May, William mark centenary of key WW1 battle
Britain's Prince William and Prime Minister Theresa May will join 2,000 guests at a service Wednesday marking the centenary of the Battle of Amiens, which rang in the beginning of the end of World War I.
Families of soldiers who took part in the lightning Allied advance, which smashed German defences and morale, precipitating the end of the war, have travelled to Amiens from across the world for the ceremony in the city's cathedral.
Representatives of the Australian, British, Canadian, French and US governments will also commemorate the tens of thousands of troops killed in the four days of fighting, along with former German president Joachim Gauck.
The Battle of Amiens sounded the start of the Hundred Days Offensive on the Western Front, which led to the Armistice in November 1918.
It marked a shift away from trench to armored warfare, with the Allies deploying hundreds of tanks to push deep into German lines on what German General Erich Ludendorff called "the black day of the German army" in the war.
May's visit is her second to France in under a week, coming days after she held talks with President Emmanuel Macron at his Mediterranean holiday retreat over her Brexit plan.
