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The British commander General Edmund Allenby needed to establish a defensive line running from the Mediterranean Sea which could be held with reasonable security once his right flank was secured on the Dead Sea. In order to consolidate a strong British line, it was necessary to push the 3rd and 7th Divisions, part of the XXII Corps, of the Ottoman Eighth Army away from the Nahr el Auja 4 miles (6.4 km) north of Jaffa on the Mediterranean coast. The river was defended on the northern bank, by a trench system, from Mulebbis and Fejja to Bald Hill. From Mulebbis to the sea the river is between 40 to 50 feet (12 to 15 m) wide and 10 feet (3.0 m) deep except for the ford. The first attack across the Nahr el Auja, was little more than a raid, on the night of 24/25 November by two infantry battalions from the 54th (East Anglian) Division and the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade. The outnumbered battalions, were driven back by the Ottoman defenders, as they recaptured the bridgeheads and restored the tactical situation. Three infantry divisions of the British XXI Corps, under the command of Lieutenant General Edward Bulfin, began moving their units into position on the coastal plain on 7 December. The 75th Division was on the right with the 54th (East Anglian) Division in the centre and the 52nd (Lowland) Division on the left at the coast. The 162nd (East Midland) Brigade, relieved the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade in the front line on 11 December and the mounted riflemen, who had been heavily involved in the earlier attempt to capture the Nahr el Auja, moved back to bivouac near Ayun Kara. On 14 December Major General John Hill, the commanding officer of the Lowland Division, submitted a plan for a surprise assault across the river by his division. Artillery was concentrated behind the lines, while the division's Royal Engineers, formed pontoons and canvas coracle boats, that were large enough to accommodate twenty men. It had initially been planned for a heavy artillery bombardment to proceed the attack, however Hill suggested they instead try a surprise attack without the artillery bombardment.

During the battle of Jaffa the attacks by the two British divisions had forced the Ottoman forces back 5 miles (8.0 km). The battle was a success for the British, with 316 Ottoman prisoners taken and ten machine guns captured. The battle was mentioned in General Sir Edmund Allenby's despatch; "The successful crossing of the Nahr el Auja reflects great credit on the 52nd (Lowland) Division. It involved considerable preparation, the details of which were thought out with care and precision. The sodden state of the ground, and, on the night of the crossing, the swollen state of the river, added to the difficulties, yet by dawn the whole of the infantry had crossed. The fact that the enemy were taken by surprise, and, that all resistance was overcome with the bayonet without a shot being fired, bears testimony to the discipline of this division....The operation, by increasing the distance between the enemy and Jaffa from three to eight miles, rendered Jaffa and its harbour secure, and gained elbow-room for the troops covering Ludd and Ramleh and the main Jaffa-Jerusalem road." The British official history described the battle; The passage of the Auja has always been regarded as one of the most remarkable feats of the Palestine campaign...its chief merits were its boldness — justifiable against troops known to be sluggish and slack in outpost work and already shaken by defeat — its planning, the skill of the engineers;the promptitude with which unexpected difficulties in the bridging the river were met; finally, the combined discipline and dash of the infantry which carried out the operation without a shot being fired and won the works on the right with the bayonet. This was one of the last actions the 52nd (Lowland) Division fought in this campaign. In March 1918, they were ordered to move to the Western Front in France. The 54th (East Anglian) Division remained in Palestine taking part in operations at Berukin in April 1918 and the battle of Sharon in September. The British units involved in the battle were awarded the distinct battle honour Jaffa.

