The Sandbag Times Issue No: 46

HISTORICAL TOMMY ATKINS
On The Run
Written By Peter Macey
On the evening of 8th August 1918,
General Ludendorf, who had led the
German Army so successfully against
the Allies for most of the war described the
battle that had started earlier in the day as ‘the
Black Day of the German Army’.
The Battle of Amiens, also called the Third
Battle of Picardy was the opening phase of an
Allied attack that became known as the
Hundred Day Offensive which would
ultimately lead to the end of the First World
War. With the advancement in armour and
artillery accuracy the Allies managed to
advance over seven miles in one day, one of
the greatest advances of the war. Amiens was
the first major battle to involve armoured
warfare from both sides and marked an end to
trench warfare that had existed since the
beginning of the war on the Western Front.
The war and fighting in general had become
mobilised and the Germans were on the run.
As had become the norm of attacks in the First
World War they tended to follow the strategy
of bombardment followed by advancement
and Amiens was no different in that aspect.
The only real difference was the sheer scale of
both men and armour that the Allies were
moving forward with. The battle began at just
before 4.30 on the Morning of 8th August
when the British Fourth Army attacked north
of the Somme, at the same time the Australian
Corps were advancing South in the centre of
the British Forces and the Canadian Corps
were further South advancing alongside the
main Army. In the meantime the French 1st
Army opened its bombardment of the German
forces before starting its own advance just
under an hour later.
Once again mainly due to poor intelligence by
the German hierarchy the attack was totally
unexpected by the German forces and they
only started to return fire after the attack had
been going on for several minutes by which
time the positions where the Allies had been
entrenched had been abandoned for the
advance. The whole of the initial attack
involved British, Australian, Canadian, French
and American forces and just three hours later
they had travelled over two miles and captured
enemy positions with relative ease.
The Canadian and Australian forces advanced
quickly to the three mile mark by 11am and a
gap of fifteen miles was punched through the
German line South of the Somme by the end
of the first day. The British had less success
further North due to the terrain being tougher
to cross although the attackers did achieve
their first objective at Chipilly Spur.
Some thirteen thousand German prisoners
were taken by the Fourth Army with their
French counterparts taking another three
thousand. And whilst the body count was
rising with nearly thirty thousand German
casualties the Allies did suffer nearly nine
thousand of their own.
The reason for Ludendorf’s remark was not to
do with the Allied advancements. He was
referring to the morale of the German Army in
general. The German troops in large numbers
were retreating knowing they could not win,
insulting officers who tried to turn them back
and heckling any reserves who were
advancing to the front to support their fighting
comrades.
The advance continued on 9th August but not
with the same successes of the first day of
fighting. The battle had widened on the north
and the south of the initial attack. Allied
infantrymen had outrun the supporting and
slower artillery and the initial force of more
than five hundred tanks that played such a
decisive role was reduced to only six that were
fully fit for battle within four days of the start
of the battle.
At this point in time the German Army on
Chipilly Spur commanded a wide field of fire
to the south of the Somme with their flanking
fire holding up the Australian Corps until late
on 9th August and the supporting Canadian
Army hitting congested roads which stalled
their advance. Communication problems also
came into play with the British 32nd Division
slowing have lost communication with the
Allies.
On 10th August, there were signs that the
Germans were pulling out of the area they had
taken so successfully during Operation
Michael a few months before and the Allies
captured nearly fifty thousand prisoners and
five hundred German guns by 27th August.
The Germans had started the war with what
was called the Schlieffen Plan before the Race
to the Sea. This was slowed by the war on the
Western Front that quickly developed into
trench warfare and became something of a
stalemate for a number of years. The German
Spring Offensive earlier in 1918 had once
again given Germany the offensive edge on
the Western Front. But with technology
playing a bigger part in weaponry the Allied
armoured support helped, which came into its
own from November 1917 onward weakened
the German’s trench positions. Interestingly
the British Third Army with no armoured
support had almost no effect on the front line
while the Fourth, with fewer than a thousand
tanks, broke deep into German territory over
and over again.
The Battle of Amiens was another turning
point in the war and from this point on there
was no turning back by the Allies during a
period which became known as the One
Hundred Day Offensive running from 8th
August until 11th November 1918.
Were any of your relatives involved in the 100
day offensive? If so we would like to hear
from you at SBT and Forgotten Veterans UK
(FVUK). Please share your experiences of
those that were there if you can.
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