Nicholson, Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914-1919: The Official History of the Canadian Army in the First World War (Ottawa: Queen's Printer … Final attempts to outflank the German lines at Bullecourt prove terribly costly. It was ultimately executed by Instead of consolidating bridgeheads on the west bank of the Meuse, the Germans began an advance down the Somme river valley towards the English Channel. The ground between Arras and the Cojeul was re-occupied and there was no serious German attack on the town, Rommel making the alarmist claim that the attack was made by five divisions. [34], The main French attack on Cambrai took place on 22 May and like the attack on 21 May, the force involved was much smaller than intended. The Battle of Arras was a major British offensive during the First World War. German units crossed the Meuse without waiting for reinforcements at the Battle of Sedan. The Allied attack was contained because Rommel improvised a gun line of anti-tank guns and anti-aircraft guns, that managed to stop some of the lighter British tanks; the infantry tanks, particularly the Matilda IIs, proved very difficult to knock out with the standard 37 mm anti tank gun. Ewald von Kleist, the commander of Panzergruppe von Kleist perceived a "serious threat" and informed Colonel-General Franz Halder (Chief of the General Staff of Oberkommando des Heeres OKH), that he had to wait until the crisis was resolved before continuing. 26 August – 3 September, 1918: the Second Battles of Arras, 1918. Discover more about the Battle of Arras and a few highlights from our collection. The garrison in Duisans also retired after dark, in the Bren carriers of the 9th DLI, covered by the anti-tank guns of the brigade reserve in Marœuil. It was an Allied counter-attack against the flank of the German army, near the town of Arras, in north-eastern France. direction sign, To Advanced Cage.Pulpit Crater. French reconnaissance aircraft were shot down or chased away until 4:00 p.m., when aircraft got through to Arras and found no activity around Cambrai. Beyond the delay imposed on German moves and the many casualties inflicted on the Germans, the attack was bound to fail without a force sufficiently powerful to follow up and consolidate the captured ground. The German counter-attacks were supported by Fliegerkorps VIII (Generaloberst Wolfram von Richthofen) and the French lost 32 tanks and armoured vehicles. Kleist ordered the 6th Panzer Division and 8th Panzer Division eastwards to counter the Allied breakthrough. Number of British infantry division deployed: 33 divisions, including 4 Canadian divisions and 4 Australian divisions. Remembering Arras: Canadians at Vimy Ridge. [27], Attacking to the south-west was rejected and OKH ordered Panzergruppe von Kleist to capture Boulogne and Calais, about 50 mi (80 km) away. For ideas to help you use these sources, take a look at our Suggested Activities. The French Army launched an attack a few days later near the River Aisne. At the beginning of 1917, the British and French were still searching for a way to achieve a strategic breakthrough on the Western Front. The Battle of Arras featured some notable successes. The Nivelle Offensive called for a French attack in the Aisne region, supported by British action at Arras, Vimy Ridge and Bullecourt on the Hindenburg Line. For 21 May, the division was ordered to wheel west around Arras and attack to the north, capturing crossings over the Scarpe at Acq, a risky manoeuvre since the right flank would be vulnerable to a counter-attack from Arras. One of the official silent films of the Western Front made for showing in British cinemas during the war, this film's full title was The German Retreat and the Battle of Arras.Shot in April 1917, it includes scenes of devastation in Arras with shots of the ruined cathedral. [26], In 1953, Lionel Ellis, the British official historian wrote that the attack at Arras succeeded in easing German pressure round Arras and delaying the encirclement of the BEF. Franklyn was not aware of a French push northwards toward Cambrai and the French were ignorant of a British attack south toward Arras. There was no breakthrough - the battle had failed to win any strategic objectives and the Western Front remained in deadlock. Guderian ordered the 2nd Panzer Division to capture Boulogne, the 1st Panzer Division to take Calais and the 10th Panzer division to seize