This Day in History: 8 August 2020
8 August 1918
102 years ago, today, the Battle of Amiens began. This was a series of offensive operations launched by the Allies against the Germans on the Western Front, during World War One. Allied generalissimo Ferdinand Foch had rejected the idea of a single decisive blow against the Germans, and instead favoured a series of limited attacks, in order to liberate the railway lines around Paris. The national commanders, John J. Pershing of the United States, Philippe Petain of France and Sir Douglas Haig of Britain, went along with this strategy, allowing each army to act as its own entity, striking individual blows instead of joining in one coordinated attack.
The German defensive positions at Amiens were outnumbered six to one by advancing Allied forces, and the Allies had penetrated German lines around the Somme by the end of the day, dubbed 'the black day of the German army'. Of the 27,000 German causalities, 12,000 had surrendered. The Allies at Amiens, however, failed to continue their success in the following days. The German army continued to fight on into the final months of the war, despite being faced with the momentum of the Allied summer offensive and being plagued by disorder and desertion within their troops, as well as rebellion on the home front.
Want to find out more about the Battle of Amiens? Click here for more information, or here for more about the final months of the war.
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