| Original caption: “A crowd of German prisoners taken by the British Fourth Army in the Battle of Amiens. Near Abbeville.” The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) 4th Army, commanded by General Henry S. Rawlinson (February 20, 1864 – March 20, 1925), included the Australian Corps under the command of General John Monash (June 27, 1865 – October 8, 1931), the Canadian Corps under the command of General Sir Arthur W. Currie (December 5, 1875 – November 30, 1933) and elements of the French 1st Army under the command of Marie Eugène Debeney (May 5, 1864 – November 6, 1943). The Canadian and Australian Corps were each allocated a brigade of 4 battalions, with 108 Mark 5 fighting tanks, 36 Mark 5 “Star”, and 24 unarmed tanks intended to carry supplies and ammunition forward. A single battalion of Mark 5 tanks was allocated to the III Corps. The Cavalry Corps were allocated 2 battalions each of 48 Medium Mark A Whippet tanks. 1,386 field guns and howitzers and 684 heavy artillery pieces were secretly moved into position, supporting the divisional artillery, totaling more than 3,500 tubes altogether. 800 aircraft from the Royal Air Force would provide tactical air support. At 0420 Hours on August 8, 1918, more than 3,500 British and French heavy artillery pieces opened on the unsuspecting German defenders of Amiens. After a short 3-minute barrage, 7 Allied divisions hit the weaker 6 divisions of the German 2nd Army, along with the coordinated support of tanks which the Germans were completely unprepared for and “were frequently surprised by the sight of these [tank] steel colossi suddenly emergingfrom some totally different quarter.” Vitally important to the operation was the allotment of 5 divisions of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) as well as the 4 divisions of the Canadian Corps. Rawlison’s plan was for the ANZAC (which was mostly Australian) and Canadian Corps to hit the German divisions of the German 2nd and 18th between the Somme and Amiens-Roye roads, while the Canadians would surprisingly come in from the right of the main Allied attack. The sudden and rolling artillery barrage had done its job, as the Australians pushed forward through the fog, mist, and smoke with relative ease. In 3-minute intervals, the Australians troops would sweep forward, with their tank support, roughly a 100 yards (90 meters) following the barrage, taking German positions 1 at a time. By 1000 Hours, the BEF had covered more ground than in any other time of the war up to that point. In a span of fewer than 5 hours, the Allies had surprised the Germans completely, driven them out of their defenses, while having captured thousands and having pushed 6 miles into enemy territory. Hindenburg would later remark in his memoirs that the “great tank attack of the enemy had penetrated to a surprising depth,” while “surpris[ing] Division Staffs in their headquarters and tear[ing] up the telephone lines which communicated with the battle front.” The Allies were capturing so many Germans during the 1st hours of the battle that a paper at the time, The Evening Star, reported them as “having difficulty in handling them.” In fact, the Canadians would take over 5,000 prisoners and the Australians nearly 8,000, along with nearly 400 artillery pieces, on that 1st day alone. The advances by the Allies on the 1st day of the Battle of Amiens were remarkable with the Canadians having advanced 8 miles, the Australians on the left flank having achieved sev-en miles, the French on the Canadian right advanced 5 miles and the British having advanced the least with just 2 miles due to extreme German resistance and attacks. The success buoyed Allied sentiments as to the entire operation, while it was having the complete opposite effect within German circles. Official German records at the time stated that: “As the sun set on August 8 on the battlefield, the greatest defeat which the German Army had suffered since the beginning of the war was an accomplished fact. The position divsions between the Avre and the Somme which had been struck by the enemy attack were nearly completely annihilated.” The catastrophe of the 1st day would not be repeated on the 2nd, as General Georg Cornelius von der Marwitz (July 7, 1856 – October 27, 1929) had pulled reinforcements from every direction, so that by the morning of August 9, he had deployed 7 new divisions in a new defensive line to face the Allied attack. As on August 8, the August 9 attack began at 0420 Hours, but this time, the Germans were waiting and with regiments drawn from the 38th, 119th, and 121st Infantry Divisions; they launched heavy counterattacks throughout the entire day and into the evening. The Allies, with the help of the United States Army 131st Infantry Regiment, were able to finally capture the tactically important Etinehem Spur, which now gave the Allies control of both sides of the river, along with 3,000 more German prisoners and over 70 guns. Day 2 had been much bloodier and with fewer gains due to a great stiffening and reinforcement of the German defenses. The offensive was stabilizing, becoming much more like the previous years’ slugfests. Originally intending to push the battle further, Foch after consulting with his Allied commanders at the scene had determined that the battle had run its course by August 11 and suspended further operations. The Allied forces were exhausted and spent in their success at Amiens, as their 13 infantry divisions and 3 cavalry divisions had engaged and beat 24 German divisions. The Germans had steadily changed the dynamic of the battlefield conditions, by greatly reinforcing their defensive lines with heavy artillery, pulling in 12 more divisions to brace their lines, and taking away air superiority with the arrival of German air squadrons including that of the “Flying Circus,” Jagdgeschwader 1, led by Hauptmann Manfred von Richtofen (May 2, 1892 – April 21, 1918) until he was killed in action, and then Hauptmann Wilhelm “Willi” Reinhard (March 18, 1891 – July 3, 1918) and finally commanded by Hauptmann Hermann Goering (January 12, 1893 – October 15, 1946). The success at Amiens, as was the case in most Great War battles, was costly for all sides. The Germans bore the worst of it due to the outcome of the surprise attack on August 8, having suffered over 26,000 casualties and the loss of more than 400 guns and over 15,000 soldiers taken prisoner on that 1st day alone. The total price paid by the Germans at Amiens was more than 75,000 casualties. The Allied losses, conversely, were much lower than their German counterparts, amounting to around 44,000 total casualties, including hundreds of tanks (through breakdowns and German guns) and around a 1,000 cavalry horses. Perhaps most importantly, the psychological effect on the German military and that of General der Infanterie Erich Ludendorff (April 9, 1865 – December 20, 1937) with this defeat was significant. The trauma of the loss at Amiens destroyed German morale and was such a shock to Ludendorff that he recorded Amiens as “the [second] worst experience I had to go through during the war.” His regret and breaking of the German Army at Amiens was so great that he had suggested negotiations to end the war as well as his letter of resignation to Chief of Staff Paul von Hindenburg (October 2, 1847 – August 2, 1934), who refused it. The Germans would remain on the defensive for the rest of the war. The Allies at Amiens recognized that by coordinating strong assets such as air power, tanks, rolling artillery, and infantry, strong defenses could be overcome, and some semblance of battlefield mobility returned. Utilizing this general strategy beginning with Amiens, the Allies began what is known as the 100 Days, which saw an unbroken string of Allied victories — from the British victory at Albert on August 21 to the breakthrough of the Hindenburg Line on October 5 — that culminated in the signing of the armistice agreement on November 11, 1918. 2nd Lieutenant David McLellan (March 18, 1886 – October 1962) was employed as a press photographer in 1915 and again in 1921. He was listed as a press photographer and outdoor operator (outdoor fitness) in the 1939 census. During World War I, he was an official photographer for the Royal Flying Corps. He extensively photographed the Prisoners of War around Amiens in 1918. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0833.jpg |
| Image Size | 790.71 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2448 x 1862 |
| Photographer | David McLellan |
| Photographer Title | Royal Flying Corps Official Photographer |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | August 27, 2018 |
| Location | |
| City | Abbeville |
| State or Province | Somme |
| Country | France |
| Archive | Imperial War Museum |
| Record Number | Q 9272 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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