was the battle of amiens the first battle with tanks

I am here because of the price that was paid for freedom.” After the war he became a pastor, as I have done. I am here to show gratitude for what he did. Schmierer added: “He was a bit of a hero to me. Sarah Clarke-Feltham holds a picture of her grandfather George Clarke on his blind horse. He used to say: ‘Ashley, your Queen and country need you.’” I thought – wow – even bullets can’t kill Grandad. He took off his shirt and he had a scar on both sides of his shoulder where the bullet had entered and gone out. Schmierer, from Brighton, said: “When I was a boy he showed me his war wound. They emigrated to Australia, where he died in 1971, aged 82. While recovering from his wounds in London, Dales met and married an English woman, Lily. “A hundred years on, today’s ceremony is a fitting moment to remember those who sacrificed their lives, and reflect on our shared past, present and future.”Īmong the descendants in the cathedral was Ashley Schmierer, a 62-year-old pastor whose grandfather LCpl Samuel Dales was shot through the shoulder on the third day.

In a statement to mark the event, May said: “The Battle of Amiens was the turning point which hastened the final, decisive chapter of the first world war.

It revealed to friend and foe alike the breakdown of the German power of resistance.” The armistice was signed about 100 days later. Reading an extract from the war memoirs of David Lloyd George, who was prime minister at the time of Amiens, Theresa May told those at the commemoration, including descendants of the soldiers who fought: “The effect of the victory was moral and not territorial. About 700,000 shells were produced by factories back home for the battle, and half were used before victory was celebrated. Supported by hundreds of tanks, operating incongruously alongside cavalry, the allies drove forward through the fog across a front of almost 14 miles, as 900 heavy guns pounded through the air. The battle was a turning point in the war, when the allies, seeking to protect the city’s key railway connections, made a surprise surge. Michael Willis, a farmer from Victoria, Australia, wrote a poem about the battle as he travelled home by ship in 1919.

Was the battle of amiens the first battle with tanks