Third Battle of Artois begins

On 25 September 1915, after four days of bombardment, General Victor d’Urbal’s French Tenth Army attacked the German positions north of Arras for the third time in less than a year. The objective was again the heights of Vimy, which the French had failed to take in the spring, and beyond them the plain of Douai. So began the Third Battle of Artois. It was part of the largest Allied offensive in the west so far: on the morning of the same day, immediately north of the Tenth Army, the British attacked at Loos, and the main French attack went in in Champagne.

Breakthrough instead of a methodical advance

General d’Urbal wanted first to take the fortified village of Souchez and other key points, and to strike at the ridge only two days later. His superior, General Ferdinand Foch, however, demanded an immediate breakthrough towards Douai, without stopping to widen the breach. Remembering that on 9 May success had been wasted because the reserves were too far back, this time they were placed close to the front. According to the French official history the Tenth Army had 17 active and 2 territorial divisions, about 670 field guns and 420 heavy guns, and behind them a cavalry corps ready for the pursuit.

The British left their trenches at dawn, the French only in the afternoon. Foch ordered that the infantry should go forward four hours after the artillery could see the German second position. Visibility allowed this at about 7 a.m., so the assault was set for early afternoon. The French official history states that the attack began at 12.45 p.m. The British liaison officer with d’Urbal reported 12.25 p.m. The British official history later judged that this was too late to exploit the neighbours’ morning successes.

Souchez and nothing more

Things went best on the left wing. General Paul Maistre’s XXI Corps took the Bois en Hache wood between Souchez and Angres, and its 13th Division reached Souchez. Next to it two divisions of General Émile Fayolle’s XXXIII Corps took the first line of German trenches, but the third was stopped by fire. Further south, opposite the ridge and the village of Thélus, III and XII Corps held only fragments of the German first line, and the attacks near Arras itself were repulsed with heavy losses. In the afternoon it began to rain and the artillery lost visibility. At about 3.30 p.m. d’Urbal, wrongly believing that the edge of the Vimy plateau had already been taken, called up the cavalry and a reserve division, but they did not reach the front line in time. During the night a German counter-attack took Bois en Hache back from the French.

The French official history assessed the results of the day as “negligible” on the Tenth Army’s right wing, “weak” in the centre and “very satisfactory” on the left. In the evening the Commander-in-Chief, General Joseph Joffre, asked Foch how many divisions he could give up for Champagne if no decision could be reached in Artois. Foch wanted to fight on and announced to the British an attack for the following day. Over the next few days the French took Souchez and briefly reached the highest point of Vimy Ridge, but could not hold the ridge itself.