On July 6, 1918, the Australians who had carried out such a brilliant attack on the German lines south of the Somme on the Fourth of July began another push in the same sector.
The Germans had been so badly battered in the previous encounter that they had not attempted to retaliate, but had established some advanced posts in no-man's-land which the Australians thought it wise to wipe out. It was known that an epidemic of Spanish influenza was raging among the German troops in this sector, which accounted in a measure for the very poor showing they made. That their morale was shaken may be illustrated by the following incident: After one of the German outposts was under rifle and grenade fire for some time a British soldier went out to see the effect of the damage done. Almost immediately a German officer and twelve men came tumbling out of a dugout and surrendered to him, and the proud Tommy led back his baker's dozen of captives to the British lines.
The Australians in this push on the 6th advanced their line by about 400 yards over a front of about a mile beyond Hamel, which rounded out the gains made in this sector on July 4, 1918.
The Germans continued inactive as far as military operations were concerned, but back of their lines vast preparations were under way, as noted by the Allies' observers, and it was evident that a new offensive would not long be delayed.
Meanwhile the French continued to make gains daily. On July 8, 1918, southwest of Soissons, General Pétain's men broke the German line on a two-mile front in the outskirts of Retz Forest, in the region of Longpont. In this push the French gained three-fourths of a mile, occupying Chavigny Farm and the ridges and heights to the north and south of the farm. In this operation the French captured nearly 400 Germans, of whom four were officers.
A new stroke against the enemy was delivered by the French on the following day when they attacked west of Antheuil between Montdidier and the River Oise on a front of two and a half miles, piercing it to a depth of more than a mile at some points, and making prisoners of 450 men, including fourteen officers. Later the Germans attempted to counterattack in this sector, but it was pressed with vigor and they were thrown back on their own lines.
The line-up at the great German offensive, March-June, 1918.
Up in Flanders there was violent shelling of the British roads around the Scherpenberg, which was the outer bastion of the Allies' defense. Farther to the south the Australians had advanced their line beyond the German outpost positions near Morris on a 1,200-yard front.