World War I: Final Allied Assaults--Initial Assaults (August-September 1918)


Figure 1.--This photo postcard shows French school children standing on the rubble left in Thiaucourt, France. This was a town in the St. Mihiels Salient seized by the Germans (August-September 1914). Thiaucourt was in the eastern sector of the Salient. It was liberated by the Amerucan First Army (September 1918). The children stand on rubble left by the fighting fot the town. The card was part of the effects left by an American soldier who served in France with the AEF. Notice the damage done. Many towns in northern France looked like this. German towns were largely untouched. It was one of the reasons that the the French were so intent on reperations at Versailles.

Marshal Foch sensed that the time had come for the Allies to strike in force. He accepted a proposal from Field Marshal Douglas Haig, the commander of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) to attack on the Somme, at a point near the disatrous 1916 Somme battlefield. The Allied Offensive began with a rare French attack west of Rheims (July). The majpr attack would be delivered by the British to the west on the Somme. Having helped stop the German offensive, the Americans along with the British went on the offensive. The Allied Hundred Days Offensive proved to be the war-winning offensive of World War I. The Allies struck (August 8). The German Spring-Summer offensive had severely bleed the German Army. The British decided to attack at the Somme again for several reasons. The Somme (Amiens-Roye road) was where the British and French Armies joined and thus at attack there allowed the two allies to cooperate. Especially important was the fact that the ground around Picardy was ideal ground and terrane for the British tanks. The Germans did not produce effective tanks and thus the British tanks were a decisuve advantage. In addition the Allies believed that the German Second Army of General Georg von der Marwitz, had been weakend. The British then struck at the exposed Amiens Bulge. Furthur south the Americans and French struck at the St. Michels salient. The Allied offensive succeeded in driving the Germans back to the heavily fortified Hindenburg Line. This set up the battle to pierce the Hindenburg Line which would determine the outcome of the War.

Allied Planning

Marshal Foch sensed that the time had come for the Allies to strike in force. The British were also planning an attack. Foch accepted a proposal from Field Marshal Douglas Haig, the commander of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) to attack on the Somme, at a point near the disatrous 1916 Somme battlefield. Foch and Haig disagreed on the assault. The British plnned to use both British and Empire trrops in a surprise attack with massed tanks. Foch wanted French trrops to particupate, but without tanks needed artillery bombardment, losing the element of surprise. The comprise was that Foch would delay the French attack ubtil the British launced their attack. Having helped stop the German offensive, the Americans along with the British also went on the offensive. The Allied Hundred Days Offensive proved to be the war-winning offensive of World War I.

French Diversionary Attack on the Marne (July-August 1918)

The Allied Offensive began with a rare French attack west of Rheims (July 18). This in effect ended Ludendorf's five offensive assults which had comprisded the German Spring Offensie. The last of these was the Second Battle of the Marne (July 15-17, 1918). Marshal Foch had already been preparing a major counterattack before Ludendorf attacked across the Marne. Foch struck with three French armies supported by two American divisions (1st and 2nd). The offensive was overseen by General Mangin. They attacked along the entire Marne salient (July 18). This was essentially the turnig point on the Western Front, ending the German Spring offensive. The Germans had failed to separate the British and French armies and had suffered 0.8 million casulties. Te Allies had suffered losses as well, but Allies losses could be replaced by streams of transports delivering the new American Army to France. Thus starting on the Marne, a series of Allied attacks would eventually force the Germans to request an armistice. The over-streache Germans were now a spent force. They had to abandon their tenous foothold south of the Marne. They were also forced to fall back from the ground gained in their Aisne offensive. The French liberated Soissons (August 2). This was a key position. As it was located in the northwest corner of the salient. Ludendorff saw that the Allies now threatened the his forces in the salient. He was forced to abandon the salient won at such great cost. He ordered a general retreat to the northeast out of the salient to a new defensive line along the Aisne and Vesle Rivers. The Americans attacked the new line (August 6). The Americans failed to dislodge the Germans. After this fighting declined in this new sector of the front line. With the threat from the Germans reduced, General Pershing at this point finally convinced Marshal Foch to allow him to activate the American First Army.

