by Peter Hart
Quartermaster General Erich Ludendorff, German Headquarters
Yet even so there was much hard fighting to go. The German Army was still a deadly enemy and open warfare, desired for so long, was a cruel mistress, as the French had discovered in 1914. This was the start of a 3-month campaign that was one of the hardest ever fought by the British Army, the only compensation lying in the fact that they were winning. The fighting ranged from full-on assaults on layered defensive positions to bloody ambushes and the resulting frantic skirmishes. There are few more stressful military operations than an advance to contact through unknown country against a concealed enemy. The war was in its last stages but the casualty lists were mushrooming fast. The war had never seemed more painful.
The Battle of Albert began on 21 August as the thirteen divisions of General Sir Julian Byng’s Third Army hammered forward between the Ancre and Scarpe Rivers north of the Somme. Meanwhile, the French Tenth Army had launched an attack south of the Fourth Army, starting on 20 August. Considerable progress was made as the German line began to fragment. Haig urged his generals to seize the moment.
To turn the present situation to account, the most resolute offensive is everywhere desirable. Risks, which a month ago would have been criminal to incur, ought now to be incurred as a duty. It is no longer necessary to advance in regular lines and step by step. On the contrary, each division should be given a distant objective which must be reached independently of its neighbour, and even if one’s flank is thereby exposed for the time being. Reinforcements must be directed on the points where our troops are gaining ground, not where they are checked. A vigorous offensive against the sectors where the enemy is weak will cause hostile strongpoints to fall, and in due course our whole army will be able to continue its advance. The situation is most favourable; let each one of us act energetically and without hesitation push forward to our objective.49
Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, General Headquarters, BEF
For the rest of August the British and French ground their way forwards as the Germans, struggling to prevent them, threw in more reserves. Soon it was the turn of the First Army of General Sir Henry Horne, which attacked in the Arras sector on 26 August 1918, pushing the Germans back towards Monchy le Preux just as on 9 April 1917.
In the Somme area the German retreat became more general and Monash was determined to use the momentum gained for his Australian Corps to jump the Somme River, behind which the Germans were trying to stabilise their front. His men were exhausted, their numbers dwindling, as every day, every action took its toll. Soon brigades had shrunk to the size of not much more than a battalion. But they had the Germans on the run. The key battle took place at Mont St Quentin, a mile to the north of Peronne. The Australians crossed the river and tore into the German positions, taking the hill on 31 August, only to be ejected by a German counter-attack. Next day there was no mistake as the Australians swept over to a glorious victory which at a stroke broke the integrity of the German line along the Somme. But the Germans were now being thrown back everywhere.
On 2 September, the Canadian Corps attacked the Drocourt–Quéant Switch Line, an extension of the Hindenburg Line. They too met with success as the patchy German resistance was overwhelmed.
Our party of about twelve men took off under artillery and machine gun fire from the enemy. After a while we came to the right of the village and got onto a sunken road. Over to the right was a bunch of Heinies beating it from an old windmill. We potted at them with rifles and machine guns and caused some casualties. Advancing along the sunken road, we completely surprised and outflanked two machine gun posts simply swarming with men. After we fired a few shots we took the whole bunch of prisoners, about 100–150 of them. Proceeding up the sunken road to help with the prisoners, I happened to look over to my left. I saw there another thickly manned machine gun post of Heinies shooting over to the left from an embankment. I dropped down on the bank of this sunken road and fired at the man operating the machine gun. He fell over backwards and the machine gun with him. Some more of the boys arrived and joined in the firing. We got many others, but soon the remainder put up their hands to surrender.50
Private Morley Timberlake, 46th (South Saskatchewan) Battalion, CEF
In the end the Germans were forced all the way back to the Canal du Nord and Hindenburg Line. In Flanders they were also forced to abandon their gains in the Lys area in order to shorten the line and conserve troops.