But on July 4, Austria-Hungary annulled this secret agreement under the pretext that Ukraine had not delivered to it the amount of grain promised under the treaty. It is believed that this action was the result of Polish pressure. The Central Powers signed a separate Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Bolshevist Russia on March 3, 1918. Russia agreed to recognize the concluded treaty with the Ukrainian People's Republic and to immediately sign a peace treaty with Ukraine, to define the borders between Russia and Ukraine without delay, to clear the Ukrainian territory of Russian troops and the Russian Red Guard, as well as put an end to all agitation or propaganda against the government or the public institutions of the Ukrainian People's Republic (article 6). The treaty immediately caused much opposition among Poles, particularly those in Austria-Hungary. Polish politicians in the Austrian parliament immediately began their protests, paralyzing the parliament; civil servants began a strike, and spontaneous demonstrations took place in various cities and towns. Most notably, the Polish Auxiliary Corps refused to follow Austrian orders, and after the battle of Rarańcza broke through the front lines to join Polish forces in the Russian Civil War. Although the Austrian government in Vienna withdrew from parts of the treaty, the damage it had caused to Polish-Austrian relations was significant, and the pro-Austrian and anti-independence faction of Polish-Austrian politicians was permanently weakened. The treaty of Brest-Litovsk provided the Ukrainian People's Republic with German and Austro-Hungarian military aid in clearing Bolshevik forces from Ukraine in February–April 1918, but the treaty also meant that the Entente Powers suspended relations with the Ukrainian People's Republic. Soon, however, the invited foreign forces from the Central Powers were seen as occupants by a major part of the Ukrainian population and also parts of the Tsentralna Rada. In late April the German Supreme Commander in Ukraine, Hermann von Eichhorn, issued an order making Ukrainians subject to German military courts for offenses against German interests, the First Ukrainian Division (the Blue coats) was disarmed, and German soldiers even arrested two ministers after they criticized the German actions.

The final break with the Tsentralna Rada came on April 29, when General Pavlo Skoropadskyi declared himself Hetman of the Ukrainian state. The Treaty of Rapallo of 1922 between Germany and Soviet Russia canceled the German commitments made at Brest-Litovsk. The disintegration of Austria-Hungary in late 1918 automatically annulled its commitments. Turkey renounced the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk by signing a treaty with the Ukrainian SSR in 1922. Only Bulgaria, as far as is known, did not formally annul the treaty. The Battle of Rarańcza was fought between Polish Legionnaires, and Austria-Hungary, from February 15 to 16, 1918, near Rarańcza in Bukovina, and ended with a Polish victory.The Brest-Litovsk Treaty, which was being negotiated on February 9, 1918, did not appear to benefit the idea of a nation state for Poland. This treaty, signed between the Central Powers (including Austria-Hungary) and the Ukrainian People's Republic on February 9, 1918, transferred the province of Chełm to the Ukrainian state. Poles, meanwhile, believed that the town of Chełm and surrounding lands should be under Polish control. The Polish forces, part of the Austro-Hungarian Army stationed on the border of Bessarabia, were increasingly restless. They were relatively spread out throughout the region over a frontline 250 km in length. They consisted of the Polish Auxiliary Corps (known as the II Brigade of Polish Legionnaires up till the recent oath crisis), as well as some additional Polish units. The Poles, having received the information about the treaty on February 12, and expecting, in the aftermath of the treaty further weakening of the Polish units, decided on the February 14 to join forces with the Polish First Army Corps in Russia by crossing the Austrian-Russian front lines. Only a few, including general Michał Zieliński, proposed taking no action, however even Zieliński unofficially supported the mutiny. Polish units, mostly the 2nd and 3rd Regiment under the command of Józef Haller de Hallenburg, attempted to break through the Austrian lines on February 15 to 16, 1918. Austrian forces were ordered to stop them, and fighting ensued in several places (while in others Austrian units withdrew).

