Page:EB1922 - Volume 32.djvu/548

524 made itself master of the bitterly contested villages of Ecoust and Vaux Vrancourt and pushed forward to Noreuil. The IV. Corps in the centre, keeping pace with its comrades reached the front Villers au Flos-Beugny on the evening of Sept. 2.

During the 13 days' fighting the 14 divisions of the III. Army had engaged 23 hostile divisions, taken from them 11,000 prison- ers, many guns and much material of war, and had driven them back to a depth of from 8 to 13 m. on a front of 20, besides in- flicting on them heavy losses in killed and wounded.

IV. Army's Advance to Upper Somme (Aug. 22-30). It has already been stated that the left of the IV. Army N. of the Somme had successfully cooperated in the main advance being carried out by the III. Army on its left during all the period under re- view from Aug. 22 onward. At the same time, other offensive operations were also carried out by the centre and right of Gen. Rawlinson's line astride and S. of the river, which had the effect towards the end of Aug. of forcing the Germans to retire to the line of the Somme above Peronne.

The attack of the III. Corps, delivered on the morning of Aug. 22, had for its objective the capture of Albert and the crests E. and S.E. of it in order to afford a crossing-place for the V. Corps (the right corps of the III. Army) over the Ancre valley. The i8th, 47th and I2th Divs., as also the 3rd Australian Div., were entrusted with the operation, which involved an advance of some 2,000 to 3,000 yd.; the s8th Div. was held in reserve. Despite the fact that all the precautions taken failed to ensure secrecy and that hostile counter preparations began at 4 A.M., 45 minutes before the attack was timed to commence, considerable progress was made on the whole front. The i8th Div. cleared Albert and joined hands E. of Meaulte with the left of the 1 2th Div., which together with the 47th on its right, had reached practically all its objectives before noon. The 3rd Australian Div. on the extreme right of the attack had also fulfilled their allotted task as early as 8:30 A.M. But in the afternoon a heavy German counter-attack, put in against the centre of the new British line, recovered much of the lost ground in that quarter, and inflicted such severe losses on the 47th Div. that it had to be relieved during the course of the next day by the s8th Div. from reserve.

This untoward incident somewhat disarranged the army plan for the 23rd, which had originally involved an advance on the whole front from Albert to Chaulnes. It was now decided that only the i8th Div. on the extreme left of the III. Corps should attack in conjunction with the Australians S. of the Somme. Accordingly, on the morning of the 23rd, the i8th Div., acting together with the V. Corps of the III. Army on its left, completed its operations of the previous day by the capture of the ridge immediately E. of Albert. The Australian attack to the S. was more ambitious and equally successful. It was carried out on a front of 4 m. by the 32nd Div. on the right and the ist Australian on the left and involved an advance of some 2,000 yd. in depth, right up to the edge of the area laid waste in 1916, on the ap- proximate line Herleville-Chuignes-Cappy. The divisions de- bouched at 4:45 A.M., assisted by 45 tanks and covered by an excellent barrage. The 32nd Div. early seized Herleville and the ist Australian Div. also successfully carried out the first two stages of its advance, but met with unexpected difficulties in the last phase, which were only overcome after severe and gallant fighting. As a result of the day, 3,000 prisoners and 23 guns remained in the Australian Corps' hands.

Gen. Rawlinson decided, as a result of the day's operations, to go on with the attack N. of the river, and by way of variation to the usual methods an advance was carried out just after midnight of the 23rd by the whole of the III. Corps (47th, I2th and i8th Divs.) and the 3rd Australian Division. With the aid of the brilliant moonlight, good progress was made by all these formations, and despite violent hostile reaction, the ground lost on the 22nd was entirely recovered and La Boiselle, Becordel and Bray all taken and held. The same good success attended the continuance of the advance next day, Fricourt and Mametz being both seized.

It had by now become evident, in fact, that the German re-

sistance on the IV. Army front, partly owing to the vigorous pressure exercised throughout the last four days, partly owing to the successes of the III. Army farther N., was beginning to weaken, and that only strong rearguards were being encountered fighting to gain time for the retirement of the main body behind the line of the Somme above Peronne. The German Higher Command, as already mentioned, on the 25th, ordered von Boehm (who had about the middle of Aug. been appointed to the com- mand of a new Army Group consisting of the II., XVIII. and XI. Armies, between the Ancre and the Aisne) to fall back to the line of the river Somme-Ham-N.E. of Noyon, and the movement was carried out on the 26th and 27th. During these days the progress of the IV. Army was rapid, being opposed mainly by long range artillery fire and strong machine-gun detachments. By the evening of the 2;th the Australian Corps, which had handed over part of its line, as far N. as beyond Lihons, to the French I. Army on the night of the 24th, had reached the front Vernian- dovillers-Fontaine-Vaux, while the III. Corps which had been severely tested by the resistance of three fresh enemy divisions newly put into line on its front had cleared Trones Wood and Longueval. The German II. Army had now reached its chosen positions of defence between Morval and Pargny but had appar- ently, at the desire of the Army Group which considered it im- portant to retain the possibility of flanking movement from in front of Peronne against any eventual British advance in the open country to the N., decided to retain its hold on the W. bank of the river in that quarter. Accordingly, the resistance in that area, where the left of the Australian Corps was operating, grew stiffer during the 28th and 29th; while the 32nd Div. on the right of the corps reached the W. bank of the Somme astride the Amiens-Brie road without severe fighting early on the 29th, the sth and 2nd Australian Divs. only established themselves on the river line after heavy fighting and thanks largely to the cooperation of the 3rd Australian Div. on the N. of the Somme. By the evening of the 3oth the Australian line ran along the W. bank from Cizancourt in the S. to Biaches and thence over the river to Clery and was continued by the III. Corps along the western edge of Marrieres Wood to Pricz Farm and E. of Combles. The Germans in this latter area had also fought stubbornly during the past two days and it became evident that they were here standing on a chosen line of defence. In view, however, of the small prospect of success afforded by any attempt to force the strongly held Somme line above Peronne, the IV. Army Command decided that the next operation must be a strong ad- vance by the centre and left in order to turn that line to the N. and orders to this effect were issued on the evening of the 3oth.

Forcing of the Somme Line by IV. Army (Aug. jo-Sept. 2). The plan for the IV. Army's further operations involved the turning of the Somme line, to which the German II. Army had retired, by means of an advance N. of Peronne to the high ground around Nurlu. The III. Corps was to carry out the frontal attack from the W. against the German line northwards from Peronne, while the Australian Corps covered the southern flank of the attack and cooperated in the main operation by pushing for- ward against Nurlu from the S.W. Before this could be done, however, it was necessary to occupy Peronne and the key to it, the commanding height of Mont St. Quentin. This in itself was a most formidable task, for the position, strong both by nature and by art, dominated all the country to N. and W., and all the river passages by which it could be approached. The German High Command fully realized its importance, and had com- mitted its defence to the picked troops of the 2nd Guard Div. with orders to hold it at all costs.

Sir John Monash, the Australian Corps commander, had already on the 29th formulated his plans for the attack of this stronghold. On this date the line of the corps was held from S. to N. by the 32nd, sth, 2nd and 3rd" Divs., the last-named being N. of the Somme. The idea was to bring over the 5th and 2nd Divs. to the N. bank, for the attack of Peronne and Mont St. Quentin respectively. The seizure of a bridgehead on the N. bank S.E. of Clery, an essential preliminary, was carried out by the 2nd Australian Div. during the course of the 3oth, and the