Amiens: The battle that turned the tide of World War I
The Battle of Amiens in August 1918 was the beginning of the Allied Hundred Days Offensive, which would ultimately lead to their victory.
Image: Men of the Royal Garrison Artillery prepare for the Battle of Amiens | Public Domain
In the spring of 1918, a powerful offensive by Germany on the Western Front pushed the Allies to their limits. But in August, the Allies fought back with their Hundred Days Offensive. It began with the Battle of Amiens, a massively successful advance at a key strategic location.
How did the Battle of Amiens turn the tide of World War I? Both good timing and clever strategy were involved.
Before Amiens: The German Spring Offensive
Both the Allies and the Central Powers understood that the USA’s decision to join the war could be its deciding factor. But although the United States made that decision in April 1917, their military needed to be mustered, trained, and transported. The first American soldiers joined the Western Front in June 1917, but the bulk of the American forces would not arrive until the next summer.
Therefore, Germany’s strategy was to try to win on the Western Front before the Americans could join. To that end, Germany began a last-ditch attempt at victory – their fast and intense Spring Offensive in 1918. At one point, this offensive seemed to give Germany the upper hand. But ultimately, it failed, exhausting supplies and forces while providing insufficient gain in exchange for its costs.
From May 1918 onward, American soldiers joined the front lines in greater numbers. And at the Second Battle of the Marne in mid-July, the Allies successfully repelled a major German attack.
The time had come for the revitalised Allies to start their counteroffensive on the Western Front. This counterattack would later be called the Hundred Days Offensive, and it would begin at on 8th August at Amiens, France.
Amiens
Amiens was a town of immense strategic importance because of its rail connections, which joined key locations on the Allied side to provide supplies and communications to the front. Without Amiens, the Allied troops would starve.
The Germans had tried to take Amiens during their Spring Offensive, but they had failed. Now, in July 1918, the Allied commanders decided they needed to push the Germans farther back from Amiens and protect its railways with a forceful offensive.
Importantly, though, Amiens was not a battle that relied purely on power. Amiens was won through the strategy formed by multiple skilled military leaders.
The commanders
In spring 1918, the French officer Ferdinand Foch had been named Supreme Commander of all the Allied forces on the Western Front. A highly capable military leader, he is often praised for the part he played in the Allied victory.
But Foch is not the only man who deserves credit. The success of the Amiens resulted from efficient collaboration between various skilful leaders and divisions of soldiers from France, the UK, Canada, Australia, and the USA. Among others, the British officer Henry Rawlinson was the commander of the Fourth Army at Amiens, and Australian general John Monash provided crucial strategic insight based on his recent successes.
Furthermore, the Canadian Corps was an accomplished division that formed a large part of the forces at Amiens. The decision to employ this powerful corps and the similarly effective Australian division to spearhead the attack at Amiens reflected the battle’s importance to the Allied war effort.
'Keep Your Mouth Shut'
In addition to skilled leadership and forces, another major factor in the success of Amiens was simply surprise.
Troops were moved toward Amiens in night-time secrecy. Plans were also kept secret from the Allies’ own soldiers for as long as possible, and a notice with 'Keep Your Mouth Shut' was distributed within their orders.
The Allies also employed disinformation. Some battalions were sent elsewhere to mislead the Germans, and false information was spread even within the Allied troops.
The morning of the battle also provided fog – an unexpected benefit that heightened the element of surprise on the Allied side.
Tank power
Victory at Amiens can also be attributed partly to the powerful tanks and other artillery employed by the Allied forces.
Over 500 tanks were used at Amiens, and they were often more sophisticated than older models. Fighter planes and artillery were also used in complex manoeuvres that, again, required detailed strategic planning. This was the opposite of the simple trench warfare that we often picture when we think of World War I.
Morale – soaring high, plunging low
The Battle of Amiens lasted for three days, from 8th to 11th August. Its greatest successes were on its first day, that day of surprise. By the third day, Allied forces decided to halt their attack, although some leaders even wished to continue.
The Allies gained significant ground during this attack and inflicted heavy casualties on the German side. But not all the losses for the Germans were injuries or deaths. Many were taken prisoner, and indeed it is estimated that 30,000 Germans surrendered at Amiens.
This is an indication of the battle’s greatest impact, which was on morale. The German General Ludendorff called 8th August 'the black day of the German army', referring to both the losses and the despair it produced. The already struggling German people began to see that they could not win.
In contrast, the Allied forces were given confidence and hope. Their counteroffensive was off to a brilliant start. And from Amiens onward, it would be clear that victory was in the Allies’ hands. The crushing defeat the Germans suffered at Amiens and the successful Hundred Days Offensive that followed would lead inevitably to the signing of an armistice and a treaty that left Germany powerless.
