Haig, by pushing forward his left wing first, facilitated the attack of his right on the strongest section of the Hindenburg line—the Canal du Nord—and by Oct. 5 the British were through the German defence system, with open country beyond. But on this front the attackers were in actually inferior numbers to the defenders, their tanks were used up, and they could not press forward fast enough to endanger the German retreat.
Within a few days the supreme command became more cheer ful, even optimistic, when it saw that breaking into the Hinden burg line had not been followed by an actual break-through of the fighting front. More encouragement came from reports of a slackening in the force of the Allies' attacks, particularly in the exploitation of opportunities. Ludendorff still wanted an armis tice, but only to give his troops a rest as a prelude to further resistance and to ensure a secure withdrawal to a shortened defensive line on the frontier. By Oct. 17 he even felt he could do it without a rest. It was less that the situation had changed as that his impression of it had been revised. It had never been quite so bad as he had pictured it on Sept. 29. But his first impression had now spread throughout the political circles and public of Germany—as the ripples spread when a pebble has been dropped in a pool.
The combined pressure of the Allied armies, and their steady advance, were loosening the will-power of the German Govern ment and people. The conviction of ultimate defeat, slower to appeal to them than to the army chiefs, was the more forcible when it was realized. And the indirect moral effect of military and economic pressure was accentuated by the direct effect of peace propaganda, skilfully directed and intensively waged by Northcliffe. The "home front" began to crumble later but it crumbled quicker than the battle front.
The Collapse of Austria.—The last Austrian attempt at an offensive on the Italian front, in conjunction with the German assaults in France, had been repulsed on the Piave in June. Diaz waited until conditions were ripe for an offensive in return, until Austria's internal decay was spreading and she was without hope from Germany. On Oct. 24 Cavan's army moved to seize the crossings of the Piave and on Oct. 27 the main attack opened,
driving towards Vittorio Veneto (q.v.) to divide the Austrians in the Adriatic plain from those in the mountains. By Oct. 3o the Austrian army was split in two and the retreat became a rout, and the same day Austria asked for an armistice, which was signed on Nov. 4.
The Curtain Falls on the Western Front.—Already on Oct. 23 President Wilson had replied to the German requests by a note which virtually required an unconditional surrender. Ludendorff wished to parry on the struggle in hopes that a suc cessful defence of the German frontier might damp the deter mination of the Allies. But the situation had passed beyond his control, the nation's will-power was broken, and his advice was in discredit. On Oct. 26 he was forced to resign.
Then, for 36 hours, the chancellor lay in coma from an over dose of sleeping draught after influenza. When he returned to his office on the evening of Nov. 3, not only Turkey, but Aus tria, has capitulated. If the situation on the Western front was felt to be rather easier, Austrian territory and railways were now available as a base of operations against Germany. Several weeks before, military opinion had tended to regard such a contingency, then unrealized, "as decisive." Next day revolution broke out in Germany, and swept rapidly over the country. And in these last days of tremendous and diverse psychological strain the "red dening" glare behind was accentuated by a looming cloud on the Lorraine front—where the renewed American pressure, since Nov. 1, was on a point more sensitive than other parts, where "they must not be allowed to advance if the Antwerp-Meuse line was to be held any longer." If this continued the Rhine and not the frontier would have to be the next line of resistance.
But hourly the revolution was spreading, fanned as peace negotiations were delayed, by the Kaiser's reluctance to abdicate. Compromise with the revolutionaries was the only chance, and on Nov. 9 Prince Max resigned to the Socialist Ebert. Ger many had become a republic in outward response to President Wilson's demand and in inward response to the uprising of the German people against the leaders who had led them into disaster.