Battle of Arras begins

On 1 October 1914 the Battle of Arras began. That day, on the sector between Arras and Douai, three corps of the German 6th Army went into action almost simultaneously. They ran into General Louis de Maud’huy’s French group, which was itself preparing to attack. Instead of outflanking the enemy’s wing, the French had to defend Arras.

Name and dates

The British chronology of the war on which our timeline is based dates the Battle of Arras to 1–4 October 1914. Many French accounts give the same dates. The Polish Wikipedia gives 2–9 October. The Battle of Arras was the heaviest phase of the fighting in Artois, which began on 27 September and lasted until 10 October. It should not be confused with the great British offensive at Arras in the spring of 1917.

Two plans

The Commander-in-Chief of the French army, General Joseph Joffre, still hoped to outflank the German wing from the north. From the northern corps of General Noël de Castelnau’s 2nd Army and nearby territorial and cavalry divisions he formed a group commanded by Maud’huy. It was to assemble around Arras and strike the German flank.

The Germans had the same intention, only in the opposite direction. On 28 September the Chief of the General Staff, Erich von Falkenhayn, ordered Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria’s 6th Army to attack at Arras. Rupprecht wanted to stop the French west of the town and outflank it from the north. The Guard Corps and IV Corps left their positions on the Aisne on 27 September. That same day I Bavarian Reserve Corps began entraining at Metz.

The forces

Maud’huy’s group was still assembling. East and south of Arras stood General Brugère’s French territorial divisions, made up of older reservists. On 30 September General Barbot’s 77th Division arrived in the town, and General Émile Fayolle’s 70th Division was detraining near Lens. Together they formed General d’Urbal’s provisional corps. The main striking force, X Corps, was still detraining. The northern flank was covered by General Conneau’s cavalry.

On the German side three corps were entering the fight, deployed from south to north: the Guard Corps, IV Corps and I Bavarian Reserve Corps. Further north, towards Lens and Lille, German cavalry corps were advancing.

1 October

That day Bavarian troops occupied Douai for good, and the three German corps attacked along the whole sector between Arras and Douai, held by French territorial divisions. The German attack forestalled the attack the French were preparing.

The heaviest fighting took place south-east of Arras, between the river Scarpe and the Cojeul stream. Barbot’s division, which had detrained the day before, was thrown into the fight on the hills around Monchy-le-Preux. It beat off the first attack, but stretched over too wide a front it could not hold its positions. It slowly fell back from Guémappe, Wancourt and Monchy-le-Preux towards Arras, covering the detrainment of X Corps. Accounts of the day differ in detail. Some French accounts write of an initial French success, others stress that the Germans seized the initiative at once. By the end of the day, however, the French had been pushed back towards Arras and had to go over to the defensive.

The German attack was halted only when the first units of X Corps reached the battlefield. The French, however, were short of men and ammunition, and their units went into action one after another, straight from the trains.

Significance

On 1 October it became clear that the French plan to outflank the German wing at Arras could not be carried out. The Germans had managed to concentrate more forces here than expected, and Maud’huy, instead of attacking towards Douai, had to defend Arras itself. In the following days Rupprecht committed further units and shifted the weight of the attack north of the town, towards Lens and the Vimy heights.

The villages east of Arras that were fought over on 1 October remained on the German side of the front for a long time. Monchy-le-Preux, Guémappe and Wancourt were retaken only by the British in April 1917, during the Battle of Arras.