First Battle of Artois

The First Battle of Artois was another stage of the so-called Race to the Sea, the series of attempts to outflank the enemy’s wing that in the autumn of 1914 pushed the Western Front ever further north. It was fought on 27 September – 12 October 1914 around Arras, Lens and the hills north of the town. Instead of outflanking the Germans, the French group of General Louis de Maud’huy, which became the Tenth Army during the battle, had to defend itself against an attack by the German Sixth Army. Arras remained in French hands, but the Germans took Lens and the heights of Vimy and Lorette, from which they dominated the surrounding area for years to come.

Name and dates of the battle

The fighting around Arras in the autumn of 1914 is described in the literature under various names and with various dates. On this page we adopt the dates 27 September – 12 October, following the British chronology of the war on which our timeline is based. The name “First Battle of Artois” is also used by the British website greatwar.co.uk and some English-language studies, but greatwar.co.uk ends the battle on 10 October. French and British sources usually single out its heaviest phase, known as the Battle of Arras, most often dated 1–4 October. The Polish Wikipedia gives the dates 2–9 October for the Battle of Arras, and French accounts of the Tenth Army’s operations record heavy fighting in this sector on 1–11 October.

The name “First Battle of Artois” is also used differently. Many studies, including the English-language Wikipedia, apply it to the French offensive at the turn of December 1914 and January 1915. In that interpretation the fighting at the turn of September and October 1914 is the Battle of Arras, and the next great battles in Artois were fought in May and September 1915.

Background: another stage of the race

At the end of September 1914 the Race to the Sea moved from Picardy to the Somme, where fighting was going on at Albert. North of these battlefields, between the Somme and the industrial coalfield around Lens and Douai, there was still no continuous front. The only troops there were French territorial divisions made up of older reservists and cavalry units of both sides. On 26 September the Germans took Bapaume, on the road from Albert to Arras.

The commander-in-chief of the French army, General Joseph Joffre, decided to assemble new forces in the Arras area, which were to strike east and north-east towards Douai and get into the German rear. At the end of September he formed a group under General Louis de Maud’huy, until then a corps commander. Sources give various dates for its formation, from 29 September to 1 October. At first it was formally subordinate to the Second Army of General Noël de Castelnau. It comprised X Corps, brought by rail from another sector of the front, reserve and territorial divisions, and later also XXI Corps of General Paul Maistre. The northern wing was covered by the cavalry corps of General Louis Conneau.

On the German side the Chief of the General Staff, Erich von Falkenhayn, was sending north the Sixth Army of the heir to the Bavarian throne, Crown Prince Rupprecht. On 28 September he ordered him to attack Arras. Among the formations heading for Artois were the Guards Corps, I Bavarian Reserve Corps and IV Corps, while further north German cavalry corps were advancing towards Lens and Lille.

Course of the fighting

27–30 September. Both sides were assembling their forces. In front of Arras there were clashes between German cavalry and advance guards and French territorial divisions and cavalry. The first units of Maud’huy’s group were entering Arras, while the rest were detraining from trains in the surrounding area.

1 October. The Germans forestalled the French attack. They struck in the sector between Arras and Douai and pushed the French units out of Guémappe, Wancourt and Monchy-le-Preux east of the town. Their attack was halted only after the arrival of X Corps. The French did not reach Douai, which remained in German hands.

2–4 October. The centre of gravity shifted north of Arras. Rupprecht threw fresh corps into the battle, trying to outflank the French wing. The Germans took Lens, Souchez and Neuville-Saint-Vaast as well as the heights of Vimy. North of Arras, attacks towards the Scarpe river were repulsed by X Corps. Maud’huy’s situation was nevertheless dangerous. He had lost contact with his cavalry in the north, and a gap had opened on his southern wing. On 4 October he reported to Joffre that he might be forced to retreat.

4–6 October. Joffre reacted firmly. He removed Maud’huy’s group from Castelnau’s command and turned it into an independent Tenth Army. French sources date its formation to 5 October. Both Maud’huy and Castelnau were forbidden to withdraw. Joffre appointed General Ferdinand Foch as his deputy, responsible for coordinating the armies north of the Oise, and Foch immediately toured his new command. On 5 October the Germans took the Notre-Dame-de-Lorette hill north-west of Arras. By 6 October the crisis had passed. The Tenth Army’s front stabilised just beyond the eastern suburbs of Arras and on the slopes of the Vimy and Lorette heights.

6–12 October. On 6 October German artillery began systematically shelling Arras. The fighting for individual villages and hills went on. French infantry recaptured the area of the chapel on the Lorette hill, on 9 October according to some sources and on 12 October according to others. Meanwhile both sides were moving further forces north, between Lens and Lille. From 10 October the main weight of the fighting shifted to La Bassée and soon to Flanders.

Losses

The losses in this battle cannot be established precisely. The fighting merged seamlessly with the neighbouring battles of the Race to the Sea, and the studies give no separate, reliable figures for it. Both sides lost thousands of soldiers, and many villages around Arras and Lens were destroyed.

Significance

The First Battle of Artois, like the earlier fighting in Picardy and at Albert, brought neither side a successful outflanking of the enemy’s wing. The French defended Arras, but the Germans gained Lens with its coal mines and the heights of Vimy and Lorette, from which their observers could see many kilometres into the French rear. Arras became a front-line town. On 21 October 1914 its famous town hall belfry collapsed under German shellfire.

The line that settled in Artois in October 1914 became the scene of some of the heaviest fighting on the Western Front. In 1915 the French twice tried to break through it in great battles in Artois and recaptured the Lorette hill. Vimy Ridge was taken for good only by the Canadians in April 1917, in the Battle of Vimy Ridge.