Fighting in Germany?

[Steve1871]

For the most part,France was used as the Battle Ground, at end of war, were any allied troops fighting on Germsn soil? Anybody know?Thanks

[Wexflyer]

There were French troops in Alsace from 1914-1918.

Edited 25 September , 2018 by Wexflyer

[GreyC]

and Russian troops in East-Prussia.

And what do you consider "German soil"? Do the colonies count, too?

GreyC

[Loader]

I saw a case once where the man was killed & SOLDIERS DIED listed him as KILLED IN ACTION GERMANY.

 Research showed he was killed while on a patrol one night that ran into an enemy patrol &a fight ensued. I can't recall the unit or such but seems as if they considered him to be in Germany when he was killed as he was close to the German lines. Not seen such an entry again. The person who bought the medals to the man thought maybe he was killed breaking our of a POW camp.

[phil andrade]

The Battle of Mulhouse, August 1914 : this place was, at that time, German soil.  As Wexflyer reminds us, Alsace was a battleground : the province had been ceded to Germany in the terms of the 1871 treaty.

 

Phil

[GreyC]

At the end of the war, I am not aware on fighting within the borders of Germany. There were fights above German soil, of course (planes attacking German cities).

GreyC

 

[phil andrade]

One of Germany’s wiser calls, I reckon, to throw in the towel before fighting on home soil.

 

Imagine how things might have turned out, if there had been a decision by Germans in 1918 to conduct a fight to the death, like there was to be in 1944-45.

 

Phil

[Frank_East]

For the French,the regaining of Alsace Lorraine had always been a running sore and the outbreak of the war in 1914 gave the French to opportunity to regain the territory which then saw the battle lines drawn through Alsace Lorraine throughout the war. 

 

For the terms of the Armistice,German imperial forces had to agree to withdraw from the occupied countries in the west into Germany.An element of the Armistice terms was that the imperial German Air Service had to leave its aircraft behind.Squadron commanders such as Goring ignored the order and flew their aircraft back into Germany.

 

As regards any crossing of the German border by the Allies in November 1918,Pershing advocated pushing all the way by force to Berlin irrespective of any armistice terms being forthcoming.No doubt the Germans would have resisted although the military leadership by this time had already absconded. The mistake of not occupying the whole of Germany to totally effect a German defeat resulted in the Allies demanding unconditional surrender of Germany in the Second World War.

 

Late in the war, Western Germany had already received raids from the RNAS and RAF and by the summer of 1918,raids on western Germany including Lorraine were intensified by the newly formed RAF Independent Air Force squadrons.The policy of what would later be termed strategic bombing was introduced, spearheaded by the IAF commander,Trenchard with raids on Berlin envisaged.However before the initiative could be effected,it was overrun by the German request for an armistice.

 

The real fighting at the end of the war on German soil was between the Germans themselves...a fight for the future of Germany.

[HenryTheGerman]

There were some bombardments od westerly located German towns. One of them was very dreadful for the community in Karlsruhe: At 22nd of June 1916 the French conducted an air strike, throwing about 40 bombs wherefrom some explodet at and in a circus tent (Circus Hagenbeck). 120 people, mainly children, were killed, another 160 being injured. - Another air strike by the French on Karlsruhe at the 15. of June 2015 had killed 30 people.

https://www.swr.de/geschichte-des-suedwestens/zeitstrahl/1916__erster-weltkrieg-karlsruhe-bomben-auf-die-manege/-/id=15448514/did=15719460/nid=15448514/j5fmah/index.html