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Battle of Amiens

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Military History and War

                      Battle of Amiens
   Part of World War I
   "Amiens, the key to the west" by Arthur Streeton, 1918.
   Amiens, the key to the west by Arthur Streeton, 1918.

     Date   August 8th- 11th, 1918 (major combat)
   Location East of Amiens, Picardy, France
    Result  Decisive Allied victory
                         Combatants
   United Kingdom
   France
   Canada
   Australia
   United States       German Empire
                         Commanders
   Ferdinand Foch      Georg von der Marwitz
                          Strength
   5 Aus. divisions,
   4 Can. divisions,
   8 British divisions,
   1 American division,
   12 French divisions,
   1900 aircraft,
   532 tanks           25 active divisions,
                       4 reserve divisions,
                       365 aircraft
                         Casualties
   22,200              74,000
                              Hundred Days Offensive
   Amiens – 2nd Somme – Arras – Havrincourt – St.-Mihiel – Epéhy –
   Hindenburg Line – Meuse-Argonne – Courtai – Selle – 2nd Sambre

   The Battle of Amiens, which began on August 8th 1918, was the opening
   phase of the Allied offensive later known as the Hundred Days Offensive
   that ultimately led to the end of World War I. Allied forces advanced
   over seven miles on the first day, one of the greatest advances of the
   war. The battle is also notable for its effects on both sides' morale
   and the large amount of surrendering German forces. This led Erich
   Ludendorff to famously describe the first day of the battle as "the
   black day of the German Army." Amiens was one of the first major
   battles involving armoured warfare and marked the end of trench warfare
   on the Western Front, fighting becoming mobile once again until the
   armistice was signed on November 11th, 1918.

Prelude

   On March 21, 1918, the German Empire had launched Operation Michael,
   the first in a series of attacks planned to drive the Allies back along
   the length of the Western Front. Michael was intended to defeat the
   right wing of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), but lack of
   success before Arras ensured the ultimate failure of the offensive. A
   final effort was aimed at the town of Amiens, a vital railway junction,
   but the advance had been halted at Villers-Bretonneux by the
   Australians on April 4. Subsequent German offensives — Operation
   Georgette (April 9th–11th), Operation Blücher-Yorck (May 27), Operation
   Gneisenau (June 9) and Operation Marne-Rheims (July 15th—17th) — had
   made advances but failed to achieve a decisive breakthrough.

   At the end of the Marne-Rheims offensive Allied commander Ferdinand
   Foch ordered a counter-offensive which led to the Second Battle of the
   Marne. The Germans, recognising their untenable position, withdrew from
   the Marne to the north. Foch now tried to move the Allies back onto
   offense and he agreed on a proposal by the commander of the 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.

Plan

   Foch had defeated a large amount of German forces at the Second Battle
   of the Marne and believed he could begin an offensive in the north of
   France. Foch disclosed his plan on July 23, 1918 following the German
   retreat that had begun July 20th. The plan called for reducing the
   Saint-Mihiel salient (which would later see combat in the Battle of
   Saint-Mihiel) and liberating the railroad lines that ran through
   Amiens. Foch planned the operations to start on August 8th with a
   combination of British, French, Australian, and Canadian divisions
   along with a single American division and around 580 tanks (150 in
   reserves as supply and repair vehicles). 1,386 guns and howitzers,
   making up 27 medium artillery brigades and 13 heavy batteries, were
   responsible for artillery cover. A key factor in Foch's plan was
   secrecy, there was to be no pre-battle bombardment, only the artillery
   fire immediately prior to the advance of Australian, Canadian, and
   British forces. Although the French had 72 Whippets to follow up their
   advance they had no heavy tanks with which to lead the main assault and
   so had a 45 minute preliminary barrage starting at zero hour.

   Although the Germans were still on the offensive in late July 1918 the
   Allies were strengthening their positions. German commanders realized
   in early August that their forces might be forced to defend, though
   Amiens was not considered to be a likely front. Germans believed Foch
   would likely attack the aforementioned Saint-Mihiel front, either east
   of Reims or near Mount Kemmel; while they believed British would attack
   along either the Lys or Somme Rivers. German forces began to withdraw
   from the Lys and other fronts in response to these theories. The Allies
   maintained equal artillery and air fire along their various fronts,
   only moving troops at night, and making fake movements during the day
   to mask their actual intent. The German 27th Division actually attacked
   the Amiens front planned for the August 8th Allied offensive on August
   6th, penetrating roughly 800 yards into the one-and-a-half mile front.
   The division moved somewhat back to its original location on the
   morning of the 7th, but the movement still required changes to the
   Allied plan. The Allies did various things to maintain the secrecy of
   the attack including not bringing the Canadian Corps into position from
   the north until August 7th, pasting the notice "Keep Your Mouth Shut"
   into orders issued to the men, and never using the actual word
   "offensive".

