Australian and US troops spearheaded this battle, given the task of breaking defences in the centre. The army was so flush with men that plans were made to demobilise older Landwehr classes and in the summer, Falkenhayn ordered the raising of another 18 divisions, for an army of 175 divisions. [33] Next day, an escaped Russian prisoner of war, reported that 2,000 prisoners were working on concrete dug-outs near St Quentin. Against the new scales of equipment, British divisions in early 1917 had 64 heavy and 192 light machine-guns and the French 88 heavy and 432 light machine-guns. A tank attack by the Fifth Army was improvised for 10 April on a front of 1,500yd (1,400m) to capture Riencourt and Hendecourt. This major victory 100 years ago precipitated Germany's surrender and the Nov. 11, 1918, armistice declaration . Ans. The advanced guards of the 5th and 2nd Australian divisions had a detachment of the Australian Light Horse, a battery of 18-pounder field guns, part of an engineer field company, two infantry battalions and several machine-guns. A massive rearmament programme was begun to produce aircraft, heavy artillery, tanks and chemicals, which had similar goals to the Hindenburg Programme. Australian troops took a portion of the front Hindenburg trench and false reports of success led to cavalry being sent forward, where they were forced back by machine-gun fire as were the Australians by a counter-attack at 10:00 a.m. Total British casualties were 3,300; patrols from the 62nd (2nd West Riding) Division suffered 162 casualties, the 4th Australian Brigade 2,258 out of 3,000 men, with1,164 taken prisoner and the 12th Australian Brigade had 909 casualties; German casualties were 750 men. The German Friedensangebot (peace initiative) of December 1916 had been rejected by the Entente and the Auxiliary Service Law of December 1916, intended further to mobilise the civilian economy, had failed to supply the expected additional labour for war production. The artillery wireless organisation broke down at times, due to delays in setting up ground stations, which led to missed opportunities for the direction of artillery fire from the air. On September 29, 1918, after a 56-hour-long bombardment, Allied forces breach the so-called Hindenburg Line, the last line of German defenses on the Western Front during World War I. While still a boy, Autry moved with his family to a ranch in Oklahoma where he learned to play the guitar and sing. The new line would be similar but on reverse slopes, have dugouts for 24,000 men and be ready by 15 March. Drawn up by General Mannerheim. beat France then focus on Russia. The policy was to resume on 1 February, to sink 600,000 long tons (610,000t) of shipping per month and knock Britain out of the war in five to twelve months. A German breakthrough attempt was rejected for lack of means and the consequences of failure. No need to register, buy now! In the last 24 hours the British artillery fired a record 945,052 shells. Foch would do this with a sequenced series of offensives all along the front that culminated with his central armies storming the Hindenburg Line between Cambrai and Saint-Quentin. The Siegfried, known in German as the Westwall, was a German defensive line built during the 1930s (started 1936) opposite the French Maginot Line. The new fortified areas were intended to be precautionary measures (Sicherheitskoeffizient) built to be used as rallying-positions (Eventual-Stellungen, similar to ones built on the Russian front) and to shorten the Western Front to economise on troops and create more reserves. On 24 February, the Germans withdrew on an 18,000yd (10mi; 16km) front opposite the Fifth Army, abandoning Warlencourt, Miraumont and Serre. By this time, most Australian troops had been fighting for six months without a break, 11 out of 60 battalions were disbanded because there were so few men left in them, and 27,000 men had been killed or wounded since the Battle of Amiens. The northern outpost villages were lost on 2 April and Lempire fell on 5 April. Combined operations with infantry, cavalry, cyclists, armoured cars and aircraft had also occurred. [87] The length of the Western Front was reduced by 25mi (40km), which needed 1314 fewer German divisions to hold. British engineers improvised sleds to move guns and wagons, with pack-mules being used to carry food and ammunition and on 8 March, ammunition lorries were able to move forward in the V Corps area. Both theories were incorporated by Ludendorff into the new Ausbildungsvorschrift fr die Fusstruppen im Kriege (Training Manual for Foot troops in War) of March 1917. Hindenburg and his quartermaster general, Erich von Ludendorff, decided to build a system of German defence fortifications behind