Map of the Allied offensives of 1918, from July 18 and the Second Battle of the Marne to the Armistice on November 11. From The Memoirs of Marshall Foch by Marshall Foch.
"(1) The Flanders Group of Armies will march in the general direction of Brussels . . .(2) The British armies (Fifth, Third, First, Fourth) will advance . . . to throw the enemy back upon the almost impenetrable massif of the Ardennes . . . (3) The French armies (First, Tenth, Fifth, Fourth) and the American First Army will operate south of the above-mentioned lineTheir rôles will be as follows:For the French First Army, to support the attack of the British armies by marching towards La Capelle, Chimay, Givet . . .For the French Fifth and Sixth Armies and the American First Army, to reach the region Mézières, Sedan, and the Meuse . . ."
Excerpts from the October 19, 1918 order of Allied Commander-in-Chief Ferdinand Foch covering the Allied armies from the Channel coast to Verdun. The Flanders Group of Armies was 'marching' in pursuit of the Germans who were retreating to a shorter, more defensible line. Foch specified that the Flanders Group, which was led by Albert, King of the Belgians, and included the Belgian Army, coordinate with the left flank of the British while on their right flank the British would be supported by the French First Army. As the Germans retreated along the front, they fiercely held their left flank, where the Fifth and Sixth French and First American armies struggled to advance. The American Second Army and remaining French armies held the line from Verdun south to Switzerland.
The Memoirs of Marshal Foch, translated by Col. T. Bentley Mott by Ferdinand Foch, pp. 431–432, copyright © 1931 by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., publisher: Doubleday, Doran & Co., publication date: 1931
1918-10-19, 1918, October, Allied offensives 1918, Brussels, Mézières, Mezieres, Sedan, Meuse, the Meuse
