The War on the Western Front in 1917

SPRING - The Second Battle of Arras,
FLANDERS - Battle of Messines Ridge,  Battle of Passchendaele ,   Battle of Cambrai

You are allowed to be bewildered by the multitude of names, battles and information being thrown at you.  Hopefully the map will help:

SPRING

Second Battle of Arras (9 April to 16 May 1917)

Background

• The French, British and Russian planned a joint attack in Spring 1917, but this failed even before it began when the Russians pulled out, and when the Germans pulled back to the Hindenburg Line, wrecking all the attack plans.

• Despite all the talk of a ‘war of attrition’, commanders still aimed at a decisive breakthrough!

• The French General Nivelle believed he could breakthrough on the River Aisne, and he persuaded the British to mount a diversionary attack a week before – that diversionary attack was the Second Battle of Arras.

Events

• The British did rather well at first, achieving the longest advance since trench warfare had begun, and including a remarkable victory by Canadian forces at Vimy Ridge (9-12 April). 

• This was helped by:

• Army Improvements: Intensive training and better tactics (especially creeping barrage, ‘leap frog’, ‘bite and hold’, extensive mining, and aerial reconnaissance).  Canadian commanders at Vimy Ridge had undertaken detailed assessment of the lessons of Verdun and the Somme.

• German mistakes as they tried to organise their new defences, and because the Germans regarded the area as strategically less-important (they did not try to recapture Vimy Ridge).

Results

• All this was at a cost of nearly 160,000 British casualties, and the battle bogged down into the normal pattern of pointless, costly attacks and counter-attacks over significant points of the battlefield, and Haig called it off.

Going Deeper

The following links will help you widen your knowledge:

 Timeline of the War in 1917

 An interesting page on Passchendaele

Debate: Was the enormous loss of life worth it?

YouTube

Two hours at Passchendaele - excellent overview of the assault

German Defence At Passchendaele - important information

FLANDERS

There were two main reasons for these battles:

1. Nivelle’s Aisne Offensive (16 April to May) had been absolutely walloped, and not only that but the French soldiers in nearly half their infantry divisions on the western front started refusing to go OTT to attack.  The Allied Command looked to Britain to do something to divert German attention from the French.

2. The German U-boat campaign was causing shortages in Britain, and a successful attack along the coast would deprive them of the use of Ostend and Zeebrugge ports.  Haig hoped also that it would be the breakthrough attack to win the war.

Battle of Messines (7-4 June 1917)

• A first attack was launched at Messines Ridge in June 1917, firstly because it could be organised quickly, and secondly as a vantage point for the main attack into Belgium. 

• Again, it can be counted as a success, due to the Army Improvements: using the new tactics, including a detailed map, better spotting, mining, tanks and overhead barrage.  German casualties were heavy (perhaps 25,000 casualties, but also 7,000 taken prisoner and 3,000 missing); the Allies, however, also recorded 25,000 casualties, notably at Hill 60.

Battle of Passchendaele (July to November 1917)

Background

• The main attack was the Third Battle of Ypres – ‘Passchendaele’.

• Ypres was a VERY dangerous place to attack – a salient surrounded on three sides by German artillery.  The Flandernstellung – the German system of trenches in Flanders – was especially strong.  The British Prime Minister Lloyd George and the French Chief of Staff Ferdinand Foch both tried to get it cancelled until the Americans (who had declared war on Germany in April 1917) arrived.  But Haig forced it through.

• One factor which may explain his haste was the defeat of the Russians on the Eastern Front, and the expectation that battle-hardened German troops would soon be travelling back across Europe to the Western Front.

Events

• The Battle of Passchendaele was not a single battle, but a series of battles – Pilckem Ridge, Langemarck, Menin Road, Polygon Wood – not all unsuccessful, but all murderous, all – as shown in the 2008 film – slogged out in deadly mud. 

Results

• Figures for casualties vary hugely, but it seems clear that both sides lost at least a quarter of a million men; and the battle is therefore regarded as an Allied success, because the German could not afford to lose so many. 

• Passchendaele, therefore, though conceived as a breakthrough, and which descended into a deadly stalemate, was actually key in the attrition of the German army.

Source B

Images of Passchedaele. 

1.  Archive photo of Canadian Gunners at Passchendaele (1917)

2.  Bringing Up The Guns: a painting of the 101st Australian Battery made at the time by New Zealand artists HS Power (1917)

3.  A still from the film Passchendaele (2008)

4.  An artwork by Peter Dennis for Martin Pegler's book on the Vickers-Maxim machine gun (2013)

Battle of Cambrai (20 November to 3 December 1917)

Background

• A third attack, was launched at Cambrai.  After the event, it was presented as a poorly-conceived operation, but it made sense because Cambrai was a major German supply and communications centre for their entire northern sector.

• It was conceived as a surprise attack, using 476 tanks smuggled in secretly (labelled ‘water tanks – hence the name).  The British advance used all the latest fighting techniques but – under the artillery commander of the 9th (Scottish) infantry division Henry Tudor – it employed the latest methods of ‘combined arms’ – all the different combat arms working in a co-ordinated way. 

Events

• The first day was a brilliant success.  Some German troops simply ran away, and the British advanced 5 miles.  But the slow-moving tanks were easily targeted (280 were destroyed) or broke down.  By the end of the first day, over half of the tanks were out of action.

• Then the Germans counterattacked, using their own new ‘stormtrooper’ tactics – the British were badly defeated, and Haig ordered the withdrawal. 

Results

• British casualties were about 75,000; German just over 50,000.

• HOWEVER, it can be argued that – with these new tactics on both sides – the battle of Cambrai marks the end of the static war of 1915-17.