First Battle of Albert

The First Battle of Albert was the second large engagement of the Race to the Sea, after the Battle of Picardy. The French 2nd Army of General Noël de Castelnau and the German 6th Army of Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria tried to outflank each other north of the Somme. After several days of fighting neither side had gained the upper hand, and the troops dug in on the hills between Albert and Bapaume. On the same fields in July 1916 the British and French began the Battle of the Somme.

Dates of the battle

On this page we use the dates 22–25 September 1914, following the British chronology of the war and the division of the Race to the Sea into successive battles adopted in Britain. The chronology opens the Battle of Albert on 22 September, together with the start of the fighting in Picardy, and closes it on 25 September. Its authors treated all the engagements between the Oise and the Somme in the last days of September as a single sequence of operations. They did not explain why they took 25 September in particular as the end of the battle, the day on which the French attack east of Albert collided with the approaching German corps.

Most modern studies, both French and English-language, however, date the Battle of Albert to 25–29 September 1914. In this view, 22–24 September belong to the Battle of Picardy, fought further south, and the actual fighting for Albert began only on 25 September. Whatever dates are adopted, the fighting around Albert, Bapaume and Thiepval lasted until the end of September, so we describe it in full below.

Background

In the second half of September 1914 both sides were moving troops west in order to outflank the enemy’s open wing. The first attempt in Picardy, between the Oise and the Somme, bogged down in frontal clashes at Lassigny, Roye and Chaulnes. The commander-in-chief of the French army, General Joseph Joffre, therefore sent further corps further north. Castelnau was to extend the line of the 2nd Army beyond the Somme and strike east from the area of Albert, into the German rear.

The chief of the German General Staff, General Erich von Falkenhayn, intended to do the same in the opposite direction. Around 21 September he decided to concentrate the 6th Army, brought over from Lorraine, in the area of Amiens and strike with it to the west, towards the coast. The French attack in Picardy, however, forced him to send part of its forces, the XXI Corps and the I Bavarian Corps, south of the Somme. North of the river remained the II Bavarian Corps and the XIV Reserve Corps, supported by cavalry.

Course of the fighting

25 September. The French 2nd Army set out east from the area of Albert. Instead of an open flank it ran into German columns marching in the opposite direction. South of the Somme the XXI Corps and the I Bavarian Corps crossed the river near Péronne and attacked westwards.

26–27 September. The Germans took Bapaume. A Bavarian division routed French Territorial units and advanced west through Combles, Guillemont and Montauban towards Albert. The XIV Reserve Corps attacked along the old Roman road from Bapaume to Albert and on 27 September reached Thiepval on the heights above the River Ancre. The French, reinforced by further units, defended themselves ever more strongly.

28 September. The Germans tried to break through to Albert and on towards Amiens. French infantry and artillery stopped them on a line running from Maricourt through Fricourt to Thiepval. Albert itself came under German artillery fire, which destroyed a large part of the town.

29 September. The Germans captured Fricourt but were unable to press the attack further. French counter-attacks almost retook the village. The exhausted troops of both sides began digging trenches wherever the end of the fighting found them.

Losses

There are no precise figures for losses in the Battle of Albert. The fighting was short but fierce, and both sides lost thousands killed, wounded and taken prisoner. It is not possible to separate them from the losses in the neighbouring engagements in Picardy and at Arras.

Significance

The Battle of Albert closed another sector of the Western Front. The front established at the end of September 1914 ran from near Maricourt on the Somme through Fricourt, Mametz, the heights above the Ancre and Thiepval to the north. In the following days the fighting moved to Arras, where Joffre formed a new 10th Army. Further attempts to outflank the wing led both armies to Flanders and the North Sea.

For the next two years the Somme front was regarded as quiet. The Germans used this time to build strong fortifications on the hills, with deep dugouts cut into the chalk. On 1 July 1916 it was against this very front that the British and French attack opening the Battle of the Somme was launched. The names of the villages fought over in September 1914, such as Thiepval, Fricourt, Mametz and Montauban, became in Britain the symbol of that battle and its enormous losses.