The Allies had finally achieved military unity with the appointment of Marshal Foch as Supreme Commander, and the steady build-up of American troops provided needed reserves. The desperate German gamble failed.
Now the Allied turn came. On July 18 French and American forces launched a counter-attack on the Marne and by August 2 they had regained much of the lost territory. Tanks overran enemy forward positions and shattered the morale of the German troops. All along the fine quick relentless attacks followed in one section after another. By early September the Allies were advancing in every sector: the British were hammering at the Hindenburg line; the French were pushing forward in Champagne; and the Americans, victorious at St. Mihiel, were advancing in the Meuse-Argonne.
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August 4 to November 11, 1918 has come to be known as "Canada's Hundred Days", for in this period the Canadian Corps was in the vanguard of the successful march to Mons.
When the' Allied advance began the Canadian Corps was assigned the task of spearheading an attack on an important salient near Amiens on August 8.
Utter secrecy was vital since the Germans had come to regard any movement of Canadian troops as a sign of imminent attack. To deceive the enemy part of the corps was sent north to the Ypres section. |
After making their presence known to the Germans they hurried back to Amiens. Preparations for battle were carried out at night, and there was no preliminary bombardment to warn the enemy of impending action. Surprise was complete. Flanked by Australians and French, and spearheaded by tanks, the Canadians advanced twelve miles in three
days. The morale of the German High Command was badly shaken. In Ludendorff's words, August 8 was the "black day of the German army''.
The Allied plan was to advance on a broad front with a series of connected attacks in sensitive areas. Therefore, after the breakthrough at Amiens, the Canadians were shifted back to Arras and given the task of cracking the Hindenburg Line - Germany's main line of defence.
Between August 26 and September 2, in hard continuous fighting, the Canadian Corps fought through strong German positions to the heavily fortified line of the Canal du Nord. Assisted by fifteen tanks from the British Tanks Corps, they successfully crossed this formidable barrier. A breakthrough of
the German defences had finally been achieved. Victory was not far off. Early in October Cambrai was captured in one of the bloodiest battles of the war. Then, in an uninterrupted advance, the Canadians fought their way through Valenciennes, Mont Houy and reached historic Mons on the day the armistice was signed.
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Canadian armoured cars passing
the saluting base at Mons, Belgium November 1918 |
The Canadian troops remained in Europe to share in the allied occupation. They crossed the Rhine into Germany at Bonn where Sir Arthur Currie was accorded the distinction of taking the salute in honour of Canadian achievements.
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| 13th Brigade Canadian
Field Artillery passing the Saluting Base on Bonn Bridge, December
1918 |
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