the northern and central sectors of the Western Front. German casualties were c. 85,000, against British losses of 117,066 for the Third and First armies. This withdrawal straightened the German line, reducing its length by 25 miles and releasing 13 Divisions for service in the reserve. n a line of strong fortifications built by the German army near the Franco-Belgian border in 1916-17: breached by the Allies in August 1918 Collins English. Rupprecht refused to delay implementation of Operation Alberich (the Alberich Bewegung) but having inspected the Siegfriedstellung (Hindenburg Line) on 27 February, sanctioned the 1st Army proposal and provided three divisions and 15,000 labourers for the new construction, which turned the Siegfriedstellung (Hindenburg Line) into the Siegfried I Stellung. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! [105] On 4 October, the German government requested an armistice and on 8 October, the German armies were ordered to retire from the rest of the Siegfriedstellung (Hindenburg Line). Another two-trench system (Siegfried II Stellung) was planned near the artillery reserve positions, which were about 3,000yd (1.7mi; 2.7km) behind the existing battery positions, to be built as soon as labour became available. On the night of 10/11 January, a British attack captured the Triangle and Muck Trench, covering the flank of an attack on Munich Trench during the day; British troops edged forward over Redan Ridge for the rest of the month. The front-holding divisions, which had been worn down by British attacks, were withdrawn behind the Siegfriedstellung (Hindenburg Line). The breaking of the Hindenburg Line was part of a series of Allied assaults known as the Hundred Days Offensive, which led to the Armistice on November 11, 1918. The cavalry advanced again on 27 March and took Villers Faucon, Saulcourt and Guyencourt "with great dash". an assumption France would be easy to defeat. On the army boundary with the French the 32nd Division kept two brigades in line and one in reserve. Next day, German rear guards inflicted 174 casualties on Australian troops near Loupart Wood and forced British troops back out of Irles with artillery-fire. [31], British and French plans for 1917 were agreed at an Allied conference at Chantilly from 1516 November 1916. At head of map: O.31-D.24. In, German defensive preparations in early 1917, Operations on the Ancre, JanuaryMarch 1917, First attack on Bullecourt, 11 April 1917, Second Battle of Bullecourt, 317 May 1917, Official History of Australia in the War of 19141918, The German Retreat and the Battle of Arras, Imperial War Museum, The Hindenburg Line: The Apotheosis of German Fortifications on the Western Front in the Great War westernfront co uk. Accession Number: )[91] At Verdun in December 1916, Arras in April 1917 and at Messines in June, where the new German defensive principles of depth, camouflage and reverse-slope defences, dispersed methods of fortification and prompt reinforcement by Eingreif divisions, were not possible or had not been adopted in time, the British and French armies inflicted costly defeats on the Germans. The villages still held by the Germans were found to be in a much better state of defence, with much more barbed wire around them. The French returned to a policy of decisive battle, with a breakthrough to be achieved within 2448 hours, leading to the "total destruction of active enemy forces by manoeuvre and battle". The bombing offensive against Britain, acted to divert Anglo-French air defence resources, which slowed the rate at which the German air service was outnumbered in France. Ludendorff rejected the proposal next day but British attacks on the 1st Army, particularly the action of Miraumont/Battle of Boom Ravine (1718 February), caused Rupprecht on the night of 22 February, to order a preliminary withdrawal of about 4mi (6.4km) between Essarts and Le Transloy to Riegel I Stellung. Draught animals suffered from the weather, short rations and overloading; the British artillery soon had a shortage of 3,500 horses and several immobilised heavy artillery batteries. The Australian War Memorial acknowledges the traditional custodians of country throughout Australia. Due to a planned power outage on Friday, 1/14, between 8am-1pm PST, some services may be impacted. Beyond the photographs of mud and slaughter that epitomise what many think of the war, this photograph, taken late in the day on 30 September 1918 - the day after these men had stormed and broken the German defences of the Hindenburg Line - symbolises the victory that was about to be achieved. Where the lay of the land gave the defender a tactical advantage, by which an attacker could be defeated with the minimum of casualties to