Amiens had been earlier in the hands of the Germans and its fall to the Allies had to be held. Losing it meant that the area... a major hub of railways, could be used by the Germans to move men and equipment about very quickly.
The Allied plan called for complete secrecy and movement by night of massive amounts of troops and equipment along a front of about 50 miles long, and along the left edge of the shaded area above. Troops were to be rested when, at same time, the enemy was not. And the enemy was looking elsewhere for them. This was because the Allies sent a far lesser amount of soldiers off in another direction with the intent of misleading where the next battle was going to take place.
The Allies also tried something new. Instead of "ranging" the guns when first firing, ie determining the distance and elevation for firing, they resorted to mathematics and brain power. Coupling both, so that when the signal to start the battle was given, instead of having 500 guns shooting too short of the target, or beyond, now they would shoot AT THE TARGET. And that they did, on at least 500 of the 530 they faced. Imagine the effects of causing them serious grief within minutes! Minutes in an unexpected attack.
The Allies went into this battle with 32 Divisions on the attack against 14 German divisions. The enemy were unnumbered and outgunned and soon found out the hard way.
Four Divisions of Canadians fought here with the French Army on their right and the Australian Army of their left. In the midst of one of the Canadian divisions was the 13th and within that was the Private John Croak, the former troubled Newfoundlander.
The battle started at about 4.30 a.m. on the 8th of August. There was a blinding fog which caused real problems for the tanks and carriers who could not follow the troops closely for fear on not seeing them and running them over. So the men moved as infantry do, by foot. Along with the foot solders were the cavalry and artillery and above their heads were the planes. An amazing 1900 Allied planes against only 365 German planes. On the ground it is understandable when you hear that the earth shook that day. Once the fogs lifted the tanks advanced over 100 meters every 3 minutes.
The Canadians and the Australians spearheaded the charge and in fact gained more ground than the other armies. Canada with an amazing 8.1 miles of ground gained that first day, Australians close behind at 6.8 miles, then followed by the French at 5 miles and the Brits at 2 miles gained. Five German divisions where whipped out and nine took heavy losses. By the end of the battle the Allies would capture some 29,000 POW's 338 powerful field guns and liberated 116 towns and villages. But with the high cost of over 22,000 dead, wounded, POW's or missing. Their captured ground is the shaded area in the above sketch.
The decisive win for the Allies caused such morale problems for the Axis powers that men were losing the will to win and where thus easier to conquer. This first day of what was to become know as the beginning of "Canada's 100 Days," but by something else for the Germans. Their high command labeled it the Black Day for the German Army."
In the midst of all of this John Croak, soon after the battle began, got separated from his platoon while operating in the area near Hangar Wood, shown above. He stumbled across a machine gun pit and on his own attacked it, captured the gun and also the gun crew. Not long after he was advancing and saw a series of machine gun crews in a long trench, jumped in and started to shoot and bayonet the enemy. While he took out yet 3 more MG's he was shot and within minutes his war was instantly over. As was his life of only 26 years.
In September of 1918 Pte John Bernhard Croak was awarded the Victoria Cross by the King of England. Above is the citation from the London Gazette dated 27 September. The award of course was posthumous, and was sent back to Canada and presented to his mother at a very special ceremony at Government House in Halifax Nova Scotia by then Lt. Governor MacCallum.
The above issue of the gazette may well be rather unique in itself. While most issues cover a variety of topics, this one was issued for the only purpose of awarding Victoria Crosses. It awarded nine. AND SEVEN went to Canadians. One for actions in the very same battle and location where John was killed.
In July 1918 a new grave yard was started at Domart, just a few miles to the west of where Pte Croak gave his life. (Domart is shown in above sketch.) Today he rests there along with 160 other Commonwealth heroes. And 58 of these were from Canada.
There is a monument in a Glace Bay Nova Scotia Cemetery and a memorial park in the same area in honor of John Croak.
Inscribed on this hero's grave are the profound words... "Do you wish to show your gratitude? Kneel down and pray for my soul."
Certainly something to think about as we reflect on the fact that 132 years ago last Sunday this Canadian hero was born.
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