Amiens is an important transportation hub in France, and the main railway line across the French mainland just passes through Amiens. After the Germans occupied Amiens, Foch had been restless, because this undoubtedly put a trap around the neck of the French.
To this end, on July 24, 1918, he proposed to the Allied Military Council a campaign plan aimed at capturing Amiens. The basic idea of the plan was to repel the attack on Amiens by recovering the railway line between Amiens and Paris.
Breaking Dawn - The German Army in the Somme River area, thus getting rid of the defense and turning into an all-out attack on the German Army. Foch's plan was unanimously approved by the Allied Powers.
The forces Foch planned to invest included the British 4th Army, the French 1st and 3rd Armies, a Canadian Army consisting of 4 divisions, an Australian Army consisting of 5 infantry divisions, 3 cavalry divisions, and an American division.
17 infantry divisions, 3 cavalry divisions, 2,684 artillery pieces, 51 tanks, 6 armored vehicles and approximately 1,000 aircraft. The campaign was under the unified command of Commander Haig of the British Expeditionary Force.
The total assets of the German army in the Amiens area were only one group army with 7 divisions, 840 artillery pieces, and 106 aircraft. Compared with the Allies, Germany was obviously at a disadvantage.
The Allied forces were not only superior to the Germans in terms of strength, but based on the lessons learned from the successful penetration tactics of the Germans in the first half of the year, Haig changed his tactics. He ordered the Allied forces not to use artillery fire during the attack, but to use tanks as the lead to launch surprise attacks.
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In order to achieve the effect of a surprise attack, Haig required that all pre-war preparations be carried out covertly and secretly. 230 troop transport trains and 60 bomb transport trains shuttled back and forth in the quiet summer night; the road was paved with sand and straw, and supplies were piled up.
They were also camouflaged; searches and artillery tests were prohibited; the entire area was covered by the British and French air forces who had air supremacy. In order to defeat the Germans, the British and French allied forces also launched feint preparations in the Ypres area.
Although the coalition forces have taken various measures, it is difficult for such a large army to maneuver without leaking any news. A few days before the attack, German intelligence personnel heard at the forward position of the German 2nd Army that there was something approaching the rear of the British army.
Suspicious noises were heard, and aerial reconnaissance also discovered the movements of tank columns. However, after the German command headquarters received this information, they not only failed to pay due attention to it, but instead accused the intelligence department of being neurotic.
Allergy Ludendorff also didn’t believe that the coalition forces, which had been severely damaged by the Germans in Operation Michael, could organize a large-scale offensive in less than half a month. In this way, all the British and French coalition forces were
We successfully reached the area east of Amiens before the night of August 7th.
At 3 o'clock in the morning on August 8, the ground began to fog up. After a while, the ground became completely white. After 4 o'clock, allied tanks secretly advanced toward the German positions under the cover of aircraft noise.
At 4:20, 2,000 artillery pieces opened fire at the same time, and the shells fell like a storm on the German positions, command posts, observation posts, communication hubs and other rear targets. In an instant, the German positions were filled with smoke and devastation, and many fortifications were destroyed.
The explosion left only broken walls, and the charred land was as bumpy and bumpy as if it had been plowed. 45 minutes later, the coalition forces launched an impact on the German army on a 40-kilometer-wide area with 31 times the strength of the German army.
In an instant, the soldiers' shouts of killing, the clash of weapons and the whistling of bullets were intertwined and resounded over Amiens. Although the heavy fog affected the actions of the attacking troops and prevented the air attack, the purpose of the coalition's raid was still achieved.
The coalition's attack completely caught the Germans by surprise. Before the German command could figure out the situation, the coalition crossed the no-man's land and broke into the German frontline positions.
During the advance of the coalition forces, the tank once again demonstrated its great effectiveness to the world. Due to its relatively good protection, the tank advanced against the German machine guns and fired while destroying telegraphs and telephones to cut off the German army from the high command.
The British tanks kept rolling forward, which caused many German soldiers to have mental breakdowns and fled instinctively one by one. Soon, the coalition forces broke into the German front-line positions. The German staff officer, Colonel Osido, was ready to eat some breakfast to satisfy his hunger.
, was captured by the British army and became the first division-level officer captured by the British army in the Battle of Amiens.
However, the coalition's attack was not perfect. Since the coalition used tanks and cavalry to cooperate, this had a considerable negative impact on the assault. Because cavalry was faster than tanks, tanks were often left behind during movement.
In the back, the original tanks were used to cover the cavalry advance, but the cavalry was used to cover the tanks' advance. However, [Breaking Dawn - Xun Qing Comes into Dreams] the cavalry could not block the firepower of the German machine guns and rifles. As a result, the tanks and cavalry always seemed to shuttle during the attack.
They advanced alternately, moving forward and backward. Before it got dark, the cavalry was forced to retreat because their horses needed water, and the tanks retreated immediately. As soon as the tanks retreated, they were just within the range of the German artillery fire.
, quite a few were hit.