The main Polish units broke through the Austro-Hungarian Army near a town called Rarańcza, located in Bukovina, but the rear units with wagons were stopped by an armored train, and eventually disarmed and arrested. The Legionnaires won the battle, but estimates of their losses vary: according to historian Jerzy Lerski they suffered "great losses", but Gawlik states there were only 16 casualties, while over 900 soldiers of the Auxiliary Corps and other Polish soldiers from other formations - about 4,000 total - were arrested). 86 officers and NCOs were later put to trial by the Austro-Hungarian government, but Charles I of Austro-Hungary ordered the trial to be stopped, and a few weeks later Austro-Hungary was no more. Some (according to Gawlik, about 1,600) of Hallenburg's troops were able to make it through the front lines into already abandoned Russian trenches, and on March 5 were absorbed into the Polish Second Corps, whilst many were captured and imprisoned by the Austrians. The remaining troops under general Hallenburg would be defeated in May by the Germans in the battle of Kaniów. The Operation Faustschlag ("Operation Fist Punch"), also known as the Eleven Days' War, was a Central Powers offensive in World War I. It was the last major action on the Eastern Front. Russian forces were unable to put up any serious resistance due to the turmoil of the Russian Revolution and subsequent Russian Civil War. The armies of the Central Powers therefore captured huge territories in the Baltics, Belarus, and Ukraine, forcing the Bolshevik government of Russia to sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.Bolsheviks took power in Russia during the October Revolution and announced that Russia would be withdrawing from war. Talks with the Central Powers started in Brest-Litovsk on 3 December 1917 and on the 17th a cease-fire went into effect. Peace talks soon followed, starting on 22 December. As negotiations began, the Central Powers presented demands for the territory that they had occupied during the 1914–1916 period, including Poland, Lithuania and western Latvia. The Bolsheviks decided not to accept these terms and instead withdrew from the negotiations, eventually resulting in the breakdown of the ceasefire.

German 2nd Army attack On 17/18 April, the Germans bombarded the area behind Villers-Bretonneux with mustard gas, causing 1,000 Australian casualties. On the evening of 23/24 April, an artillery barrage was fired, using mustard gas and high explosive rounds. Next morning, the Germans attacked the village with four divisions. The German infantry, with fourteen supporting tanks (one was unserviceable), broke through the 8th Division, making a 3-mile (4.8 km) wide gap in the Allied line. Villers-Bretonneux fell to the Germans and the railway junction of Amiens became vulnerable to capture. After the Germans took Villers-Bretonneux, the first engagement between opposing tanks took place. Three British Mark IV tanks from No. 1 Section, A Company, 1st Battalion, Tank Corps had been dispatched to the Cachy switch line, at the first reports of German advance and were to hold it against the Germans. One was a "male" (the No. 1 Tank of the section) armed with two 6-pounder guns and machine guns, under the command of Lieutenant Frank Mitchell. It was crewed by only four of the normal crew of eight, as the others had been gassed. The other tanks were "females" armed with 0.303 in (7.7 mm) machine-guns, for use against infantry. All were advancing when they encountered a German A7V, "Nixe" of Abteilung III Imperial German Tank Force, commanded by 2nd Lieutenant Wilhelm Biltz. Nixe fired on the two "females", damaging them to the extent that it left holes in the hull leaving the crew exposed. Both retreated; their machine guns were unable to penetrate the armour on the German tank. Mitchell's "male" Mark IV continued to fire at the A7V, while on the move to avoid German artillery fire and the gun of the German tank. The movement meant Mitchell's gunner had difficulty in aiming the 6-pounders. The tanks fired at each other on the move, until the Mark IV stopped to allow the gunner a clear shot and the gunner scored three hits (a total of six shell hits). Nixe heeled over on its side, possible as a result of crossing an incline at the wrong angle. The surviving German crew (out of 18 men), including Biltz, alighted from the vehicle and the British fired at them as they fled on foot, killing nine.

