Battle of the Scarpe (1918) ends

30 August 1918 was the last day of the Battle of the Scarpe, which the Canadian Corps had begun four days earlier east of Arras. After three days of heavy fighting for Monchy-le-Preux, the Cojeul and Sensée valleys and the Fresnes–Rouvroy line, the exhausted 2nd and 3rd Canadian Divisions had been relieved on the night of 28–29 August by the 1st Canadian Division and the British 4th Division, placed under General Arthur Currie. Now the only task left was to take the rest of the Fresnes–Rouvroy line and the switch near Vis-en-Artois, which were to serve as the jumping-off position for the assault on the strongest position in the area, the Drocourt–Quéant line.

The most important event of the day was the attack of General William Griesbach’s 1st Canadian Brigade. Taking advantage of the fact that the neighbouring XVII Corps of the British Third Army had reached Hendecourt the day before, in the rear of the German line, the commander of the 1st Division, General Archibald Macdonell, and Griesbach decided to outflank the German position from the south. Two battalions moved by night march into the neighbouring army’s sector and at 4.40 a.m. attacked northwards, behind a barrage that moved along the front from right to left. A third battalion attacked frontally at the same time and cleared the trenches southwards. The defenders were taken completely by surprise. At about seven in the morning the battalions met at Upton Wood. The Canadians repulsed a counter-attack, and after dark they occupied the wood itself, taking 50 prisoners and five machine guns. According to a German account quoted by the Canadian official history, two battalions of the 121st Reserve Infantry Regiment were destroyed: only 50 men escaped, and the rest, together with the staffs of both battalions, were taken prisoner. The exhausted Württemberg 26th Reserve Division had to be withdrawn from the line.

In the afternoon the British 4th Division crossed the marshy Sensée valley, in places waist-deep in water, and took the village of Éterpigny. North of the Scarpe the Scottish 51st Division, by now taken over by XXII Corps, pushed its line forward a few hundred metres and occupied the village of Plouvain, abandoned by the Germans. Things went worse to the right of the Canadians: in the morning a fresh German division retook from the London 56th Division the ruins of Bullecourt, captured the day before.

That same day the commander of the First Army, General Henry Horne, met Currie. Both regarded the Drocourt–Quéant line as the backbone of the German defence in this sector. They decided, as was recorded, “not to attack it until we are ready, and then to go all out”, and once again postponed the attack. The next day the First Army fixed it for 2 September. The Canadian Corps was to break the line and push straight on to seize the crossings of the Canal du Nord. For this it was given a tank brigade, an armoured car battalion and a cavalry regiment. Meanwhile heavy howitzers kept destroying the wire in front of the German position without pause.

The British Battles Nomenclature Committee recognised 30 August as the last day of the Battle of the Scarpe. According to the Canadian official history, in the first three days the 2nd and 3rd Canadian Divisions advanced more than eight kilometres on an ever-widening front and took over 3,300 prisoners, 53 guns and 519 machine guns, but themselves lost 254 officers and 5,547 other ranks. On 2 September the Canadians attacked the Drocourt–Quéant line and broke through it.