Canada's Hundred Days

Canada's Hundred Days – 1918 Part of the Western Front of the First World War Date August 8, 1918 – November 11, 1918 Location Amiens, France to Mons, Belgium Result Collapse of the German Empire Belligerents Canada German Empire Commanders and leaders Arthur Currie Erich Ludendorff Georg von der Marwitz Strength 4 divisions (apx. 100,000 men) 47 divisions (unknown strength) Casualties and losses 45,835. unknown

Canada’s Hundred Days was a series of attacks made along the Western Front by the Canadian Corps during the Hundred Days Offensive of World War I. Reference to this period as Canada's Hundred Days is due to the substantial role the Canadian Corps of the British First Army played in causing the defeat and/or retreat of the German Army in a series of major battles from Amiens to Mons which along with other Allied offensives ultimately led to Germany's final defeat and surrender. Though generally referred to as the 'Hundred Days' in the English-speaking world outside of Canada, the period is more frequently recognized in Belgium and France—particularly in the areas in which the Canadians fought—as "les cent jours du Canada." During this time, the Canadian Corps fought at Amiens, Arras, the Hindenburg Line, the Canal du Nord, Bourlon Wood, Cambrai, Denain, Valenciennes and finally at Mons, on the final day of the First World War.

In terms of numbers, during those 96 days the Canadian Corps' four over-strength or 'heavy' divisions of roughly 100 000 men, engaged and defeated or put to flight elements of forty seven German divisions, which represented one quarter of the German forces fighting on the Western Front. However their successes came at a heavy cost, the Canadians suffered 20% of their battle-sustained casualties of the war during the same period.

Background

The German offensives on the Western Front beginning with Operation Michael in March 1918 had petered out by July. The Germans, recognizing their untenable position, withdrew from the Marne towards the north. At this time, Ferdinand Foch ordered the Allies to return to the offensive, as the Americans were in France, increasing the morale of the Allies. The British Army had also been reinforced by large numbers of troops returning from battles in Palestine and Italy. In addition, they received large numbers of replacements previously held back in Britain by Prime Minister David Lloyd George. Foch agreed on a proposal by Field Marshal Douglas Haig, the commander of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), to strike on the Somme, east of Amiens and southwest of the 1916 battlefield of the Battle of the Somme. The Somme was chosen as a suitable site for the offensive for several reasons. As in 1916, it marked the boundary between the BEF and the French armies, in this case defined by the Amiens-Roye road, allowing the two armies to cooperate. The Canadian Corps was at this point part of the British Fourth Army under General Henry Rawlinson.

Battles

Battle of Amiens

As the Canadians had often come to be used as a spearhead, or front line force employed where fighting was going to be most difficult, (See the Somme, Vimy & Passchendaele) Allied command had developed an understanding that the Germans had learned to suspect and prepare for an attack when they found the Canadians were 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.”.

As such, when it was decided the Canadians with the Australians would spearhead the centre of the attack at Amiens the decision was taken that the movement of the Canadian Corps to Amiens would be kept as secret as possible. A deception operation was devised to conceal and misrepresent the Canadians position in the front. False radio traffic was created to indicate the Canadians were in Calais and a small unit was posted in the Ypres sector and made their presence there overtly recognizable. Meanwhile, the majority of the Canadian Corps was marched to Amiens in secret and was even kept out of the sight of fellow Allied units to maintain the secrecy of their movements.

The battle began in dense fog at 4:20 am on August 8, 1918. 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. The operation was supported by more than 500 tanks, which helped to cut through the numerous barbed wire defences employed by the Germans.

Noteworthy for the attack was that it was not preceded by any substantial (multiple day) preparatory artillery barrage. The general staff had decided that a preparatory barrage would serve as a warning to the Germans that an attack was forthcoming and may give them cause to move reinforcements and additional artillery into the area. It was hoped that to make up for the lack of preparatory barrage that the rolling barrage the infantry would advance behind and the tanks that would accompany them would cut paths through the German barbed wire and other defenses through which the men could advance.

The first day of the attack the attacking forces broke through the German lines in dramatic fashion, with the Canadians pushing as far as eight miles (or thirteen kilometers) from their starting points. The tanks were very successful in this battle, as they attacked German rear positions, creating panic and confusion. The subsequent collapse in German morale led Erich Ludendorff to dub it "the Black Day of the German Army".

The advance continued for three more days but without the spectacular results of August 8, since the rapid advance outran the supporting artillery. The Allies had managed to gain 12 miles in total, but the Germans were pouring in reinforcements. On August 10, 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. After this, the Amiens operation was halted, and the Canadians moved back to where they were previously to attack the Hindenburg Line, holding Fouquescourt, Maucourt, Chilly and Hallu in the Arras Sector.

Breaking the Hindenburg Line

In Arras, the Canadians attacked eastward, smashing the outer defence lines near the powerful Drocourt-Quéant Line (the Wotan Stellung section of the Hindenburg line), along the Arras-Cambrai road. On September 2, 1918, the Canadian Corps, smashed the Drocourt-Quéant line, and broke its main support position, taking 5622 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.

