71 Days Until Armistice

Continuing on with the previous day’s operations, the priority on August 30th, 1918 was capturing the Fresnes-Rouvroy line. Serving as a literal “first line of defence”, the capture of the trench system would allow the Allied forces a strong position from which they could attack the Drocourt-Queant Line, which lay just to the east. 

The German Army fought desperately. A defensive masterwork like the Hindenburg Line served as a literal “last line of defence”, and Germany’s last meaningful foothold on French soil. A defeat on the Hindenburg Line would have robbed the Germans of all gains made over the past 4 years, so they threw every available reserve into battle.

While gains were small, they were acceptable given the difficulty of the operation. An initially successful assault on Upton Wood was soon turned back by a German counterattack - and despite attempts to recapture it via counterattacks, the wood would remain in German hands.