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The German offensive
of March 1918 had brought the enemy very close to winning the First
World War. After the Russian Revolution freed up the need to tie
down the German Army in a two-front war, 177 divisions streamed to
the west, while the British, already having suffered great loss in
the 3rd Battle of Ypres, transferred, along with the French, 11
divisions to Italy. In return, the Americans, newly joining the war,
could only offer six divisions, none with battle experience. Field
Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, commanding the British Expeditionary Force
on the continent, asked for 605,000 reinforcements from the UK. The
British Prime Minister, no longer having faith in the Army, sent
100,000. Events
played out beyond logic; the German offensive smashed the British
5th Army, but the Germans failed to reap the rewards. Only one of
their three armies made good on early gains and the Allies
reorganized in the face of their difficulties. Haig insisted on
unifying under one commander - the French Marshal Foch - and
stalemate again fell over the front. Reinforcements again flowed to
the British, and as more Americans began to arrive, the Allies began
to plan their final offensives.
During all this activity in the spring
of 1918, the Canadian Corps remained relatively inactive in its part
of the line along the Lens-Arras front. The corps commander, General
Arthur Currie, refused to break up the corps or let individual
Canadian divisions be split off to reinforce British formations.
With conscription implemented in Canada, a flow of reinforcements
was guaranteed and by August, the Canadian Corps was in fine shape
to spearhead the offensive being planned. |
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Amiens
The site chosen was Amiens; with part of
the Canadian Corps operating at Ypres as a deception, the bulk of
the Corps, with the Australian Corps alongside, launched its
offensive on 8 August 1918 with 450 tanks in support. There was no
artillery bombardment to signal the Germans to the coming offensive
- just the sound of Royal Air Force aircraft to mask the noise of
the tanks. Just seven German divisions, severely undermanned (with
about 3,000 men each) in poorly prepared defences were in place at
4:20 a.m. when Canada's 100 Days began. The three Canadian divisions
in the initial attack attacked into dense fog behind a rolling
barrage and for the first time the infantry carried only what they
needed to fight with. By nightfall, 8,000 Germans had given up to
the Canadians, and 17,600 in all. Four Victoria Crosses were awarded
for the day's activities and the Germans were sent reeling eight
miles backwards. German commander General Ludendorff, one of the
managers of the enemy war effort, described it as the "black day of
the German army." In all, 27,000 Germans were killed, wounded or
captured by the British 4th Army. On 9 August, the Battle of Amiens
continued, with four more Victoria Crosses being awarded, though
German divisions were rushing to the front. Four more miles of gains
were added, but casualties for the Canadians - 2,754 - were lighter.
On 10 August, German reinforcements had arrived in great numbers,
but casualties had been so heavy that Kaiser Wilhelm began
initiating peace negotiations through neutral representatives. The
Canadian Corps was ordered to the Arras sector on August 14 as the
fighting at Amiens wound down. |
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Advance to Victory 1918 |
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Amiens –
Arras, 1918 – Scarpe, 1918 – Drocourt-Quéant –
Hindenburg Line – Epéhy – Canal du Nord – St. Quentin
Canal – Beaurevoir – Cambrai, 1918 – Ypres, 1918 –
Valenciennes – Sambre – Pursuit to Mons – Courtrai
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The Hindenburg Line
After Amiens, Marshals Foch and Haig
agreed to keep the pressure on the Germans, launching successive
attacks at different locations on the Western Front. As the Canadian
Corps returned to familiar ground near Arras, plans were made for
the British 3rd Army to attack at Bapaume while the 1st Army pushed
towards Cambrai with the Canadian Corps in the lead. The British 4th
Army was to stand ready to advance should the Germans show signs of
retreating along the Somme.
On 21 August, the French attacked south
of Soissons, pushing ahead four miles in two days, while the British
3rd Army attacked at Bapaume the same day and progressed two miles,
taking 5,000 prisoners. On 22 August, the 4th Army joined in,
attacking on both sides of the Somme.