Dunkirk. Halder had been willing to run the risk, because of the incapacity of the Allies to achieve a fast tempo of operations. Arras was occupied on 27 August and a French counter-offensive began at the Battle of St. Quentin (Battle of Guise 29–30 August). [36], The crisis among the higher staffs of the German army was not apparent at the front and Halder formed the same conclusion as Guderian; that the real threat was that the Allies would retreat to the channel coast too quickly and a race for the channel ports began. Just after 6:00 p.m., Junkers Ju 87 Stukas of Fliegerkorps I and VIII arrived and made 300 attacks on the retiring tanks by 8:30 p.m. Rommel ordered Panzer-Regiment 25 to return and cut off the British tanks but south of Duisans it met French tanks covering the British right flank and only pushed through after a long and costly engagement. Individual tanks kept going but there were no reserves to consolidate and exploit the success and the advance was stopped in mutually-costly fighting. [18], An advance by the 3e DLM, to screen the right flank of the British force was also poorly prepared with insufficient liaison, the French not being told of the timing and direction of the British attack. In the confusion an exchange of fire occurred between the French SOMUA S35s and British anti-tank guns near Warlus. Following the battle, the Germans built new … In the north the British combined their available divisions with the 50th infantry division which was holding the Vimy area to create a contingent which was code-named Frankforce. [11] Major-General Harold Franklyn, commander of the British 5th Infantry Division was put in charge of Frankforce, improvised from his division, the 50th (Northumbrian) Motor Division (Major-General Giffard Martel) and the 74 tanks of the 1st Army Tank Brigade. an area of over 40 sq mi (100 km2). Preceded by a huge artillery barrage over five days, the joint assault by four Canadian and ten British divisions took place on Easter Monday, 9 April 1917. From the largest naval battle, and the longest battle, to the most painful and infamous battle, and the battle that marked the end of mobile warfare on the Western Front, discover 10 significant battles of the First World War that took place between 1914-1918. Franklyn had detached a brigade each from the 5th Infantry Division and the 50th Motor Division, which had only two instead of the usual three brigades each. Marœuil was being bombarded when 50th (Northumbrian) Motor Division began the advance. The Battle of Arras took place on 21 May 1940, during the Battle of France in the Second World War. The German campaign plan Fall Gelb (Case Yellow) had evolved into a decoy operation in the Netherlands and Belgium, with the main effort through the Ardennes. The Battle of Arras (also known as the First Battle of Arras, 1–4 October 1914), was an attempt by the French Army to outflank the German Army, which was attempting to do the same thing during the "Race to the Sea", the reciprocal attempts by both sides, to exploit conditions created during the First Battle of the Aisne. The 6th Panzer Division signalled that "a strong enemy force was making a breakthrough" which caused alarm Panzergruppe Kleist. The XIX Corps attacked again at 8:00 a.m. on 22 May but was still hampered by a "near paralysis" in the German command, Rundstedt ordering that the instructions from OKH were to be ignored and the advance on Boulogne and Calais would have to wait. When the British tanks broke through the German anti-tank screen, the infantry stood their ground, encouraged by Rommel, even after the British tanks had rolled over their anti-tank guns. [13] Many of the tanks of the 1ère Division Légère Mécanique (1ère DLM) had been destroyed in the earlier battles and the rest had been distributed among infantry divisions and could not be reassembled in time, despite threats to court-martial officers who refused to release the tanks. The German forces were pushing north towards the channel coast, to trap the Allied forces that had advanced east into Belgium. British troops were retreating and by the time the German tanks broke through, the British had escaped. [38], Situation on 4 June 1940 and actions since 21 May, Modern map of Arras (commune FR insee code 62041, Battle of Arras: French in blue, British in dark blue, German Army in red, SS in black, Modern map of Agny and vicinity (commune FR insee code 62004), Matilda I in