The Battle of Le Hamel, a successful engagement launched by the Allies on July 4th, 1918
The Battle of Le Hamel, a successful engagement launched by the Allies on July 4th, 1918, was of itself a small action, but was a necessary precursor to further advances by Sir Henry Rawlinson's Fourth Army on the Western Front. It was the latest in a series of local actions conducted by the Allies to end in success, and came at a time when the offensive morale of the German army was starting to fall; at the same time the Germans were falling prey to the worldwide influenza pandemic, with severe results in the confined trench environment. The attack was intended to straighten the salient opposite Rawlinson's British Fourth Army east of Amiens (occupied by Georg von der Marwitz's Second Army) by capturing Le Hamel and its flanking woods. This would remove the danger that subsequent large-scale artillery operations conducted by Rawlinson would suffer exposure to German flanking fire. The operation was overseen by new Australian commander John Monash and executed by his 4th D...