To the front of the Canadian Corps lay
the Drocourt-Quéant (D-Q) Line, the northern hinge of the Hindenburg
Line, a deep concentration of fortified trench networks, and the
last well-prepared German positions in the west. On 26 August, the
British 1st Army went into the attack with three divisions; the 51st
(Highland), 2nd Canadian and 3rd Canadian. Officially known as the
Battle of the Scarpe, the action began two hours before dawn, and
strongly held-hills on the flanks fell in flanking attacks. The
Canadian Corps was 6,000 yards into enemy territory by the end of
the day. For two days more, heavy fighting ensued, as the Canadians
waded through prepared positions and the Germans struggled to
reinforce the line with fresh divisions. By 28 August, the 1st
and 4th Divisions had to relieve the exhausted
assault formations, but not until after the 3rd Division smashed
through the Fresnes-Rouvroy Line. After three days of fighting, the
Corps had advanced five-and-a-half miles for a loss of 5,801 men.
On 30 August, the Canadian Corps
examined the task now facing it: the D-Q Line, 2,000 yards beyond
the Fresnoy-Rouvroy Line. The D-Q Line was the northernmost of the
Hindenburg Line fortifications and taking it would endanger the
entire German line. General Currie caused for a pause so that
artillery could be redeployed and operations thoroughly planned. On
2 September, the 1st and 4th Divisions, with a British brigade
attached, attacked behind a massive barrage with two companies of
Mark V tanks per division. Seven Victoria Crosses testified to the
day's ferocity, though resistance was sporadic and in places the
Germans surrendered in large numbers. The first line of defences was
in friendly hands by 08:00 a.m. and by mid-afternoon almost all of
the D-Q Line belonged to the Canadians. During the evening, at heavy
cost, a subsidiary trench line was assaulted by the 1st Division;
six more VCs were added to the tally and 6,000 more yards of ground
gained. General Currie ordered a further advance for the next day,
but the Germans pulled back to the Canal du Nord and the Canadian
Corps pressed on to the canal without resistance. The Germans, in
fact, were in a general retreat across the British front.
Canal du Nord to Cambrai
After a detailed reconnaissance of the
Canal du Nord, General Currie received permission to shift the
southern boundary of the Canadian Corps even further to the south in
order to attack over a section of the canal still under
construction, avoiding the 100-yard wide canal and its heavily
defended flooded banks. With a firm bridgehead established, he
planned to spread out laterally before driving on Cambrai. The plan
was complex and risky, exposing the Corps by bunching them in a
small area during the crossing, but the appeal of achieving surprise
was too great for Currie to ignore.
After the sun fell on 26 September, the
1st and 4th Divisions left their positions behind the D-Q Line and
crowded into their assembly areas. The opening barrage began at
05:20hrs the next morning and four battalions from the 1st and 10th
Brigades met only light opposition on the far edge of the dry canal
bank. An hour later a 2,000 yard wide bridgehead had been secured,
and by 14:00 hrs the final bridgehead objectives, 5,000 yards out,
were achieved and the 11th British Division was able to pass through
to the left. By nightfall the 2nd Brigade had pressed on 5,000 yards
more, until running into the wire entanglements of the Marcoing
Line, the final trench lines barring the way into Cambrai.
The 4th Division ran into heavier
opposition on the right near Bourlon Wood, and heavy fire also
developed on that flank when British units failed to keep pace
across the Army boundary. Nonetheless, despite being outnumbered two
to one, the 11th and 12th Brigades ground forward and cleared the
Bourlon heights by 20:00 hrs.
In short order, fresh German
reinforcements appeared, in the form of seven infantry divisions, as
the Canadians set out to reduce the Marcoing Line on 28 August. In a
series of small battles, the line was taken, but territorial gains
were limited over the next three days as the Corps tried to advance
to the north of Cambrai, and with mounting casualties, operations
were halted on 1 October.
The Allies continued to press all along
the front, as French, British, American and Belgian armies kept up
attacks on the continually weakened German armies. General
Ludendorff insisted that the German chancellor ask the U.S.
President to open negotiations for an armistice. Germany was close
to collapse, but the Army was convinced it had to hold as much
ground as possible to keep the terms of any surrender favourable.
