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| Summary | |
The
devastating nature of the British offensive of Battle
of the Somme had caused a serious re-assessment of strategy by
the German high command. While the Somme fighting continued and operations
on the Ancre went on through the winter, the German army created
a formidable new line some miles to the rear and executed a withdrawal
to it in March 1917, just in time to upset Allied plans for a new offensive.
As British patrols detected that the enemy front line on the Somme
had been evacuated, the German withdrawal was pursued. On reaching
the new enemy position, they encountered not a trench system, but a
veritable fortress: they called it the Hindenburg Line. |
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| Which British formations took part? | |
Third Army VII Corps :14th Division, 21st Division, 30th Division, 56th Division Fourth Army III Corps :1st Division, 48th Division, 59th Division IV Corps :32nd Division, 35th Division, 61st Division XIV Corps : Guards Division, 20th Division XV Corps : 8th Division, 20th Division, 40th Division Fifth Army II Corps :2nd Division, 18th Division V Corps : 7th Division, 46th Division, 62nd Division XVIII Corps : 58th Division 1st ANZAC : 2nd, 4th and 5th Australian Divisions Notes : the 1st and 2nd Indian Cavalry Divisions were renamed the 4th and 5th Cavalry Divisions on 26th November 1916. The 20th Division transferred from XIV to XV Corps on 25 March 1917. The 2nd Australian Division captured Bapaume on 17 March 1917, and 48th Division of III Corps occupied Peronne the next day. |
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| What happened? | |
| This part of the page has not yet been written! | |
| Links to battles before and after | |
| The Operations on the Ancre, 1917 | |
| The Arras Offensive, 1917 |