This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Second Battle of the Somme" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(March 2007) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Second Battle of the Somme (1918)
Part of theWestern Front ofWorld War I
German soldiers supporting an injured Canadian soldier during the Second Battle of the Somme
Date 21 August – 3 September 1918 Location Somme River, France Result Allied victory
Belligerents
British Empire  Australia  New Zealand  Canada  United Kingdom  United States	Germany
Commanders and leaders
Douglas Haig Henry Rawlinson Arthur Currie John Monash	Erich Ludendorff
Strength
British Third Army British Fourth Army United States II Corps	German Second Army
Casualties and losses
11,500 casualties[1] 5,600 casualties	"Heavy", 6,000 taken prisoner

TheSecond Battle of the Somme of 1918 was fought during theFirst World War on theWestern Front from late August to early September, in thebasin of theRiver Somme. It was part of a series of successful counter-offensives in response to theGermanSpring Offensive, after a pause for redeployment and supply.

The most significant feature of the two 1918 Somme battles was that with the failure of the first 1918 Somme Battle (not to be confused with the 1916 Battle of the Somme) having halted what had begun as a large German offensive, the second formed the central part of theAllies' advance to theArmistice of 11 November.

On August 15, British field marshalDouglas Haig refused demands from Supreme Allied CommanderMarshal Ferdinand Foch to continue theAmiens offensive, as that attack was faltering as the troops outran their supplies and artillery, and German reserves were being moved to the sector. Instead, Haig began to plan for an offensive atAlbert.^{[citation needed]}

TheBritish Third Army, with theUnited States II Corps launched the next phase of the campaign with theBattle of Albert on 21 August.^[2] The assault was widened by French^[3] and then further British forces in the following days. During the last week of August, the Allied pressure along a 110-kilometre (68 mi) front against the enemy was heavy and unrelenting. From German accounts, "Each day was spent in bloody fighting against an ever and again on-storming enemy, and nights passed without sleep in retirements to new lines."^[4]

The second battle began on 21 August with the opening of theSecond Battle of Bapaume to the north of the river itself. That developed into an advance which pushed theGerman Second Army back over a 55 kilometre front, from south ofDouai toLa Fère, south ofSaint-Quentin, Aisne.^{[citation needed]} Albert was captured on 22 August. On 26 August, theBritish First Army widened the attack by another twelve kilometres, sometimes called the Second Battle ofArras.^[5] Bapaume fell on 29 August. TheAustralian Corps crossed the Somme River on the night of 31 August, and broke the German lines at theBattle of Mont St. Quentin and the Battle ofPéronne. The British Fourth Army's commander, GeneralHenry Rawlinson, described the Australian advances of 31 August – 4 September as the greatest military achievement of the war.^[6]

On the morning of 2 September, theCanadian Corps seized control of theDrocourt-Quéant line (representing the west edge of theHindenburg Line). The battle was fought by the Canadian1st Division,4th Division, and by theBritish 52nd Division.^[7] Heavy German casualties were inflicted, and the Canadians also captured more than 6,000 unwounded prisoners. Canada's losses amounted to 5,600.^[8] By noon that day the German commander,Erich Ludendorff, had decided to withdraw behind theCanal du Nord.^{[citation needed]}

Faced with these advances, on the GermanOberste Heeresleitung ('Supreme Army Command') issued orders to withdraw in the south to the Hindenburg Line. This ceded without a fight thesalient seized the previous April.^[9] According to Ludendorff, "We had to admit the necessity ... to withdraw the entire front from the Scarpe to the Vesle."^{[10][page needed]}

By 3 September, the Germans had been forced back to the Hindenburg Line, from which they had launched their offensive in the spring.^{[citation needed]}

On their way to the Hindenburg Line, in a fierce battle, the Canadian troops, led by General SirArthur Currie, overcame the earthworks of the incomplete Canal du Nord during theBattle of Canal du Nord.^[11]

In late September-early October, one of the epic battles of the whole war was the breach of the Hindenburg Line (theBattle of St. Quentin Canal) by British, Australian and American troops (under the command of Australian generalJohn Monash). Soon after, the Canadians breached the Hindenburg Line at theBattle of Cambrai.^{[citation needed]}

• List of Canadian battles during World War I
• Hundred Days Offensive (1918)

• Gray, Randal; Argyle, Christopher (1990).Chronicle of the First World War. New York: Facts on File.ISBN 978-0-8160-2595-4.OCLC 19398100.
• Ludendorff, Erich (1919).My War Memories, 1914–1918.OCLC 60104290. also published by Harper as "Ludendorff's Own Story, August 1914 – November 1918: The Great War from the Siege of Liège to the Signing of the Armistice as Viewed from the Grand Headquarters of the German Army"OCLC 561160 (original titleMeine Kriegserinnerungen, 1914–1918)
• Nicholson, Gerald W.L. (1962).Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914–1919: Official History of the Canadian Army in the First World War. Ottawa: Queens Printer and Controller of Stationery.OCLC 2317262. Archived fromthe original on 16 May 2007.
• Pitt, Barrie (2003).1918: The Last Act. Barnsley: Pen and Sword.ISBN 978-0-85052-974-6.OCLC 56468232.

• Terraine, John (1963).Ordeal of Victory. J.B. Lippincott.ISBN 978-0-09-068120-4.OCLC 1345833.

• Bomford, Michele (2012).Beaten Down by Blood: The Battle of Mont St Quentin-Péronne 1918. Big Sky Publishing.ISBN 9781921941948.OCLC 794935136.
• Cowley, Robert (1964).1918: Gamble for Victory: The Greatest Attack of World War I. Macmillan.OCLC 861763448.
• Harper, Glyn (2003).Spring Offensive: New Zealand and the Second Battle of the Somme. HarperCollins.ISBN 186950481X.OCLC 54528921.
• Horsfall, Jack (2006).The Third Army's Advance to Victory: Western Front 1918. Pen & Sword.ISBN 1844154092.OCLC 67873232.
• Marix Evans, Martin (2010).Somme 1914–18: Lessons in War. The History Press.ISBN 9780752455259.OCLC 551415357.
• Murland, Jerry (2014).Retreat and Rearguard – Somme 1918. Pen & Sword Military.ISBN 9781781592670.OCLC 880197455.

• Philpott, William:Battles of Somme in:1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
• Media related toSecond Battle of the Somme at Wikimedia Commons

50°01′00″N2°48′00″E / 50.016666°N 2.800000°E /50.016666; 2.800000

• 1918 in France
• Battles of the Western Front (World War I)
• Battles of World War I involving Australia
• Battles of World War I involving Canada
• Battles of World War I involving Germany
• Battles of World War I involving the United Kingdom
• Battles of World War I involving the United States
• Battles in 1918
• August 1918
• September 1918

• Webarchive template wayback links
• All articles with dead external links
• Articles with dead external links from July 2021
• Pages using gadget WikiMiniAtlas
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles needing additional references from March 2007
• All articles needing additional references
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from August 2023
• Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from July 2020
• Commons category link is on Wikidata
• Coordinates on Wikidata