Germans enter Amiens

On 31 August 1914, at about 8 a.m., German troops entered Amiens, the capital of the Somme department. The town, an important railway junction in northern France, lay in the path of the German right wing marching on Paris.

An undefended town

In the last days of August French territorial divisions and the first units of the Sixth Army that Joffre was forming stood in the Amiens area. In the face of the rapid advance of the German First Army under General Alexander von Kluck, they were withdrawn to the south. The French blew up the bridges over the Somme but did not defend the town itself. General Hans von Gronau’s IV Reserve Corps entered Amiens, and according to witnesses its soldiers marched through the streets singing.

Hostages and requisitions

German officers assured the mayor, Alphonse Fiquet, that the town would not suffer if the population kept calm. As a guarantee that the inhabitants would take no hostile action and that the town would deliver the supplies demanded, however, they took hostages: twelve members of the town council, who were joined by the procureur général. That same day they demanded huge requisitions: 40 tonnes each of bread and tinned meat, and also, best remembered of all, 100,000 cigars.

A brief occupation

Kluck’s main forces soon moved on to the south. The occupation lasted less than two weeks. After their defeat on the Marne the Germans withdrew from Amiens, and on 11 September the town was free again. It later became an important rear base for the British forces on the Western Front. In the spring of 1918 the Germans tried to take it during their great offensive, but were stopped a dozen or so kilometres from the town. On 8 August 1918 the Allied offensive that began Germany’s final defeat was launched from near Amiens.