Battle of the Yser
Hindenburg Outpost Line Bellenglise – St Quentin Canal
18 September 1918
![Troops of the 45th Battalion (New South Wales), at their newly captured objective in front of the ‘Hindenburg Outpost Line’, France, September 1918. [AWM E03260]](/bellenglise/images/e03260_1.jpg)
Troops of the 45th Battalion (New South Wales), at their newly captured objective in front of the ‘Hindenburg Outpost Line’, France, September 1918. [AWM E03260]
During August and early September 1918 the German Army on the Western Front was withdrawing under a succession of Allied attacks. From 8 August onwards the armies of the British Expeditionary Force moved forward from a line between Arras in the north and the junction with French forces to the south of Villers-Brettoneux. By 2 September the Germans had evacuated their strong points in the Somme River bend at Mont St Quentin and Péronne and were retreating to the old Hindenburg Line positions of March 1917. For the Allies the assault and capture of these defences was the obvious next step. If successful, it would force the Germans to yield even more of the French territory they had captured in 1914, but most Allied commanders still expected the war to drag on into 1919 and not to reach a successful conclusion until American forces in Europe were at full strength.
On 18 September 1918, the First and Fourth Australian Divisions attacked the forward edge of the Hindenburg Line. The forward edge was known as the Hindenburg Outpost Line. This line consisted of old British trenches, three lines deep, which the German Command had decided to incorporate into the Hindenburg Line defences. Using aggressive patrolling tactics known as ‘peaceful penetration’ the Australians captured the first of these lines on 11 September. The second and third lines were too strong for these tactics and required a full-scale attack. The British War Cabinet was concerned that attacking the Hindenburg Line could incur heavy losses but the British Expeditionary Force commander, Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, felt the attack on ‘the old British lines would test the German Army’s morale and help to decide whether the true Hindenburg Line, beyond them, could be wisely attacked.’
Rain fell as British and Australian forces moved forward to their starting tapes on 18 September. The artillery barrage, which commenced at 5.20 am, was thought by many to be the heaviest they had witnessed. Despite a dense fog, the attacking infantry were able to keep direction and many Germans were by-passed in the fog and cut off. Sergeant Maurice Buckley, 13th Battalion (New South Wales), firing a Lewis machine gun from the hip, rushed two enemy outposts which were holding up the advance. When his platoon commander pointed out a German position with a field-gun and trench-mortar, Sergeant Buckley, calling to his section to follow, attacked that post firing more short bursts with his Lewis gun. He knocked out one gun position and, moving across ground under enemy machine gun fire, eliminated another position. He then fired into a dugout entrance and captured 30 Germans belonging to a German battalion headquarters. For his bravery Buckley was awarded the Victoria Cross.
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At 8.30 am the second phase of the assault commenced. Supported by a creeping artillery barrage which included smoke-shells, but without the assistance of the fog which had lifted by then, Australians attacking where the old British lines and the German outpost lines were close together achieved their second and third objectives by 10.30 am. However, in the Fourth Division’s sector, the old British lines and the German outpost lines were on ridges 1500 metres apart. The troops on this southern flank crossed the open valleys but were stopped by the strongly held Hindenburg Outpost Line proper protected by dense wire. At 11 pm, with the double assistance of a short, heavy rainstorm and an artillery barrage, the 46th Battalion (Victoria) got through the wire and seized their third objective, capturing 550 Germans. At the same time, the 14th Battalion (Victoria) struck down these trenches from farther north. The troops on the northern flank of the Fourth Division had made use of captured trenches to get into position to use grenades to take their third objective. These successes brought the Australians to the heights overlooking the village of Bellicourt and the St Quentin Canal. They had advanced to the main defences of the Hindenburg Line.
On 18 September 1918 Australians captured 4300 prisoners and 76 guns at a cost of 1260 casualties. They had thrust far beyond British forces on their flanks to show how vulnerable the Hindenburg defences were. This encouraged the British to push on for a major attack on what had been considered the enemy’s most formidable defensive position on the Western Front. In conjunction with French and American successes further south it now seemed possible that the war just might be brought to a successful conclusion before the winter of 1918–19.
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© 2008 Department of Veterans' Affairs and Board of Studies NSW :: Last update - November 2008