Battle

   Map depicting the advance of the Allied line
   Enlarge
   Map depicting the advance of the Allied line

   The battle began in dense fog at 4:20 AM on August 8th, 1918. British
   forces under Rawlinson were the farthest north in the battle, with
   Canadian and Australian forces at the centre of the field, and the
   French forces under Debeny in the south. Although German forces were
   alert on August 8th this was largely to stop potential retaliation for
   their August 6th incursion and not because they had learned of the
   pre-planned Allied attack. Although the two forces were within 500
   yards of one another gas bombardment was very low as a bulk of the
   Allied presence was unknown to the Germans. The attack was so
   unexpected that German forces only began to return fire on Allied
   positions after five minutes, and even then at the positions forces had
   assembled at for the start of the battle and had long since abandoned.

   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 7:30 AM.

   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. Australian units had reached their first objectives
   by 7:10 AM, and by 8:20 AM the Australian 4th and 5th and the Canadian
   4th divisions moved off, passing through the initial hole torn in the
   German line. The third phase of the attack was to have been performed
   by infantry-carrying Mark V* tanks 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. Allied forces harassed German positions throughout the
   advance, RAF and armored car fire kept retreating Germans from
   rallying.

   Canadian and Australian forces in the centre, aided heavily by tanks,
   had quickly advanced, pushing the line 3 miles forward from its
   starting point by 11 AM. The speed of their advance aided in their
   activities, capturing a party of officers, and some divisional staff,
   eating breakfast. A gap 15 miles long was punched in the German line
   south of the Somme by the end of the day's advance. The British Fourth
   Army had taken 13,000 prisoners while the French had taken a further
   3,000. Total German losses were estimated to be 30,000 on 8 August. The
   Fourth Army's casualties, British, Australian and Canadian infantry
   were approximately 8800, exclusive of tank and air losses and their
   French Allies.

   German Army Chief of Staff Paul von Hindenburg noted the Allies use of
   surprise and that Allied destruction of German lines of communication
   had hampered potential German counter-attacks by isolating command
   positions. The German general Erich Ludendorff described the first day
   of Amiens 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 numbers of troops began
   to capitulate. Allied forces had pushed, on average, seven miles into
   enemy territory by the end of the day. The Canadians gained 8 miles,
   Australians 7, British 2 and the French 5 miles.

Later fighting

   The advance would continue, but without the spectacular results of
   August 8th. This is possibly because the rapid gains of the infantry
   had outrun the supporting artillery and the initial force of more than
   500 tanks that played a large role in the initial Allied success On
   August 10th there were signs that the Germans were pulling out of the
   salient from Operation Michael. According to official reports the
   Allies had captured nearly 50,000 prisoners and 500 guns by August
   27th. Even with the lessened armor the British had driven 12 miles into
   German positions by August 13th.

Aftermath of the Battle

   8th August, 1918 by Will Longstaff, showing German prisoners of war
   being led towards Amiens.
   Enlarge
   8th August, 1918 by Will Longstaff, showing German prisoners of war
   being led towards Amiens.

   The Battle of Amiens was a major turning point in the tempo of the war.
   The Germans had started the offensive before the war devolved into
   trench warfare with the Schlieffen Plan, the Race to the Sea slowed
   movement on the Western Front, and the German Spring Offensive earlier
   that year had once again given Germany the offensive edge on the
   Western Front. Armored support helped the Allies tear a hole through
   trench lines, weakening once impregnable trench positions. The British
   Third army with no armored support had almost no effect on the line
   while the Fourth with less than a thousand tanks broke deep into German
   territory, for example. Australian commander John Monash was knighted
   by King George V in the days following the battle.

   British war correspondent Philip Gibbs noted Amiens' effect on the
   war's tempo, saying on August 27th that "the enemy...is on the
   defensive" and "the initiative of attack is so completely in our hands
   that we are able to strike him at many different places." Gibbs also
   credits Amiens with a shift in troop morale, saying "the change has
   been greater in the minds of men than in the taking of territory. On
   our side the army seems to be buoyed up with the enormous hope of
   getting on with this business quickly" and that "there is a change also
   in the enemy's mind. They no longer have even a dim hope of victory on
   this western front. All they hope for now is to defend themselves long
   enough to gain peace by negotiation."
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Amiens"
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