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US troops digging in pause to watch a Whippet tank.
Folding postcard relief map looking north from the River Aisne to the Oise Canal, from Compiègne to Soissons, and from Noyon to St. Gobain, France. A hand drawn arrow indicates Pimprez, marked with an 'X'.
Small and neutral Portugal tries to resist the pressure applied by a cheerful Great Britain to join the Entente Allied cause. British warships encourage Portuguese acquiescence, as the shadow of German militarism threatens. After German submarines sank Portuguese vessels, Portugal seized German ships in its ports. Germany responded by declaring war on Portugal on March 10, 1916. One of a series of 1916 postcards on neutral nations by Em. Dupuis.
The Portuguese Expeditionary Force in France. The first battalion heading to the trenches.
Headstones in the Portuguese Cemetery in Neuve Chapelle, France. Portugal joined the Entente Allies in 1917. They were on the front line in Operation Georgette, the German Lys Offensive, the second German drive of 1918. The Cemetery is across a field from the Indian Memorial visible in the background. Nearby is the Laventie German Cemetery. © 2014 by John M. Shea
"April 5th.—The Brigade has been on an hour's notice to move since midnight, but no one slept less soundly. Our other Brigades have gone to meet a German attack between Albert and Aveluy ('Aveloy') Wood, made at 7 this morning. Early reports understated the German success; the counter-attack failed. Our Brigade has been transferred to Army Reserve. Companies are on the range at last. Officers are reconnoitring again. The day is gloomy, there's more rain. The new 'Cavalry' Tanks, 'whippets,' are armed with machine guns only, are easy to manœuvre and do fifteen miles an hour instead of three, like the old heavily-armed pattern." ((1), more)
"In order to finish on a note of easy success, the Germans on April 6th undertook the capture of the strip of ground occupied by the French Sixth Army to the west of the St. Gobain Forest, between the Oise and the Ailette Canal. This action on the part of the enemy, however, had been so clearly foreseen that the Sixth Army, which was here very far advanced, had only maintained weak outposts north of the canal. The German attack encountered merely scattered elements which withdrew fighting. Nevertheless, the attack was made with great caution and took four days to reach the Ailette (April 6th–9th)." ((2), more)
"On April 2nd, Sir Henry Horne decided that the Portuguese must be relieved, so the 50th Northumbrian Division was instructed to begin moving up immediately in order to carry out the relief of the Portuguese 2nd Division on April 9th. On April 5th, the Portuguese 1st Division had been withdrawn, but as no one was ordered forward to occupy the vacated trenches, their compatriots extended themselves northwards to do so for the remaining four days.But on April 7th and 8th Armentières to the north and the area around Lens to the south were deluged by mustard gas barrages . . ." ((3), more)
"General Foch's superb strategy had enabled the wearied armies of Britain and France, though outnumbered two to one, to halt the first German drive toward the Channel Ports in the vital sector between Montdidier and the Luce River on April 5, 1918.The Germans paused two days to catch their breath and spy out a more vulnerable point of attack in the Allied line. They found it further north in the 20-mile sector lying between La Bassee and Ypres, which had been depleted by the withdrawal of 100,000 men to assist in checking the German drive south of the Somme.Of the remaining nine divisions defending this sector, eight were at the point of exhaustion from the strain of the retreat from St. Quentin. In truth, one of the Portuguese divisions already had been sent to the rear to recuperate and the other was preparing to leave for the rear when the Germans made their new thrust in the Valley of the Lys." ((4), more)
"At about 7 a. m. on the 9th of April, in thick fog which again made observation impossible, the enemy appears to have attacked the left brigade of the 2nd Portuguese Division in strength and to have broken into their trenches. A few minutes afterwards, the area of attack spread south and north. Shortly after 7 a. m. the right brigade of the 40th Division reported that an attack had developed on their front, and was being held, but that machine gunners near their right-hand post could see the enemy moving rapidly through the sector to the south of them." ((5), more)
(1) Entry for April 5, 1918 from the writings — diaries, letters, and memoirs — of Captain J. C. Dunn, Medical Officer of the Second Battalion His Majesty's Twenty-Third Foot, the Royal Welch Fusiliers, and fellow soldiers who served with him. Dunn had reached Hédauville, France, 20 km northeast of Amiens on the night of April 2nd, to reinforce the British line against the German Somme Offensive, Operation Michael, which was suspended on the 5th.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, page 464, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
(2) Germany's Somme Offensive, Operation Michael, was launched on March 21, 1918 against the British Third and Fifth Armies in fog that obscured the attackers. The British, particularly the Third Army, were overwhelmed and driven back. With no reserves, they called for assistance from the French. Newly-appointed Commander-in-Chief Ferdinand Foch had been calling for a unified command and general reserve for months, and was given command of the Allied armies on April 3. The German offensive was brought to a halt on the 5th, followed by the final action Foch describes.
The Memoirs of Marshal Foch, translated by Col. T. Bentley Mott by Ferdinand Foch, page 273, copyright © 1931 by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., publisher: Doubleday, Doran & Co., publication date: 1931
(3) German commander Erich Ludendorff launched his great offensive of 1918, Operation Michael, on March 21. Although it drove the British forces from hundreds of square miles of territory, it did not achieve the breakthrough and splitting of the Allied armies Ludendorff sought. Trying again, he turned to a previously rejected plan, to attack on the Lys River along the Franco-Belgian border. Portugal joined the Entente Allies in 1916, and its troops, the Portuguese Expeditionary Force, took up positions in 1917. They would be the first victims of Ludendorff's Operation Georgette. General H. S. Horne commanded the British First Army.
1918, the Last Act by Barrie Pitt, page 117, copyright © 1962 by Barrie Pitt, publisher: Ballantine Books, Inc., publication date: 1963
(4) German commander Erich Ludendorff launched his great offensive of 1918, Operation Michael, on March 21. Although it drove the British forces from hundreds of square miles of territory, it did not achieve the breakthrough and splitting of the Allied armies Ludendorff sought. Trying again, he turned to a previously rejected plan, to attack on the Lys River along the Franco-Belgian border. Portugal joined the Entente Allies in 1916, and its troops, the Portuguese Expeditionary Force, took up positions in 1917. They would be the first victims of Operation Georgette.
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 415, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
(5) German commander Erich Ludendorff launched his second great offensive of 1918, Operation Georgette, the Lys Offensive, on April 9, after a preliminary bombardment of two days, striking the attenuated Portuguese line. The offensive, a pared-down version of a previously rejected plan, was an attack on the Lys River along the Franco-Belgian border. Portugal joined the Entente Allies in 1916, and its troops, the Portuguese Expeditionary Force, took up positions in 1917. In early April, the Portuguese were being relieved, the 1st Division having been withdrawn on April 5. With no replacement for the 1st, the 2nd Division extended their line, anticipating relief on the 9th, the day of Offensive began. The attack rapidly extended to the British. Excerpt from General Douglas Haig's July 1918 official report on the Battle of the Lys.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. VI, 1918, p. 107, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
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