Original subtitles

Germany's black day. The battle of

Amyens. An army waiting in the fog.

August 8th, 1918. A few minutes before

0420, [music]

thick fog blankets the fields east of

Amy. But within this fog, hundreds of

tanks are waiting. Engines off.

Thousands of gun barrels are turned

toward the German lines. Hundreds of

thousands of soldiers lie silently in

the grass. No one is speaking. No one is

firing because the British attacks the

Germans were used to didn't begin like

this. First, an artillery barrage would

open up for days. The ground would be

torn apart. Trenches would collapse. The

sky would darken. But this bombardment

also sent the Germans a message. Get

ready. The British [music] are coming.

The Germans would bring up their

reserves, position their machine guns,

and wait for the moment the attack would

begin. Then British soldiers would try

to advance across muddy terrain [music]

that had been pounded for weeks. That's

how it had gone at the S. That's how it

had gone at Passanddale.

So what happened [music] this time? No

preparatory bombardment at all. No

warning at all. At 0420, roughly 2,000

guns open fire at the same instant. 3

minutes later, tanks move out of the

fog. Infantry advances right behind

them. The western [music] front where

tens of thousands of people had died for

a few hundred meters over 4 [music]

years begins to fall apart within a few

hours. Now the question is this. Did the

tanks [music] win the battle? Did German

soldiers simply no longer want to fight?

Or did all the pieces of modern warfare

for the first time work together at

[music] once at Amy's? Because what

began on August 8th, 1918 wasn't just a

major offensive. It was the day the

German army's belief that it could win

the war began to collapse. How close was

Germany to winning? A few months

earlier, the picture had looked

completely different. In the spring of

1918, the side that looked close to

losing the war wasn't Germany. [music]

It was the Antant Powers.

Russia had left the war. The German

general staff moved a large number of

divisions it no longer needed on the

Eastern Front to the west. The plan was

clear. [music] deliver a final blow to

Britain and France before the American

army arrived at the front in full

strength. On March 21st, 1918, the

German [music] spring offensive began.

Stormtrooper units tore through a front

line that hadn't moved in years. In some

[music] areas, the British fell back

dozens of kilometers. Paris was once

again [music] under threat. The Amian

railway junction came within range of

German artillery. For a moment, [music]

it seemed the war could be won by

Germany. But as the German army [music]

advanced, it became a victim of its own

success. The stormtrooper units moved

too far from their supply lines. Food

didn't arrive. Ammunition didn't arrive.

Reserve troops didn't arrive. Germany's

most experienced soldiers were lost in

the front ranks of the offensive. By

July, the German advance had stopped.

Now the initiative had passed to the

Anton powers. So what would they do?

Another bombardment lasting weeks.

Infantry trying once again to advance

across shattered fields. A few

kilometers in exchange for thousands of

casualties once again. Number at Amy.

They didn't want to repeat the old way

of waging war. How was the Amian's plan

built? The commander of the British

Fourth Army, Henry Rollinsson, was

planning a limited but extremely

hard-hitting attack around Amians. The

goal wasn't to destroy the entire German

army in a single blow. First, the Amyan

railway had to be freed from German

artillery fire because this line was

vital to the British and French [music]

armies. But the real objective was

bigger than that, to show the German

army that there was no longer a safe

zone anywhere on the Western Front. One

of the most important figures behind

this new approach to warfare [music] was

the commander of the Australian Corps,

John Monese. Before the war, Monach had

been an engineer. [music] He didn't look

at war as a display of heroism, but as a

massive organizational problem that

needed to be solved. To him, [music]

courage couldn't be used as a substitute

for bad planning. Artillery, [music]

tanks, infantry, and aircraft would not

move disconnected from one another.

[music] Every unit would know when to

advance, where to stop, and who would

move through it afterward. This system

had already been tested at Hamill. On

July 4th, 1918, Australian troops

attacked together with [music] tanks,

artillery, and aircraft and captured

their objectives in roughly 90 minutes.

Amy was going to be a much larger scale

version of Hamill. But first, the order

of attack had to be set. In the north

was the British Third Corps. [music]

South of it, the Australian Corps. To

the right of the Australians, the

Canadian Corps. Farthest south, the

French first army. The French didn't

have heavy tank support. Because of

this, they had to carry out an artillery

bombardment before attacking. But this

bombardment could give away the

surprise. The solution was this. The

British, Australian, and Canadian forces

[music] would attack at 0420 while the

French would move 45 minutes later. This

decision left the right flank [music] of

the Canadian Corps exposed to risk for

the first 45 minutes. So the plan

[music] wasn't perfect, but if the

timing was right, it could work. Three

objective lines. The attack wasn't going

to be a single [music] forward push. The

front was divided into three separate

objective lines. The first units would

advance to the first line and stop.

