The Battle of Amiens, which began on 8 August 1918, was the opening phase of the Allied offensive, later known as the Hundred Days Offensive, that led ultimately to the end of World War I. The Australian and Canadian divisions that spearheaded the attack managed to advance over eight miles on the first day, one of the greatest advances of the war. The battle marked the end of trench warfare on the Western Front and the return to the mobile warfare that would prevail until the armistice was signed on 11 November.

Prelude

On 21 March, 1918, Germany had launched Operation Michael, the first of a series of attacks that would drive the Allies back along the length of the Western Front. Michael itself was aimed at the town of Amiens, a vital railway junction, but the advance had been halted at Villers-Bretonneux by the Australians on 4 April. Subsequent German offensives — Operation Georgette (9–11 April), Operation Blücher-Yorck (27 May), Operation Gneisenau (9 June) and Operation Marne-Rheims (15—17 July) — had made advances but failed to achieve a decisive breakthrough.

When the Marne-Rheims offensive petered out the Allied supreme commander, French Field Marshal Ferdinand Foch, ordered a counter-offensive which became the Second Battle of the Marne. The Germans, recognising their untenable position, withdrew from the Marne to the north.

Foch now considered the time had arrived for the Allies to return to the offensive and agreed on a proposal by the commander of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, to strike on the Somme, east of Amiens and southwest of the 1916 battlefield of the Battle of the Somme.

The Somme was chosen as a suitable site for the offensive for a number of reasons. 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. Also the Picardy countryside provided a good surface for tanks, which was not the case in Flanders. 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 .

The plan

The initial attack would be made by the British Fourth Army, commanded by General Sir Henry Rawlinson, who had also been in command on 1 July 1916, the disastrous first day on the Somme when the British army suffered nearly 60,000 casualties.

The British went to great lengths to deceive the Germans as to their intentions and achieve surprise. On this occasion there would be no preliminary bombardment. The massed artillery would open fire at zero hour, at the same time as the infantry advanced. The movement and assembly of tanks was drowned out by low flying aircraft. The British had concentrated 324 Mark V battle tanks, 184 supply tanks and two battalions of light (14 ton) Medium Mark A "Whippet" tanks.

An elaborate deception was carried out to make the Germans believe the veteran Canadian Corps were elsewhere. A Canadian unit made itself obvious at Ypres and faked radio signals were used to suggest the corps was near Calais. The corps was secretly transported from Arras and was in position east of Amiens without the Germans being aware.

The battle

The battle began in dense fog at 4.20am on 8 August. From north to south the attacking formations of the Fourth Army were the British III Corps (north of the Somme), the Australian Corps and the Canadian Corps. The French First Army would keep contact in the south before making its own attack later.

In the first phase seven divisions attacked, the British 18th (Eastern) and 58th (2/1st London) divisions, the Australian 2nd and 3rd divisions, and the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Canadian divisions. These troops were to capture the first German position, advancing about 4000 yards, an objective they had reached by about 7.30am.

In the centre, the leading divisions had been followed up by supporting units who would move through to attack the second objective a further two miles distant. At 8.20am the Australian 4th and 5th and the Canadian 4th divisions moved off, advancing over open country. The fog was now dissipating and the troops were confronted with a spectacular view of tanks, cavalry and lines of advancing infantry. Many German gun positions had been overrun but surviving guns now engaged the tanks, knocking many of them out.

The third phase of the attack was to have been performed by infantry-carrying tanks (Mark V Star type) however the infantry were able to carry out this final step unaided. The Allies had penetrated well to the rear of the German defences and cavalry now continued the advance, one brigade in the Australian sector and two cavalry divisions in the Canadian sector. While the infantry were still short of the second objective 16 armoured cars had broken through towards Péronne and proceeded to roam the German rear, causing panic and confusion.

By the end of the advance, a gap 15 miles long had been punched in the German line south of the Somme. The Fourth Army had taken 13,000 prisoners (8,000 by the Australians, 5,000 by the Canadians) while the French had taken a further 3,500. The Australians also captured 173 guns and the Canadians 161. Total German losses were estimated to be 30,000 on 8 August while the Allies suffered about 6,500 killed, wounded and missing.

The advance would continue for three more days but without the spectacular results of 8 August as the rapid progress had outrun the supporting artillery. On 10 August there were signs that the Germans were pulling out of the Michael salient.

Conclusion

The German commander-in-chief, General Erich Ludendorff, described 8 August 1918 as "the black day of the German Army", not because of the ground lost to the advancing Allies but because the morale of the German troops had sunk to the point where large scale capitulations occurred.

External links

• The British Army in the Great War: Battle of Amiens