Before Foch's main offensive was launched, the remaining German salients west and east of the line were crushed at Havrincourt and St Mihiel on 12 September and at Epehy and Canal du Nord on 18 September. The main German defences were anchored on the Hindenburg Line, a series of defensive fortifications stretching from Cerny on the Aisne River to Arras. Haig refused, and instead he prepared to launch a fresh offensive by the British Third Army at Albert, which opened on 21 August.įoch now planned a great concentric attack on the German lines in France (the Grand Offensive), with the various axes of advance converging on Liege in Belgium. On 15 August 1918, Foch demanded that Haig continue the Amiens offensive, even though the attack was faltering as the troops outran their supplies and artillery, and German reserves were being moved to the sector. On 10 August, the Germans began to pull out of the salient that they had managed to occupy during Operation Michael in March, back towards the Hindenburg Line. During those three days, the Allies had managed to gain 19 kilometres (12 mi), but most of that had occurred on the first day, as a result of the Germans adding reinforcements. The advance continued for three more days but without the spectacular results of 8 August, since the rapid advance outran the supporting artillery and ran short of supplies. The collapse in German morale led Erich Ludendorff to dub it "the Black Day of the German Army". Total German losses were estimated to be 30,000 on 8 August, while the Allies had suffered about 6,500 killed, wounded and missing. The Allies had taken 17,000 prisoners and captured 330 guns. By the end of the day, a gap 24 kilometres (15 mi) long had been created in the German line south of the Somme. The attack, spearheaded by the Australian Corps and Canadian Corps of the British Fourth Army, broke through the German lines, and tanks attacked German rear positions, sowing panic and confusion. Through careful preparations, the Allies achieved complete surprise. The Battle of Amiens opened on 8 August 1918, with an attack by more than 10 Allied divisions - Australian, Canadian, British and French forces - with more than 500 tanks. Finally, the German defences, manned by the German Second Army of General Georg von der Marwitz, were relatively weak, having been subjected to continual raiding by the Australians in a process termed Peaceful Penetration. Also the Picardy countryside provided a good surface for tanks, which was not the case in Flanders. As in 1916, it marked the boundary between the BEF and the French armies, in this case defined by the Amiens-Roye road, allowing the two armies to cooperate. The Somme was chosen as a suitable site for the offensive for several reasons. The British Army had also been reinforced by large numbers of troops returned from campaigns in Palestine and Italy, and large numbers of replacements previously held back in Britain by Prime Minister David Lloyd George.įoch agreed on a proposal by Field Marshal Douglas Haig, the commander of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), to strike on the Somme, east of Amiens and southwest of the 1916 battlefield of the Battle of the Somme. Their commander, General John Pershing was keen to use his army in an independent role. The Americans were now present in France in large numbers, and their presence invigorated the French armies. Foch considered the time had arrived for the Allies to return to the offensive.
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