Battle of Arras (1917)

The Second Battle of Arras (1917) was a World War I military engagement fought between the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), led by Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, and the German Army, under Ludwig von Falkenhausen, from April 9 to May 16, 1917, near the town of Arras, France. It was a British attack on the German positions as part of the 1917 Allied offensive north of the Somme, with the BEF carrying out operations in the north, in the area around Arras, and the French attacking on the German trenches on the Aisne River in the south.

Summary

The Battle of Arras began on the morning of April 9, when the Canadian Corps launched an assault on the enemy positions on the ridge near the town of Vimy; this British attack on this sector of the front line is known as the Battle of Vimy Ridge. On the same day, the British 12th Division attacked Observation Ridge, to the north of Arras. On the following days, British and Australian units would launch massive infantry assaults on the German-held areas near the towns of Bullecourt and Lagnicourt.

The battle raged on for more than a month, with fierce fighting all along the front. Sometimes the Germans would launch fierce counterattack as they tried to recover the lost terrain; however, the British would hold on to their objectives and persevere with the offensive. By May 16, the BEF units had gained a big chunk of terrain in this sector of the German front lines.

Weapons

British: Lee-Enfield, Lee-Metford, and Pattern 1914 Enfield, .303-caliber bolt-action rifles with an effective range of about 900 m; the Webley Revolver, a powerful .455-caliber handgun used by British officers; Mills bomb handgrenade; the Vickers and the Hotchkiss Mk I, 7.7mm machine guns, with a rate of fire of 500 rpm and a range of 2,000 m; the 2-inch medium mortar, which shot 23kg shells to a maximum range of 110 yards; the ordenance QF 15 pounder, the QF 18 pounder, and the BL 60 pounder field guns; the BL 9.2-inch and BL 8-inch howitzers.

Germans: Mauser Gewehr 98, 7.92mm bolt action rifle; Luger P08 pistol (7.65mm); Machinengewehr 08, an 8mm machine gun; Stielhandgranate, a stick hand grenade; 7.58 cm Minenwerfer, a 75.8mm wheeled-mortar that had a maximum range of 1,400 yards; 7.7 cm Infanteriegeschütz, a 77mm-caliber infantry field gun; the 10.5 cm Feldhaubitze, 98/09, the a 105 field howitzer; 15 cm Kanone 16, a 150mm canon; the 21 cm Mörser m/10-16, a 210mm field gun.

Battle of Arras- British soldiers fixing their bayonet before an attack in 1917.