| Battle Histories > Western Front > The First Battles of the Somme, 1918 | ||||||
| 21st March - 5th April 1918 |
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| 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 |
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| 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. |
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| 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 |
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| Casualties | ||||||
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| The battlefields today | ||||||
See
the tour
of the 1918 battlefield on this site. |
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| References | ||||||
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| Other books | ||||||
| The Kaiser's Battle by Martin Middlebrook | ||||||
| To the last man by Lyn McDonald | ||||||