Fresh troops coming up behind them would

pass through them and attack the second

objective. Then a third wave would push

toward the final objective. On the maps,

these objectives were marked with green,

red, and blue lines. So why did this

matter? In earlier offensives, the same

unit would keep fighting for hours,

sometimes days, and as exhaustion built

up, the attack would grind to a halt. At

Amy, the speed of the attack would

instead be sustained by fresh troops.

The unit in front would get tired. the

one behind it would pass through. The

advance wouldn't stop. But for all of

this to work, the Germans had to have

absolutely no idea what was coming. How

were the German guns located? British

artillery needed to silence the German

batteries within the first few minutes.

So, how would the location of the German

guns be known? Normally, artillery would

first fire a few ranging shots and

adjust its aim based on where the shells

landed. But doing [music] that would

give the attack away. This is where a

young physicist stepped in. Lawrence

Bragg. Bragg and his team placed

microphones along the front. When German

guns fired, [music] the sound reached

the different microphones at different

times. This time difference was

calculated and the location of the

battery was determined. Aerial

photographs and teams observing muzzle

flashes were added to this. As a result,

the British had already located most of

the German guns in the Amian sector

before the attack. So on the morning of

August 8th, British artillery wouldn't

be searching for targets. It would

strike known points directly. [music]

But there was something even harder to

hide than the guns. Hundreds of tanks.

How were the tanks hidden? The tanks

were moved at night. [music] In some

areas, the roads were covered with straw

and similar materials. The sound of the

engines and treads couldn't be allowed

to reach the German lines. To cover

this, heavy bombers were planned to fly

along the front. The sound of the

aircraft engines would mask the metallic

noise made by the tanks. But the night

before the attack, the fog was so thick

that flying became dangerous. Sending a

whole squadron wasn't possible. So,

volunteer pilots were sought. Two pilots

accepted the mission. Flying through the

fog, they circled their planes along the

German line to try to mask the sound of

the tank movement below. But the biggest

deception wasn't carried out with the

tanks. It was carried out with the

Canadian corps. The Canadians were seen

by German intelligence as a dangerous

strike force. Wherever they [music]

appeared, the Germans expected a major

offensive. For this reason, the Canadian

corps was moved to Amians at night under

complete [music] radio silence. Fake

radio traffic was left behind in their

old sector. Some Canadian units were

deliberately [music] sent north and

allowed to be spotted by the Germans.

The message meant to be sent was this.

The Canadians are in Flanders. In

reality, [music] they were at the center

of the attack. Some soldiers didn't know

the real objective of the offensive

until the final hour. Even if a soldier

was taken prisoner, there wouldn't be

much he could tell the Germans. A blunt

three-word warning appeared in the

orders. Keep your mouth shut. The

Germans did pick up on some signs. A

pilot reported a concentration of tanks

behind the front, but the report wasn't

taken seriously. German command didn't

believe the Anton powers could hide an

attack of this scale. And then it was

0420. The machine starts moving. When

the artillery fire opened, the German

front line wasn't just hit. Telephone

lines were cut. The connection between

headquarters and forward positions was

severed. The German guns previously

identified positions were placed under

heavy fire. The artillery fire didn't

stay fixed on one point. It formed a

moving wall in front of the infantry.

The soldiers walked right behind the

explosions. If they moved too fast,

they'd walk into their own artillery. If

they moved too slow, German soldiers

would come out of their shelters and set

up their machine guns. Everything

depended on timing. The fog made it hard

for the attackers to see ahead, but it

made it even harder for the Germans to

understand what was in front of them.

Then the tanks emerged from the fog.

Mark 5 tanks could turn more easily than

earlier models, cross wider trenches,

and carry more powerful weapons.

Alongside them were the faster Whippbit

tanks. Behind them came supply carrying

tanks and armored vehicles. But there's

an important point to note here. Amy

wasn't a battle the tanks won on their

own. The German guns in front of the

tanks were being suppressed by artillery

fire. Infantry protected the tanks

around them. Aircraft struck German

reserves and communication lines. Fresh

troops [music] passed through the first

assault wave. All the pieces were

working at the same time. Around 0710,

the Australians had reached their first

objectives. At 0820, the second phase

began. New divisions passed through the

units in front and [music] advanced. In

the center, the Australian and Canadian

corps were tearing through the German

defense rapidly. So what was happening

in the north? Two different fronts in

the same battle. North of the S River,

[music] the British Third Corps had a

much harder task. Part of its forces had

taken heavy losses during the German

spring offensive. Some tank units hadn't

trained enough with infantry. [music]

The terrain was rougher. The German 27th

Verdenberg division was better prepared

in that sector. Moreover, [music] the

Germans had carried out a limited attack

in this area on August 6th, just 2 days

before the offensive. As a result, the

units [music] in the north weren't as

unprepared as the Germans in the center.

