ABSTRACT

From July 1918 onward, the BEF essentially applied two different offensive methods, both of which could potentially save manpower yet at the same time prove effective. The first was the traditional infantryartillery offensive, but utilizing very much greater amounts of artillery, machine guns and mortars than ever before. The second was the combined tank-infantry-artillery type of offensive. The first method was used at Météren, and the second at Hamel and Amiens. The Amiens assault was particularly successful, and showed what a well-planned tankinfantry-artillery offensive could do when very good infantry and a large body of tanks were used together, having also trained together and become used to each other. Then in late August, under the direction of Foch, a series of sequential attacks were launched by the Allies to loosen the German line. Large numbers of tanks were used, but often in an ad hoc manner, and then at the end of August, the BEF lost confidence in the tanks, which had also been reduced in numbers, and turned back to the first method of traditional infantry-artillery offensives until the end of the war. This traditional option proved successful, although not without heavy casualties, which might have been alleviated if the tank-infantry-artillery method had been continued.