Some 10 miles (16 km) east of Amiens and north of the Roman road to St-Quentin, it rises gently to a plateau overlooking Amiens, the Somme valley and the town. The cemetery contains 2,000 graves, of which 779 are Australian. A further ten Australian casualties of the battle are buried in the Villers-Bretonneux Communal Cemetery. The smaller Crucifix Corner British Military Cemetery just east of the town, in the shadow of a motorway embankment, contains the graves of Australian, British and French metropolitan and colonial (Moroccan) troops, the former including many Australians who fell in the area in fighting, which moved further to the east only on 8 August 1918 (but from then on rapidly). The victory gained at Villers-Bretonneux on the third anniversary of the Gallipoli landings is yearly commemorated by Australians. In 2008, to mark the ninetieth anniversary, the Australian and New Zealand Anzac Day dawn service was held for the first time on the Fouilloy Hill, as well as the traditional one held on the Gallipoli Peninsula. The Second Transjordan attack on Shunet Nimrin and Es Salt, officially known by the British as the Second action of Es Salt and by others as the Second Battle of the Jordan, was fought east of the Jordan River between 30 April and 4 May 1918, during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of the First World War. The battle followed the failure of the First Transjordan attack on Amman fought at the beginning April. During this second attack across the Jordan River, fighting occurred in three main areas. The first area in the Jordan Valley between Jisr ed Damieh and Umm esh Shert the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) defended their advanced position against an attack by units of the Seventh Army based in the Nablus region of the Judean Hills. The second area on the eastern edge of the Jordan Valley where the Ottoman Army garrisons at Shunet Nimrin and El Haud, on the main road from Ghoraniyeh to Amman were attacked by the 60th (London) Division many of whom had participated in the First Transjordan attack. The third area of fighting occurred after Es Salt was captured by the light horse brigades to the east of the valley in the hills of Moab, when they were strongly counterattacked by Ottoman forces converging on the town from both Amman and Nablus. The strength of these Ottoman counterattacks forced the EEF mounted and infantry forces to withdraw back to the Jordan Valley where they continued the Occupation of the Jordan Valley during the summer until mid September when the Battle of Megiddo began.

On 18 April the II Corps was ordered by the Regency Council to stop near Kaniv in Ukraine; in a triangle between Potik, Kozyn and Stepantsi. Soon it begun to be surrounded by a nearby German units. On 6 May the commander of the 28th German Landwehr Brigade, General Zierold, subordinate of Marshal Hermann von Eichhorn, issued an ultimatum to the II Corps, demanding it lay down its arms and surrender. II Corps readied for battle, and surprised Zierold, who was unprepared for battle. Zierold backed down saying that the ultimatum was a miscommunication. Soon however Zierold received reinforcements, which convinced him he had enough strength to force the issue. On the night of the tenth of May to the eleventh of May 1918, II Corps was surrounded and attacked by German units. Polish units, initially surprised, formed on the village of Yemchykha and took defensive positions. The II Corps resisted for about a day, and both sides sustained heavy losses. By the evening of 11 May the Germans, who did not expect the Poles to put such a stiff resistance, proposed a ceasefire and negotiations. With supplies running low the Poles accepted the offer to negotiate, and eventually agreed to an honorable capitulation. The battle resulted in heavy losses for the Germans, estimated at about 1,500 dead and 273 wounded. Polish losses are estimated to be much smaller, at about few dozen killed and about 150 wounded. Half of the Polish survivors were arrested and sent to prisoner of war camps (number of prisoners is estimated at about 3,250; another estimate suggests 4,000 imprisoned, and 1,500-2,000 who escaped), but the others managed to escape. Those who escaped included the Polish commander Józef Haller de Hallenburg, who faked his death in the battle, and fled to France where he was later appointed commander of the new Polish unit, the Blue Army (or Haller's Army). In the Second Polish Republic, several units would adopt the name "of Kaniów" in honor of that battle: the 28th, 29th, 30th and 31st Infantry Regiments (of Kaniów Rifleman, Polish: Pułki Strzelców Kaniowskich") and 6th Uhlan Kaniów Regiment (6 Pułk Ułanów Kaniowskich). The Revolt of the Czechoslovak Legion was the armed actions of the Czechoslovak Legions in the Russian Civil War against Bolshevik authorities during May - August, 1918, in Volga, Siberia and Ural regions.