Some British units [music] lost their

bearings in the fog. German soldiers

counterattacked from the high ground

with hand grenades. In some areas, the

[music] link between the tanks and the

infantry broke down. This is why on the

map we see two different versions of

Amians happening at the same time. In

the center and south a German front

collapsing rapidly. In the north machine

guns, artillery batteries and high

ground still holding firm. Chipoly Ridge

was one of the most important points of

this resistance. The German fire coming

from there was affecting not only the

British third corps but also the

Australian advance south of the river.

Later, units of the American 33rd

Division were sent to this sector.

American soldiers attacked Chipoli Ridge

under heavy machine gun and artillery

fire. They captured the northern part

and continued advancing the next day.

This detail matters because amiance

wasn't an easy victory everywhere.

[music] In some spots, the Germans were

still resisting with remarkable

effectiveness. The German guns come

back. British artillery had knocked out

most of the German batteries, but not

all of them. Some German gun crews

waited it out in their shelters. Once

the rolling barrage had passed over

them, [music] they brought their guns

back into position. Facing them now were

tanks that had moved beyond the

protection of their own artillery.

[music] Near Bayoners, German guns

knocked out one Mark 5 tank after

another. At one point, six tanks were

disabled along the same line. The tank's

armor could withstand rifle fire, but it

was defenseless against a well-concealed

77 mm gun. So, what does this show?

Artillery fire didn't always destroy the

German batteries. Sometimes it only kept

their heads down. Once the rolling

barrage moved forward, [music] the

German guns would come back out. This is

where the system broke down. [music]

Whenever the tanks, the infantry and the

artillery became separated from one

another. Musical box. During the

fighting around Bayon Villers, a whippet

[music] tank spotted a German artillery

battery. The tank's name was Musical

Box. Its commander realized that

approaching the German guns headon would

get him shot. [music] So, he used the

tank's greatest advantage, speed. At a

distance of roughly 600 m, he changed

direction. He moved behind a treelined

road. He circled around the German

battery and came up behind the guns. The

German gunners were expecting a tank in

front of them, not behind them. Musical

box opened fire. [music] The battery

scattered. The whippet then continued

advancing into the German rear. It

attacked [music] supply columns, troops,

and the area around a headquarters. But

this story doesn't have a heroic ending.

The tank was hit. The crew [music] got

out and was taken prisoner. So why does

musical box matter? Because it [music]

showed all by itself the core idea

behind Amy. Sometimes speed [music]

mattered more than armor, but there were

other vehicles that used speed on an

even larger scale. Armored cars behind

German lines. 16 Austin armored cars

also took part in the Amian attack.

These vehicles had poor cross-country

ability. If they got onto muddy fields,

they could easily get stuck. For this

reason, they were sent directly behind

German lines along an old Roman road.

So, what if the road got blocked? For

this, three Mark 5 tanks were fitted

with small bridges. The armored car

crews were issued axes and ropes. The

clearing of obstacles was even rehearsed

the day before the operation. This

detail shows us how Amy was planned. Not

just the enemy, but even a tree in the

road had been accounted for. The armored

cars crossed the front line. They

entered the German rear area

administrative zone. They caught

soldiers eating meals off guard in

towns. They attacked supply columns.

They disrupted the telephone and supply

network. Even the official British

history would later write that they

created chaos behind German lines. Two

armored cars under Lieutenant Rollins

[music] entered Framerville. Rollins

reached a building that looked

important. He went inside with a pistol

in hand and stuffed the headquarters

documents he found into sandbags. It was

later claimed that among these papers

were detailed plans related to the

Hindenburg line. Weeks later, when

Antant forces attacked that line, they

already knew many details of the German

defenses in advance. So a small raid

carried out at Ammy may have helped

prepare another offensive, the blown

bridge. On the Canadian front, there was

another problem. It was known that the

Germans would blow up the bridge near

[music] Demoine. So how would the tanks

get across the river? Some vehicles were

fitted with portable [music] crossing

devices called cribs. Selected crews

were assigned to these vehicles. A

combat engineer was also loaded onto one

of the tanks.

>> [music]

>> If the bridge hadn't been blown yet, he

would diffuse the explosives. The

Germans blew up the bridge, but the

tanks dropped the device they were

carrying into the gap and managed to

cross. Around 6:30, tanks and infantry

were across the river. By 11, Canadian

engineers had repaired the bridge. This

wasn't just courage. It was a prepared

answer worked out before the battle

began to a problem that had already been

anticipated.

The French attack in the south. Amyen

wasn't made up only of British,

Australian, and Canadian troops. The

French First Army took part in the

attack in the far south. French tank

[music] support was limited. Because of

this, they began advancing after a

45minute bombardment. This delay [music]

put the right flank of the Canadian

corps at risk. But once the German

defense began to collapse in the center,

the French advance also [music] sped up.

