[2] In "Military Operations France and Belgium 1917 part I", Cyril Falls, the British official historian, referred to him as "a very remarkable soldier".

[3] Loßberg was awarded the Pour le Mérite (the Blue Max) for his work on the Western Front on 9 September 1916 and oak leaves on 24 April 1917.

Promoted to lieutenant-colonel in January 1915, he was transferred to the Oberste Heeresleitung (OHL), the main army command, at Mézières in France, as deputy chief of operations.

He already knew the commander, Erich von Falkenhayn, as well as the chief of operations and other members of the staff, while the Kaiser remembered him as "the fencing lieutenant in Berlin".

[8] Some of the OHL staff foresaw that with more guns and ammunition, the French and British preliminary bombardments would soon be converting their crowded front line into a slaughterhouse.

[9] The OHL staff colonels Max Bauer and Bussche and captains Hermann Geyer and Harbou favoured defence in depth and discussed making it flexible by permitting the garrison of the front line to retreat to join the main line of resistance if the front was breached.

[11] In September 1915 the French attacked in Champagne, east of Reims along a front of 30 km (19 mi), advancing behind a cloud of poison gas and smoke.

The German 3rd Army was driven out of the front line and the chief of staff proposed to withdraw 3 km (1.9 mi) further, to shelter behind a river.

When Loßberg arrived at the heights on the north side of the valley, he was immediately struck by the strength of the position they had been forced to occupy.

[16] At the 2nd Army headquarters its commander, Fritz von Below, gave Loßberg permission to go to front with the power to issue orders (Vollmacht).

When Loßberg saw how the original front line trenches had been utterly demolished by the Anglo-French bombardments, he ordered the defenders to stand where they were but to adopt a mobile defence in depth.

The artillery observers were moved behind the main line of resistance to higher ground where the reserves for the battalion holding the sector were also sheltered.

[17] After Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff took over the OHL on 29 August 1916, Loßberg was delighted to watch the spirit of the army revive.

Unlike their predecessors Helmuth von Moltke the Younger and Falkenhayn, the new team solicited and freely discussed ideas.

It was built with all recent refinements, including shallow dugouts with concrete roofs that could be left quickly when attacks began.

Mostly written by junior staff officers, it incorporated many of Loßberg's ideas for mobile defence in depth but also recommended elasticity: permitting the defenders of the front line to retreat if forced.

[21] The British attacked the 6th Army near Arras on 9 April 1917, advancing behind a creeping barrage for almost 4 km (2.5 mi), capturing Vimy Ridge, which gave their observers a commanding view over the Douai Plain.

[24] After the Battle of Messines (7–14 June 1917), Ludendorff asked Loßberg to move to Flanders as chief of staff of the 4th Army (General Friedrich Sixt von Armin).

The defenders were provided with boards so they could shelter above the ground water that filled the bottoms of the holes and with corrugated iron and canvas for crude roofs.

The attack failed on the Gheluvelt Plateau and the offensive was eventually suspended for three weeks to wait for the ground to dry and to repair communications.

Ludendorff, who increasing directed the defence, placed more men in the foremost line and waited until the following day to mount a methodical counter-attack (Gegenangriff).

The battle zone extended to a depth of 8 km (5.0 mi) behind the front; it was dotted with points of resistance that if necessary would be held until relieved by a counter-attack.

Since the maximum range of field artillery was 8 km (5.0 mi) attackers nearing the end of the battle zone could only be supported by their heavier guns.

[29] Loßberg wrote little in his memoirs about 1918, the year in which the Germans launched their last offensives on the Western Front, starting with Operation Michael which forced back the British near Cambrai.

The German advance in the Third Battle of the Aisne was the most remarkable yet, they reached the right bank of the River Marne, only 56 km (35 mi) from Paris, which the French government prepared to evacuate.

[32] His mood was shattered by a telephone call reporting that the French and Americans had smashed through the right flank of the salient pointing toward Paris, on the opening day of the Battle of Soissons.

The Armistice of 11 November 1918 specified that all German troops still remaining in France, Belgium, Luxembourg or Alsace-Lorraine after 14 days would become prisoners of war.