Hundred Days Offensive

Between 8 August and 11 November 1918, the Canadian Corps, commanded by Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Currie, spearheaded the Hundred Days Offensive, a series of successful Allied attacks in France and Belgium that hastened an end to the First World War. In a gruelling advance against strong enemy defences, the Canadians helped defeat the Germans at Amiens, the Drocourt-Quéant Line, the Canal du Nord, Cambrai, and Mons. Success in battle came at an enormous cost, with more than 45,000 Canadians killed or wounded, almost one fifth of the country’s total casualties during the war. In these final weeks of fighting, Canadians showed great valour, earning 29 Victoria Crosses.

By 1918, the Allied armies and German Empire had been at war for almost four years. Casualties on both sides of the Western Front had been extensive and the end of war seemed far in the distance. That spring, the Germans launched a series of attacks in hopes of forcing the Allies to surrender, but they were unsuccessful. Now it was the Allies’ turn to go on the offensive. These final battles are known together as the Hundred Days Offensive.

The Canadian Corps, by this point, was confident. They had achieved hard-fought victories at Vimy Ridge and Passchendaele and were seen by Allied leaders as a prime resource in the war. At the Battle of Amiens (8-11 August), which traditionally marks the opening of the Hundred Days Offensive, the Canadian Corps and Australian Corps, both of whom had earned a reputation as hard-hitting, elite forces, led the British Fourth Army to victory by serving as spearheads and taking on the battle’s most challenging objectives.

Over the next hundred days, the Canadians fought their way eastward. At the Battle of the Scarpe (26-30 August), the Battle of the Drocourt-Quéant Line (2-3 September), the Battle of the Canal du Nord (27 September - 1 October), and the Battle of Valenciennes (1-2 November), the corps achieved major victories against incredible odds: entrenched defenders, swampy land, hidden machine-gun nests, canals, and German forces determined to fight tooth-and-nail until the war’s last moment. On 11 November, the final day of the war, the Canadians captured Mons, Belgium, where they were greeted as liberators by the city’s citizens.

During the Hundred Days Offensive, the Canadians continually “punched above their weight,” defeating elements of 50 divisions, which constituted a quarter of the German forces on the Western Front. While the Hundred Days Offensive finally led to Allied victory, it was also marked by incredible sacrifice and loss for Canada. Nearly half of Canada’s Victoria Crosses came from the final hundred days. In addition to the 29 Victoria Crosses awarded to Canadians, one Newfoundlander, Thomas Ricketts, was also recognized for his “bravery and devotion to duty.”

- 30 -