Battle of Dernancourt

First Battle of Dernancourt
Part of German Spring Offensive
Date 28 March 1918 Location Dernancourt, France Result Allied victory
Belligerents
Australia United Kingdom	German Empire
Commanders and leaders
Walter Norris Congreve
Units involved
4th Division 35th Division 3rd Division	50th Reserve Division 13th Division
Casualties and losses
Australians: 137+ killed or wounded British: unknown	550+ killed or wounded

The First Battle of Dernancourt was a battle during World War I fought on 28 March 1918 near Dernancourt in northern France. It involved a German Army force attacking an Allied defending force which included fresh Australian troops, and resulted in a complete defeat of the German assault.

The Australian 3rd and 4th Divisions had been sent south to help stem the tide of the German Spring Offensive towards Amiens, and with the British 35th Division, they held a line west and north of the Ancre river and the area between the Ancre and Somme. Much of the Allied front line consisted of a series of posts strung out along a railway embankment between Albert and Buire-sur-l'Ancre. The main German assault force was the 50th Reserve Division of the XXIII Reserve Corps, which concentrated its assault on the line between Albert and Dernancourt, attacking off the line of march after a short artillery preparation. Supporting attacks were to be launched by the 13th Division further west. Some German commanders considered success unlikely unless the embankment was weakly held, and the commander of the German 2nd Army ordered the attack's postponement, but that message did not reach the assaulting troops in time.

The Germans attacked at dawn under the cover of fog, but other than one small penetration by a German company in the early morning which was quickly resolved, partly due to the gallantry of Sergeant Stanley McDougall of the Australian 47th Battalion, the Germans failed to break through the Allied defences. McDougall was later awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions during the battle, the highest award that could be received by an Australian soldier for gallantry in the face of the enemy. By late afternoon, rain was setting in, making early renewal of the assault less likely. The Germans suffered about 550 casualties during the battle, with the Australians losing around 137 killed or wounded. In the following week, the Germans renewed attempts to advance in the sector, culminating in the Second Battle of Dernancourt on 5 April, in which the Germans were defeated in desperate fighting.

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