We study the superfluid response, the energetic and structural properties of a one-dimensional ultracold Bose gas in an optical lattice of arbitrary strength. We use the Bose-Fermi mapping in the limit of infinitely large repulsive interaction and the diffusion Monte Carlo method in the case of finite interaction. For slightly incommensurate fillings we find a superfluid behavior, which is discussed in terms of vacancies and interstitials. It is shown that both the excitation spectrum and static structure factor are different for the cases of microscopic and macroscopic fractions of defects. This system provides an extremely well-controlled model for studying defect-induced superfluidity.