The Hundred Days Offensive is presented as a precursor to the faster combined-arms operations associated with later mechanized war. British Empire, French, and American forces were learning to coordinate infantry, tanks, lorries, cavalry, and aircraft at a rising operational tempo. The armistice arrived before those armies crossed deeply into German territory. That timing allowed later propagandists to claim that the German Army had not been defeated in the field but betrayed by politicians. An unmistakable Allied entry onto German soil would have made the stab-in-the-back myth much harder to sustain.
Notable Point · 1:16:08-1:17:39
The Hundred Days and the survival of the stab-in-the-back myth
Rapid Allied operations pointed beyond trench stalemate, but the armistice came before an invasion of Germany could visibly discredit claims that its army remained undefeated.