The Last 100 Days

by Will Davies

In March 1918, with the fear of a one-million-man American army landing in France, the Germans attacked. In response, Australian soldiers were involved in a number of engagements, culminating in the Second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux and the saving of Amiens, and Paris, from German occupation. Then came General John Monash's first victory as the Commanding Officer of the newly formed Australian Corps at Hamel. This victory, and the tactics it tested, became crucial to the Allied victory after 8 August, the 'black day of the German Army'. On this day the major Allied counteroffensive began, with the AIF in the vanguard of the attack. The Australians, with the Canadians to the south and the British across the Somme to the north, drove the Germans back, first along the line of the Somme and then across the river to Mont St Quentin, Péronne and on to the formidable Hindenburg Line, before the last Australian infantry action at Montbrehain in early October. Fast-paced and tense, the story of The Last 100 Days is animated by the voices of Australian soldiers as they endured the war's closing stages with humour and stoicism; and as they fought a series of battles in which they played a pivotal role in securing Allied victory.

Genres: Nonfiction, World War I, History

340 pages, Paperback

Published August 1, 2018

Reviews

[Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review to Follow 3.5 Stars

[Ian Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

THE LAST 100 DAYS by Will Davies – A Penguin Random House book
Review by Ian Smith

This is another amongst the seeming plethora of books about WWI as anniversaries come and go. That Will is dedicated to the task there can be no doubt, so affected emotionally as he was by his first trip to battle lines of Europe.
It will help if you know the rough size of battalions, regiments, brigades etc., because you’ll be assailed with them throughout the book but, at least this volume has rudimentary maps, though how anyone could possibly map the ebb and flow of the conflict is impossible, though Will does his level best with his words.
The book looks specifically at the Australian part in the dying (literally and metaphorically) stages of the war and how Monash was instrumental in hastening that end, especially with the battle for Hamel that introduced a whole new style of warfare against the Germans at a crucial time, just when things were looking to stagnate into another year.
Documentation of Victoria Cross winner’s exploits are liberally scattered about, as are other medal winners. One can’t help but wonder just how many heroic acts went undocumented though, such are the harsh realities of war. The daily statistics intersperse these accounts; how many Germans and their pieces of equipment were captured feature prominently, along with the Australian casualty rate that increased after the brilliant success at Hamel.
I was personally pleased to see the “peaceful penetration” episodes and their place in the conflict well documented, though the title is a misnomer. It involved diggers freelancing and heading out, usually at night, without orders and with few personnel (sometimes alone) and doing raids, mainly at night on machine gun emplacements. It was a hugely successful and had a deep mental effect on all concerned, the Germans fearing the Australians 24 hours a day and the Aussies gaining confidence and a boost in morale as a result.
The capture of Mont St. Quentin was one of the greatest victories of the war and the inspired Australian tactic of rushing the opposition lines screaming their lungs out unsettled the Axis troops. Thus the Germans were pushed steadily back to the Hindenburg Line until the last battle at Montbrehain when it all came to an end, until the next one, but the problems didn’t end there.
The Australians lack of obeying commands surfaces towards the end, particularly when it comes time to go home and there’s a lack of ships to transport them. It adds yet another almost forgotten side to the overall story. The fact that many were never able to live a normal life afterwards is just another awful consequence of war.
The book is informative, thoroughly researched and with a flowing timeline. Another for the bookshelves of those interested in this historical conflict.

[Jeremy Kriewaldt · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last 100 days on the Western front in World War I are fascinating, particularly for Australians. This book seeks to narrate the fighting of the Australian troops from Villers Bretonneux until the Armistice. Its primary goal is to provide a narrative embellished by episodic reporting from a private diaries, battalion histories and journals of the Australian involvement in the great push against the German Army in 1918.

This element of the work is very well done, being well written and quite exhaustive. Indeed, my only criticisms of the work at this level are two.

First, does this narrative add significantly to Bean's official history's account? The use of the more private material is a contribution but is it enough to justify another, and less detailed narrative? Perhaps, insofar as the abridgement and popularising of Davies' account may make the story more accessible to modern readers who may find Bean too monumental a work to attempt.

Second, the three general maps at the beginning of the book do not contain sufficient detail to enable the narrative to be accurately placed in the landscape. Perhaps the addition of a map for each of the chapters in which military action is described (about 80% of them) would have been useful, enabling all of the villages, towns and rivers mentioned in that chapter to be located while reading that chapter. Also, given the importance of the various woods and trench lines mentioned, those maps might have included at least the most important of those. Although there is some serious cartography required for this, most of the relevant work was done in the production of the maps for Buchan's History of the Great War, so the actual original work required to create such maps would be less intimidating than might otherwise be thought.

However, the narrative retelling of the experience of the Australians in the final allied offensive in France and Belgium raises a number of more important issues, many of which are adverted to, but few of which are the subject of meaningful discussion. It is a pity that Davies did not address at least some of these issues - why were undermanned Australian formations more successful than much stronger British, French and US forces during these 100 days; were there differences in strategy or tactics, command and control, training, relations between officers and other ranks, or other matters that explain this; how much of the Allied advance is attributable not to their own efforts and how much to degradation of the German army's morale and materiel? These issues arise in passing and some enticing threads are suggested, but none of those threads are followed up. Perhaps that was not the author's object, but I found the suggestion of these threads towards argument enticing and the failure to begin to address them somewhat teasing and irritating.

[Brad · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last 100 days of WW1 for Australia and their involvement on the Western Front. I was reading for a fair idea of what occurred in some areas that I will be visiting including Amiens. Took my time in reading as anything about World War One can be full on and detailed. Talks about the Aussie soldier interaction with other allied soldiers and the German soldiers as well including their thoughts on the Australian soldiers.

[Mikael Nuutinen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great story just not the easiest to keep up with and didn’t have me wanting to pick back up.