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Tactics and Strategy
The Canadian Corps' first mission was to take the lead role in the attack on
the Amiens salient. The Allied tactic was to carry out the movements of the Canadian
Corps (which would have signalled the Germans that an attack was coming) in total
secrecy. As a decoy, part the the Corps was sent to Ypres while the rest travelled
at night, the sounds of their moving machinery masked by overhead Allied planes.
With the help of Australian and French troops and British tanks, the Canadian
Corps gained kilometres of ground in only days. To the Germans, the Amiens attack
was known as the "black day of the German Army."
The Battle of Amiens was just a warm-up. Through September the Canadian Corps
smashed at the German front, penetrating the Drocourt-Queant Line (part of the
main Hindenburg Line) near Canal du Nord. The strategy for the final assault
on Canal du Nord was devised by General Arthur Currie who risked his career on
a dangerous and potentially disastrous assault across a three- |
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kilometre-long dry section of the steep-walled canal. The advance was supported
by the most intense single-day bombardment of the Great War. The plan was complex
but Currie was determined and he proved himself, again, to be a master tactician.
The Canadians moved beyond Canal du Nord and captured the
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Canadians constructing
a bridge
Even while under fire Canadian soldiers built a bridge
across Canal du Nord in September 1918. |
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