This event made possible the anti-Bolshevik activity of the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly.During World War I, ethnic Czechs and Slovaks living in the Russian Empire petitioned Czar Nicholas II to set up a national force to fight against Austria-Hungary. In 1916, the Russian military authorities began to form a Czechoslovak Legion. As of the end of 1917, the Legion had more than 60,000 soldiers; many of them were former POW's from the Austro-Hungarian army. After the October Revolution in 1917, the Czechoslovak Legion was in a very complicated situation. The Bolsheviks did not want to use it on the Eastern Front, and it was very hard to remove Czechoslovak troops to the Western Front. In March 1918, the Soviet government (under pressure from Germany) stopped the transfer of Czechoslovak troops to France through Arkhangelsk and sent them through Siberia to Vladivostok. The slow evacuation by the Trans-Siberian Railway was exacerbated by transportation shortages – as agreed in the Brest-Litovsk treaty, the Bolsheviks were at the same time repatriating German, Austrian and Hungarian POWs from Siberia. Around the same time Leon Trotsky, then People's Commissar of War, under intense pressure from the Germans, ordered the disarming and arrest of the Legion, thus betraying his promise of safe passage.In May 1918, tensions with the Bolsheviks provoked what is generally referred to as the Revolt of the Legions. Conflict already existed between trains of legionaries going east to fight on the Allied side and German and Austro-Hungarian prisoners (including some Czechs and Slovaks) going west to fight for "the other" side. On 14 May 1918, the legionaries stopped a Hungarian train at Chelyabinsk in the Urals and shot a soldier who had thrown a stone at the Czechs, hitting one of Czechs and injuring him , killing a man.[clarification needed] Then the local Bolshevik government arrested some of the Czechoslovaks and ordered them to be executed. Members of the Legion stormed the railway station, freed their men and subsequently occupied the city of Chelyabinsk. This incident triggered further hostilities between the Legion and the Bolsheviks. Czechoslovaks began to occupy the cities on their route: Chelyabinsk, Petropavlovsk, Kurgan, Novonikolaevsk, Mariinsk, Nizhneudinsk and Kansk. At the same time as the Czechs moved in, Russian officers' organizations overthrew the Bolsheviks in Petropavlovsk and Omsk. Within a month the Whites controlled most of the Trans-Siberian Railway from Lake Baikal to the Ural Mountains regions.

In the words of Christopher J. Walker, had the Armenians lost this battle, "it is perfectly possible that the word Armenia would have henceforth denoted only an antique geographical term." In January 1918, two months after the Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia, the Sovnarkom, the highest government authority under the Bolshevik system, issued a decree which called for the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Caucasus Front. This move threw the Armenian leadership in the Transcaucasia into a panic, since it removed from the region the only force capable of protecting the Armenian people from the Ottoman Empire, which had effectively exterminated its Armenian population through systematic massacres and deportations. The Armenians refused to recognize the authority of the Bolsheviks and attempted to form military units to defend the front as the Ottoman armies prepared to expand eastward. The Armenians attempted to stall the Ottoman advance as they created a small Armenian army to take up the positions the Russians had abandoned. General Tovmas Nazarbekian was selected as its commanding officer and Drastamat Kanayan was appointed as civilian commissar. But in May 1918, just two months after the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty was concluded with the Russian SFSR, elements of the Ottoman Third Army crossed into Eastern Armenia and attacked Alexandropol (modern-day Gyumri). The Ottoman Army intended to crush Armenia and seize Russian Transcaucasia and the oil wells of Baku. The German government, the Ottoman Empire's ally, objected to this attack and refused to help the Ottoman Army in the operation. At this time, only a small area of historical Armenian territory which used to be a part of the Russian Empire remained unconquered by the Ottoman Empire, and into that area hundreds of thousands of Armenian refugees had fled after the Armenian Genocide. The Ottoman Forces began a three-pronged attack in an attempt to finally overwhelm and conquer the rest of Armenia. When Alexandropol fell, the Ottoman Army moved into the former territory of the Yerevan guberniia – the heart of Armenia. The Ottoman offensive was viewed by Armenians with foreboding. With nowhere else left to retreat, they decided to make their stand and prepare for the upcoming battle: Catholicos Gevorg V ordered that church bells peal for six days as Armenians from all walks of life – peasants, poets, blacksmiths, and even the clergymen – rallied to form organized military units.

