Amazon.com: The Hindenburg Line 1918: Haig's forgotten triumph (Campaign): 9781472820303: McCluskey, Alistair, Dennis, . On 17 March, withdrawals began north of the Avre and by 18 March, the German 7th, 2nd, 1st and the southern wing of the 6th Army, began to withdraw from the old front-line (110mi (180km) in length, 65mi (105km) as the crow flies). Ive lived with Germans in South Australia and they are human beings like us and wouldnt do it. [45], Defensive positions held by the German army on the Somme after November 1916 were in poor condition, the garrisons were exhausted and postal censors reported tiredness and low morale, which left the German command doubtful that the army could withstand a resumption of the battle. Information and translations of Hindenburg Line in the most comprehensive dictionary definitions resource on the web. [27], The practice of rigidly defending front-line trenches, regardless of casualties was abolished, in favour of a mobile defence of the fortified areas being built over the autumn and winter of 19161917. They urged that the 1st Army section of the Siegfriedstellung (Hindenburg Line) from Quant, where it met the site of the Wotanstellung (Wotan Line) to Bellicourt north of St Quentin, should have another position built 2,0003,000yd (1.11.7mi; 1.82.7km) in front of the new position, which would become the artillery protection position (Artillerieschutzstellung) behind the revised front system; the line already had 1,200 dug-outs to accommodate 14,000 men, which was sufficient to shelter local reserves. German air units were concentrated around Arras and the Aisne, which left few to operate over the Noyon Salient during the retirement. Queant, France. All guns and howitzers up to 6in (150mm) able to bear on the target, opened rapid fire using corrections of aim from the air observer. Inside was a kitchen where German bodies were found one of them in a cooking cauldron. [19], On a visit to Kuhl on 20 January, Fuchs concluded that Allied superiority was so great that the German army could not forestall the Anglo-French with an attack or stop them attacking elsewhere. Behind the Fifth and Fourth army fronts, the course of the Hindenburg Line was further away and the winter weather was exceptionally bad, which grounded aircraft and made air observation unreliable. At 5.20 am, Monash's troops, supported by huge artillery barrages, attacked the heavily fortified German defences and machine-gun posts. Anti-German sentiment was so strong that it was widely believed. Later in the day, the British entered Saillisel and by 16 March, most of the wood had been occupied. Infantry crossed the river on 20 March by when the mounted troops had reached Germaine and the Fourth Army infantry outposts were established on high ground 2.53mi (4.04.8km) east of the Somme. 2022 [103], A sequence of Allied offensives began with attacks by American and French armies on 26 September 1918 from Rheims to the Meuse, two British armies at Cambrai on 27 September, British, Belgian and French armies in Flanders on 28 September; on 29 September the British Fourth Army (including the US II Corps) attacked the Hindenburg Line from Holnon north to Vendhuille while the French First Army attacked the area from St Quentin to the south. The main influence of air operations was exerted through message carrying and reconnaissance, particularly in observing ground conditions in front of the advance and intermittent co-operation with artillery. By this the time all the tanks had been knocked out of action , but the position in the Hindenburg Line could be maintained if enough bombs and ammunition could be brought forward and if . Combined operations with infantry, cavalry, cyclists, armoured cars and aircraft had also occurred. Co-ordination between German infantry and artillery suffered from the hasty nature of the attack, for which planning had begun on 13 April. General von Hoen and Colonel Fritz von Lossberg the 1st Army Chief of Staff issued a memorandum, Erfahrungen der I Armee in der Sommeschlacht (Experience of the German 1st Army in the Somme Battles) on 30 January 1917. Faced with substantial numerical inferiority and a dwindling firepower advantage, the new German commanders, Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg and Gen. Erich Ludendorff, shortened their lines and installed concrete pillboxes armed with machine guns as the start of an extended defensive system up to eight miles deep, based on a combination of firepower and counterattacks. Lagnicourt was occupied for a short time and five British guns destroyed but the rest of the attack failed. On 27 January, the 29th Division took 368 prisoners in an advance of only 400yd (370m) and on 1 February, an Australian attack on Stormy Trench was repulsed by a German counter-attack. 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. 