Men at the Front

Men at the Front

Home Battles & Offensives 100 Days. August-November 1918.

100 Days. August-November 1918.

Published By Ben Hillidge

100 Days. 8 August – 11 November 1918

World War 1, 100 Days – Five Minute Documentary  and 4 by 10 minute documentaries – One / Two / Three / Four 

With the collapse of the Kaiser Offensive the Allies began preparations for a counter-attack which would be the final advance lasting for 100 Days from 8 August 1918 to the Armistice, and end of the war, on 11 November 1918.

The Offensive was a series of advances each in different sectors – The Somme, Arras, Bethune and Ypres. Overall the offensive had 3 objectives; to regain the ground lost during the Kaiser Offensive; to overcome the German defensive lines, particularly the Hindenburg Line, that had been the start line for the Kaiser Offensive; and, finally, a general advance to push the German Army back through Belgium and eventually into Germany. The Offensive ended with the Armistice on 11 November. At that time the ‘frontline’ was into Belgium but well short of the German frontier – the British halted at Mons, the same place where they had retreated from in 1914.

August 1918

Battle of Amiens. Captured German 10.5 cm FH 98/09 howitzer and wicker shell carriers. Near Chipilly, 10 August 1918. (IWM Q 6929)

 

The Battle of Amiens and Advance in Picardy.

The Battle of Amiens, 8-17 August, in the most southerly of the British sectors, was a great success. The British broke through. The German army was heavily defeated and began a general retreat back to their old front line – the Hindenburg Line. This was a massive and ‘impregnable’ line of defences built in 1916 and occupied in February 1917 when the Germans made a strategic with drawl to the new line.

On The Somme the advance continued on 21 August back across the old Somme battlefields to reach the Hindenburg Line at the end of the month. Elsewhere too, the British moved forward and at Arras operations to overcome the Line began on 26 August. Also, at Ypres, the breakout from the Salient commenced on 18 August.

During August 1918 Men on the Gates were involved in the following actions –

Prisoner stretcher-bearers bringing in a wounded man in a carrier, improvised from gas piping and a water-proof sheet, near Achiet-le-Petit, 21 August 1918, during the Battle of Albert at the start of the Hundred Days Offensive. The British soldier, from 5th Division, is bringing in a captured machine-gun. (IWM Q 11214)

 

September 1918

Battle of the Canal du Nord. A Horse team of the Royal Field Artillery pulling an 18 pounder field gun up the slope of a cutting through the bank of the Canal du Nord, near Moeuvres, 27th September 1918. Note the destroyed bridge. (IWM Q 9347)

 

Battles of the Hindenburg Line.

Operations to overcome the Hindenburg Line began on 2 September and would continue throughout the month. The first weeks were engaged on the approach to the Hindenburg Line and establishing positions for the final assault on the Line itself. By October the Line had been breached tand the advance would continue towards the River Selle.

During September 1918 Men on the Gates were involved in the following actions –

Battle of Epehy 18 September 1918

Attacks on the Hindenburg Line

Advance in Flanders. Ypres. 28 September – 31 October 1918

In the north part of the British sector operations began on 28 September 1918 to break out of the Ypres Salient and advance into Belgium.

During the Advance in Flanders Men on the Gates were involved in the following actions –

October – November 1918

With the Hindenburg Line breached and secured the advance continued eastward in pursuit of the enemy.

Battle of Cambrai 8-13 October 1918,

Battle of River Selle, 17-25 October 1918.

Battles of Valciennes (1-2 November) and of Sambre (4 November)

END