French troops advanced around Moroy. In

the following days, they increased

[music] pressure over Mondier. Why did

this southern advance matter? Because it

forced [music] the Germans to retreat

not just toward Amya, but across a much

wider front. The success of Amy didn't

come from a single breakthrough point.

It came from the German defense being

put under pressure from multiple

directions at once. Officers caught at

the breakfast table. The advance in the

center was so fast that some German

headquarters couldn't be evacuated in

time. It said that German officers were

caught sitting at their breakfast

tables. Thousands of soldiers

surrendered in groups. Some units laid

down their weapons almost without firing

a shot. [music] So why? Explaining this

away as simple cowardice would be too

easy. These soldiers had been fighting

for 4 years. Hunger, blockade, illness,

and constant losses had worn the German

army down. A significant portion of its

most experienced soldiers had been lost

during the spring offensive. The

soldiers had been told victory was

close. But now, hundreds of tanks were

coming out of the fog. British artillery

knew exactly where the German batteries

were. Aircraft were striking the retreat

routes, [music] and armored cars were

roaming behind headquarters.

Some German soldiers began for the first

time to think that they hadn't just lost

a position, they had lost the war

itself. Some retreating units shouted at

fresh troops heading to the front.

[music] You're prolonging the war. What

really shook Ludenorf wasn't the lost

ground. It was that soldiers were no

longer obeying orders, [music] were

surrendering in groups, and were

starting to question whether the war

should continue. For this reason, he

would later describe August 8th as the

black day of the German army, the result

of the first day. By the end of August

8th, some units had advanced between 11

and 13 km. The Canadians reached roughly

13 km. The Australians advanced roughly

11 km. The French gained roughly 8 km in

the south. The advance of the British

third corps in the north, however, was

far more limited. Roughly 15,000 German

soldiers were taken prisoner. [music]

Total German losses are given in

different sources as somewhere between

27,000 and 30,000. Hundreds of German

guns were captured. But more important

than the numbers was something else.

German morale was broken. Why did the

tanks stop? [music] After the first day,

the pace of the attack slowed. So why?

Most of the tanks had been knocked out

of action. Some were hit by German

artillery. Some broke down mechanically,

some fell into trenches, [music] some

got stuck in the terrain. Inside the

tanks, the heat was unbearable. Exhaust

fumes were poisoning the crews. Carbon

monoxide and [music] heat left the tank

crews exhausted by the end of the day.

These men were then expected to [music]

repair their own vehicles, but some of

them weren't in any condition to even

stand. Meanwhile, the advancing [music]

infantry had moved beyond the range of

their own artillery. The telephone lines

had been left behind. German reserves

were reaching the area. The element of

surprise was gone. Fighting continued on

August 9th, but without the speed of

that first morning. So, was this a

failure? No. Because this time, hey

didn't make the old mistake. Instead of

grinding the attack down by continuing

to pour troops into the same sector, he

halted the operation and began preparing

a new offensive at a different point.

The real success of Amyan wasn't the

villages captured. It was proof that a

method worked. The real lesson of Amy's

artillery had silenced the enemy. Tanks

had torn through the machine gun lines.

Infantry had cleared the trenches.

Aircraft had struck the reserves and

communications. Armored cars had gotten

behind German lines. Fresh troops had

kept up the pace of the attack by

passing through the units ahead of them.

All the pieces had worked like a single

machine. But whenever any part of that

machine became separated from the

others, the outcome changed immediately.

Tanks that lost their artillery support

became prey to German batteries.

Infantry cut off from the tanks was left

exposed in front of machine guns. Poorly

trained units lost their way in the fog.

The lesson of Aman wasn't that tanks won

the war on their own. The lesson was

this. In modern warfare, no single

weapon was enough by itself. The end of

the war was now visible. After amy

[music] ends, the German leadership

began openly discussing that the war

could no longer be won. The Kaiser was

told the army's capacity had reached its

limit. Peace efforts accelerated. The

war didn't end that day. It lasted three

more months. Thousands more people died.

But after August 8th, the fundamental

question at the front had changed. The

issue was no longer whether Germany

could win the war. It was how much

longer it could hold out. The hero of

the Battle of Amy wasn't a single

general, a single tank, or a single

nation. [music] Maybe that's why its

story isn't told as easily as other

great battles. Because victory came not

from one man's courage, but from a

[music] physicist's calculations, an

artillery officer's timing, an

engineer's bridging device, pilots

flying through the fog, exhausted tank

crews, and infantry able to walk right

behind a moving wall of fire. For 4

years, courage had been used to make up

for bad planning. At Amy, for the first

time, courage became part of a detailed

coordination effort [music] on this

scale. And when the fog cleared that

morning, the German army hadn't just

lost [music] a few kilometers of ground.