France, showing the cramped driver's compartment and the hatch obstructing the turret, SS Infanterie-Regiment Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, British Expeditionary Force order of battle (1940), The War Illustrated, 20 September 1940, p. 282 Battle of Arras, The Defence of Arras: 2nd Bn Wiltshire Regiment, A Pictorial History of the 4th and the 7th Royal Tank Regiment, Documentary on Dunkirk, with a focus on the impact of tanks at Arras, Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany, Rape during the Soviet occupation of Poland, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Battle_of_Arras_(1940)&oldid=1017035940, Land battles of World War II involving the United Kingdom, Battles of World War II involving Germany, Tank battles involving the United Kingdom, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 10 April 2021, at 12:27. This was to be the only large scale attack mounted by the BEF during the campaign. The 5th Panzer Division (Lieutenant-General Max von Hartlieb-Walsporn) was to attack so as to relieve pressure on the 7th Panzer Division (the division was delayed and never managed to fulfil its orders). The Battle of Arras is generally considered a British victory due to the capture of Vimy Ridge and other territorial gains, however, it did little to alter the strategic situation on the Western Front. [22] To the east of Arras, the 150th Infantry Brigade attacked across the Scarpe towards Tilloy and the 13th Infantry Brigade captured a bridgehead further east, ready for the second phase of the attack by Frankforce. The preliminary bombardment at the Battle of Arras saw German positions pulverised by more than 2.5 million shells, about 1 million more than at the Somme. A unit would spend a few days in the front line, followed by periods in reserve and rest. [24], At around 4:00 p.m. (German time) II Battalion, Schützen-Regiment 7 was attacked by about 40 British tanks, which were engaged by artillery on Hill 111, roughly 0.62 mi (1 km) north-west of Wailly. Two companies of the 8th DLI and two troops of the 260th Anti-Tank Battery were left to garrison the village and then the depleted column captured Warlus against stronger opposition and had to leave another garrison behind. Arras was a major Allied offensive, fought in the Spring of 1917. He's often on television talking about World War I and World War II. Synopsis In this book, Nicholls provides an account o f the 39-day long battle of Arras, which remains the most le thal and costly British offensive of WW1. Over the years, they have built up a good reputation and a huge following. The corridor was only 25 mi (40 km) wide at Arras and vulnerable to a pincer movement; The Allies could have achieved a Clausewitzian counter-encirclement and cut off the panzers on the channel coast. The Battle of Arras, August 26 – September 3, 1918 Source: Gerald W.L. Without a halt at Montcornet on 15 May and the second halt on 21 May after the Battle of Arras, the final halt order of 24 May would have been irrelevant, because Dunkirk would have already been captured by the 10th Panzer Division. Over 65 million men volunteered or were conscripted to fight in mass citizen armies and an estimated 16 million soldiers and civilians were left dead and countless others physically and psychologically wounded. [15], The British were forced under cover by machine-gun and mortar fire and the Luftwaffe attacked the Right Column for twenty minutes. The role of the Division was to capture the southern shoulder of Vimy Ridge with the Canadian Corps on their left and the 34th Division on the right. First Army (Horne) VIII Corps (Hunter-Weston), entered battle 28 August 1918 25th Brigade of 8th Division. Model kit and finished models from Italeri, the traditional manufacturer of fine miniatures, have been delighting model makers worldwide for over 50 years. 