11/24/2023 0 Comments Day of defeat source alliesThe cost of more than 11,800 Canadian casualties. In their sector of the attack, the Canadians pushed the Germans back as many as 12 km, a huge achievement in a war often fought over metres. It was Germany's worst defeat since the start of the war. Canadian forces captured several key targets and pressed forward amid waves of German prisoners being marched back behind Allied lines.Īfter 8 August, the Allied assault slowed but continued for another three days as it pressed through fields thick with tangles of barbed wire, abandoned trenches and a mess of shell holes.Ĭanadian troops clearing dug-outs during the Battle of Amiens, August, 1918. The tanks lagged behind, struggling across boggy terrainĪnd in thick fog. Allied soldiers fought through woods to clear German machine-gun positions and take prisoners. The Germans were entirely unprepared for this scale of attack and many surrendered at the first chance. Tanks roared across the battlefield and planes droned overhead. At exactly 4:20 a.m., 900 Allied guns opened fire and the infantry A heavy mist also concealed no man’s land as the attack grew nearer on that moonless night. This would keep the assault secret as long asĪ Royal Air Force squadron laid smoke screens over the battlefield to hide the attacking Canadians. Unlike earlier attacks in the war, the Amiens assault would not be preceded by bombardment. The attack was scheduled for 8 August at 4:20 a.m. The Canadian Corps was assigned to hit the German Fourth Army. To Hell.” The Germans were protected by three lines of trenches, which were poorly wired for communications and without good dugout shelters. The Germans were greatly outnumbered and, in the words of German military chief Erich Ludendorff, “depressed down The Allies sneaked into position with thousands of heavy and super-heavy field guns, howitzers, more than 600 tanks, and 2,000 aircraft. Secrecy was so important that the soldiers saw the warning “KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT” added to their service and pay book. False moves were also made in daylight,Īmid much noise, dust and bogus radio communication. Troops moved to the front lines at night to fool the enemy. In early August, the Allies tricked the Germans by appearing to weaken their front line so that German officers expected no assault. The attacking force comprised the Canadian Corps ( see Canadian Expeditionary Force), the British Fourth Army, the French First Army, the AustralianĬorps and others. As part of this, French General Ferdinand Foch planned an attack in the Amiens region of northern France that would Allied commanders decided it was time to switch from defence to offence and push German forces out of France. ( Courtesy History Department, US Military Academy West Point/Wikimedia CC) Surprise Attackīy July 1918, Allied forces in the First World War held a superior position on Europe’s Western Front troops from the United States were also pouring in to Map of the final Allied offensives on the Western Front, 1918, during the First World War.
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