Canadian troops shelter in a ditch along the Arras-Cambrai road.

At the Battle of the Canal du Nord, following up the first breaking of the Hindenburg line, the Canadians used a complex manoeuvre to attack along the side of the canal through an unfinished dry section. The Canadians built bridges and crossed the canal at night, surprising the Germans with an attack in the morning. This proved the ability of Canadian engineers to construct new roads to cross the canal efficiently without the Germans noticing. The specialisation of troops and formally organised battalions of combat engineers was also effective as it allowed the soldiers to rest instead of working every day that they were not actively attacking.

The Canadians then broke the Hindenburg line a second time, this time during the Battle of Cambrai, which (along with the Australian, British and American break further south at the Battle of St. Quentin Canal) resulted in a collapse of German morale.

This collapse forced the German High Command to accept that the war had to be ended. The evidence of failing German morale also convinced many Allied commanders and political leaders that the war could be ended in 1918. (Previously, all efforts had been concentrated on building up forces to mount a decisive attack in 1919.)

Pursuit to Mons

As the war neared its end, the Canadian Corps pressed on towards Germany and the final phase of the war for the Canadians was known as the 'Pursuit to Mons'. It was during these final thirty-two days of the war that the Canadians engaged the retreating Germans over about seventy kilometres in a running series of battles at Denain and Valenciennes in France and finally Mons in Belgium where they pushed the Germans out of the town on November 10–11. Mons was, ironically, where the British had engaged the German armies for the first time in battle in the Great War on August 23, 1914. As such, Mons is considered by some to be considered the place where the war both began and ended for the British Empire.

Some criticism was leveled at Canadian Corps commander Arthur Currie by Sam Hughes and others for needlessly wasting lives to capture Mons once it was known that the armistice was imminent. They claimed the soldiers who were killed and wounded in taking Mons were sacrificed for not a strategic, but a symbolic objective. The allegations even appeared in print in newspapers run by Hughes' family which led to Currie launching and winning a libel lawsuit against Hughes' son Garnet and others after the war.

Legacy & memorials

The plaque at Mon's City Hall

Along with their participation in the battles at the Somme, Vimy Ridge and Passchendaele, Canada's Hundred Days cemented the reputation of the Canadian Corps as a tough and professional fighting force amongst its allies and foes.

Today, three war memorials stand in commemoration of the actions of the Canadians along the route they took to Mons during the Hundred Days Offensive. The Battle of Amiens is commemorated by le Quesnel Memorial, the battle at the Drocourt-Quéant Line is commemorated by the Dury Memorial, and the crossing of the Canal du Nord, the Battle of Bourlon Wood and the Battle of Cambrai is paid tribute by the Bourlon Wood Memorial.
Additionally, the Canadian liberation of Mons is commemorated on a plaque that is on display in the entrance of the City Hall of Mons, just off of the Grand Place. The plaque reads:

“

MONS WAS RECAPTURED BY THE CANADIAN CORPS ON THE 11th NOVEMBER 1918 AFTER FIFTY MONTHS OF GERMAN OCCUPATION FREEDOM WAS RESTORED TO THE CITY HERE WAS FIRED THE LAST SHOT OF THE GREAT WAR

”

Further reading

• Brown, Ian M. (July 1994). "Not Glamorous, But Effective: The Canadian Corps and the Set-Piece Attack, 1917–1918" (PDF). Journal of Military History (Lexington, Virginia: Society for Military History) 58 (3): 421–444. doi:10.2307/2944133. JSTOR 2944133. http://web.viu.ca/davies/H355H.Cda.WWI/Canadians%20and%20the%20Set%20Piece%20Attack%20(1994.pdf. 
• Orgill, Douglas (1972). Armoured onslaught: 8th August 1918. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 034502608X. 
• Dancocks, Daniel George (1987). Spearhead to Victory—Canada and the Great War. Hurtig Publishers. p. 294. ISBN 0888303106. 
• Christie, Norm M (1997). For King and Empire, The Canadians at Arras, August – September 1918. CEF Books. ISBN 1-896979-432. OCLC 60369666. 
• Christie, Norm M (1997). For King and Empire, The Canadians at Cambrai and the Canal du Nord, August – September 1918. CEF Books. ISBN 1-896979-165. 
• Conrad, John D (2005). "Canadian Corps logistics during the Last Hundred Days, August–November 1918" (PDF). Canadian Army Journal 8.2: 86–98. http://www.army.forces.gc.ca/caj/documents/vol_08/iss_2/CAJ_vol8.2_10_e.pdf. 
• Schreiber Shane B. (2004). Shock Army of the British Empire: the Canadian Corps in the last 100 days of the Great War. St. Catharines, Ontario: Vanwell. ISBN 1551250969. 
• Stanley, George Francis Gillman (1960). Canada's soldiers: the military history of an unmilitary people. Toronto: Macmillan. OCLC 22878242. 

See also

• List of Canadian battles during World War I
• Canadian Corps
• Hundred Days Offensive
• Battle of Passchendaele
• Vimy Ridge
• Arthur Currie