2nd Battle of Arras. [31][32] In 1953, Lionel Ellis, the British official historian, quoted the 7th Panzer Division war diary, which recorded the loss of nine medium and several light tanks, 378 men killed or wounded and 173 missing; British records noted some 400 Germans taken prisoner. Over 30 nations declared war between 1914 and 1918. The Battle of Arras began on 9 April 1917, preceded by a four day bombardment, and lasted until 16 May. [10], Georges ordered General d'Astier de la Vigerie, commander of Zone d'Opérations Aériennes Nord of the armée de l'Air to support the British attack but sent no details of the attack front, no targets and no zero hour for the attack. The 2nd Battle of Arras. By noon, three of the four divisions had taken their objectives. When the German tanks had broken through a British anti-tank gun line, between Duisans and Warlus, the British tanks had already returned; the British attack had turned into a disaster and only 28 of the 88 tanks committed returned to their start line. A force based on the 151st Infantry Brigade (Brigadier J. [9], The 7th Panzer Division had captured Cambrai and advanced to the area south of Arras. During the afternoon of 21 May, the attack by the 50th Division and the 1st Tank Brigade was progressing south from Arras. Following the German invasion of the Low Countries on 10 May, French and British forces advanced into Belgium. Paul Reed is a military historian, battlefield photographer, and author. Beyond the first few days however, casualties rose exponentially and the battle ground to a halt. Length of the front: around 20 km, from Vimy in the north to Bullecourt in the south, passing through Arras at the centre of the action. The Arras battlefields are as a result much less visited than those of the Somme and Flanders. First and Third Armies attack successful from Arras and break the German Drocourt-Queant Line. [15], The original instructions given to Franklyn had been to plan a limited attack south of Arras, to relieve the garrison. Infantry garrisoned Agny and Beaurains and the 4th RTR repulsed German counter-attacks by tanks and Schützen-Regiment 7, on the right flank of the 7th Panzer Division; the British then took ground south of Beaurains. The Right Column advanced at 2:30 p.m. and received small-arms fire from a wood. The Allies were thrown into confusion and their attempts to cut off the panzer spearheads degenerated into sporadic, un-coordinated counter-attacks which never achieved sufficient concentration to succeed as the main Allied armies were in Belgium. Duration: 39 days. The British attack south of Vimy Ridge advanced up to 3.5 miles - further than any attack since the end of 1914. The Battle of Arras was part of the wider Nivelle Offensive, a plan masterminded by French General Robert Nivelle, which aimed to break the deadlock on the Western Front in 1917. [19], The time taken by the infantry to reach the assembly points for the attack, through the refugee traffic on the roads, left little time to study their orders or reconnoitre. [7], King Leopold III of Belgium told Gort that he did not expect the BEF to risk itself to keep contact with the Belgian army but warned the British that if they persisted with the southern offensive, the Belgians would be overstretched and collapse. THE BATTLE OF ARRAS A family affair. Artillery: one gun every 10 … Battle of Arras In October, 1914, the French Tenth army attempted to outflank German forces on the Western Front by advancing along a line between Arras and Lens. It was noteworthy for the swift and spectacular gains made by the British in the opening phase—above all, the capture of Vimy Ridge, considered virtually impregnable, by the Canadian Corps—but it ended as a costly stalemate … Concern about more Anglo-French counter-attacks against the panzer corridor before non-motorised German infantry divisions caught up, led Hitler to order the panzer advance to stop until the situation at Arras had been restored. 'Just out of the trenches near Arras. [2], German spearheads broke through the Peronne–Cambrai gap and threatened Boulogne and Calais, cutting the lines of communication of the Allied armies of Groupe d'armées 1 (General Gaston Billotte) in the North-East Theatre of Operations (Général d'armée Alphonse Joseph Georges), separating them from the main French armies south of the Somme. The 7th Panzer Division laagered overnight south of Dainville, with advanced parties of infantry close to the south bank of the Scarpe. Army Group A (Generaloberst Gerd von Rundstedt) defeated the French at the Battle of Sedan from 12 to 15 May and crossed the Meuse. The Battle of Arras (1940) took place during the Battle of France of the Second World War. The offensive at Arras was planned by the British and French to relieve the pressure on the British garrison in the town of Arras and was not coordinated with an attack by the French from the south of the German panzer corridor. The events of 1916 also brought about changes for the Allies. On the