The fighting included a significant event: the launch, on 12 September, of the first fully fledged offensive by the Americans, on the St Mihiel Salient. It was the supreme learning experience for the inexperienced Americans, who had to master all the myriad disciplines of an offensive under the stressful conditions of modern warfare. The barrage was ferocious, although here the Americans had wisely leaned on French artillery expertise and support. There was a sense of exhilaration in the air.
Leaping out of bed I put my head outside the tent. We had received orders to be over the lines at daybreak in large formations. It was an exciting moment in my life as I realized that the great American attack upon which so many hopes had been fastened was actually on. I suppose every American in the world wanted to be in that great attack. The very sound of the guns thrilled one and filled one with excitement. The good reputation of America seemed bound up in the outcome of that attack.51
Captain Edward Rickenbacker, 94th Aero Squadron, AEF
At 05.00 the troops went over the top. Rickenbacker watched from the air.
We found the Germans in full cry to the rear. One especially attractive target presented itself to us as we flew along this road. A whole battery of Bosche 3-inch guns was coming towards us on the double. They covered fully half a mile of the roadway. Dipping down at the head of the column I sprinkled a few bullets over the leading teams. Horses fell right and left. One driver leaped from his seat and started running for the ditch. Halfway across the road he threw up his arms and rolled over, upon his face. He had stepped full in front of my stream of machine-gun bullets! All down the line we continued our fire – now tilting our aeroplanes down for a short burst, then zooming back up for a little altitude in which to repeat the performance. The whole column was thrown into the wildest confusion. Horses plunged and broke away. Some were killed and fell in their tracks. Most of the drivers and gunners had taken to the trees before we reached them.52
Captain Edward Rickenbacker, 94th Aero Squadron, AEF
The advance was a relatively easy triumph for the AEF as the Germans had been preparing in any event to evacuate the salient. But the Americans had achieved their objectives and gained experience that would stand them in good stead for greater trials.
Haig was determined to defeat the Germans in 1918. He had an all too painful familiarity with their ability to regenerate their forces and stabilise their defensive positions if given half a chance. Faced by the imposing fortifications of the Hindenburg Line he had the choice of attacking that autumn or suspending operations and attempting the same task in the spring of 1919. Fortunately, in Foch Haig had a superior who, after their initial confrontation, shared the same overall vision of the war; a man equally determined not to allow the Germans breathing space. Foch brilliantly co-ordinated the attacks up and down the Western Front: on the first day the French and Americans would strike hard in the Meuse–Argonne area, the very next day the British would launch their First and Third Armies at the Hindenburg Line attacking towards Cambrai. The day after the French, the Belgians and the British Second Army would attack in Flanders. Finally on the fourth day, a fourth offensive as the British Fourth Army would attack the Hindenburg Line in the Somme region. Blessed with a plentiful supply of guns and ammunition, Foch could attack anywhere he liked. Instead of persisting where the Germans were focussing their efforts and amassing reserves, he could switch away to where they were not so well prepared. In doing so Foch got within the German ‘command loop’ as Ludendorff was left floundering, always reacting to the last attack and n
ever able to take control of a constantly fluctuating situation. This was an early form of manoeuvrist warfare in all but name – attempting to disrupt the German Army by applying constant pressure at the times and places where they were least able to respond.
This stupendous series of attacks, mirroring in scale the huge Battle of the Frontiers clashes of 1914, commenced at 05.30 on 26 September. The French Fourth Army and the American First Army attacked along a huge 44-mile front stretching between the Meuse and Reims. The French had done it all before. But the Americans were still raw and this time they found the Germans had no intention of retreating.
