Second Battle of Artois ends

On 18 June 1915, after a failed attack on Vimy Ridge, General Ferdinand Foch halted the offensive of the French Tenth Army north of Arras. So ended the Second Battle of Artois, which had begun on 9 May with a break through the German lines and the Moroccan Division reaching the ridge. A second great attack, prepared throughout June, was meant to repeat that success and this time hold the ground won. After three days of fighting the French stood where they had been before it.

Preparations

After 9 May Foch decided first to take the villages and fortifications on the flanks of the breach and only then to strike at the ridge again. He planned eight days for this, and it took more than five weeks. In that time the French took the Notre-Dame-de-Lorette spur, Carency, Ablain-Saint-Nazaire and, on 9 June, the rest of Neuville-Saint-Vaast, but Souchez and most of the Labyrinth, a sprawling trench complex south of Neuville, remained in German hands. The Germans used the time to build new fortifications, often on reverse slopes out of sight of French observation posts, and brought up reinforcements, including a great deal of heavy artillery.

General Victor d’Urbal’s Tenth Army was also reinforced. According to the archives of the Pas-de-Calais department, some 200,000 infantrymen from 20 divisions were made ready for the attack. The artillery had far more ammunition than in May. From 10 to 16 June the French guns fired, according to English-language studies, nearly half a million shells, almost twice as many as before 9 May. The bombardment, however, was deliberately lighter and spread out over time, and the command several times feigned preparations for an assault so that the Germans would not guess the day. Yet some divisional commanders warned that the jumping-off trenches were too far from the German lines and that the soldiers were exhausted by digging at night under fire.

16 June

In the morning visibility was poor. At 12.15 p.m. the French artillery began to lift its fire deeper into the German positions, and the infantry advanced behind it on a front from the Lorette spur to the outskirts of Arras. The main blow fell on a sector about 10 kilometres long between Souchez and Neuville-Saint-Vaast. The artillery also shelled German batteries and villages in the rear with carbon disulphide and phosphorus shells, with an asphyxiating and incendiary effect, silencing some of the German guns for about an hour and a half.

Once again the Moroccan Division of XXXIII Corps got furthest. Its Algerian tirailleurs and legionnaires quickly crossed the first German lines and reached Hill 119 on the ridge, between Souchez and Givenchy-en-Gohelle. There they were stopped by fire from Souchez and from hidden positions on the flanks. The reserves squeezed through communication trenches choked with wounded and prisoners and arrived only at about 8 p.m. To the left of the Moroccans the 77th Division took the cemetery at Souchez but could not take the village itself. On the Lorette spur XXI Corps advanced towards Angres, in places by about a kilometre. On the southern wing IX and XX Corps ran into intact wire and were repulsed, again in renewed attacks in the afternoon. The attacks between Écurie and Arras also failed.

In the evening and during the night the Germans counter-attacked and retook part of what had been won. The Moroccan Division’s forward positions on the ridge proved untenable. According to German figures, about 700 Frenchmen were taken prisoner that night.

17 and 18 June

On 17 June d’Urbal ordered the attack to be renewed on both sides of the Moroccan Division. The attack was postponed several times, and some units set off too early and came under fire from their own artillery. In the north the French took several German positions, and in the Labyrinth, according to French sources, the 53rd Division cleared the last parts of it of defenders. German accounts, however, mention fighting in the Labyrinth until 24 June. In the south IX Corps again failed to advance a single step.

On 18 June d’Urbal concentrated the rest of the Tenth Army’s strength on Vimy Ridge. General Maurice Balfourier, commander of XX Corps, refused to attack with an exposed flank, and the attack that did go in broke down in front of intact wire and positions on the reverse slopes. Foch concluded that further attacks were pointless and halted the offensive. D’Urbal carried on local attacks for several more days until the commander-in-chief, General Joseph Joffre, intervened. That is why the dates given for the end of the battle differ: the British chronology and some studies give 18 June, French sources also 24 or 25 June.

Outcome

In six weeks the French regained some fifteen to twenty square kilometres of ground: the Lorette spur, several fortified villages and most of the Labyrinth. Vimy Ridge and Souchez remained in German hands. According to French figures, the Tenth Army lost about 102,500 killed, wounded and missing from the beginning of May to mid-June. German losses are estimated, depending on the source, at 45,000–75,000 men. The British lost about 28,000 men in the accompanying attacks at Aubers and Festubert. As late as 15–16 June the British First Army attacked at Givenchy, west of La Bassée, but after a few hours had to fall back to its starting positions.

The Germans drew the lesson from the battle that deep dugouts and successive defensive positions had to be built, preferably on reverse slopes. The French command, by contrast, concluded that on 9 May a breakthrough had been within reach and that only reserves and ammunition had been lacking. On this belief Joffre based his plan for the autumn offensive: the main blow in Champagne and a subsidiary, third attack in Artois. Meanwhile, on 21 June, General Philippe Pétain, whose corps had achieved the most, took command of the Second Army.