Headstones from the Laventie German Military Cemetery, Laventie, France of territorial guard Alfred Schirmer and Corporal Albert Levy. Schirmer died on August 8, 1918, Levy on August 10, both likely in the Battle of Amiens. © 2013 by John M. Shea
Alfred SchirmerLandsturmmann† 8.8.1918Albert LevyGefreiterGef. 10.8.1918
August 8 — September 4, 1918
Western Front
After Germany's five offensives of 1918, the Allies struck back on July 18 beginning the Aisne-Marne Offensive — the Second Battle of the Marne. While the battle was underway, Generals Henri Pétain, Douglas Haig, and John Pershing, commanding the French, British, and American forces, met with Allied Commander in Chief Ferdinand Foch to plan ongoing offensives across the western front. The first of these would be the Anglo-French Battle of Amiens.
The commanders did not believe the Allies were yet ready for a general offensive, but agreed to Foch's plan to conduct local offensives to prevent a German retrenchment and to free three strategic rail lines, those from Paris to Amiens, Verdun, and Nancy. Supported by the French, the British would attack to the north, in the Amiens salient, along the Somme River and extending from Ypres southward, to secure the Paris-Amiens rail line.
Leading the offensive was General Rawlinson who commanded the British 4th Army augmented with Australian and Canadian corps, a total of thirteen divisions. The British 3rd Army under Byng held Rawlinson's left. To his right was the French 1st Army (Debeney) which Foch had subordinated to Rawlinson. The Allies secretly prepared, positioning over 2,000 guns, 1,700 aircraft, and over 450 tanks including Britain's fast new Whippet tank.
The Second Battle of the Marne had been catastrophic for German forces. Casualties incuded 420,000 dead and wounded and 340,000 missing or taken prisoner. On August 2, after his decision to retreat to the line of the Vesle River, German commander Erich Ludendorff expected no further Allied attacks. His army was collapsing as desertions skyrocketed in July and August and reserves stopped reporting to the front. Supplies of munitions and gasoline were running out. Ludendorff's own mental state exhibited signs of panic and paralysis.
On August 8, at 4:20 AM, with no preliminary bombardment, shielded by fog, the Allies struck east of Amiens on both banks of the Somme. The Germans were completely surprised. The Allies broke their line and advanced up to nine miles, capturing 15,000 prisoners and 400 guns on the first day. Besides the infantry, Whippets and 300 heavy Mark V tanks, the assault included armored cars, motorcycles, and British and Canadian cavalry capable of getting behind German lines.
German morale was shattered by the Allies success, almost reaching a level of mutiny. Ludendorff later called August 8 "the black day of the German Army,” and told Kaiser Wilhelm peace negotiations should be initiated. The Kaiser agreed, saying on August 10, "I see that we must strike a balance. We are at the end of our reserves. The war must be ended."
Foch struck and struck again, taking advantage of the rapid rail transport of troops behind the front to broaden the battle front and attacking with both British and French forces. On August 10, the French 3rd Army took Montdidier on the southern flank of the Amiens salient. On August 17, the French 10th Army, which had played a leading role in the Aisne-Marne Offensive, attacked still further south in Champagne. On August 21, in the Battle of Bapaume, Byng's British 3rd Army advanced at the other end of the front, north of Rawlinson and between Albert and Arras. On the 22nd, Rawlinson's 4th Army continued advancing in the center. On August 26, in the four-day Third Battle of the Scarpe, the line was extended northwards again as the British 1st Army struck further north at Arras. Canadian troops breached the Hindenburg Line, a defensive zone consisting of four lines that the Germans thought would withstand any assault.
In the course of the battle, German and Austro-Hungarian military and civilian leaders met at Spa on August 13 to review the situation, joined by the Emperors Wilhelm of Germany and Karl of Austria-Hungary the next day. Ludendorf disagreed with his superior Paul von Hindenburg's optimistic view of the situation and could only hope that his army held fast, as it was no longer capable of an offensive. Some of the officers who met with him thought Ludendorff was suffering a nervous breakdown. Germany's allies were on the verge of collapse. Although Bulgaria held firm on the Balkan Front, Austria-Hungary threatened to make a separate peace, and Turkey was losing ground on the Syria/Palestine and Mesopotamian fronts.
Ludendorff ordered a retreat along the Amiens front and on the Lys to the north from the territory gained during Operation Georgette in April. The Australians took Péronne on the Somme on August 30–31. On September 2, The British 1st Army resumed its attack with the Canadians advancing and reaching villages like Ecourt that had been far behind German lines since the beginning of the war and were physically undamaged by it. Ludendorff ordered a second retreat. By early September, the German had withdrawn to the Hindenburg Line.
British and Commonwealth troops continued their advance north and south of the Somme recapturing Bapaume, Péronne, and Noyon by September 4. By the time the Allies suspended the offensive, they had taken 110,000 German prisoners.
In the Battle of Amiens, the British suffered 27,000 casualties, the French 24,200. The Germans lost 75,000 adding to a total of 536,000 killed and missing and 808,300 wounded since their 1918 offensives began in March.
Start Date: 1918-08-08
End Date: 1918-09-04