southern flank of the 7th Panzer Division, the Totenkopf Division was attacked and some SS troops fled in panic. The Battle of Arras took place on May 9, 1915, during World War I.The so-called Bayonne Legion (a French Foreign Legion infantry unit which consisted of ethnic Polish volunteers) clashed with troops of the Imperial German Army, defending the hill of Vimy, located 10 kilometers north of Arras, France.. Only 26 Matilda Is were still operational and both tank battalion commanders had been killed; during the evening, Franklyn ordered both columns to withdraw. [16][17] Martel was ordered to plan an attack to. The Battle of Arras was a British offensive during the First World War. The column had to fight through Duisans, which was occupied by German infantry and French tanks on the right, reported tanks of Panzer-Regiment 25 of the 7th Panzer Division to the west. A French counter-attack at the Battle of Montcornet on 17 May by the 4e Division Cuirassée de réserve (4e DCr, Colonel Charles de Gaulle), from Montcornet to the south, was defeated by an improvised defence and the 10th Panzer Division, which was rushed forward on the French flank. Whilst not as well documented as the Somme or Passchendaele, in the opinion of many military historians it was the bloodiest battle of them all measured in terms of the daily casualty rates. At Bullecourt however, the German defence held firm. The opening Battle of Vimy and the First Battle of the Scarpe are very encouraging, but once again the offensive – often known as the Battle of Arras – bogs down into an attritional slog. [33] Frankforce lost sixty of the 88 tanks in the attack. [25], The maximum depth of the British advance was 10 mi (16 km); 400 German prisoners had been taken, many tanks and much equipment had been destroyed but two Matilda IIs had been knocked out. On 22 May, when the attack had been repulsed, Rundstedt ordered that the situation at Arras must be restored before Panzergruppe von Kleist moved on Boulogne and Calais. On 29 August, the Fifth Army counter-attacked the German 2nd Army south of the Oise , from Vervins to Mont-d'Origny and west of the river from Mont-d'Origny to Moy towards St. Quentin on the Somme, while the British held the line of the … The British operations at Arras achieved impressive advances in the early stages but the French action ended in catastrophe. A Right Column of the 7th RTR, 8th DLI, 365th Battery, 92nd Field Regiment RA, 260th Battery, 65th (Norfolk Yeomanry) Anti-Tank Regiment RA, a platoon of the 151st Brigade Anti-Tank Company and a motor-cycle scout platoon of the 4th Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers and a Left Column of the 4th RTR, 6th DLI, 368th Battery, 92nd Field Regiment RA, 206th Battery, 52nd Anti-Tank Regiment RA, a platoon of the 151st Brigade Anti-Tank Company, one company and a scout platoon of the 4th Northumberland Fusiliers, were to cross the Arras–Doullens road at 2:00 p.m., which meant that the infantry would have to make an 8 mi (13 km) approach march to reach the jumping-off point, over roads filled with traffic and refugees. In early 1917, Nivelle presented his plan for a huge offensive that he claimed would defeat the German Army in a matter of days. The British tanks were eventually stopped short of Hill 111 by fire from another artillery battery but other tanks bypassed the area on both sides. At the First Battle of Picardy (22–26 September) … Phase: the Battle of the Scarpe, 26 – 30 August 1918. D'Astier was also unable to contact the First Army headquarters or the HQ of the Air Component RAF of the BEF, which was out of action, as it was moving back to bases in England. Episode 27: By spring 1917, the heavy casualties of the previous year were putting the German Army under considerable strain. The preliminary bombardment lasted several weeks and mines laid in tunnels dug beneath the ridge were detonated just before the attack. Rommel led the advance but returned around 4:00 p.m. when the infantry failed to arrive and at the positions of Schützen-Regiment 7 (Fusilier or Rifle Regiment), found himself under attack by tanks and infantry. Nivelle immediately began to plan a major offensive on the German front-line. For his part in the French victory at Verdun, General Robert Nivelle was promoted to Commander-in-Chief of the French Army. The opening advances, particularly at Vimy Ridge, achieved impressive gains with a relatively low casualty