On August 15, British field marshal
Douglas Haig refused demands from Supreme Allied Commander
Marshal Ferdinand Foch to continue the
Amiens offensive, as that attack was faltering as the troops outran their supplies and artillery, and German reserves were being moved to the sector. Instead, Haig began to plan for an offensive at
Albert. The
British Third Army, with the
United States II Corps launched the next phase of the campaign with the
Battle of Albert on 21 August. The assault was widened by French and then further British forces in the following days. During the last week of August, the Allied pressure along a front against the enemy was heavy and unrelenting. From German accounts, "Each day was spent in bloody fighting against an ever and again on-storming enemy, and nights passed without sleep in retirements to new lines." The second battle began on 21 August with the opening of the
Second Battle of Bapaume to the north of the river itself. That developed into an advance which pushed the
German Second Army back over a 55 kilometre front, from south of
Douai to
La Fère, south of
Saint-Quentin, Aisne. Albert was captured on 22 August. On 26 August, the
British First Army widened the attack by another twelve kilometres, sometimes called the Second Battle of
Arras. Bapaume fell on 29 August. The
Australian Corps crossed the Somme River on the night of 31 August, and broke the German lines at the
Battle of Mont St. Quentin and the Battle of
Péronne. The British Fourth Army's commander, General
Henry Rawlinson, described the Australian advances of 31 August – 4 September as the greatest military achievement of the war. On the morning of 2 September, the
Canadian Corps seized control of the
Drocourt-Quéant line (representing the west edge of the
Hindenburg Line). The battle was fought by the Canadian
1st Division,
4th Division, and by the
British 52nd Division. Heavy German casualties were inflicted, and the Canadians also captured more than 6,000 unwounded prisoners. Canada's losses amounted to 5,600. By noon that day the German commander,
Erich Ludendorff, had decided to withdraw behind the
Canal du Nord. Faced with these advances, on the German
Oberste Heeresleitung ('Supreme Army Command') issued orders to withdraw in the south to the Hindenburg Line. This ceded without a fight the
salient seized the previous April. According to Ludendorff, "We had to admit the necessity ... to withdraw the entire front from the Scarpe to the Vesle." By 3 September, the Germans had been forced back to the Hindenburg Line, from which they had launched their offensive in the spring. On their way to the Hindenburg Line, in a fierce battle, the Canadian troops, led by General Sir
Arthur Currie, overcame the earthworks of the incomplete Canal du Nord during the
Battle of Canal du Nord. Following, in late September-early October, during the
Battle of St. Quentin Canal, British, Australian, and American troops under the command of Australian general
John Monash were able to breach the Hindenburg Line. Soon after, the Canadians breached the Hindenburg Line at the
Battle of Cambrai. == See also ==