When the Canadians renewed their attack
on Cambrai on 9 October, the Germans were in the process of shifting
to a new position - the Hermann Line - which they wished to
establish to the northeast near Valenciennes. Cambrai fell while
German rearguards attempted to destroy installations behind them and
Canadian troops rushed to secure key bridges, among them an engineer
captain who became the only Canadian sapper awarded the VC. As Cambrai
was being liberated, the Canadian Cavalry Brigade, a component of
the British 3rd Cavalry Division, was fighting their last actions of
the war 12 miles to the southeast. The
Canadian Corps was relieved on 11 October after 47 days of action,
during which it had advanced 22 miles and encountered almost 25% of
the German divisions in France. The casualty count had been almost
31,000, two-thirds of those at Cambrai.
The Pursuit to Mons
As the Germans continued their
withdrawal to the Hermann Line, anchored on Valenciennes, the
Canadians began a cautious pursuit even though patrols confirmed
that only enemy rearguards lay ahead of the Corps. General Currie
gave the order to avoid decisive engagements, and the sense that the
war would soon be over was almost palpable. The Corps advanced for a
week, meeting scattered opposition and encountering demolished
bridges and cratered roads that slowed the way and hampered the
movement of the artillery and supplies. The Corps halted a few
thousand yards from Valenciennes on 23 October to let the British
units on the flanks catch up.
Valenciennes promised to be a tough
objective; the Germans were determined to make a stand here, too,
with five divisions centred on the wooded Mont Houy. The city itself
was protected by flooded terrain to north and west leaving an
approach only open from one direction. The British attacking Mont
Houy on 28 October, but were thrown off of it.
General Currie was determined not to pay
the price in men at this stage of the war if he could use shells
instead. On 1 November the 10th Brigade moved out under what was
later described as the heaviest single brigade fire plan of the
entire war. By 08:15 hrs, in three hours' time, the 44th, 46th and
47th Battalions captured the feature and advanced 4,000 yards into
the southern environs of Valenciennes. The city fell the next day,
and the Germans all along the front were once again streaming to the
east.
The next objective for the Corps was
Mons, where the British Expeditionary Force had begun the war so
famously. The Corps advanced against sporadic sniper and machine gun
fire, and once again the Canadian advance was cautious, but on 10
November, they had reached Mons, and at daybreak on the last day of
the war, entered the city without firing a shot.
At 11:00 hrs, at the eleventh hour, of
the eleventh day, of the eleventh month - it was over.
Not everyone
got the word in time. Private George Pria of the 28th Battalion
was leading a patrol north of the city when he was killed by a
sniper at two minutes to 11. Elsewhere Canadian troops greeted
the peace with quiet uncertainty. "What a strange and peaceful
calm followed. Not a cheer went up from anyone," wrote Private
Patrick Gleason of the 46th Battalion.1
Legacy
Historian Jack Granatstein compiled a
list of "12 Military Events that Shaped Canada"; among them was "The
Hundred Days":
The Canadian
Corps' victory at Vimy Ridge in April 1917 commands the
attention of Canadians still. The success of the set-piece
Easter attack at Vimy gave the Corps its élan and its
nationalistic pride, but it did little to alter the course of
the war. What did lead the Allies to victory was the Hundred
Days. In March 1918, the Germans launched the first of a
succession of massive offensives on the Western Front. The
Allies reeled backwards, but ultimately held, and on Aug. 8 the
British, French and Americans were ready to attack. Led by the
Canadian and Australian Corps, Sir Douglas Haig's attack at
Amiens on Aug. 8 was "the black day" of the German Army. General
Sir Arthur Currie's Canadians pressed eastward in a
three-month-long succession of battles, smashing the enemy's
heavily fortified Drocourt-Quéant Line, crossing the Canal du
Nord, taking Valenciennes, and ending the war on Nov. 11 at Mons,
Belgium, where British troops had first faced the German army in
1914. Despite sufferin 45,000 casualties since August, the Corps
had made huge territorial gains, defeated enemy divisions in
wholesale, cemented its reputation as a corps d'elite, and
played the greatest and most decisive ever battlefield role by
Canadian troops.2
Notes
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Marteinson, John.
We Stand on Guard: An Illustrated History of the Canadian
Army (Ovale Publications, Montreal, PQ, 1992) ISBN
2894290438 p.208
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Granatstein, J.L. "12 Military Events That Shaped
Canada" Legion Magazine (November/December 2012)
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