Appendix 2
Western Front 1916-18
The British Army took part in several major offensive campaigns on the Western Front between 1916 and 1918, but this section focuses on four – the battles of the Somme, Arras, Passchendaele (known more accurately as the Third Battle of Ypres) and the Hundred Days. The British did, of course, mount other offensives during the war – such as the battles of Neuve Chapelle and Loos in 1915 and Cambrai in 1917 - but these were smaller in scale and duration and involved fewer of the men who are the subject of this book. Details of these engagements, plus the Gallipoli campaign, the First and Second Battles of Ypres and the early actions of the war (Mons, Le Cateau, the Marne and the Aisne, for example) are given in the biographies of those men who died in them. Similarly, the Battle of Jutland, the major naval engagement of the war, is discussed in the relevant profiles.
The offensives listed below were not single engagements but rather a series of battles fought over several weeks or months. Each offensive involved several phases, some more successful than others. The purpose here is to help the reader understand more about these campaigns and battles by providing an historical context and a chronological framework.
Many of the men featured in the book fought in one or more of the offensives. Readers wishing to learn more about the Mesopotamia campaign, in which almost 1 in 5 of the Weeke and Fulflood soldiers died, should turn to Appendix 1.
The Somme: 1 July-18 November 1916
The Somme offensive was a joint Anglo-French operation. It took place in Picardy either side of the River Somme which, in 1916, marked the boundary between the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and the French army. The original plan envisaged the French taking the leading role. However, this changed after the Germans attacked at Verdun in early 1916, forcing the French to transfer thousands of troops there from the Somme.
The tragedy of the first day of the offensive (57,470 British casualties, including 19,240 dead) has cast a long shadow over the rest of the campaign. However, there were successes. On 1 July, the French made their biggest advance of the war to date. Even the British achieved some gains, notably at Montauban and Mametz. The first phase of the offensive also saw tactical innovation by the British with a bold dawn attack on the Bazentin Ridge.
The period between mid-July and the end of August developed into a desperate attritional slog as the British tried to secure better positions from which to launch the next phase of the offensive. The summer fighting for Pozieres, High Wood and Delville Wood was among the bloodiest of the entire campaign.
September saw the Allies inflict a series of defeats on the Germans who, together with their losses at Verdun, suffered 130,000 casualties during the month. However, Allied momentum slowed in October and November when bad weather turned the battlefield into a sea of mud. Much of the criticism subsequently levelled at the British Commander-in-Chief, Sir Douglas Haig, stemmed from his refusal to call a halt to the campaign when it became clear that it was pointless to throw exhausted troops into battle in such appalling conditions.
The British suffered 450,000 casualties on the Somme. German losses were almost as high, and manpower would be an increasing problem for the German army in 1917 as it struggled to find an answer to the problem of fighting a war on two fronts with dwindling resources.
The Somme Offensive comprised the following battles and phases:
Phase 1: 1-17 July 1916
Battle of Albert (1-13 July) – capture of Montauban, Mametz, Fricourt, Contalmaison and La Boisselle.
Battle of Bazentin Ridge (14-17 July) – capture of Longueval, Trones Wood and Ovillers. Featured successful surprise dawn attack on 14 July.
Phase 2: July-September 1916
Battle of Delville Wood (15 July-3 September).
Battle of Pozieres (23 July-3 September) – Australians involved in fierce fighting for German stronghold of Mouquet Farm.
Battle of Guillemont (3-6 September) – capture of the German stronghold of Guillemont.
Battle of Ginchy (9 September) – capture of Ginchy.
Phase 3: September-November 1916
Battle of Flers-Courcelette (15-22 September) – capture of Martinpuich. Featured first use of tanks in warfare.
Battle of Morval (25-28 September) – capture of Combles, Lesboeufs and Gueudecourt.
Battle of Thiepval Ridge (26-28 September) – fought in conjunction with the Battle of Morval.
Battle of Le Transloy (1-18 October) – capture of Eaucourt l’Abbaye, Le Sars and attacks on the Butte de Warlencourt. Bad weather hampered British.
Battle of the Ancre Heights (1 October-11 November) – capture of the Schwaben Redoubt, Stuff Redoubt and Regina Trench.
Battle of the Ancre (13-16 November) – capture of Beaumont Hamel, an objective on 1 July.
