Amiens 1918: Victory from Disaster

Description

by Gregory Blaxland
Hardcover

As the realities of the changing nature of warfare by late 1917 made the retention of static lines, no matter how sophisticated, no longer a long-term viable option for the defense; and with Russia knocked out of the war, the Germans under Hindenburg and Ludendorff determined on a bold series of major offensives, the first of which was aimed at the British Fifth Army with the objective of seizing Amiens, a crucial rail head and the city that marked the boundary between the BEF and the French. Capture this and the Germans had a good chance of separating the key allied powers. Despite almost destroying Fifth Army and advancing within ten miles of Amiens, the Germans failed in their objective; they turned to a number of other hard thrusts along the line but were foiled on each occasion.

Reinforced by substantial numbers of American troops, the Allies launched their first, French-led, counterattack on 18 July, which many considered the turning point of the 1918 campaign and, indeed the whole war. Shortly afterward, on 8 August, the BEF (with some French support) attacked with Fourth Army before Amiens and was stunningly successful – what Ludendorff described as the ‘Black Day of the German Army’. There followed a sequence of blows by all the allies along the Western Front, pushing the Germans back to the borders; with her allies collapsing and with the Imperial Navy in a state of mutiny.