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At
the end of July, French Marshal Ferdinand Foch decided it was time for the Allies
to push back. Foch was counting not only on German weakness but also upon the
recent arrival of sufficient American troops to bolster the British and French
armies. Field Marshal Douglas Haig, who commanded the British Expeditionary Force
(which included the Canadian Corps), decided to begin the British assault at
the Somme, near the same battlefield that was a death mire for the Allies two
years earlier.
The intention was to start at Amiens and to beat back the German armies all along
the Western Front, and possibly outflank them. On the home fronts of the Allies
(and especially in Canada) war efforts, shortages and strikes as well as the
massive losses the Allies had suffered in previous months of fighting had soured
the sweet patriotism of the war's beginnings. Politicians wanted the war over
soon and the generals believed that a concentrated hammering of the Germans now
could deliver that prize. |
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One
Hundred Days Offensive Interactive Map
In the last days of the war an overextended and distracted German army was ripe
for a concerted attack by the Allies.
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