Great War ends in 1919

NOTE: Not mine, off of another alternate history site, I do not claim this.

Point of Divergence is in September 1918: the Entente offensive in the Balkans failed. Why this POD in a secondary front? Because, until September 1918, Germany and Austria-Hungary were exhausted, but they resisted to Entente pressure: Germans retreat in France and Belgium was well orchestrated and they could have hold the new defensive Muse-Antwerp line. Austria-Hungarian armies could have contained a new Italian offensive. Ottoman Empire could have resisted in Anatolia (where the Young Turks prepared a defense in depth) after the losses of Syria and Mesopotamia. In 1918 Enver Pasha was planning a new offensive in Central Asia. Internal disorders in Germany and Austro-Hungary were under control until October 1918 and they broke out seriously only after the beginning of peace negotiations. Well, only in the end of September, after the fall of Bulgaria, Ludendorff lost all his hopes (and his mental stability) and asked for peace. From October to November Central Powers fell like a cardboard castle. Let’s imagine this new timeline starting from September 1918:

September – December 1918: the new stalemate
Bulgaria and German forces on Southern Front stopped the Entente advance. Austria-Hungarian western forces preceded the Italian move against Piave river and evacuated Veneto. They succeeded in re-establishing the old Isonzo line. On 30 October, Germany launched her greatest naval attack against the Thames and the Flanders coast. This attack resulted in a severe defeat for the German High Sea Fleet: intercepted by the Grand Fleet near Terschelling Island, German fleet didn’t repeat the “miracle” of Jutland and lost most of its best modern ships (almost all the battlecruisers, the Bayern class dreadnoughts and many other capital ships). But the German action close to London resulted in an unprecedented shock for British people. The naval attack persuaded London, Paris and Washington to continue the war until the unconditional surrender of Central Powers. British naval aviation attacks Wilhelmshaven naval base on November, inflicting other serious damages to German’s capital ships. American and British bombers conducted the first air raid over Berlin on December. This bombardment induces German civilians to continue the war to the death. Political divergences of this period: the mid-term elections in Us gave the victory to Democrats, the president’s party. In Germany, the Kaiser gave generals Hindenburg and Ludendorff and admiral Scheer almost dictatorial power.

January – February 1919: the opposite plans
Central Power’s plan for the Fifth year of war is simple: resist in the Western and Southern fronts, launch a new lightening offensive in the East, continue with the unrestricted submarine warfare. Central Power’s high commands hope that mutinies, pro-communist rebellions and Spanish flu can undermine the Entente Power’s morale and induce them to a negotiated peace. The theater for the only offensive in the East is Central Asia: few Germans and Ottomans divisions, starting from the occupied Caucasus, have to occupy the Eastern coast of Caspian Sea, liberate German and Austrian prisoners and march into Russian Turkestan. The main goal is Afghan and Indian frontiers: joining it could provoke a rebellion of local peoples against the British. Entente’s plan for the Fifth year of war means simply: an invasion of Germany from France and Belgium. The plans (based on Plan 1919 by JFC Fuller) prescribed: a large number of tanks, speed and an innovative use of the aviation as a tactical support for the troops. The Entente would launch secondary offensives against the other fronts: Italians led the offensive against AH line aiming at Trieste; a new Entente offensive against Bulgaria; an offensive against the heart of Ottoman defenses in Anatolia; secondary operations in Northern and Eastern Russia to help White Armies against the Red Army and the Central Power’s occupation forces. Political divergences: a non-aggression pact was signed with the Bolshevik regime in Moscow. In the Middle East, on 3 January, Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann and Arabian prince Feisal Al Hashemite signed a mutual recognition agreement (like in the OTL) and they added a military protocol to it: the Jewish and Arabian Legions became co-belligerent units under the British command, to continue the war against the Ottoman Empire. They will form the nucleus of the two future national armies of a Jewish Palestine and an independent Arabian Kingdom in Syria. On January the elections in Great Britain resulted in a complete victory for Lloyd George. The Prime Minister choose Winston Churchill for the Ministry of War (as in the OTL). Churchill was determined to end the Bolshevik regime in Russia and create a Jewish Palestine in the Middle East. In February, Germany and Austria-Hungary signed a new added protocol to Brest-Litovsk treaty: non-aggression and cooperation between Central Powers and the Bolshevik regime in all Russian theater of operations. Entente (despite the harsh opposition of Woodrow Wilson) finally recognizes the Omsk government (led by adm. Kolchak) as the only legitimate Russian government. Both sides take little action during winter, because of exhaustion, the lethal effects of Spanish flu (which decimated entire divisions on both sides) and cold weather. But the next spring the final clash begins.