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. Transport of materials was conducted by canal barge and railway, which carried 1,250 trainloads of engineering stores, although the building period from October 1916 to March 1917 meant that only about eight trains a day were added to normal traffic. Publication date 1917 Topics World War, 1914-1918 Publisher New York, Chicago [etc.] The troubled transport situation behind the British front, which had been caused by mounting difficulties on the Nord railways, overloading and the thaw on roads made British supply problems worse. The disasters 36 deaths included 13 read more, Paul Von Hindenburg (1847-1934) was a German World War I military commander and president. [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. German fighter opposition in the area became much worse, with more aircraft and the arrival in service of superior aircraft types in the late summer of 1916. 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. Optimistic claims by the navy were less important to the decision than the "desperate" position of the western armies and the decrepitude of Germany's allies. [2] Ludendorff criticised the practice of holding ground regardless of its tactical value and advocated holding front-line positions with a minimum of troops and the recapture of lost positions by counter-attacks, a practice that had already been forced on the German armies on the Somme. There were wild claims that the enemy was boiling down the dead, and this was exploited by the allies propaganda system. The WotanSiegfriedRiegel plan would reduce the front by 8.1mi (13km) and need six fewer front-holding divisions, compared to a shortening of 28mi (45km) and a saving of 13 to 14 divisions, by withdrawing an average of 9.3mi (15km) to the Siegfriedstellung (Hindenburg Line). Throughout September 1918, Australian forces had helped the British army to secure positions from which an attack on the Hindenburg Line could be launched. It was recognized by a unified Germany in 1990. Ten fresh divisions had been brought into the Somme front and an extra division had been put into the line opposite the British. In late December 1916, reports from witnesses led to British and French air reconnaissance further to the south and in mid-January 1917 British intelligence concluded that a new line was being built from Arras to Laon. It formed a 400-mile line, stretching from Belgium in the north, across eastern France, and to Switzerland in the south." The Hindenburg Line- the last and strongest of the German army's defence - consisted of three well-defended trench systems, established in 1917. The attack failed except at Bullecourt where the west of the village was regained. When French troops entered Lassigny they caused a traffic jam and vehicles that tried to skirt the jam bogged in mud. It is the Boundary Between India & Pakistan. 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. When did the Germans retire to the Hindenburg Line? 0. [90], The German defensive strategy on the Western Front in 1917, succeeded in resisting the increase in the offensive power of the Entente, without the loss of vital territory but the attrition of German manpower was slowed rather than reversed. 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. Numerous raids were mounted on British outposts during 20 and 21 March. Attacks had been made indirectly, using ground for cover and a number of outflanking moves had succeeded. A fall in temperature added to German difficulties, by freezing the mud in the Ancre valley, making it much easier for infantry to move. [36], On the Fourth Army front, fewer attacks took place while the French line was being taken over in stages, southwards to the AmiensRoye road. The German front-line was being maintained along the rest of the front and the possibility of a sudden German counter-offensive was not discounted. The Hindenburg was a 245-metre- (804-foot-) long airship of conventional zeppelin design that was launched at Friedrichshafen, Germany, in March 1936. The Hindenburg Line consisted of an outer network covered by [.] General Franchet d'Esprey proposed an improvised offensive to Nivelle, who rejected the idea, in favour of strengthening the main French front on the Aisne. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). [78], When British patrols probing German outposts found them unoccupied, the Allies began a cautious advance, slowed by German destruction of the transport infrastructure. It was the Line that described Germany's position during the World War I. [61], After 18 March the main body of the Fifth Army was ordered to dig in temporarily from Bancourt to Bapaume, Achiet-le-Grand and Ablainzevelle and the advanced guards, which were large enough to be mobile columns, be reinforced to the strength of brigade groups. The Durand Line left about half of the Pashtun homeland under British rule. [24] The defences were built by German construction companies, who brought skilled workmen to fabricate ferro concrete emplacements, while 12,000 German and 3,000 Belgian labourers and 50,000 mainly Russian prisoners of war dug the trenches. It was hoped that this attack would finally break the power of the German army. Australian and US troops spearheaded this battle, given the task of breaking defences in the centre. 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. Next day, parties of Germans at Beugny in the Riegel III Stellung fought until nightfall then slipped away. All Rights Reserved. 