Fog over the Somme valley had just lifted when Tasmanian Lieutenant Alfred Gaby’s men in Australia’s D company ran into tangled wire defending a German trench east of Villers-Bretonneux.
Gaby, who 10 months earlier was gassed at Passchendaele, dodged machine gun and rifle fire to find a gap in the wire and dashed 40 yards.
Running along the top of the parapet, Gaby emptied his revolver into the trench, driving “the crews from their guns, and compelled the surrender of 50 of the enemy with four machine guns”.
By 1918 our guys were very, very efficient and knew how to turn that know-how against a technologically and numerically superior German army
Gaby’s efforts early in the Amiens offensive on August 8, 1918, earned him one of 19 Victoria Crosses awarded to Australians a century ago in the last 100 days of World War I, which forced the unexpected German surrender and armistice on November 11, 1818.
Five depleted Australian Infantry divisions had “punched well above their weight”, says historian Will Davies, author of The Last 100 Days; The Australian Road To Victory in the First World War.
“Australians had suffered badly by the end of 1917,” he says. “But they were getting really smart. They were better trained and more audacious.”
As Australian commander since May, General John Monash had adopted different tactics, proven in Australia’s success at the Battle of Hamel in July.
“Monash recognised the different ways our army and soldiers worked,” Davies says.
“By 1918 our guys were very, very efficient and knew how to turn that know-how against a technologically and numerically superior German army.
“Monash wanted to continue using Australian troops in the same offensive manner,” Davies says, capitalising on their capacity for individual initiative in audacious guerrilla-style attacks.
In the first day of battle on August 8 Australians captured the first of two massive German guns trained on Amiens, an Allied supply centre and railway junction, from villages about 20km east.
The Victorian-based AIF 31st Battalion captured a 28cm calibre canon known as Baby Bertha on a railway platform near Harbonnieres, 12km east of Villers-Bretonneux.
Monash described the gun, which had pounded Amiens since June and was eventually shipped to Australia, as “the largest single trophy of the war won by any commander during the war”.
The second, a 38cm naval gun known as Big Bertha, destroyed by Germans on August 8, was captured by the Australian 3rd Battalion north in Arcy Wood near Chuignes on August 23, 1918.
Allied command plotted the Battle of Amiens, or Third Battle of the Somme, for a month, planning an attack across 25,000 yards, or 22.7km. One British infantry division, five Australian, four Canadian and four French, aimed to advance 10km into carefully mapped territory claimed by Germany in the spring of 1918.
British north of the Somme covered 5000 yards, Australians south of the river covered 7500 yards, Canadians further south also covered 7500 yards, and French forces covered 5000 yards. Adopting tactics used at Hamel, Davies explains the secretly planned attack combined tanks, infantry, artillery and aircraft.
Monash’s initiative of using pilots to mark enemy troops on maps, dropped to motorcycle riders to carry to Allied headquarters north of Amiens, was integral to accurate planning. The Amiens assault also adopted Monash’s aerial supply drops.
More than 500 tanks spearheaded advancing infantry to dispose of hidden German machineguns, and carried ammunition, water and infantry, supported by more than 2000 RAF and French aircraft.
At 4.20am on August 8, “3000 guns lit up the sky, turning night into day and sending a line of bursting shells deep into German-held territory,” Davies writes. Most objectives were claimed by 3pm, with the entire line secured by evening.
“August 8th was the black day of the German Army,” German General Erich Ludendorff later wrote. “This was the worst experience I had to go through … early on August 8th, in a dense fog … rendered still thicker by artificial means, the British, mainly with Australian and Canadian divisions, attacked between Albert and Moreuil with strong squadrons of tanks, but for the rest with no great superiority.”
Worse was to come for Ludendorff and his 150 divisions, including 60 moved in from the Russian front.
Davies nominates taking Mont Saint Quentin on August 31 as another significant Australian breakthrough. On August 30 Monash had requested permission from British Fourth Army commander General Henry Rawlinson to attack the 100m-high landmark.
“So you think you’re going to take Mont Saint Quentin with three battalions,” Rawlinson challenged. “What presumption. I don’t think I ought to stop you … I wish you luck.”
Australian troops were so exhausted that “even officers almost fell asleep standing up”. Fearing little chance of meeting the 2400- yard objective, Captain Ernest Manefield told his men to “yell like a lot of bushrangers” as they advanced. Many fired Lewis guns from the hip and at least two soldiers dashed 50 yards across open ground.
Running into German machinegun positions at 3.30am, soldiers “charged with a yell and the Germans, obviously astonished, hardly attempted defence; they simply passed through the advancing lines as prisoners”.
Captain Herbert Allan remarked hundreds of prisoners, including a German general, reminded him “of the mob leaving the Sydney Cricket Ground after a football final”.
Australians could not hold Mont Saint Quentin overnight, but dug in just below the summit. The mount was secured on September 1, when Australians also arrived at Peronne, which fell into Australian hands on September 2. Rawlinson described Australian advances from August 31 to September 4, securing targets French generals estimated would take months, as the greatest military achievement of the war.
The Last 100 Days; The Australian Road To Victory in the First World War; Will Davies; Penguin; $34.99