Monday, August 8, 2011

This date in History: The Battle of Amiens leads to the End of WW1


The Battle of Amiens began on 8 August 1918, and was the opening phase of the Allied offensive later known as the Hundred Days Offensive which ultimately led to the end of the First World War.

By the end of August 8, Erich Ludendorff, the German commander in chief, dubbed this day as "the black day of the German army" .  The Allies had penetrated the German lines around the Somme with a gap 15 miles long. Of the 27, 000 German casualties on August 8, an unprecedented proportion—12,000—had surrendered to the enemy. Though the Allies at Amiens failed to continue their success in the days following August 8, the damage had been done. "We have reached the limits of our capacity," Kaiser Wilhelm II told Ludendorff on that "black day." "The war must be ended”.

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