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. Addeddate 2010-05-11 12:13:27 Fires could be seen behind Bapaume, with more visible behind the Riegel III Stellung and British military intelligence reported that the headquarters of Rupprecht had been moved to Mons; civilians were known to have been evacuated along with supply dumps and artillery. 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. [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. An attack on Fresnoy Le Petit, late on 5 April, was hampered by uncut wire and a second attack the next night was stopped halfway through the village, the defenders holding out until 7 April; an attack on Vadencourt also failed. Trench-lines were mainly intended for accommodation, dumps of supplies and as decoys, rather than firing lines. Carried out by the First, Third and Fourth Armies these victories rank among the greatest-ever British military achievements. 1.USA & Canada 2.North & South Korea 3.Iraq & Iran 4.Israel and Syria 5.None of these. A final German counter-attack was made to recapture all of Bullecourt and the Hindenburg trenches on 15 May. 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. Despite increased German resistance, Neuville Bourjonval, Ruyaulcourt, Sorel le Grand, Heudicourt, Fins, Dessart Wood, St Emilie, Vermand sur Omignon, Vendelles, Jeancourt, Herbecourt, pehy and Pezires were captured between 28 March and 1 April. American bodies from the fighting on 29 September, near Gillemont Farm, when men from the 27th American Division attacked over the main Hindenburg Line. Accession Number: The 58th Division relieved the Australians and British attacks on 13 May failed. Artillery observation posts were built in the front-trench system or in front of it. [43] Roads were flooded by destroying drains and water-courses; wells sabotaged by drilling a shaft next to them and exploding a charge, permanently ruining the well. The Agache River Canal du Nord sector west of Cambrai was attacked first on 27 September 1918. On 1 January, a German attack took Hope Post near Beaumont Hamel, which was lost to a British attack on 5 January. The Allied spring offensive had been forestalled and the subsidiary French attack up the Oise valley negated. Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox. [23] The design of the Siegfriedstellung (Siegfried Position, later known by the Allied powers as the Hindenburg Line) was drawn up by Colonel Kraemer, an engineer from supreme headquarters (OHL) and General Lauter, the Inspector General of Artillery. Answer. The following year, the airship era screeched to a spectacular halt when the Hindenburg burst into flames while landing in Lakehurst, New Jersey. Allgemeines ber Stellungsbau (Principles of Field Fortification) was published in January 1917, in which instructions were given for the construction of defences in depth, according to the principles of greater depth and of disguise by dispersal and camouflage. [49], On 10 March, the Fifth Army took Grvillers Trench and Irles in a methodical attack, which overwhelmed the German defence and took 215 prisoners. Rupprecht objected to the scorched-earth policy on moral and practical grounds, that the destruction would be a propaganda disaster, provide enemy troops with shelter, material to repair the damage to roads and undermine the morale and discipline of the German soldiers involved in the destruction. Deep dug-outs in the front line were to be replaced by many more smaller, shallow Mannschafts-Eisen-Beton-Unterstnde (MEBU shelters) with most built towards the rear of the defensive areas. The Allies had attacked with overwhelming material superiority, using combined-arms tactics, with a unified operational method and achieved a high tempo. The Hague Rules allowed prisoners of war to be used as labourers but not on work concerned with warlike activities. The 5th Australian Division relieved the 2nd Australian Division by 10 May, while the battle in Bullecourt continued to the west, the 7th Division capturing the village except for the Red Patch on 12 May, while the 62nd Division advance was pushed back. One of the most picturesque features behind the line, during . The Hindenburg disaster marked the end of the use of rigid airships in commercial air transportation. What is the line between Poland and Germany? The French Third Army captured the Epine de Dallon on 3 April, bringing it up to the Hindenburg Line and on 4 April the British captured Metz en Couture in a snowstorm. On that day, the 30th Infantry Division, U.S. Army, broke the Hindenburg Line, an important segment of the German defensive network on the Western Front in Europe during WWI. The industrial mobilisation needed to fulfil the Hindenburg Programme increased demand for skilled workers, Zurckgestellte (recalled from the army) or exempted from conscription. The line ran from Arras to Laffaux, near Soissons on the Aisne. Nivelle had already decided to use the French troops released by the shorter front to reinforce the line in Champagne. The English dubbed it "the Hindenburg Line" and only managed to breach its strongest section, the Siegfriedstellung, in September 1918, leading directly to Germany's collapse. 