Even though the breach of the main Hindenburg Line on the 29th September was considered a success, and the Germans were retreating, it failed, leaving the British Fourth Army facing a fortified bottleneck. Furthermore, Allied units were “bled white”—infantry battalions that normally held 1,000 men were charging into battle with fewer than 250.
On 3 October, a coordinated assault was launched by the British 46th Division and the 2nd Australian Division to capture the Beaurevoir Line. This was a deep system built 8 kilometres behind the German fortifications and unlike earlier deep concrete systems, these trenches were only partially dug. However, they were heavily reinforced by thick uncut barbed wire entanglements and had masterfully hidden machine gun nest and anti-tank bunkers.
The October 3 Push: The 2nd Australian Division made great tactical leaps, seizing Lormisset Farm and the high ground near Beaurevoir Mill. They entered the village of Beaurevoir but were forced to halt just short of completely securing it because their flanks were entirely exposed. To their right, the 46th British Division successfully took the village of Montbrehain but were violently driven back out by a swift German counter-attack
The October 4 Slog: The 22nd Australian Battalion launched a punishing dawn attack to secure the Left Objective Point (JOT). Advancing 1,000 yards under blinding defensive fire, they captured a heavily defended German factory near Geneve. Though successful, neighbouring British Manchester units were pushed out of Ponchaux, leaving the Australian left flank open to enfilade fire until nightfall.
With Beaurevoir partially compromised, the final linchpin of the defensive system was Montbrehain. The task fell to the 6th Australian Infantry Brigade (Victoria) on the 5th October.
At 6.05AM, moving behind an intense, rolling artillery barrage, the 21st and 24th Battalions, alongside the 2nd Pioneer Battalion acting as infantry, advanced uphill from Ramicourt across 500 metres of completely open, fire-swept ground.
The 21st Battalion launched a fierce bayonet assault straight into the heart of Montbrehain village. The 24th Battalion encountered a lethal bottleneck at a quarry northwest of the town. In a famous act of bravery, Lieutenant George Ingram led a desperate charge against the quarry, single-handedly capturing nine machine guns and killing 42 enemy soldiers, earning the Victoria Cross.
By 9:00AM the objectives were met, but the Germans launched coordinated artillery barrages and counter-attacks from three directions simultaneously. The overstretched Australians were violently forced back 360 metres through the town. By mid-afternoon, the Australians dug in, stabilised the perimeter, and successfully held the town
The battle completely shattered the final German fallback system on the Western Front, forcing the German high command to realize their armies were thoroughly defeated in the field.
On the night of 5–6 October, the exhausted Australian 2nd Division was formally relieved by the 30th American Division. This marked the absolute end of Australian infantry operations in World War I.
Britain’s Fourth Army under Gen. Sir Henry Rawlinson, was the force that bore much of the brunt of the campaign called the Hundred Days – the great counter attack beginning on August 8th 1918 which finally forced the German command to sue for the Armistice that came into effect on November 11th, ending the Great War in the West. Germany’s commander Gen. Paul von Hindenburg called August 8th the black day of the German army in this war and it was indeed the beginning of the end. The high tide of Ludendorff’s Spring Offensives had been halted just before the vital Cathedral city and road and rail junction of Amiens, and on August 8th, spearheaded by Australian troops and a strong force of tanks, the Allies hit back. New tactics had at last been learned after the futile offensives of 1915, 1916, and 1917, and the Allied troops moved forward under the cover of creeping barrages in small, fast-moving groups tasked to achievable bite and hold operations. When resistance stiffened the attack would be broken off and renewed on another part of the line. By such means the seemingly impregnable Hindenburg Line – which made use of canals and tunnels to form a mighty defence barrier – was rapidly broken and the offensive passed into the open country to the East. The final battles fought by the Fourth Army early in November were near Le Cateau, ironically the site of the battle in 1914 that had begun the war.
In WWI the Western Front was the main theatre of combat, a 700-kilometre line of trenches and fortifications stretching from the Swiss border to the North Sea. Much of the front-line encompassed France and Belgium’s vital industrial regions and, at times parts of Southern Germany. Between 1914 and 1918 this area was the war’s most critical area of fighting defined by the horrors of trench warfare with immense casualty rates, and for most of the war, a ‘brutal stalemate’ between the Allies and Germany.
The Front was characterised by five things:
Trench warfare – where both sides ‘dug in’ creating a vast network of trenches allowing both sides to hold ground leading to a war of attrition
Industrialised warfare – which included tanks, aircraft, advanced artillery and the extensive use of machine guns
Chemical warfare – tear gas, chlorine and mustard gas was used by both sides. The use of these was prohibited in the Geneva Convention in 1925
Disease – with the unsanitary conditions in the trench’s disease carried by rodents and water were rife, contributing to many unnecessary deaths
No Man’s Land – the devastated and dangerous space between the opposing forces, the name of which is indelibly linked with the futility of this War.
Major battles included the Battle of the Marne in 1914 which halted the German’s Schlieffen Plan preventing the early fall of Paris. The Battle of the Verdun in 1916, a ten-month battle designed to bleed France white resulting in over 700,000 casualties. The Battle of the Somme in 1916 which was an Allied offensive known for having 1 million casualties including over 57,000 British casualties on the first day alone. The Third Battle of Ypres and Passchendaele in 1917 famous for horrific mud and heavy losses with limited gains. The German Spring Offensive in 1918 which was Germany’s final attempt at victory before the arrival of American troops which nearly broke Allied lines, and the Hundred Days Offensive in 1918 which was the Allies final offensive that broke German lines and forced the November 11th Armistice.
