Quote Originally Posted by M.L. View Post
What was missing was an operational plan. These successful tactics were not linked to strategic effects, which is what operational planning does.

The offensives were not properly sequenced or focused to achieve operational objectives. Nor were the logistics trains able to keep up with the offensives. Eventually they culminated.

Let us suppose Operation Michael had been properly planned operationally.
It was planned properly, under the constraints of the time.
The very same limitations were present in late 1917 when half of the Italian army's power was destroyed in the Battle of Caporetto.

The enemy in France proved to be more resilient and to have greater reserves. The failure was not an unsatisfactory operational plan, but a wrong strategy: Germany should have agreed to the 14 Points plan of Wilson for damage control.