9: The Radcliffe Line. By late March each British corps in the pursuit had diverted a minimum of one division to work on road repairs and bridging, the thaw making the effect of German demolitions far worse. The observer used a call sign of the map square letter and the zone letter to signal to the artillery. Drawn up by General Mannerheim. [8], To meet existing demand and to feed new weapons, Hindenburg and Ludendorff wanted a big increase in propellant output to 12,000 long tons (12,000t) a month. E04942C. 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. The retirement to the Hindenburg Line (Alberich Bewegung/Operation Alberich/Alberich Manoeuvre) took place from February to March 1917. Prisoner interrogation, postal analysis, espionage and air reconnaissance were used to identify the probable sites of Anglo-French offensives. an assumption France would be easy to defeat. Lagnicourt was lost on 26 March and a counter-attack from Noreuil repulsed, then a British attack on Bucquoy was defeated. In February, attempts to send more aircraft to reconnoitre the line were hampered by mist, snow, rain, low cloud and an extremely determined German air defence. The Hindenburg Line consisted of an outer network . In 1936 the Hindenburg inaugurated commercial air service across the North Atlantic by carrying 1,002 passengers on 10 scheduled round trips between Germany and the United States. On the night of 12 March, the Germans withdrew from the Riegel I Stellung between Bapaume and Achiet le Petit, while small parties of troops sent up flares to mislead the British, who were preparing an attack. read more, Survivors of the Hindenburg disaster far outnumbered the victims. [33] Next day, an escaped Russian prisoner of war, reported that 2,000 prisoners were working on concrete dug-outs near St Quentin. The British looked upon this stretch of the Hindenburg Line with great reverence. [82] In April 1917, an analysis by II Corps had found that patrols coming under fire had stopped to report, ground of tactical importance had been ignored by patrols that had returned to British lines, forfeiting opportunities to force German withdrawals and artillery had been reluctant to push forward. An illustration of a horizontal line over an up pointing arrow. [75] In Cavalry Studies: Strategical and Tactical (1907) Haig had described the hasty retreat of a beaten enemy and an organised withdrawal by a formidable force, capable of rapidly returning to the attack, to defeat a disorganised pursuit. The attack began on 3 May; part of the 2nd Australian Division reached the Hindenburg Line and established a foothold. A well researched and logically structured technical account of a . [63] On the right flank, IV Corps had to advance about 14mi (23km) over cratered and blocked roads to reach the Somme but Corps Mounted Troops and cyclists arrived on 18 March to find German rearguards also mounted on bicycles. There were steel-reinforced concrete dugouts. [25], The line was 90mi (140km) long and built for a garrison of twenty divisions, one every 4.5mi (7.2km). Larger forces were not to move east of a line from the Canal du Nord to the Somme south of Pronne until roads, bridges and railways had been repaired. On 25 February, the 2nd Australian Division advanced on Malt Trench, found it strongly held and was forced to retire with 174 casualties. The Hindenburg Line was the last zone of German defenses on the Western Front. A German counter-attack to recover Beaumetz was mounted on 23 March and got into the village before being forced to withdraw; the attack was repeated next day but only one party reached the village. 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. A large amount of heavy artillery fire up to 5.0mi (8km) deep, to the rear edge of the German defences would achieve the breakthrough. beat France then focus on Russia. 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. Allied troops in the pursuit suffered from exposure and shortages of supplies but had increased morale, better health (trench foot cases declined sharply) and adapted to open warfare. The conduct of the Anglo-French pursuit conformed to this model. [7], The men for the divisions created by Falkenhayn had come from reducing square divisions with four infantry regiments to triangular divisions with three regiments, rather than a net increase in the number of men in the army. March was considered the earliest that the Anglo-French could attack, with a possible delay if a Russian offensive was also planned. [95], The attack was intended to begin 48 minutes before sunrise but the tanks were delayed by a blizzard and the attack was cancelled at the last minute; the 4th Australian Division withdrawal from its assembly positions was luckily obscured by a snowstorm. 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. [28], The value of ground was to be determined by its importance to a defensive position. Roads built on causeways over marshy ground between the river and canal, caused water to form pools 0.5mi (0.80km) wide, making crossings practical only at the causeways. We pay our respects to elders past and present. Divisions from the Fourth Army had been moved south, to take over former French positions and I Anzac Corps had been transferred to the Fifth Army to compensate for divisions sent north to the Third Army by 6 February, which left the Anglo-French forces in the area depleted.
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