the defenders, with small-arms fire from dispersed, disguised positions and observed artillery-fire, it was to be fought for by the garrison and local reserves, which would counter-attack to regain any ground lost The changes were codified in a training manual Grundstze fr die Fhrung in der Abwehrschlacht (The Conduct of the Defensive Battle in Position Warfare) issued on 1 December 1916, which made infantry sections (Gruppen) rather than the battalion the basic tactical unit. The original French attacks between the Somme and Oise were reduced in size and the secondary attack between Soissons and Rheims was reinforced to become the main offensive. Soissons was abandoned, roads leading out of Noyon were flooded, railway bridges were blown and the Somme River and canal crossings from Offoy to Pronne were destroyed. Two divisions were involved in the attack with the first objective at the second Hindenburg trench on a front of 4,000yd (2.3mi; 3.7km), a second objective at the FontaineQuant road and the final objective at the villages of Riencourt and Hendecourt. The map of Europe changed significantly after World War I. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). [29], When front-line garrisons and their supports were unable to hold or recapture the front-line, they were to defend positions even if surrounded, to give time for a counter-attack by reserve divisions. Allison, a member of the Northwest American Everest Expedition, climbed the Himalayan peak using the read more, On September 29, 2005, New York Times reporter Judith Miller is released from a federal detention center in Alexandria, Virginia, after agreeing to testify in the investigation into the leaking of the identity of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame. Read more Hindenburg Line is in between The German outpost villages from Doignies to Croisilles were captured on 2 April and an attack on a 3,500yd (2.0mi; 3.2km) front, with Bullecourt in the centre was planned. [106], A German poster from January 1917 quotes a speech by Kaiser Wilhelm II, against the Allied rejection of the, German defensive positions from July to November 1918. Trenches had been dug near a crest, on a forward slope or at the rear of a reverse slope, which replicated the obsolete positions being abandoned. The German defence quickly recovered and on 30 November began a counter-offensive, using a similar short bombardment, air attacks and storm troop infantry tactics, which was contained by the British, in some parts of the battlefield using the Hindenburg Line defences captured earlier. galleries are progressively closed from 4 pm. The Hindenburg line lies between Poland and Germany, and it was created as a German Defensive line in French territory during World War II. [39], Over the winter, German deception operations were conducted and indications of an offensive through Switzerland diverted French attention at the end of 1916. The attacks were to be made on the broadest possible fronts and advance deep enough to threaten German artillery positions. [34], On 2 January, Nivelle instructed the Aronautique Militaire to co-operate with the British to investigate German defensive systems that spies and repatriated civilians had reported. The offensive was driven ahead by Australian and U.S. troops, who attacked the heavily fortified town of Bellicourt with tank, aircraft and artillery support. The Hindenburg Line was the last zone of German defenses on the Western Front. Attacks on similar objectives using different methods had similar casualties, which suggested that losses were determined by the German defence, rather than unsatisfactory British methods. Two schools of thought emerged over the winter; the principal authors of the new training manual, Colonel Max Bauer and Captain Hermann Geyer of the General Staff, wanting front garrisons to have discretion to move forwards, sideways and to retire. On the night of 14 March, patrols found that the Germans had withdrawn from part of the Fourth Army front and on 17 March, the Germans slipped away on all of the Third and Fifth Army fronts. Find Hindenburg line images dated from 1910 to 2020. When complete the various positions had a depth of 6,0008,000yd (3.44.5mi; 5.57.3km) and the original Hindenburg Line had become an intermediate line (Siegfried I Zwischenstellung). The most successful divisions in the pursuit were those that had been on the Somme for a considerable time, rather than the newer divisions, which were fresh and had trained for open warfare in England. From: Where British troops broke the Hindenburg line. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hindenburg-Line, Chemins De Memoire - Remembrance Trails of the Great War in Northern France - The Hindenburg Line, Government of Canada - Battle Honours and Honorary Distinctions - Hindenburg Line, Australian War Memorial - The Hindenburg Line: Breaking the Hindenburg Line. [32], During periods of fine weather in October 1916, British reconnaissance flights had reported new defences being built far behind the Somme front; on 9 November, reconnaissance aircraft found a new line of defences from Bourlon Wood to Quant, Bullecourt, the river Sense and Hninel, to the German third line near Arras. Hindenburg Line is the boundary dividing Germany and Poland. The demands of the Hindenburg Programme exacerbated the manpower crisis and constraints on the availability of raw materials meant that targets were not met. By March the outline of the Anglo-French spring offensive had been observed from the air. [e] On 13 March, a document revealing the plan and the code-name Alberich dated 5 March, was found in Loupart Wood. Later in the day, the British entered Saillisel and by 16 March, most of the wood had been occupied. The Wotan Line was the northernmost section of the Hindenburg Line, between. It took the British until 13 March to close up the Riegel II Stellung (Trench II Position). The Hindenburg, Nazi Germanys pride and joy, spent one glorious season ferrying passengers across the Atlantic in its luxurious belly. The Hindenburg Line (Siegfriedstellung or Siegfried Position) was a German defensive position of World War I, built during the winter of 1916-1917 on the Western Front, from Arras to Laffaux, near Soissons on the Aisne. Steel-reinforced concrete dug-outs for infantry squads and artillery-observation posts were standard designs and all woodwork was made to a pattern. The 7th Division continued to try to reach British parties, which had got into Bullecourt and been isolated. Each small advance uncovered to British ground observers another part of the remaining German defences. The Hindenburg Line, or Siegfriedstellung, achieved almost mythical status in the minds of the British public: the strongest defence system the world had then seen, scientifically designed by fortification experts with only one aim, to keep at bay the British Army. [98][99], Another British attack at Bullecourt was planned after the failure of 11 April but postponed several times until the Third Army further north had reached the river Sense and there had been time for a thorough artillery preparation. The declaration of war by Romania had placed additional strain on the German army and war economy. The Allied spring offensive had been forestalled and the subsidiary French attack up the Oise valley negated. News of the first German retirements led the army group commander, General Franchet d'Esprey to advocate an attempt to surprise the Germans and force them to retreat prematurely. Supplies of armour-piercing bullets had been sent forward by the Germans after Roisel was captured the day before, resulting in the armoured cars being peppered with bullet-holes. It is France's Defensive Line. Queant, France. [46], The British opposite the 1st Army, received indications that a withdrawal was imminent on 20 and 21 February, when intercepted wireless messages were decoded, ordering German wireless stations at Achiet le Petit, Grvillers and the vicinity of Bapaume, to close and prepare to move back. On 21 and 22 February, Australian troops captured more of Stormy Trench despite rain, which made the ground even more "appalling", than before the freeze in January and early February. A German counter-attack on 6 May was defeated but the engagement exhausted the 2nd Australian Division and the 62nd Division; serious losses had been inflicted on the 1st Australian and 7th divisions. [95], At 4:05 a.m. on 15 April, elements of four German divisions attacked from the Siegfriedstellung (Hindenburg Line) from Havrincourt to Quant to occupy Noreuil, Lagnicourt, Morchies, Boursies, Doignies, Demicourt and Hermies until nightfall, to inflict casualties, destroy British artillery to make a British attack in the area impossible and to attract British reserves from the Arras front further north. In this attack, troops captured the entrance to the St Quentin canal tunnel. Hindenburg Line, defensive barrier improvised by the German army on the Western Front in World War I. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! A British attack on Puisieux on 26 February took all day and ended in hand-to-hand fighting. Even with the expansion of the German army over the winter and the transfer of divisions from Russia, 154 German divisions the Western Front were confronted by 190 French, British and Belgian divisions, many of which were bigger than the German equivalents. The German Army fights on but it is . It was a scene never to be forgotten with infantry, tanks, guns, everything in action in a sort of inferno of smoke and shell bursts. The Nivelle Offensive was planned to begin with a British attack on the Bapaume salient in early April 1917, to assist the main French attacks a week later by holding German troops on the Arras front and diverting reserves from the Aisne. British heavy artillery had been moved north from the Fifth Army in January, ready for the offensive at Arras and had been partly replaced by inexperienced units from Britain. Trench-lines were mainly intended for accommodation, dumps of supplies and as decoys, rather than firing lines. ", When they returned I said to Harry, "Well what is it?" The German armies made an efficient withdrawal, although the destruction accompanying Unternehmen Alberich led a considerable amount of indiscipline. Artillery observation posts and machine-gun nests were built in front of and behind the trench lines. 9-6-1918, to When they called us up on the Hindenburg Line. [18] An OHL memorandum of 5 January noted that offensive preparations by the French and British were being made all along the Western Front to keep the site of a spring offensive secret. On 21 September, after the battle of FlersCourcelette (1522 September), Hindenburg ordered that the Somme front would have priority in the west for troops and supplies. On 20 March, an Australian attack on Noreuil failed with 331 casualties and an attack on Croisilles was repulsed. ART03023. Top reviews from other countries steve. Download Images of Hindenburg line - Free for commercial use, no attribution required. An illustration of a horizontal line over an up pointing arrow. The Hindenburg Line was a massive defense in depth, with reinforced concrete bunkers and trench lines, fields of barbed wire, machine gun nests, and minefields. Battlefields, battles and places. On 23 February, British and Australian troops on the south side of the Ancre, sent patrols forward to investigate fires seen in German trenches and discovered the German withdrawal. The British Fourth Army prepared to support the attack with artillery and such infantry attacks as could be attempted, while communications were being repaired. Production did not sufficiently increase over the winter, with only 60 per cent of the programme expected to be fulfilled by the summer of 1917. [72][73] Another view is that the Anglo-French were not pursuing a broken enemy but an army making a deliberate withdrawal after months of preparation, which retained considerable powers of manoeuvre and counter-attack. German digging behind existing fortifications had taken place several times during the Somme battle and led British Intelligence to interpret the evidence of fortification-building further back from the Somme front, as an extension of the construction already being watched. The tanks that attacked lost direction and were quickly knocked out, leaving no gaps in the barbed wire for the infantry. [71], The success of the German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line has been explained as an Allied failure to anticipate the retirement and in being unable seriously to impede it. The British were to attack the salient that had formed between Bapaume and Vimy Ridge with two armies and the French with three armies from the Somme to Noyon. [68] [g] Squadrons would not need to move every day and could arrange temporary landing-grounds. [choose all that apply] a German offensive plan for fighting. 2022 [94], During the Battle of Arras the British Fifth Army was intended to help the operations of the Third Army by pushing back German rear guards to the Siegfriedstellung (Hindenburg Line) and then attacking the position from Bullecourt to Quant, which was 3.5mi (5.6km) from the main ArrasCambrai road. News of the demolitions and the deplorable condition of French civilians left by the Germans were serious blows to German prestige in neutral countries. Until January 1917, the British took seriously a possible limited offensive towards the Channel ports and made Flanders the subject of most of their long-range reconnaissance flights. Called the "Siegfried Stellung (Line)" by the Germans, this complex system of defensive fieldworks and mutually supporting fortifications was named the "Hindenburg Line" by the Allies. 2022 A&E Television Networks, LLC. Information and translations of Hindenburg Line in the most comprehensive dictionary definitions resource on the web. Planning began in late 1916 and Operation Turk's Cross (Unternehmen Trkenkreutz) began in May 1917. [41] The Germans prepared a 35-day Alberich timetable; infrastructure in the salient was to be destroyed and buildings demolished from 9 February 15 March.

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