The land surrounding Bapaume was relatively flat and thus was conducive to the use of tanks. It was subsequently recaptured by the Germans during the Spring Offensive. Extensive booby traps had also been left and these troubled the Australians that moved into the town afterwards. Still in German hands, it had been largely destroyed in early 1917 following their withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line. Captured by the forces of Imperial Germany in the early stages of the war, it had been the focus of the British forces on the opening day of the Battle of Somme in 1916. There were also four major roads running through the town running to Albert in the south-west, to Peronne in the south-east to Cambrai in the east and to the north lay Arras. Bapaume īapaume itself was a small town linked by rail to Albert and Arras. Haig decided that the Bapaume sector, with the town of Bapaume at its centre, was to be the new focus of operations. The commander of the British Expeditionary Force, Field Marshal Douglas Haig, recognised that it was time to put pressure elsewhere on the German front and for this, decided to use General Julian Byng's Third Army. The advance petered out after four days after the Germans began to regroup and shore up their defences. It began with the Battle of Amiens, an attack by the Canadian and Australian Corps at Amiens, which rolled the German lines back 8 km (5.0 mi). On 8 August 1918, the Hundred Days' Offensive commenced on the Western Front and it would prove to be the last major campaign of the First World War. It then pushed onto the Bancourt Ridge, to the east of Bapaume. On 29 August, elements of the New Zealand Division, after heavy fighting in the days prior, occupied Bapaume as the defending Germans withdrew. The Second Battle of Bapaume was carried out over a period of two weeks and involved the divisions of IV Corps the British 5th, 37th, 42nd, and the 63rd Divisions along with the New Zealand Division. The British and Dominion attack was part of what was later known as the Allies' Hundred Days Offensive. It was a continuation of the Battle of Albert and is also referred to as the second phase of that battle. The Second Battle of Bapaume was a battle of the First World War that took place at Bapaume in France, from 21 August 1918 to 3 September 1918.
0 kommentar(er)
