The German Army launched its Spring Offensive with a staggering 63 Divisions over a 110-kilometre front. There were three main attacks: Operation Michael, Operation Georgette and Operation Blücher (and Gneisenau), which aimed to split the British and French. The Germans hit the British hardest on the old Somme battlefields, breaking through their line and advancing dangerously close to the vital transport and communications hub of Amiens.
On 28 March, troops of the 4th Australian Division occupying positions around Dernancourt were met with the German Army’s Spring Offensive advance. The fighting extended from Dernancourt to Albert, but all attacks were beaten back. On 5 April, four German divisions launched an attack on two brigades of the 4th Division, strung out along the railway siding. The Germans failed to fully break through the Australian defences, but the 4th Division suffered 1230 casualties.
After the action on 5 April, German troops successfully captured Villers-Bretonneux—the last major village before Amiens and an important railhead to Paris. Australia’s 13th Brigade of the 4th Division and 15th Brigade of the 5th Division launched a counter-attack and were able to wrest control of the village from the Germans. The counter-attack cost the two brigades 1469 casualties.
Using aircraft, artillery and armour in effective combination with infantry, the attack mounted by General Monash was over in the space of 93 minutes—just three minutes over schedule—having achieved its objective of straightening the allied line and taking the town of Hamel. The Australian Corps advanced the line by two kilometres across a 6.5-kilometre front and captured 1600 prisoners, 200 machine guns, trench mortars and anti-tank weapons
In response to the German Spring Offensive, a massive counteroffensive was launched against the German Army. The Australians advanced 11 kilometres and the Canadians almost 13. Australia’s 4th and 5th Divisions led the advance before the 2nd and 3rd Divisions took another three kilometres. So successful was the attack that German General Erich Ludendorff describes Amiens as the “black day of the German army in this war”, but it came at a cost of 6000 Australian casualties.
The French town of Péronne was the objective of a series of operations mounted by the Australian Corps between 29 August and 2 September 1918. Advancing along the south bank of the Somme, the Australian Corps made its first attempt to take Péronne on 29 August. Neither the 2nd Division before the town nor the 5th Division to the south of it was able to secure a crossing point over the Somme and the town remained firmly in German hands.
The 2nd Division crossed the Somme River and attacked and captured Mont St Quentin, while the 5th Division attacked and captured Péronne. The attack on Mont St Quentin was extremely difficult, with the steep sides of the hill preventing the effective use of artillery. Although they were pushed off the summit by a determined German counter-attack, the Australians retook their objectives in an operation sometimes regarded as the finest ever conducted by the AIF.
Throughout September the Australian Corps assisted the British in securing a position from which an attack could be launched on the Hindenburg Line’s main defensive system. A preliminary attack by the 1st and 4th Divisions captured some of the advanced defensive posts. In all, 4300 Germans were taken prisoner.
The British continued their offensive into Palestine. During the battle at Megiddo on 28 September, two divisions of Australian mounted troops, along with No. 1 Squadron, Australian Flying Corp, took part in the decisive victory in which 70,000 Turkish soldiers were taken prisoner.
Australian and American troops spearheaded the British attack on the Hindenburg Line. Working in conjunction with massive amounts of artillery, aircraft and tanks, they succeeded in breaking through at Bellicourt with extremely heavy casualties. Once the British crossed the Canal du Nord they broke the Hindenburg Line, materially assisting the attack of the Australians and their American counterparts.
The Australian Corps fought its last action on the Western Front at Montbrehain. By this time, the Australian Corps had been fighting for six months without rest, resulting in 11 of the 60 battalions being disbanded due to heavy casualties and low numbers of reinforcements. A total of 27,000 Australian troops had been killed or wounded since the start of the offensive at Amiens on 8 August.
On 11 November, the German Government signed the Armistice that would bring an official end to the First World War in 1919. By the war’s end 61,512 Australians had been killed or died of wounds or disease, and 152,000 had been wounded.
https://anzac100.initiatives.qld.gov.au/remember/key-moments/index.aspx
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