Adam Rankin - The Hindenburg Line Campaign 1918

ABOUT THE SERIES

The Australian Army Campaigns Series is published by the Army History Unit, Canberra. It is written for members of the Australian Army with a focus on leadership, command, strategy, tactics, lessons and personal experiences of war.

Each book contains specially commissioned art, digital graphics and 3-dimensional maps from leading Australian military artists.

So far in this series:

No. 1 The Battle of Crete (Palazzo) 2005

No. 2 The Western Desert Campaign: 1940-41 (Wahlert) 1st Ed 2006. 2nd Ed 2009

No. 3 Australian Military Operations in Vietnam (Palazzo) 1st Ed 2006. 2nd Ed. 2009

No. 4 Exploring Gallipoli: An Australian Army Battlefield Guide (Wahlert) 2008

No.5 Malaya 1942 (Farrell & Pratten) 2009

No.6 Wau 1942-43 (Bradley) 2010

No.7 Australias Palestine Campaign 1916-18 (Bou) 2010

No.8 The Battle of Fromelles 1916 (Lee) 2010

No.9 The Battle of Bardia (Stockings) 2011

No.10 The August Offensive(Cameron) 2011

No. 11 The Battle of Mont St Quentin-Peronne 1918 (Bomford) 2012

No. 12 The Landing At Anzac, 1915 (Roberts) 2013/15

No 13 Greece February to April 1941 (Tyquin) 2014

No 14 To Kokoda (Anderson) 2014

No 15 Sudan 1885 (Tyquin) 2015

No 16 The Ottoman Defence Against the ANZAC Landing (Uyar) 2015

No 17 The Battles of Bullecourt (Coombes) 2017

No 18 The Battle of Messines 1917

No 19 The Battle of Polygon Wood 1917

No 20 The Battle of Menin Road 1917

No 21 The Battle of Broodseinde Ridge 1917

No 22 The Battle of Pozieres 1916

No 23 The Battle of Maryang San 1951

No 24 The Battle of Milne Bay

No 25 The Battle of The Lys 1918

These books are now available to the public. Enquiries and orders can be made at www.bigskypublishing.com.au

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Copyright 2018 Commonwealth of Australia

First published 2019

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See National Library of Australia for Cataloguing-in-Publication entry.

Author: Adam Rankin

Title: The Hindenburg Line 1918

ISBN: 978-1-922265-03-6

Series: Australian Army history series ; 26

Printed in China through Asia Pacific Offset Limited

Cover design and typesetting by Think Productions, Melbourne

Front cover and title page:

CONTENTS

In 2004, the then Chief of Armys Strategic Advisory Group, the Australian Armys senior generals, established a scheme to promote the study and understanding of military history within the Army. The focus was the Armys future generation of leaders and, from this, the Campaigns Series was created. The series is intended to complement the Armys other history publications which are major analytical works of high quality, academically rigorous and referenced.

The Campaigns Series focuses on leadership, command, strategy, tactics, lessons and personal experiences of war. Each title within the series includes extensive visual sources of information maps, including specifically prepared maps in colour and 3D, specifically commissioned artwork, photographs and computer graphics.

Covering major campaigns and battles, as well as those less known, the Australian Army History Unit and its Campaigns Series provide a significant contribution to the history of the Australian Army and an excellent introduction to its campaigns and battles.

Tim Gellel

Head, Australian Army History Unit

This book began its path to publication when I was a summer vacation scholar at the Australian War Memorial (AWM) in 2014 and assigned to research the Battle of Montbrehain. Part of the project involved delivering a public address based on the results of this research. Dr Roger Lee, then head of the Australian Army History Unit, happened to be a member of the audience and asked me afterwards to consider submitting my work as a volume of the units Campaign Series. After some false starts and doubts over whether I could write a book and begin a PhD at the same time, I decided to try. Along the way I received a great deal of support from many different people at various points in my journey.

My supervisor at the AWM, Aaron Pegram, challenged me to fully utilise the resources available and provided excellent feedback. Karl James, Meleah Hampton, Ashley Ekins, Michael Kelly, Peter Burness and Lachlan Grant added constructive comments and insights, while Andrew McDonald, Emma Campbell and Christina Zissis assisted with valuable editorial support. The project itself and the research I completed at the AWM provided the initial basis for this book, and the staff at the AWM Research Centre were always ready to assist with my research enquiries and were very helpful in suggesting further resources. Dr Craig Stockings at ADFA gave me some valuable advice on how to proceed with the book while continuing my studies.

Lieutenant Colonels Glenn Wahlert and Jeffrey Cleverley were both extremely helpful and supportive as Campaign Series managers. Denny Neave and Eric Olason from Big Sky Publishing also provided essential support and assistance with maps. Cathy McCullaghs editing substantially improved the quality of the final manuscript.

Anzacs on the Western Front: The Australian War Memorial Battlefield Guide by Peter Pedersen and Chris Roberts proved enormously valuable in my own battlefield exploration in July 2017. Many of the author photos used in the book were taken at or inspired by stops noted in the guide.

My wife Samantha was my sounding board and constant source of support. Sam helped set up many of the photos taken on our battlefield walkthrough in 2017, read through drafts and produced the organisational charts.

My supervisor at the University of Western Australia, Jeremy Martens, encouraged me to write this book while working on my PhD and helped me stay ahead of both tasks. I am grateful for the Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship at the University of Western Australia which provided considerable support during the process of writing this book.

The final campaigns on the Western Front have traditionally been overshadowed in Australian memory by the centrality of Gallipoli and the fighting of 1916 and 1917. In terms of the national consciousness, 1918 is viewed through the prism of individual battles such as Villers-Bretonneux, Hamel and Amiens. After Amiens, Proyart, Chuignes and Mont St Quentin-Pronne are remembered for the units that fought in them, rather than as a sequenced offensive that played a major part in the final stages of the war. Conversely, the Australian Corps is remembered for breaking the Hindenburg Line and as instrumental in forcing the Germans to sue for peace. This selective recognition emphasises Australian tactical prowess and unit cohesion, while downplaying any such skill among the rest of the British and French armies.