Arras: 9 April-16 May 1917
The BEF launched the Arras Offensive to draw German troops away from the area of the River Aisne where the French planned to launch a major attack in May 1917. The opening Battle of Vimy Ridge and the First Battle of the Scarpe were highly encouraging. The Canadians captured the strategic high point of Vimy Ridge on the opening day, and to the east of Arras British troops advanced more than three miles, the biggest Allied success of the war up to that point. Enemy resistance then stiffened, and the offensive bogged down. Final attempts to outflank the Germans at Bullecourt proved hugely costly.
On the plus side, the offensive did succeed in diverting German troops away from the French sectors. It also showed that British commanders had learned lessons from the Somme and were now capable of mounting successful set-piece attacks against strongly fortified German positions. However, the gains in territory were offset by the 158,000 British and Canadian casualties and by the subsequent failure of the French offensives to the south. Ultimately, Arras had little impact on the strategic or tactical situation on the Western Front.
Phase 1: 9-14 April 1917
Battle of Vimy Ridge (9-12 April) – Canadians capture Vimy Ridge.
First Battle of the Scarpe (9-14 April) – British attack east of Arras and advance more than three miles in places.
First Battle of Bullecourt (10-11 April) – a flanking operation south of Arras. British and Australians suffer heavy losses.
German attack on Lagnicourt (15 April) – a German flanking operation.
Phase 2: 23-24 April 1917
Second Battle of the Scarpe (23-24 April) – British attack on a nine-mile front on both sides of the River Scarpe. Gavrelle and Guemappe captured but Rouex remains in German hands.
Attack on La Coulotte (23 April) – subsidiary Canadian assault.
Phase 3: 28-29 April 1917
Battle of Arleux (28-29 April) – aims to tie down German forces which could be sent to French sector. Canadians capture Arleux.
Phase 4: 3-16 May 1917
Third Battle of the Scarpe (3-4 May 1917) – assault on German fortification of Boiry Riegel. Called off after British suffer heavy losses.
Second Battle of Bullecourt (3-16 May 1917) – British and Australians attack Bullecourt which is eventually taken. However, further attacks on the Hindenburg Line fail.
Capture of Rouex (13-14 May)
Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele): 31 July-10 November 1917
Along with the Somme, the Third Battle of Ypres (commonly known as Passchendaele) is the best-known of the British offensives of the Great War. The aim of commanders was to win control of the ridges to the south and east of the Belgian town of Ypres and then advance to capture the German railhead at Roulers. Ultimately, the British wanted to clear the German army from the Belgian coast as far as Holland.
To this day the battle remains mired in controversy – over the choice of Flanders for the offensive, for example, and whether the British objectives were simply unrealistic given the nature of warfare in 1917. More than anything, however, it is the images of a landscape destroyed by war and of soldiers floundering in mud that have shaped popular perceptions of the campaign.
The first phase of the offensive was planned by General Sir Hubert Gough, commander of the British Fifth Army. An aggressive soldier (a ‘thruster’ in Army parlance), Gough - in conjunction with Sir Douglas Haig – set ambitious objectives for his divisions. The battle started well, but heavy rain then slowed progress as the waterlogged battlefield hindered the movement of men and guns.
Gough’s troops also found themselves pitted against an enemy who had perfected defence in depth, employing lightly-held front lines behind which they placed scattered strong points – such as pill boxes - to disrupt any Allied advance. Once the British were disorganised, the Germans would launch counter-attacks with specially trained divisions kept out of range of Allied artillery. Allied attacks often succeeded in penetrating the German front line but failed to get past the second.
In early September, Gough was relieved of responsibility for the battle which passed to General Sir Herbert Plumer, commander of Second Army. A meticulous planner, Plumer aimed to use the Germans’ own tactics against themselves. Rather than try to break through the German lines, as Gough had, he selected a small part of the front, pounded it with heavy artillery and then attacked in strength behind a ‘creeping barrage’. Having over-run the German position to a depth of about 1,500 yards, the attacking troops then dug in and waited for the Germans to counter-attack. When they did, instead of exhausted, disorganised troops they were confronted by a well organised defensive line. Moreover, the British defenders were covered by their own artillery which was able to break up the German counter-attacks.
Plumer’s so-called ‘bite and hold’ tactics were successful at the battles of the Menin Ridge Road, Polygon Wood and Broodseinde when the ground was dry. However, when the rain returned in early October, the problems of manoeuvre on the battlefield manifested themselves once more. The final stage of the campaign, like that on the Somme, resulted in appalling casualties in unspeakable conditions before the BEF finally took the village of Passchendaele.
