Battle of the Hindenburg Line

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Battle of the Hindenburg Line
Part of World War I
Breaking the Hindenburg Line by William Longstaff.
Date 18 September-10 October 1918 Location Hindenburg Line, France Result Decisive Allied victory
Belligerents
Australia Canada France United Kingdom United States	German Empire
Commanders
Ferdinand Foch	Georg von der Marwitz
Strength
4 British armies 1 French army American Expeditionary Force	Defensive forces and gun emplacements of the Hindenburg Line

The Battle of the Hindenburg Line, which began on 18 September 1918, was a key turning point in the Hundred Days Offensive that eventually led to the end of World War I. British forces spearheaded the attack against the German line, continuing their effective use of tanks that started earlier in the Offensive at the Battle of Amiens. The battle was another sign that trench warfare was over as the Allies broke through the largest trench system on the Western Front.

[edit] Prelude

After the First battle of the Somme German commanders Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff decided the German army could not win a war of such battles of attrition. They adopted a scorched earth retreat to a planned location and began construction on the Hindenburg Line. The line was a nearly 100 mile long trench system with a second trench line behind it as backup.

On 21 March 1918, Germany launched Operation Michael, the first in a series of attacks from the Hindenburg Line that would drive the Allies back along the length of the Western Front. Michael itself was aimed at the town of Amiens, a vital railway junction, but the advance had been halted at Villers-Bretonneux by the Australians on 4 April.^[1] Subsequent German offensives — Operation Georgette, Operation Blücher-Yorck, Operation Gneisenau and Operation Marne-Rheims — had made advances but failed to achieve a decisive breakthrough.^[2][3] Finally, at the Battle of Amiens the Allies regained the offensive momentum pushing the Germans back into a retreat, due in large part to the effectiveness of their newest weapon - tanks.

Subsequent British, Commonwealth, French and American counter attacks brought the Allies back up against the outposts of the Hindenberg Line by the Autumn of 1918.

[edit] The battle

v • d • e Hundred Days Offensive Amiens – 2nd Somme – Arras – Havrincourt – St.-Mihiel – Épehy – Hindenburg Line – Meuse-Argonne – Courtai – Selle – 2nd Sambre

The British High Command had fully realised that any success against the formidable defences of the Hindenberg Line could only be achieved with the use of tanks.

Australian General John Monash launched the earliest attack of the battle on 18 September. At 5:20 AM, the Australian and New Zealand Corps (ANZACS), along with artillery support and only 8 tanks (along with some dummy tanks) broke through some German positions. Roughly 1,000 Australians were wounded or killed in this assault, but they had taken 4,300 Germans prisoner by the end of the day.

The British arrived at the line next, British General Sir Henry Horne's First Army attacked the Wotan Stellung, followed by General Sir Douglas Haig's Army Group on the Siegfried Stellung.

On 27 September the US 27th and 30th Divisions launched the initial attack, with the Australian 3rd and 5th Divisions intended to "leapfrog" through the American forces. The inexperienced Americans did not clear German positions as effectively as they might have. This forced advancing Australians to fight again for the ground the Americans had just taken. Australians took the village of Montbrehain on 5 October as their final action in the battle. Their forces had been fighting on the front lines since 27 March and 27,000 men had been killed or wounded just since the Battle of Amiens in early August. Although the Australians withdrew, the Siegfriedstellung portion of the line was completely cleared by 10 October.

The British First, Third, Fourth and Fifth Armies joined with the French First Army and the American Expeditionary Force, under the supreme command of the French General Ferdinand Foch, and by the 10th October 1918, they had irretrievably shattered and cleared the whole of the Hindenberg Line.

At this point the fate of the German Army and State was sealed. The Western Front was never entirely broken, but by the 11th November 1918, the Germans had unconditionally capitulated and the Great War was over.

[edit] References