The Battle of Amiens (August 8-12, 1918)

The Battle of Amiens was the first major assault of the Hundred Days Cmpaign. The French call it the Third Battle of Picardy (3ème Bataille de Picardie). The Allies launched the battle (August 8) against a weakened German Army which because of losses and the Americans no longer held a numerical superiority on the Western Front. The Allied forces moved over 11 kilometres (7 mi) into the German lines on the first day. This may not sound like much, but in terms of fighting on the Western Front, it was a spectacular success. Brituish Gen. Henry Rawlinson's Fourth Army attacking with massed tanks proved decisive in the battle. Inaddition to the advance, the battle had an enormous impact on the morale of both armies. Allied morale soared. The Germans in contrast began to collapse. Large number of German forces fir the first time began to surrender. Gen. Erich Ludendorff who allong with Hindemberg basically controlled Germany, describe the first day of the battle as "the black day of the German Army". Amiens was the first major battles in which armored warfare. The British had used tanks before, but by now had solved some of the limitations of their new tanks and commoted them in greater numbers than ever before. Amiens also marked the end of the trench warfare that had frozen the Wetern Front in place for 4 years. The German trench defenses were simply not capable of stopping the British tabks or the large American infantry force that after Amiens was committed to batte in force. The French First Army was also committed (Some 12 divisions). Only one American division participated, but after Amiens, nuch of the hard fighting on the British right would be done by the Americns.

British Offensive on the Somme (August-September 1918)

The majpr Allied attack was to be delivered by the British to the west on the Somme. The French attacks on the Marne had thrown the Germans off ballance. With the Germans fiverted, the British struck to the west (August 8). The German Spring-Summer offensive had severely bleed the German Army. The British decided to attack at the Somme again for several reasons. The Somme (Amiens-Roye road) was where the British and French Armies joined and thus at attack there allowed the two allies to cooperate. Especially important was the fact that the ground around Picardy was ideal ground and terrane for the British tanks. The Germans did not produce effective tanks and thus the British tanks were a decisuve advantage. In addition the Allies believed that the German Second Army of General Georg von der Marwitz, had been weakend. The British then struck at the exposed Amiens Bulge.

Americans Reduce the St. Mihiels Salient (September 12-16, 1918)

Furthur south the Americans and French struck at the St. Mihiels salient. The Germans in the St. Mihiel salient southeast of Vedun for a time threatened Paris as it crossed the Meuse River. The Salient was first formed during the initial German drive thriugh Belgium toward Paeis (August-September 1914). While Paris was no loger threatened, the Salient by extending to the Meuse restricted French rail supply lines from Paris to the eastern portion of the front. The French wanted the supply lines opened so the units could be better equipped. With the German spring stopped. the situation in the Aisne-Marne was stabilized. This allowed Pershing to activate the United States First Army (July 31). Pershing's First Army in conferences with Marshal Foch was assigned the St. Mihiel area of the Western Front. He agreed for a time to leave three American divisions on the Vesle under under French command. What Pershing invisisioned was to assault the St. Mihiel Salient as the inintial step of a an offensive drive on to Metz and then into Germany itself. Pershing set up the First Army headquarters in the St. Mihiel area (August 13). He began concentrating his forces around the Salient. The Allied assault was conducted by the U.S. First Army which at the time consisted of three American and one French Corps. The Salient was defended by the badly depleted German Detachment C. The battle for the salient was the first important operation conducted by an independent American Army. The First Army performed briantly for an untested force in its first independent operation. The Allied offensive succeeded in driving the Germans back to the heavily fortified Hindenburg Line. They took 15,000 Grman prisoners and 257 guns, suffering around 7,000 casualties.

The Hindenburg Line (September-November 1918)

The success of the Allies on the Somme and at St. Michels set up the battle to pierce the Hindenbuyrg Line. the results of which would determine the outcome of the War. The arrival of the Americans had significantly changed the ballance of forces n the Western Front. The questin became if the Germnan defensive line was stroing to allow an outnumbered and out-gunned force hold back a numrsically superior force. In 1914 it might have en. But this was not 1914.






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Created: 1:16 AM 10/9/2008
Last updated: 6:40 PM 8/16/2015