Two long tunnels were excavated from the Crinchon sewer, one through the St Sauveur and one through the Ronville system, allowing the 24,500 troops safely sheltered from German bombardment to move forward underground, avoiding the railway station, an obvious target for bombardment. The St Sauveur tunnel followed the line of the road to Cambrai and had five shafts in no man's land but the German retirement to the Hindenburg Line forestalled the use of the Ronville tunnels, when the German front line was withdrawn 1,000 yd (910 m) and there was no time to extend the diggings. The subterranean workings were lit by electricity and supplied by piped water, with gas-proof doors at the entrances; telephone cables, exchanges and testing-points used the tunnels, a hospital was installed and a tram ran from the sewer to the St Sauveur caves. The observation post for the VI Corps heavy artillery off the St Sauveur tunnel, had a telephone exchange with 750 circuits; much of the work in this area being done by the New Zealand Tunnelling Company. On the First Army front German sappers also conducted underground operations, seeking out Allied tunnels to assault and counter-mine, in which 41 New Zealand tunnellers were killed and 151 wounded.

However, from 16 April onwards, it was apparent that the Nivelle Offensive was failing and Haig came under pressure to keep the Germans occupied in the Arras sector to minimise French losses. At 04:45 on 23 April, following two days of poor visibility and freezing weather, British troops of the Third Army (VI and VII corps), attacked to the east along an approximate 9 mi (14 km) front from Croisilles to Gavrelle on both sides of the Scarpe. The 51st Division attacked on the northern side in heavy fighting on the western outskirts of Roeux Wood and the chemical works. On their left, the 37th Division, attacked the buildings west of Roeux Station and gained the line of their objectives on the western slopes of Greenland Hill, north of the railway. On the left of the main British attack the 63rd Division, made rapid progress against Gavrelle and secured the village. To the south of the Scarpe and east of Monchy-le-Preux the 29th Division gained the western slopes of the rising ground known as Infantry Hill. The Cojeul river marked a divisional boundary within the VI Corps. Guémappe on the north side of the river was the objective of the 15th Division, attacking east from Wancourt towards Vis-en-Artois.

Although historians generally consider the battle a British victory, in the wider context of the front, it had very little impact on the strategic or tactical situation. Ludendorff later commented: "no doubt exceedingly important strategic objects lay behind the British attack, but I have never been able to discover what they were". In contradiction to this he was also "very depressed; had our principles of defensive tactics proved false, and if so, what was to be done?" On the Allied side, twenty-five Victoria Crosses were subsequently awarded. On the German side, on 24 April 1917, Kaiser Wilhelm awarded Von Lossberg the Oakleaves (similar to a bar for a repeat award) for the Pour le Mérite he had received at the Battle of the Somme the previous September. The most quoted Allied casualty figures are those in the returns made by Lt-Gen Sir George Fowke, Haig's adjutant-general. His figures collate the daily casualty tallies kept by each unit under Haig's command. Third Army casualties were 87,226; First Army 46,826 (including 11,004 Canadians at Vimy Ridge); and Fifth Army 24,608; totalling 158,660. German losses are more difficult to determine. Gruppe Vimy and Gruppe Souchez suffered 79,418 casualties but the figures for Gruppe Arras are incomplete.

