A Black Day
German soldiers killed near Chipelly during the August offensive, 1918. NAM 1995-03-84-24
This time it was the German front that broke. A 24 kilometres (15 miles) long gap had been punched in the German line south of the Somme by the end of the advance. The Fourth Army took 13,000 prisoners and over 300 guns. Total German losses were estimated to be 30,000 on 8 August while the Allies suffered about 6,500 killed, wounded and missing. It was the first time that such large-scale capitulations occurred. The German Commander-in-Chief, General Ludendorff called it 'the black day of the German Army' due to the collapse in morale.
Both Ludendorff and Kaiser Wilhelm II now concluded in private that Germany could no longer win the war. The Allied push continued during the next few days but gradually slowed down as the tanks and infantry outran the supporting artillery. Many Allied units were also running short of supplies. On 10 August the Germans began to pull out of the Amiens salient.
The Hundred Days
Royal Engineers repairing a canal bridge 1918. NAM 1999-11-70-39
Amiens began the period known as the ‘Hundred Days’, a series of offensives along the line, which drove the Germans back. Much use was made of the Australian and the Canadian Corps in these attacks. On 21 August the British Third Army attacked at Albert and pushed the German Second Army back over a 55 kilometre (34 mile) front. On 26 August, the British First Army widened the attack by another 12 kilometres (seven miles). Bapaume fell on 29 August and the Germans were forced back to the line of the Somme.
As supplies and reinforcements were brought forward, the British Fourth Army also resumed its offensive, and the Australian Corps crossed the River Somme on 31 August, breaking the German lines at St Quentin and Péronne. General Rawlinson described the Australian advance as the greatest military achievement of the war. Between 12 and 18 September 1918 the Allies then reduced the remaining German salients at Havrincourt, St Mihiel, Epehy and Canal du Nord.
