Editing Hundred Days Offensive (section)

==Background==
The [[German spring offensive]] on the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]] had begun on 21 March 1918 with [[Operation Michael]] and had petered out by July. The [[German Army (German Empire)|German Army]] had advanced to the [[Marne (river)|River Marne]], but failed to achieve their aim of a victory that would decide the war. When the German ''Operation Marne-Rheims'' ended in July, the Allied supreme commander, [[Ferdinand Foch]], ordered a counter-offensive, which became known as the [[Second Battle of the Marne]]. The Germans, recognizing their untenable position, withdrew from the Marne to the north. For this victory, Foch was granted the title [[Marshal of France]].

After the Germans had lost their forward momentum, Foch considered the time had arrived for the [[Allies of World War I|Allies]] to return to the [[Military offensive|offensive]]. General [[John J. Pershing|Pershing]] who commanded the [[American Expeditionary Forces|American Expeditionary Force]] (AEF) was keen to use his army as an independent force. The [[British Expeditionary Force (World War I)|British Expeditionary Force]] (BEF) had been reinforced by large numbers of troops returned from the [[Sinai and Palestine campaign]] and from the [[Italian front (World War I)|Italian front]], and by replacements previously held back in Britain by [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]] [[David Lloyd George]].<ref name="Bean">{{cite book |last=Bean |title=The Australian Imperial Force in France during the Allied Offensive}}.</ref>{{rp |155}}

The military planners considered a number of proposals. Foch agreed to a proposal by [[Field marshal (United Kingdom)|Field Marshal]] [[Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig|Sir Douglas Haig]], [[commander-in-chief]] of the BEF, to strike on the [[Somme (river)|River Somme]], east of [[Amiens]] and south-west of the site of the 1916 [[Battle of the Somme]], to force the Germans away from the vital [[Amiens]]–[[Paris]] railway.<ref name="Bean" />{{rp |472}} The Somme was chosen because it remained the boundary between the BEF and the French armies, along the Amiens–Roye road, allowing the two armies to cooperate. The [[Picardy]] terrain provided a good surface for [[tank]]s, unlike in [[Flanders]], and the defences of the German [[2nd Army (German Empire)|2nd Army]] under General [[Georg von der Marwitz]] were relatively weak, having been subjected to continual raiding by the [[Australian Army during World War I|Australians]] in a process termed [[peaceful penetration]].