The British XVII Corps, commanded by Lieutenant-General Sir Julian Byng, relieved the French Tenth Army in the sector in February 1916, permitting the French to expand their operations at Verdun. The British soon discovered that German tunnelling companies had taken advantage of the relative calm on the surface to build an extensive network of tunnels and deep mines from which they would attack French positions by setting off explosive charges underneath their trenches. The Royal Engineers immediately deployed specialist tunnelling companies along the front to combat the German mining operations. In response to increased British mining aggression, German artillery and trench mortar fire intensified in early May 1916. On 21 May 1916, after shelling both forward trenches and divisional artillery positions from no less than 80 out-of-sight batteries on the reverse slope of the ridge, the German infantry began operation Schleswig Holstein, an attack on the British lines along a 1,800-metre (2,000 yd) front in an effort to eject them from positions along the ridge. The Germans captured several British-controlled tunnels and mine craters before halting their advance and entrenching their positions.

Consequently, the British 5th Infantry Division and supplementary artillery, engineer and labour units reinforced the four Canadian divisions. This brought the nominal strength of the Canadian Corps to about 170,000 men, of whom 97,184 were Canadian.　In January 1917, three Canadian Corps officers accompanied other British and Dominion officers attending a series of lectures hosted by the French Army regarding their experiences during the Battle of Verdun.　The French counter offensive devised by General Robert Nivelle had been one of a number of Allied successes of 1916. Following extensive rehearsal, eight French divisions had assaulted German positions in two waves along a 9.7-kilometre (6 mi) front. Supported by exceedingly strong artillery, the French had recovered lost ground and inflicted heavy casualties on five German divisions.　On their return from the lectures, the Canadian Corps staff officers produced a tactical analysis of the Verdun battles and delivered a series of corps and divisional-level lectures to promote the primacy of artillery and stress the importance of harassing fire and company and platoon flexibility.　The report of 1st Canadian Division commander Arthur Currie highlighted the lessons he believed the Canadian Corps could learn from the experiences of the French.

On 28 March the British precautionary line of resistance was moved forward to a line Germaine–Caulaincourt–Bernes–Marquaix–Lieramont–Nurlu–Equancourt–Bertincourt while the outposts of cavalry, cyclists and some infantry mostly paused. On the army boundary with the French the 32nd Division kept two brigades in line and one in reserve. Each brigade in the line had two infantry companies in outposts held by platoons backed by their battalions and the artillery close enough to cover the outposts. By late March each British corps in the pursuit had diverted a minimum of one division to work on road repairs and bridging, the thaw making the effect of German demolitions far worse. In the Fifth Army area, repair work was concentrated on the railway up the Ancre valley, the Candas–Acheux line, two light railways and the Albert–Bapaume, Hamel–Achiet le Petit–Achiet le Grand and Serre–Puisieux–Bucquoy–Ablainzevelle roads, most of the labour coming from front-line divisions.

British heavy artillery had been moved north from the Fifth Army in January, ready for the offensive at Arras and had been partly replaced by inexperienced units from Britain. Divisions from the Fourth Army had been moved south, to take over former French positions and I Anzac Corps had been transferred to the Fifth Army to compensate for divisions sent north to the Third Army by 6 February, which left the Anglo-French forces in the area depleted. Beach concluded that evidence of German intentions had been collected by air reconnaissance, spy reports and debriefings of refugees and escaped prisoners of war but that German deception measures, made information gleaned from intermittent air reconnaissance during the frequent bad flying weather over the winter, appear unremarkable. German digging behind existing fortifications had taken place several times during the Somme battle and led British Intelligence to interpret the evidence of fortification-building further back from the Somme front, as an extension of the construction already being watched.

Defending villages as outposts, with most of the rearguard posted at the western exits, left them vulnerable to encirclement and attacks from commanding ground and the predictability of such methods provided Anglo-French troops with obvious objectives. Cyril Falls, a British Official Historian, criticised the British army for the failings it showed during the German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line, writing that the divisions were "bewildered and helpless", until they gained experience in the new form of warfare. The commander of the 8th Division, Major-General William Heneker wrote on 2 April, that it had taken three weeks for his division to become proficient in open-warfare techniques. In April 1917, an analysis by II Corps had found that patrols coming under fire had stopped to report, ground of tactical importance had been ignored by patrols which had returned to British lines, forfeiting opportunities to force German withdrawals and artillery had been reluctant to push forward.