Only five minutes more for a great many of the boys to live. Four minutes, three minutes, two, then one. ‘Ready? Let’s go!’ The instant we started climbing out of the trench the artillery cut loose on the Germans. At the same instant the Germans cut loose with artillery and machine guns. Immediately men began to drop. Cries and moans, yells and screams rent the air, and could be heard even above the roaring of cannon and bursting shells of the enemy. Shells were bursting overhead and underfoot. The very air was exploding in our faces. The ground was moving, rolling under our feet. Enemy machine gun bullets were tearing through our soldiers like so much hail and taking a great toll. It was a roaring furnace, all fire, smoke, hot lead and shrapnel in which it seemed we were all trapped and must perish, but some of us went on and on. A large swamp lay between our lines and the Germans. In order to get us across this our engineers had built some walks under cover of the night. We soon found that crossing on these was much too slow and as we were losing troops heavily, Captain McCormack, our company commander, took the lead and plunged into the swamp. We all followed, holding our rifles over our heads. Breaking through the scum and water up to our armpits, we crossed the swamp. On the other side, the ground was marshy and would not hold our weight. Unless we could step on a bunch of water grass, we were continually pulling each other out of the mire. This condition of the ground probably saved a lot of men from getting hit by shrapnel. As the shells lit here, although their detonation was instantaneous, they would bury in the mud and then explode. We got through the marsh, then came the German wire entanglement. We walked on top of the wires instead of trying to wade through it, but a lot of us broke through several times and got entangled. It was tough going. Soldiers everywhere were tearing their clothes in frantic efforts to extricate themselves and get to the trench and at the Germans.53
Private Charles Dermody, 132nd Infantry Regiment, AEF
The ‘Doughboys’, as they were nicknamed, fought well and managed to advance some seven miles before they bcame bogged down in the tangle of woods, ridges and valleys that make the Argonne Forest area ideal for defence. The fighting was an intensive, brutal experience for them against a German Army that may have been on its last legs but was still dangerous when cornered. All the same, the Americans endured, pushing on from ridge to ridge, grinding their way through the Argonne, their very presence and ever-growing strength a constant reminder to the Germans that there could be no escape from defeat. The fighting would continue with only short lulls throughout October and into November 1918.
We had reckoned without a German rear guard action. And no doubt they had heard us telling our men to get ready. They were soldiers who had trained 4 years at the front. They had left their lines checkerboarded with machine guns, had left their men in the rear to fight to the death, and had slowly moved out the heavy masses of troops. Most of us who were young American officers knew little of actual warfare – we had the daring but not the training of the old officer of the front. The Germans simply waited, and then laid a barrage of steel and fire. And the machine gunners poured it on us. Our company numbered two hundred men. Within a few minutes about half of them were either dead or wounded. Felbel was killed outright, and I did not even see his body. A runner came to me and told me he had been killed. I took command of the company. There was not a single sergeant. We literally lost each other. There were no bugles, no flags, no drums and, as far as we knew, no heroes. The great noise was like great stillness, everything seemed blotted out. We hardly knew where the Germans were. We were simply in a big black spot with streaks of screaming red and yellow, with roaring giants in the sky tearing and whirling and roaring. There is a great swishing scream, a smash-bang, and it seems to tear everything loose from you. The intensity of it simply enters your heart and brain and tears every nerve to pieces. Although so many men had been killed, there was nothing to do but keep on going. And in front were dense growths of trees and barbed wire to keep us from going farther.54
Lieutenant Maury Maverick, 28th Infantry Regiment, AEF
Despite it all he kept going, he managed to clamber through a gap in the wire, then:
A shell burst above my head. It tore out a piece of my shoulderblade and collarbone and knocked me down. It was a terrific blow, but I was not unconscious. I think it was the bursting of the shell, the air concussion, which knocked me down, and not the shell itself. It was not five seconds, it seemed, before a Medical Corps man was dressing my wounds. He cut my coat away from the wound and wrapped up my shoulder in such a way that it would not bleed too much. As he lifted me from the ground, I looked at my four runners, and I saw that the two in the middle had been cut down to a pile of horrid red guts and blood and meat, while the two men on the outside had been cut up somewhat less badly, but no less fatally. It reminded me of nothing I had ever seen before, except a Christmas hog butchering back on the Texas farm.55
Lieutenant Maury Maverick, 28th Infantry Regiment, AEF
Frequently, the Americans found that their lack of experience and poor tactical grasp cost them dearly, but they kept on going. Like the French in 1914 and the British in 1916, they were learning the hard way. And no one could doubt their courage. At times their losses were excruciating. In all the Americans would suffer some 117,000 casualties, the French fighting alongside them a further 70,000, while estimates of German losses range from 90,000 to 120,000.
