Ruined church near Verdun, 1918

Over a four-month period in 1918, the German army launched five major assaults at different parts of the allied line. The new campaign was based on new tactics: squads of elite storm-troopers, armed with automatic rifles, light machine guns and flame-throwers, were supported with a creeping barrage of artillery fire. Initially the plan worked. The British Fifth Army collapsed. The allies gave ground. But for every allied trench captured, there was always another for the Germans to take. Within a week the advance had ground to a halt. Soon the elite German storm troopers were a spent force. The allies, having stemmed the German advance, now reversed it. The whole front was ablaze. The climatic battles of September 1918 saw the rupture of the Hindenburg Line, and on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the armistice went into effect.