Canada's Hundred Days was the name given to the series of attacks made by the Canadian Corps between 8 August and 11 November 1918, during the Hundred Days Offensive of World War I by the French after the war. Reference to this period as Canada's Hundred Days is due to the role that the Canadian Corps repeatedly played as a spearhead during offensives.
During this time, the Canadian Corps fought as part of the
Second Battle of the Somme, Battle of the Scarpe, Battle of the Canal du Nord, Battle of Cambrai, Battle of the Selle, Battle of Valenciennes and finally at Mons, on the final day of combat before the Armistice of 11 November 1918. In terms of numbers, during those 96 days the Canadian Corps' four over-strength or "heavy" divisions totalling roughly 100,000 men, engaged and defeated or put to flight elements of 47 German divisions, which represented one quarter of the German forces faced by the Allied Powers fighting on the Western Front.[1] However, their successes came at a heavy cost; Canadians suffered 20% of their battle-sustained casualties of the war during the same period.[2] The Canadian Corps suffered 45,835 casualties during this offensive.[3]
Background
The
Italian Front and replacements held back in Britain by the Prime Minister, David Lloyd George.[7] Foch agreed on a proposal by Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, commander of the BEF, to strike on the Southeast of Amiens with the intention of forcing the Germans away from the Amiens–Paris railway.[6]
The allied command had developed an understanding that the Germans had learned to suspect and prepare for an attack when they found the Canadian Corps moved in and massed on a new sector of the front lines. British Prime Minister David Lloyd George reflected this attitude when he wrote in his memoirs: "Whenever the Germans found the Canadian Corps coming into the line they prepared for the worst."[8] A deception operation was devised to conceal and misrepresent the Canadians position in the front. A detachment from the Corps of two infantry battalions, a wireless unit and a casualty clearing station had been sent to the front near Ypres to bluff the Germans that the entire Corps was moving north to Flanders.[9] Meanwhile, the majority of the Canadian Corps was marched to Amiens in secret.[10] Allied commanders included the notice "Keep Your Mouth Shut" into orders issued to the men, and referred to the action as a "raid" rather than an "offensive".[11] To maintain secrecy, there was to be no pre-battle bombardment, only artillery fire immediately prior to the advance.[12] The plan instead depended on large-scale use of tanks to achieve surprise, by avoiding a preliminary bombardment, a tactic successfully employed at the Battle of Hamel.[13]
The battle began in dense fog at 4:20 am on 8 August.[11][14] Under Rawlinson's Fourth Army, the British III Corps attacked north of the Somme, the Australian Corps to the south of the river in the centre of Fourth Army's front, and the Canadian Corps to the south of the Australians. The French 1st Army under General Debeney opened its preliminary bombardment at the same time, and began its advance 45 minutes later.[15] The operation was supported by more than 500 tanks, which helped to cut through the numerous barbed wire defences employed by the Germans.[16]
The first day of the attack, August 8, saw the attacking forces break through the German lines in dramatic fashion, with the Canadians pushing as far as 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) from their starting points. In many places the fog provided good cover for their advances in and through the furrows of the valley of the Luce river which ran through the centre of the Canadian's portion of the battlefield. The tanks were successful in this battle, as they attacked German rear positions, creating panic and confusion. The swift advance led to a rapidly spreading collapse in German morale that ultimately led Erich Ludendorff to dub it "the Black Day of the German Army" when he was told of the psychological impact on his men.[17]
Continuing to press the advantage gained on Day One, the advance continued for three more days but without the spectacular results of August 8, since the rapid advance outran the supporting artillery that could not be repositioned as quickly as the infantry advanced. By the 10th of August, the Germans had been forced to pull out of the salient that they had managed to occupy during Operation Michael in March, back towards the Hindenburg Line.[17] Left without an enemy to fight or a plan to pursue the retreat the Allied advances in the Amiens sector including those of the Canadians petered out by 13 August and the Amiens operation was halted.[12]
The Canadians remained on the scene at Amiens until 22 August, consolidating their gains and prepared to defend against counter-attack. On the 23rd they were summoned to pull out and go into the line east of Arras for an attack that was to commence three days later. There they were stationed in the villages of Fouquescourt, Maucourt, Chilly and Hallu from which they would attack eastward toward the Hindenburg Line.
At Amiens the four Canadian Divisions faced and defeated or put to flight ten full German Divisions and elements of five others that sat astride their boundaries with the Australians and French on either side of them. In the five earnest days of fighting between the 8th and 13 August the Canadian Corps captured 9,131 prisoners, 190 artillery pieces, and over 1,000 machine guns and trench mortars. The deepest extent of penetration from their jumping off points was approximately 23 km (14 mi), and in total the Canadians liberated an area of more than 170 km2 (67 sq mi) which contained 27 towns and villages.[18]
road. On September 2, the Canadian Corps smashed the Drocourt-Quéant line, and broke its main support position, taking 5,622 casualties, which brought the total losses of the Arras-Cambrai operation up to 11,423 casualties. After this, the Germans retreated across the Canal du Nord, which was almost completely flooded.