Recaps

German forces shattered the Allied armies on the Marne, encircled and captured large numbers of troops, and drove the remaining defenders back toward Paris. After the French government evacuated, the Germans began bombarding and assaulting Paris, where street fighting continued as Oscar received reports of limited German losses.

• General Kluck and General Ludendorff launched a southern advance from Amiens, and their forces captured Aumale after Major General George Milne left its British defenders unprepared.
• General Kluck and Lieutenant General Ludendorff besieged Rouen, then encircled General Benson’s Allied reinforcements and captured more than two hundred thousand troops as General Haig withdrew his remaining forces.
• Oscar ordered a general offensive on April 11, and German artillery and armored divisions broke through the Allied defenses on the Marne, forcing Marshal Joffre to order a retreat toward Paris.
• Marshal Joffre and President Poincaré chose to continue the war, formed France’s last new army corps, and evacuated the government from Paris as civilians fled.
• General Gallieni, General Allenby, and General D'Esperey prepared Paris’s defenses, but German corps surrounded the city and Oscar ordered them to capture it within two weeks.
• German forces began bombarding Paris on April 17, striking the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, and Notre Dame Cathedral as President Poincaré urged the French to keep fighting.
• Wilhelm II supported Oscar’s attack despite artists’ protests, while German troops broke through the defenses around Paris and began street fighting.
• German infantry captured French positions and steadily pushed back the defenders, while Manstein reported to Oscar that the offensive was going smoothly with slight German losses.

After the British surrender and the fall of Paris, Crown Prince Wilhelm conspired with Prittwitz and Moltke the Younger to overthrow Wilhelm II. Wilhelm was killed in the coup, and Oscar prepared to march on Berlin after learning of the rebellion.

• General Allenby agreed to surrender the British Expeditionary Force, and Oscar accepted the terms while requiring the return of looted Parisian relics.
• Oscar’s forces seized the Seine bridges, defeated the French counterattack, and captured Paris after the remaining French troops surrendered and General Gallieni shot himself.
• Oscar ordered German forces to advance through France and toward Le Havre, while Wilhelm II vowed to force France’s surrender and destroy Britain if it kept resisting.
• Crown Prince Wilhelm revealed that he had awakened and recruited Moltke the Younger, Prittwitz, and other allies to overthrow Wilhelm II and reclaim the throne.
• On April 26, Prittwitz’s troops seized Berlin and the palace, while Moltke’s rebels captured key officials and communications sites.
• Crown Prince Wilhelm demanded that Wilhelm II abdicate, then shot him dead after Wilhelm II struck him and refused.
• Oscar received a false summons to Berlin, then learned from Karl von Jonath that Crown Prince Wilhelm’s Rebel Army had seized the city.
• Oscar ordered Hindenburg to take forces to Berlin and crush the rebellion, while the German corps commanders gathered in Versailles.

Oscar crushed Crown Prince Wilhelm’s mutiny, dealt with the rebellion in Württemberg, and crowned himself Emperor Wilhelm III. As Germany prepared to confront Britain at Le Havre, the British commanders sought naval guns to answer the German bombardment.

• Oscar learned that Crown Prince Wilhelm had launched a coup and ordered Hindenburg and the other commanders to crush the rebellion.
• Oscar’s forces stormed the palace after learning Wilhelm II had been killed, arrested the ringleaders, and captured Crown Prince Wilhelm.
• Oscar ordered the ringleaders executed, held Wilhelm II’s funeral, and had the Special Tribunal sentence the coup leaders to death.
• Albrecht Fortunatus declared Württemberg independent, but residents blocked the palace guards from attacking factories and the 9th Army Corps surrounded the palace.
• Oscar agreed to postpone abolishing Württemberg until after the war, then crowned himself Emperor Wilhelm III and crowned Princess Gundelinde Empress.
• Churchill told the British Cabinet that the French and Italian fleets had arrived for joint training as Britain prepared for a decisive naval battle.
• Sir French placed the British forces at Le Havre under Haig’s command, and Kluck and Ludendorff prepared a German assault after Oscar’s coronation.
• German artillery devastated Le Havre’s defenses, and Haig persuaded Sir French to ask the navy for old Pre-dreadnoughts or Armored Cruisers to support the defense.

The Royal Navy’s intervention briefly halted the German advance at Le Havre, but German carrier aircraft destroyed the British fleet and the city fell. As the Allies prepared a combined fleet to strike German commerce raiders, Vice Admiral Martin’s disguised British battleships opened fire on Rear Admiral Lübeck’s force.

• Churchill sent Vice Admiral Cavisson’s fleet to support the British Expeditionary Force, and its surprise bombardment drove German troops back from Le Havre.
• Oscar answered the British fleet’s intervention by sending Vice Admiral Ingol’s carrier aircraft against it, and the aircraft sank all twenty-one Pre-dreadnoughts and thirteen Armored Cruisers.
• German battleships bombarded Le Havre before German infantry attacked, and Sir French, General Haig, and General Gough escaped by submarine as more than two hundred thousand British troops surrendered.
• Churchill assembled the British, French, and Italian fleets under Admiral John Jellicoe and ordered Vice Admiral Martin to attack the German Commerce Raiding Fleet.
• Vice Admiral Martin led twelve battleships across the Atlantic under American flags, while German commanders detected the fleet and sent the High Seas Fleet into the Atlantic.
• After receiving orders to attack German raiders west of Ireland, Vice Admiral Martin divided his force and advanced on Rear Admiral Lübeck’s battlecruisers.
• Vice Admiral Martin lowered the American flag, raised the St. George’s Cross, and ordered his battleships to open fire on Lübeck’s force.