![]() The rolling sequence of attacks along the line meant that the Germans could not mass defensive or counter-attack forces in one place. During the Last 100 Days, it became harder and harder for the Germans to shift assets from one sector to another. Each attack during the drier weeks was associated with relatively small losses but the number of casualties between attacks was high. #Hundred days offensive seriesPlumer's campaign in Third Ypres is often hailed as the archetypal series of bite-and-hold operations. After the attack it was possible for the defender to mass significant artillery assets and bring converging fire to bear on the captured territory. Not on the day of the attack itself, when very limited objectives supported by significant artillery protection could overwhelm the enemy positions. When major attacks were few and far between, a bite-and-hold operation could be very costly for the attacker. Once culmination was reached then the offensive would be scaled back, the captured territory having been consolidated for defence throughout the series of ever-decreasing advances (in many but not all cases).Ī more fundamental difference, however, was not related to the conduct of specific offensive operations. Many attacks were aimed at pushing as deeply as possible into the German lines, which were defended in much greater depth than had been the case in 1915. This was Rawlinson's definition, loosely translated, of bite-and-hold (I quoted his definition here). The repeated concerted attacks were not aimed at occupying a sector of enemy territory and then inviting the defenders to retaliate. The end of the war was near.A very interesting question. #Hundred days offensive fullAfter Canadian and other Allied troops crossed the Canal du Nord, the German forces were in full retreat. The Arras and Canal du Nord battles cost over 30,000 Canadian casualties but helped break the German army’s final defensive positions. Behind a complicated fire plan and the work of engineers, the Corps crossed the canal and pushed through the enemy defences, eventually capturing strong points like Bourlon Wood and Cambrai on 9 October. Canadian troops finally crashed through the heavily fortified Drocourt-Quéant Line on 2 September.Īfter almost a month of planning and preparation, the Canadian Corps attacked across the Canal du Nord in another high-risk operation on 27 September. The initial artillery bombardment blasted the Germans’ positions, but an intense, week-long battle followed, resulting in more than 11,000 Canadian casualties. The Canadians opened their attack on 26 August. But the enemy positions at the D-Q Line and along the Canal du Nord were strong and deep, bristling with machine-guns, and forcing them would not be easy. A successful operation would outflank the Germans’ vaunted Hindenburg Line of prepared defences, forcing them to retreat. In the first of these attacks, the Canadians spearheaded the British First Army’s attack on the Arras front, through the Drocourt-Quéant Line (D-Q Line) and across the Canal du Nord to capture the town of Cambrai. The ensuing campaign, known as the Hundred Days (August – November 1918), ended in the defeat of German forces in the West. Canadians Spearhead the AttackĪfter the victory at Amiens, Allied commanders agreed on a multi-army offensive along the Western Front against German forces that, for the first time in the war, appeared vulnerable. The hard-fought victories at Arras and the Canal du Nord remain among the most costly but impressive engagements fought by the Canadian Corps during the First World War. ![]()
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