Pretty funny that he is claiming that things are quiet - one wonders which war he was involved in!
How astute of Herb about sizing up the (perhaps stereo-typic, though there is always a grain of truth in those...) French character!
What trouble is Harry in now? My goodness that boy!
The kids, of course, are Olive and Margaret.
Section 580 of the Ambulance Corps is still in Suippes, France at this time.
Though it is quiet for Herb when he writes this letter home, in 4 days time
the Allies launch a series of offensive operations against German positions on the Western Front during World War I with a punishing attack at Amiens, on the Somme River in northwestern France.
After heavy casualties incurred during their ambitious spring 1918 offensive, the bulk of the German army was exhausted, and its morale was rapidly disintegrating amid a lack of supplies and the spreading influenza epidemic. Some of its commanders believed that the tide was turning irrevocably in favor of Germany’s enemies; as one of them, Crown Prince Rupprecht, wrote on July 20, “We stand at the turning point of the war: what I expected first for the autumn, the necessity to go over to the defensive, is already on us, and in addition all the gains which we made in the spring—such as they were—have been lost again.” Still, Erich Ludendorff, the German commander in chief, refused to accept this reality and rejected the advice of his senior commanders to pull back or begin negotiations.
Meanwhile, the Allies prepared for the war to stretch into 1919, not realizing victory was possible so soon. Thus, at a conference of national army commanders on July 24, Allied generalissimo Ferdinand Foch rejected the idea of a single decisive blow against the Germans, favoring instead a series of limited attacks in quick succession aimed at liberating the vital railway lines around Paris and diverting the attention and resources of the enemy rapidly from one spot to another. According to Foch: “These movements should be exacted with such rapidity as to inflict upon the enemy a succession of blows….These actions must succeed each other at brief intervals, so as to embarrass the enemy in the utilization of his reserves and not allow him sufficient time to fill up his units.” The national commanders—John J. Pershing of the United States, Philippe Petain of France and Sir Douglas Haig of Britain—willingly went along with this strategy, which effectively allowed each army to act as its own entity, striking smaller individual blows to the Germans instead of joining together in one massive coordinated attack.
Haig’s part of the plan called for a limited offensive at Amiens, on the Somme River, aimed at counteracting a German victory there the previous March and capturing the Amiens railway line stretching between Mericourt and Hangest. The British attack, begun on the morning August 8, 1918, was led by the British 4th Army under the command of Sir Henry Rawlinson. The German defensive positions at Amiens were guarded by 20,000 men; they were outnumbered six to one by advancing Allied forces. The British—well assisted by Australian and Canadian divisions—employed some 400 tanks in the attack, along with over 2,000 artillery pieces and 800 aircraft.
By the end of August 8—dubbed “the black day of the German army” by Ludendorff—the Allies had penetrated German lines around the Somme with a gap some 15 miles long. Of the 27, 000 German casualties on August 8, an unprecedented proportion—12,000—had surrendered to the enemy. Though the Allies at Amiens failed to continue their impressive success in the days following August 8, the damage had been done. “We have reached the limits of our capacity,” Kaiser Wilhelm II told Ludendorff on that “black day.” “The war must be ended.” The kaiser agreed, however, that this end could not come until Germany was again making progress on the battlefield, so that there would be at least some bargaining room. Even faced with the momentum of the Allied summer offensive—later known as the Hundred Days Offensive—the front lines of the German army continued to fight on into the final months of the war, despite being plagued by disorder and desertion within its troops and rebellion on the home front.
August 4th (1918)
Dear Mother,
I’ve had a regular flood of mail this week – about ten letters and two packages of Times and Posts. I like those clippings – they keep me up with the news and the Times is the best paper to clip.
I have just written to Renwick Fleming again since he didn’t get my first letter.
Things are still quiet here-abouts – that is there have been no sizeable attacks. Of course there’s been the usual shelling. The weather is pretty rainy and disagreeable.
I went with the truck today to get supplies from an American Commissary Depot some ways back. We got a good stock of cigarettes and I have some tobacco so I’m on Easy Street. The American Red Cross has made arrangements to send us a supply every month because we’re not in touch with the American depots – that comes free of course.
Hasn’t there been rejoicing in the States over the news of the past week or so. The American troops are certainly coming through. Furthermore there are lots of them. The French are perking up and even are beginning to think of the end of it all – something unusual for them. Usually they just plug along without speculating as to when it will be over.
Is that trouble of Harry’s at all serious or will it only need a little treatment. It’s probably a good things it was discovered.
I could guess of course that the kids were getting pretty big but I can’t imagine Olive as almost as big as you. I wish I could see you all.
Your affectionate son,
Herb
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