The 100 Days. Battle of St. Quentin Canal. September 29 to October 10, 1918

British troops being addressed by Gen J. V. Campbell at the Riqueval Bridge over the St. Q

When we last read about this action, the U.S. 27th and U.S. 30th Divisions had gone into action on September 27 to try to take part of the Hindenburg Line in preparation for an assault on a longer piece of the line scheduled for this day.

And on this day, the larger ball got rolling.

On this day 30 British Empire Divisions and two American Divisions went into action in this region against 39 Divisions.  In spite of being a much smaller force, the U.S. Army would take over half the Allied causalities in the effort before it was done; in an effort that is paradoxically primarily remembered as a British Empire, or more precisely Australian, effort.

The British Empire forces commenced the battle with their largest artillery bombardment of World War One, firing over 1,000,000 shells.  Among the munitions that were used, the British fired mustard gas rounds for the first time, targeting German headquarters and artillery units with chemical weapons.

American and Australian troops at the Bellicourt Tunnel.

The two American divisions lead off the attack, followed by Australian divisions, and backed by British tanks, with the objective of breaking through the Beaurevoir Line.  The U.S. 27th Division, however, met with stout German resistance and in fact one regiment of the 27th, the 107th Infantry, sustained the highest casualties of any American regiment in a single day for the war.  The Australians, who were to have "leap frogged" over the Americans after they took the initial objectives, then committed by necessity with the American objectives untaken.  The 30th Division, however, did better.  Nonetheless, American failures in the battle basically lead the Australians to take over and lead to enduring debates about the quality of the American Army in the attack, with Monash attributing its failures to it being green.  That their contribution to its ultimate success was real, however, was never debated.

While this was going on the Australians committed near the Bellicourt Tunnel where tanks were not available in strength due to losses that had already occurred.  The British also then committed as well as the U.S. 30th Division, which overall performed well in the battle.  Fierce Allied artillery close support contributed to the assault and after a large scale effort the Canal was taken.  Fighting continued on through October 10, but the much depleted Australian Corps was withdrawn on October 5, it ranks much thinned due to combat attrition and the Spanish Flu.  It would not be recommitted prior to November 11 and therefore its role in the fighting ceased on that date.