Hundred Days Offensive - Beyond The Hindenburg Line

Beyond The Hindenburg Line

Through October, the German armies retreated through the territory gained in 1914. The Allies pressed the Germans back toward the lateral railway line from Metz to Bruges (shown in the map at the head of this article), which had supplied their entire front in Northern France and Belgium for much of the war. As the Allied armies reached this line, the Germans were forced to abandon increasingly large amounts of heavy equipment and supplies, further reducing their morale and capacity to resist.

Casualties remained heavy in all of the Allied fighting forces, as well as in the retreating German Army. Rearguard actions were fought during the Pursuit to the Selle (9 October), Battle of Courtrai (14 October), Battle of Mont-D’Origny (French: Bataille de Mont-D'Origny) (15 October), Battle of the Selle (17 October), Battle of Lys and Escaut (French: Bataille de La Lys et De L'Escaut) (20 October) (including the subsidiary Battle of the Lys and Battle of the Escaut), Battle of the Serre (French: Bataille de la Serre) (20 October), Battle of Valenciennes (1 November) and the Battle of the Sambre (including the Second Battle of Guise (French: 2ème Bataille de Guise) (4 November) and the Battle of Thiérache (French: Bataille de Thiérache) (4 November), with fighting continuing until the last minutes before the Armistice took effect at 11:00 on 11 November 1918. One of the last soldiers to die was Canadian Private George Lawrence Price, two minutes before the armistice took effect.