First Battle of Villers-Bretonneux 1918
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 30 March 1918 – 5 April 1918 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1918 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
| Era | World War I era (1914–1918) | derived from year |
| Location | France | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Western Front | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 49.8675, 2.5208 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The First Battle of Villers-Bretonneux (30 March – 5 April 1918), took place during Operation Michael, part of the German spring offensive on the Western Front. The offensive began against the British Fifth Army and the Third Army on the Somme and pushed back the British and French reinforcements on the north side of the Somme. The capture of Villers-Bretonneux, close to Amiens, a strategically important road- and rail-junction, would have brought the Germans within artillery-range. In late March, Australian troops were brought south from Belgium as reinforcements to help shore up the line and in early April the Germans launched an attack to capture Villers-Bretonneux. After a determined defence by British and Australian troops, the attackers were close to success until a counter-attack by the 9th Australian Infantry Brigade and by British troops, late in the afternoon of 4 April, restored the line and halted the German advance on Amiens.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article First Battle of Villers-Bretonneux (revision 1372815991), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux 1918 · 0 km
- Battle of Amiens (1870) 1870 · 0 km
- Second siege of Corbie 1636 · 5 km
- Battle of the Ancre Heights 1916 · 5 km
- Battle of Hamel 1918 · 6 km
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Other battles of the Western Front
- Battle of Cambrai (1917) 1917
- Battle of Messines (1917) 1917
- Battle of Passchendaele 1917
- Battle of the Hills 1917
- Second Battle of the Aisne 1917
- Battle of Amiens (1918) 1918
- Battle of Blanc Mont Ridge 1918
- Battle of Hamel 1918
- Battle of Soissons (1918) 1918
- Battle of the Lys (1918) 1918
All 48 battles of the Western Front →
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