Hindenburg Line

After the losses at Verdun and on the Somme, the Third OHL decided to shorten the front in the west. From September 1916 a new position was built behind the fighting line, cutting across the base of the great salient between Arras and the Aisne. It was not a single line but a zone of defences several kilometres deep: wire, trenches, concrete shelters and machine-gun posts. The Germans called it the Siegfriedstellung; the British named it after Hindenburg.

Between February and April 1917 the German armies fell back to it in Operation Alberich, destroying and emptying the ground they abandoned. The shorter front freed divisions for the reserve and upset the plans for the Nivelle offensive. The line was part of a wider system of positions that included the Wotanstellung. British, Australian, Canadian and American troops broke through it in September and October 1918.