Detail from the Memorial to the French Moroccan Division at Vimy Ridge. The theaters and battles in which the division played a role are recorded on the sides of the monument. © 2013, John M. Shea
1918La LorraineJanuary 8 - Flireythe SommeApril 26 - Villers-Bretonneux, Bois de Hangardthe AisneMay 30 - Vauxbuin, ChazelleJune 12 - AmblenyJuly 18 to 20 - Dommiers ChaudumSeptember 2 to 8 - Terny-Sorny, Moulin de Laffaux, AllemantNovember 11 - VictoryNovember 17 - Entree a Chateau-Salins
"The counter attack [at Villers-Bretonneux], executed the night of the 24–25th, was entrusted to some Australian battalions. They carried the high ground and the village by assault while, on the right, the Moroccan Division of the French First Army regained some ground north of Hangard. In order to consolidate the reëstablished situation, General Debeney continued his movement forward, while at the same time General Fayolle sent two divisions northwards, so as to be in a position to intervene between the Somme and the Luce."
German commander Erich Ludendorff's 1918 drive for victory began on March 21 with Operation Michael, an attack north and south of the Somme River. In April he moved north to the Lys River on the Franco-Belgian border with Operation Georgette. On April 23, after three weeks of relative quiet, he again struck the Somme sector, seizing Villers-Bretonneux from the British and Hangard from the French, high ground that threatened further progress westward towards Amiens. The villages of Villers-Bretonneux and Hangard are south of the Somme, between it and the Luce River.
The Memoirs of Marshal Foch, translated by Col. T. Bentley Mott by Ferdinand Foch, page 296, copyright © 1931 by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., publisher: Doubleday, Doran & Co., publication date: 1931
1918-04-24, 1918, April, Moroccan Division, Moroccan Division Villers-Bretonneux, Villers-Bretonneux
