British soldiers advancing on the Flanders front. From The Nations at War by Willis J. Abbot 1918 Edition
British Tommies cheer as they go forward to their positions on the Flanders front
"During the afternoon [of March 20, 1918], they either volunteered or drew lots for the various obviously suicidal tasks, and in due course as evening fell (it was raining softly again) some of them moved along the front trench to the saps, and out towards the isolated forward posts. Each man carried a Very pistol: when he fired his green flare he would be signalling his own death or defeat, and those behind could expect the enemy in ten minutes or less. As the last man reach the post, the sap trench was blocked with knife-rests and wire entanglements behind him; if there was an officer or senior NCO in the forward post, he usually occupied the rearmost position in order to block the retreat of any whose nerve, in the face of an inescapable destiny, should fail."
Since the November, 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and the December armistice between Russia and the Central Powers, an armistice that ultimately resulted in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March, 1918, the Entente Allies had been anticipating a great German offensive on the Western Front bolstered by troops recently redeployed from Russia. The order for the offensive, Operation Michael, was issued on March 12. On March 20th the attack was imminent.
1918, the Last Act by Barrie Pitt, page 73, copyright © 1962 by Barrie Pitt, publisher: Ballantine Books, Inc., publication date: 1963
1918-03-20, 1918, March, Operation Michael, British train advance