Tactical mistakes caused more than 100 Allied tanks to be destroyed by German artillery fire, and more than 120,000 people were lost. However, the battle on August 8 was the greatest victory for the Allied Powers after the Battle of the Marne:
More than 270,000 corpses lay scattered on the German positions, 150,000 people were captured, and 400 artillery pieces and countless military supplies fell into the hands of the Allied forces.
Ludendorff was stunned by this sudden defeat. In the headquarters, he shouted in frustration: "August 8 was the darkest day for the German army in the history of this war."
In order to make the final resistance, Ludendorff immediately issued a stern order, requiring the frontline German troops to defend their positions at all costs. At the same time, he also transferred 6 reserve divisions from other areas to urgently reinforce the Amiens garrison, and another 7
The reorganizer was also ordered to go for reinforcements.
On August 9, the coalition forces continued their offensive. However, the coalition forces encountered huge difficulties at this time: the coalition officers and soldiers were exhausted due to too much consumption in yesterday's battle, and supplies were not replenished in time; the 300 available tanks were neither available.
There was no maintenance and no replenishment of ammunition and fuel; the German soldiers struggled to resist under the pressure from above. Various difficulties made the coalition's attack on this day seem lifeless and lacking in strength.
Haig knew that after the German reinforcements arrived in Amiens, the attack would be much more difficult. Therefore, he rushed to the front line personally on the 0th and directed the coalition forces to launch a tenacious attack on the German army. Haig ordered more reserve troops to be deployed,
The British, French, Canadian and Australian troops all participated in the battle; on the one hand, they ordered to widen the offensive front and deploy all their forces on a 75-kilometer front from Albert to the Oise River to increase the difficulty of the German defense.
and weaken its resistance.
While Haig was strategizing, what he was worried about finally happened. On this day, most of the German reinforcements arrived in Amiens, and the German resistance increased. The German army built a large number of temporary fortifications at a rapid speed and relied on
The temporary fortifications put up a tenacious resistance. During the bloody battle, the German high-explosive artillery shells shook the ground. Many Allied officers, soldiers and equipment were shaken into the sky and then fell heavily to the ground.
In order to reduce casualties, the various divisions of the coalition forces had to fight piecemeal in small units, and large battles turned into countless localized battles. The German army faced tit-for-tat, using bomb craters and cover [Breaking Dawn-Xunqing enters the dream].
Relying on this, machine guns were used to deal with the skirmishing formations of the coalition forces, resulting in the coalition forces suffering huge losses. By the 10th, the French army had advanced 10 kilometers on an 18-kilometer-long front; the British army was in even worse condition, at 16,000 kilometers.
The meter-long front only advanced 5 kilometers. Seeing that the frontline attack was frustrated, Haig ordered to slow down the pace of the attack.
Although the German army killed a large number of coalition forces, it failed to achieve its goal of forcing the coalition forces to stop their attack. After Ludendorff learned that the coalition's attack had weakened, he ordered the German army to organize a counterattack on the 11th.
Ludendorff considered that the current strength of the German army was difficult to repel all the coalition forces. The best way was to repel the most powerful British army among the coalition forces and force the Allies to retreat. Therefore, he ordered all German firepower to be concentrated
Attack the British Army.
The German artillery fire hit the British army assembly area overwhelmingly. The forest was blown to pieces, the trees were scorched, and the hills were flattened. The entire British defense line was shrouded in thick smoke and fire. Because a large number of British tanks were destroyed by German artillery,
It lost the ability to attack, so it could only be beaten passively and was beaten to a pulp by the German army. Fortunately, the French army and the Australian army successfully repelled the German counterattack and quickly sent troops to reinforce the British army, thus containing the German offensive.
Although the coalition forces were exhausted at this time, the combat effectiveness of the coalition forces was greatly enhanced due to the participation of 890,000 new American troops and a large amount of supplies. The German army, on the other hand, continued to fight and received few supplies, so its combat effectiveness declined rapidly. The coalition forces saw the opportunity right.
, organized a powerful offensive against the Germans in the early morning of the 2nd. The Germans resisted tenaciously, but were eventually overwhelmed due to the disparity in strength. By dusk, the Germans had to withdraw from Amiens and retreat to Albert, Perona and the Somme.
In the area east of the upstream line, the coalition forces completely stopped attacking on the 13th.
The Battle of Amiens ends here!
The Battle of Amiens marked the final decline of Germany. From then on, the morale of the German army dropped sharply, and desertions occurred in large numbers among the troops assigned to the Western Front. Soldiers often gathered together and shouted: "We don't want to fight for millionaires."
fight!"
"**Long live!"
Almost all German military generals began to understand that the hope of victory had been shattered, that there was no hope of continuing the war, and that extraordinary measures must be taken.
On August 13, Hindenburg, Ludendorff, Prime Minister, and Foreign Minister held a joint meeting at the German High Command.
At the meeting, everyone was depressed and silent.
Ludendorff said helplessly: "Now, we are no longer able to defeat the enemy, and it is impossible to persist in defense for peace. There is only one way out in front of us, to end the war through peace negotiations!"