Canada's Hundred Days

By this time the German superiority of numbers on the Western Front had sunk to a negligible lead which would be reversed as more American troops arrived.

[6] Likewise, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) had also been reinforced by large numbers of troops returned from the Sinai and Palestine campaign and the Italian Front and replacements held back in Britain by the Prime Minister, David Lloyd George.

[7] Foch agreed on a proposal by Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, commander of the BEF, to strike on the Southeast of Amiens with the intention of forcing the Germans away from the Amiens–Paris railway.

The allied command had developed an understanding that the Germans had learned to suspect and prepare for an attack when they found the Canadian Corps moved in and massed on a new sector of the front lines.

British Prime Minister David Lloyd George reflected this attitude when he wrote in his memoirs: "Whenever the Germans found the Canadian Corps coming into the line they prepared for the worst.

[10] Allied commanders included the notice "Keep Your Mouth Shut" into orders issued to the men, and referred to the action as a "raid" rather than an "offensive".

[12] The plan instead depended on large-scale use of tanks to achieve surprise, by avoiding a preliminary bombardment, a tactic successfully employed at the Battle of Hamel.

In many places the fog provided good cover for their advances in and through the furrows of the valley of the Luce river which ran through the centre of the Canadian's portion of the battlefield.

By the 10th of August, the Germans had been forced to pull out of the salient that they had managed to occupy during Operation Michael in March, back towards the Hindenburg Line.

In the five earnest days of fighting between the 8th and 13 August the Canadian Corps captured 9,131 prisoners, 190 artillery pieces, and over 1,000 machine guns and trench mortars.

The specialisation of troops and formally organised battalions of combat engineers was also effective as it allowed the soldiers to rest instead of working every day that they were not actively attacking.

Some criticism was levelled at Canadian Corps commander Arthur Currie by Sam Hughes and others for needlessly wasting lives to capture Mons once it was known that the armistice was imminent.