, simply went home.

Interestingly it was the German success in the Spring Offensiv e that helped to drive this. Most Germans believed their government's claim that the U-boat campaign was starving Britain and it armies. When German soldiers captured Allied supply depots and French towns they were staggered to find them full of food and other goods.