rate. Nivelle's grand promises had ended in disaster and he was replaced by Philippe Petain. (Billotte took part in a meeting in Ypres from 19 to 21 May. Two weeks after Winston Churchill took office, the Second World War already seemed as good as … Its aim, as for the Somme in 1916, was to break through the German line, this time in conjunction with a major French assault, the Nivelle Offensive, 50 miles to the south. The previous year had been marked by the costly success of the Franco–British The Battle of Arras (also known as the First Battle of Arras, 1–4 October 1914), was an attempt by the French Army to outflank the German Army, which was attempting to do the same thing during the "Race to the Sea", the reciprocal attempts by both sides, to exploit conditions created during the First Battle of the Aisne. The Battle of Arras This theme explores a lesser-known battle of World War I: The Battle of Arras (9th April 1917 – 16th May 1917). Falling between the better known battles of the Somme in the second half of 1916, and Passchendaele (or Third Ypres) in the second half of 1917, Arras is not as well-remembered as either of those. Been through the battles of Ypres and Somme untouched. Use these sources to discover more about First World War Recruitment Posters. Here we aim to provide you with resources to support the exploration of the Battle. Constrained by the limited forces available to them, the Anglo-French offensive was carried out by a small mixed force of British and French tanks and infantry who advanced south from Arras. THE BATTLE OF ARRAS IN FIGURES . Some larger Matilda II tanks among the Matilda Is advanced through the artillery and anti-tank fire unscathed, German shells bouncing off their armour. The Vimy Ridge attack provided a blueprint for future successes on the Western Front. [6] Weygand cancelled the orders and after a delay, ordered a similar counter-offensive from the north and south against the German "corridor", to break the encircled armies out of the pocket. Following the German invasion of the Low Countries on 10 May, French and British forces advanced into Belgium. It was the first time that all four divisions of the Corps had fought together and the battle holds a special place in Canadian history. An anti-tank gun was knocked out, British soldiers were killed and several French tanks hit before the mistake was discovered. The defensive deployments left only the 6th and 8th battalions of the Durham Light Infantry (DLI), of 151st Brigade and one in reserve as well as the 13th Infantry Brigade, supporting the 4th Royal Tank Regiment (4th RTR) and the 7th Royal Tank Regiment (7th RTR), a force of about 2,000 men and 74 tanks. Artillery support was more effective at Arras than at the Somme thanks in part to improvements in training and scheduling, and the new 106 fuse, which made high explosive shells more reliable. From 9 April to 16 May 1917, British, Canadian, New Zealand, Newfoundland, and Australian troops attacked German trenches near the French city of Arras on the Western Front. The attack was a failure but had a disproportionate effect on Hitler and Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW, German armed forces high command). [27] The British lost around 100 men killed or wounded in the attack, it is unknown how many French soldiers became casualties in the engagement. [20] I Gruppe Sturzkampfgeschwader 77 is known to have bombed infantry positions north of Arras. [1] By the end of the Battle of Montcornet, much of the French Ninth Army on the Meuse had disintegrated under the attacks of Fliegerkorps VIII. In December 1916 Robert Nivelle replaced Joseph Joffre as Commander-in-Chief of Allied forces on the Western Front. The opening days of the battle saw significant gains. The Battle of Arras Canadian veterans, who fought the one day, Battle of Vimy Ridge were most graphic in their descriptions of the ruthlessness with which they rapidly took all of their objectives, many of these fine soldiers surviving to tell the bloody … Players: Britain: 6th … Here are 14 objects from life at the front. German 88 mm FlaK guns knocked out several Matilda I tanks. Most of the BEF and the French First Army were still 62 mi (100 km) from the coast but despite delays, British troops were sent from England to Boulogne and Calais just in time to forestall the XIX Corps panzer divisions on 22 May.
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