Somme Offensive

SOMME OFFENSIVE

SOMME OFFENSIVE (8 August–11 November 1918). The first Americans to serve on the western front in World War I were some 2,500 medics and engineers with the British in the Battle of Cambrai, which started in the Somme River area in northern France on 20 November 1917. These detachments were still present for the second Battle of the Somme commencing on 21 March 1918, the first of five luckless efforts by the Germans to win the war before Gen. John J. Pershing's American Expeditionary Forces could reach full strength. Some Americans were at hand during the German-precipitated crises of the summer of 1918 in the British sector. The 131st Infantry of the Thirty-third National Guard Division from Illinois fought in the Fourth Army under Gen. Sir Henry Rawlinson, helping capture Hamel on 4 July. During the reduction of the Amiens salient, the 131st on 9 August lost nearly 1,000 at Chipilly Ridge and Gressaire Wood, pressing on to help take Etinchem Spur on 13 August.

As the British planned their share of French Gen. Ferdinand Foch's grand offensive, which produced the armistice, Pershing lent Rawlinson the Second Corps of George W. Read. In Rawlinson's attack of 29 September, Read's corps broke through the Hindenburg Line at the Bellicourt Canal Tunnel, an incredible fortification inspiring the later Maginot Line. In October Read's divisions captured Brancourt-le-Grand, Premont, and Vaux-Andigny; crossed the Selle River; took Ribeauville,

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Mazinghien, and Rejet-de-Beaulieu; and nearly reached the Sambre River—a hard-fought advance of eleven and one-half miles, costing 3,414 killed and 14,526 wounded.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cooke, James J. Pershing and His Generals. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1997.

Cowley, Robert. 1918: Gamble for Victory: The Greatest Attack of World War I. New York: Macmillan, 1964.

R. W. Daly

Joseph Mills Hanson / a. r.

See also Aisne-Marne Operation ; Champagne-Marne Operation .