14 March – 5 April 1917: German retreat to the Hindenburg Line. During Somme fighting the Germans constructed a formidable new defensive system some miles in their rear. From February 1917 they began to withdraw into it, giving up ground but in carrying out “Operation Alberich” they made the ground as uninhabitable and difficult as possible. British patrols eventually detected the withdrawal and cautiously followed up and advanced, being brought to a standstill at the outer defences of the system.

Third Army (Allenby)

VII Corps (Snow)

14th (Light) Division

21st Division

30th Division

56th (1st London) Division.

Fourth Army (Rawlinson)

5th Cavalry Division

III Corps (Pulteney)

1st Division

48th (South Midland) Division, which occupied Peronne on 18 March

59th (2nd North Midland) Division.

IV Corps (Woollcombe)

32nd Division

35th Division

61st (2nd South Midland) Division.

XIV Corps (Cavan)

Guards Division

20th (Light) Division (transferred to XV Corps on 25 March).

XV Corps (Du Cane)

8th Division

20th (Light) Division (transferred from XIV Corps on 25 March)

40th Division.

Fifth Army (Gough)

4th Cavalry Division

II Corps (Jacob)

2nd Division

18th (Eastern) Division.

V Corps (Fanshawe)

7th Division

46th (North Midland) Division

62nd (2nd West Riding) Division.

XVIII Corps (Maxse)

58th (2/1st London) Division.

I ANZAC Corps (Birdwood)

2nd Australian Division, which captured Bapaume on 17 March 1917

4th Australian Division

5th Australian Division.

The front had now moved several miles, leaving the devastated 1916 Somme battlefield and the razed ground of “Alberich” behind the British front. New place names began to appear in the British news … they would soon assume as sinister an air as the villages and woods of the Somme.

Links

Battles of the Western Front in France and Flanders

Sir Douglas Haig’s third despatch (operations on the Ancre, 1916, and pursuit of German retreat to Hindenburg Line)