The Battle of the Avre (4–5 April 1918), part of the First Battle of Villers-Bretonneux, constituted the final German attack towards Amiens in World War I. It was the point at which the Germans got the closest to Amiens. It was fought between attacking German troops and defending Australian and British troops. The attack was an attempt to take Amiens, where other aspects of Operation Michael had failed. The Avre marked the beginning of the end for Ludendorf's March Offensive.Preliminary moves (29–30 March) across the southern battlefields by German 2nd Army proved so slow and difficult that offensive operations were suspended between 1–3 April to allow German forces to recover. 4 April The final German attack was eventually launched towards Amiens. It came on 4 April, when fifteen divisions attacked seven Allied divisions on a line east of Amiens and north of Albert (towards the Avre River). Ludendorff decided to attack the outermost eastern defenses of Amiens centred on the town of Villers-Bretonneux. His aim was to secure that town and the surrounding high ground from which artillery bombardments could systematically destroy Amiens and render it useless to the Allies. The subsequent fighting was remarkable on two counts: the first use of tanks simultaneously by both sides in the war; and the night-time counterattack hastily organized by the Australian and British units (including the exhausted 54th Brigade) which dramatically re-captured Villers -Bretonneux and halted the German onslaught. From north to south, the line was held by British and Australian troops, specifically the British 14th and 18th Divisions, and the 35th Australian Battalion. However, by 4 April the 14th Division fell back under attack from the German 228th Division. The Australians held off the 9th Bavarian Reserve Division and the British 18th Division held off the German Guards Ersatz Division and 19th Divisions First Battle of Villers-Bretonneux. 5 April An attempt by the Germans to renew the offensive on 5 April failed and by early morning British Empire troops had forced the enemy out of all but the south-eastern corner of the town. German progress towards Amiens, having reached its furthest point westward, had finally been held. Ludendorff called a halt to the offensive.

The Battle of the Lys (7–29 April 1918), also known as the Lys Offensive, the Fourth Battle of Ypres, the Fourth Battle of Flanders and Operation Georgette (Portuguese: Batalha de La Lys and French: 3ème Bataille des Flandres), was part of the 1918 German offensive in Flanders during World War I, also known as the Spring Offensive. It was originally planned by General Ludendorff as Operation George but was reduced to Operation Georgette, with the objective of capturing Ypres, forcing the British forces back to the channel ports and out of the war. In planning, execution and effects, Georgette was similar to (although smaller than) Operation Michael, earlier in the Spring Offensive.The German attack zone was in Flanders, from about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) east of Ypres in Belgium to 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) east of Béthune in France, about 40 kilometres (25 mi) south. The front line ran from north-north-east to south-south-west. The Lys River, running from south-west to north-east, crossed the front near Armentières in the middle of this zone. The front was held by the Belgian Army in the far north, by the British Second Army (under Plumer) in the north and centre and by the British First Army (under Horne) in the south. The German attacking forces were the Sixth Army in the south (under Ferdinand von Quast), and the Fourth Army in the north (under Sixt von Armin). Both armies included substantial numbers of the new stosstruppen, trained to lead attacks with the new stormtroop tactics. The British First Army was a relatively weak force; it included several worn-out formations that had been posted to a "quiet sector". This included two divisions of the Portuguese Expeditionary Corps, which were undermanned, lacked almost half of their officers, had very low morale and were set to be replaced the day of the German attack. The German plan was to break through the First Army, push the Second Army aside to the north, and drive west to the English Channel, cutting off British forces in France from their supply line which ran through the Channel ports of Calais, Dunkirk and Boulogne. Battle of Estaires (9–11 April) The German bombardment opened on the evening of 7 April, against the southern part of the Allied line between Armentières and Festubert. The barrage continued until dawn on 9 April. Operation Georgette ジョルジェット作戦