Meanwhile, the second of the great Allied attacks was launched on 27 September by the British First and Third Armies. Here the greatest obstacle to progress lay in the partially constructed Canal du Nord. Although for the most part empty of water, it still presented a major obstacle in its own right and behind it lay three German defence systems stretching back some five miles. Lieutenant General Sir Arthur Currie tailored his artillery plans to the problem. A long slow barrage of the barbed wire had begun on 18 September, but there was no crescendo leading up to the assault, allowing some surprise to be achieved when the troops went over the top at 05.20 with a crushing creeping barrage. The Canadians captured all their objectives and, indeed, all along the front of the First and Third Armies they threw back the Germans.
Another day, another huge offensive as, on 28 September, Plumer’s Second Army, accompanied by the French and the Belgians, sought finally to eradicate the Ypres Salient from the map. They were walking in the footsteps, indeed, treading over the graves of hundreds of thousands of their predecessors. But this time the German artillery were rendered silent by their counter-battery fire, the dreaded pillboxes blasted from the earth. The Allied forces’ flexible offensive tactics were tailored to every situation, smoothly applying the required mix of weapons – artillery, gas shells, tanks, mortars, rifle grenades – to overcome any hold-ups. In just one day they swept across the whole of the Ypres battlefields to breast the Pass-chendaele Ridge.
Last but not least was the attack on the Hindenburg Line by Rawlinson’s Fourth Army on 29 September. The American II Corps, placed for the occasion under the command of Monash, would attack where the St Quentin Canal ran underground between Bellicourt and Vendhuile. The Australian Corps would be ready to exploit any success. Most startling of all was the attempt by the 46th Division of the British IX Corps to leap across the still waters of the St Quentin Canal.
An enormous barrage opened. It was tremendous. Everything possible was rained on the rear of the canal to prevent their reserves being
brought up. The other side knew something was on by the intensity of our barrage, so, up went their flares, green and gold, and over came the counter-barrage. The racket was awe-inspiring, it was impossible to hear, even if orders were given. Over we went, slipping and sliding down the canal bank to the cold water below. The opposite bank was pitted with machine gun nests, in tunnels dug into the 30 feet high sloping bank. How any of us even reached the water beats me, but a surprising number did. The water was up to our armpits, and holding that gun above my head was bad enough without being machine gunned as well. Clawing our way on to the bank we were underneath some of the machine guns making it more difficult to hit us, so my team and many others flung Mills grenades into the various tunnels nearest to us, while clinging for dear life to any scrap of projection on the bank. After many years I still don’t know how we got away with it.56
Corporal George Parker, 1/8th Sherwood Foresters
But in the end they did it, and in the exploitation phase captured 4,200 prisoners, 70 guns and more than 1,000 machine guns. An ordinary British division with no great pedigree had achieved a dramatic feat of arms that would surely have been impossible earlier in the war. The Fourth Army had completely ruptured the Hindenburg Line and the advance on the German borders had begun. The deep-flowing Rhine might threaten to hold them up but the Allies had won the war, the only question was whether they could finish it in 1918.
In October the individual German soldiers could not help but know that they were beaten. At the front it was obvious; not only that but when they went home on leave they could see the dissolution of their economy and the cracks opening up in German society. Years of privation and suffering culminated in severe political unrest. On 3 October a new Chancellor, Prince Max von Baden, was appointed, but his cosmetic liberal reforms and the appointment of a few token socialist ministers did nothing to appease the raging left while still provoking the establishment right. The combination of defeat at the front, political division at home and no hope for the future was a potent brew that unsettled the troops in the line. One illustration can be found in the legend of Corporal Alvin York during the Ardennes fighting on 8 October. This enterprising American NCO, apparently acting for the most part on his own, had managed to force the surrender of a large number of prisoners. The Americans naturally hailed his achievements; the Germans were far more sceptical. One German officer, Lieutenant Schleicher, pondered on how such a state of affairs had come to pass.