Battle Histories > Western Front > The First Battles of the Somme, 1918
21st March - 5th April 1918
Day by Day Account

Details of what happened in this immense battle can be found here:

21 March 1918
22 March
23 March
24 March
25 March
26 March
27 March
28 March
29 March
30 March
31 March
1 April
2 April
3 April
4 April
5 April

The second phase of the German 1918 plan opened in Flanders on 9 April 1918: the Battle of the Lys

This major battle is often called the Kaiserschlacht

On 11 November 1917, the German High Command decided to make a decisive attack in the west in the following Spring. Their target was the British Army. They believed that the British were exhausted by the four major efforts in 1917 (Arras, Messines, Passchendaele and Cambrai).

By mid-February 1918, the Germans had moved many Divisions from the now collapsed eastern front to the west. It was believed that they had 177 Divisions in France and Flanders, out of their world-wide total of 241. Of these, 110 were in the front line of which 50 faced the short British front. A further 67 were in reserve, with 31 facing the BEF.

By late 1918, the manpower advantage now enjoyed by Germany would be gone as the American forces slowly built up to strength. The time to strike was now: it would win the war; it was to be the
"Kaiserschlacht" (Kaiser's Battle).

The German plan: Operation Michael

It is a common misapprehension that the German attack was aimed at splitting the British and French armies, which joined south of Saint Quentin. Ludendorff's aim was actually to cut through on the Somme - "punch a hole and things would develop" as they had against the Russians - and then wheel north-west to cut the British lines of communication behind the Artois fronts, bottling up the BEF in the narrow neck of land in Flanders. The British army would be surrounded with no means of escape, which would inevitably lead to surrender.

Most of the area that was about to be attacked had only very recently been taken over by the British. Prime Minister David Lloyd George had agreed to do so at the Boulogne Conference, against military advice, after which the line was extended. The 'line' taken over from the French barely existed, and much labouring and construction work would be needed to put it in a defensible state. Unfortunately, the labour was just not available. When the battle opened, few of the defensive positions were ready, and the second and third lines did not exist at all.

British army in a state of change
At the same time as German strength was growing, the British Army was depleted, having to face up to a manpower crisis and resultant reorganisation, and at a low point of morale after enduring the conditions of Passchendaele and the disappointment after early success at Cambrai. They were also coming to terms with the need to fight a defensive battle for the first time since 1915 and the adoption of a deep defensive zone rather than a continuous trench line system.
Tactically, the German army adopted an approach that had succeeded on the eastern front, particualry at teh Battle of Riga. Their infantry attack would be preceded by an intense barrage concentrated not on the infantry holding the forward posts, but on British artillery and machine-gun positions, headquarters, telephone exchanges, railways and other important centres of communications. In other words it was a very deep barrage designed to knock out the British ability to respond - but lasting only a few hours before the infantry went in. When the German infantry attacked, they would operate in groups, specially trained to "infiltrate" - exploiting gaps and moving forward, not worrying about areas that were held up: they would be dealt with by follow-up units. For the British, unused to a discontinuous line and the idea of a deep zone of defended hotspots, such a tactic would spell chaos, uncertainty and disaster. It very nearly worked.
Order of Battle
The British formations involved are described from right to left in the day-by-day account.
Summary
The immense German attack, which enjoyed a numerical superiority of 58 Divisions against 16,


Break through against Fifth Army - chaotic but fighting retreat - endangered Amiens - reserves - Allied command co-ordination - haevy losses to both sides - German defeat - Gough fired - British confidence rises
Casualties

The British Official History, which made a painstaking compilation of casualty statistics, quotes a total of 177,739 men lost as killed, wounded and missing. Of these, just under 15,000 died. Of the 90,000 missing, a very large proportion were taken prisoner as the Germans advanced. For teh same reason, an unusually high proportion of those who died have no known grave.

The greatest losses were to 36th (Ulster) Division [7,310], 16th (Irish) Division [7,149] and 66th (2nd East Lancashire) Division [7,023]. All three formations were effectively destroyed and had to be taken out of he order of battle in order to be rebuilt. Six other divisions each lost more than 5,000 men.

German casualties, for a slightly different period of 21st March to 30th April (which includes the Battle of the Lys) are given as 348,300. A comparable Allied total over this longer period would be French losses of 92,004 plus British of 236,300, making just over 328,000.

The battlefields today

See the tour of the 1918 battlefield on this site.

References
  • Official History: History of the Great War based on Official Documents: MIlitary Operations, France and Belgium, 1918 - volume 1: March-April: continuation of the German offensive, compiled by Brigadier-General Sir James EDomnds, published 1937.
Other books
The Kaiser's Battle by Martin Middlebrook
To the last man by Lyn McDonald