The Third Ypres campaign demonstrated the British ability to break into fortified defences and then hold them against enemy counter-attacks. It also led the German high command to seriously consider withdrawing from the Ypres Salient.
Preliminary Phase: 7-14 June 1917
Battle of Messines (7-14 June) – British detonate 19 mines under Messines Ridge, south of Ypres, then attack and capture much of the high ground as a strategic prelude to the Third Battle of Ypres.
Phase 1: 31 July-25 August
Battle of Pilckem Ridge (31 July-2 August) – British Fifth Army attacks across Gheluvelt Plateau in bad weather. Gains made in the north of the sector but attack quickly bogs down.
Capture of Westhoek (10 August)
Battle of Langemarck (16-18 August) – Despite less ambitious objectives, British attacks fail because of bad weather and German resistance. General Sir Hubert Gough relieved of responsibility for planning battle.
Phase 2: 20 September-9 October 1917
Battle of the Menin Ridge Road (20-25 September) – after weeks of preparation, General Sir Herbert Plumer’s Second Army attacks on an eight-mile front. Greater emphasis on heavy artillery destroying German fortified positions. Most objectives seized and German counter-attacks broken up.
Battle of Polygon Wood (26 September-3 October) – British and Australian ‘bite and hold’ tactics succeed again. All objectives taken and held.
Battle of Broodseinde (4 October) – British and Australians complete capture of Gheluvelt Plateau and Broodseinde Ridge.
Battle of Poelcapelle (9 October) – return of heavy rain blunts British and French assault and gains in front of Passchendaele are lost to German counter-attacks.
Phase 3: 12 October-10 November 1917
First Battle of Passchendaele (12 October) – British and New Zealand troops attempt to gain ground around Passchendaele. Rain hinders movement of artillery support. German counter-attacks retake most of lost ground.
Second Battle of Passchendaele (26 October-10 November) – after British capture Poelcapelle on 22 October, Canadian Corps launches a three-phase attack on Passchendaele which is finally taken on 6 November. Last remaining high ground in the area is captured on 10 November.
The Hundred Days: 8 August-11 November 1918
The Hundred Days Campaign ended the Great War. Starting with the Battle of Amiens on 8 August 1918, the Allies launched a series of large-scale attacks against an enemy much weakened after the failure of its own offensives in the spring and early summer. The attacks, orchestrated by Field Marshal Ferdinand Foch, who had been appointed Supreme Allied Commander in March 1918, shattered the Hindenburg Line defences, pushed the Germans out of France and culminated in the Armistice of 11 November.
There were no phases as such during the Hundred Days, just a rapid series of victories against which the German armies had no reply. The offensives involved attacks by British and Dominion forces as well as the French, American and Belgian armies.
Some military historians regard the Hundred Days Campaign as a triumph of British ‘combined arms’ warfare in which innovative coordinated attacks involving infantry, artillery, aircraft and particularly tanks finally broke the Western Front stalemate. Others argue that Allied success between August and November 1918 was due more to German weakness in manpower and morale than any new way of fighting. They point out that while tanks were effective at the Battle of Amiens (8 August), success thereafter was due to the tried and tested combination of infantry and artillery.
The following battles saw the greatest British involvement.
Picardy: 8-11 September 1918
Battle of Amiens (8-11 August) – Australian, Canadian, British and French forces smash a 15-mile wide gap in German lines and advance up to eight miles. British use 500 tanks to spearhead attack which achieves complete surprise. Momentum slows in following days as advance outruns supporting artillery.
The Somme: 21-29 August 1918
Battle of Albert (21-22 August) – Albert recaptured and Germans pushed back on a 34-mile front.
Battle of the Scarpe 1918 (26-30 August) – Canadians advance three miles and capture Monchy-le-Preux and Wancourt.
Second Battle of Bapaume (29 August) – Bapaume retaken.
Advance to the Hindenburg Line: 26 August-18 September 1918
Battle of the Scarpe 1918 (26 August) – British First Army joins the offensive north of the Somme.
Battle of Mont St Quentin (31 August) – Fourth Army resumes attack. Australians cross the Somme and break the German lines at Mont St Quentin and Peronne.
Battle of the Drocourt-Queant Line (2 September) – British and Canadians push Germans out of last major defence system before the Hindenburg Line.
Battle of Havrincourt (12 September) – Havrincourt captured. Evidence that German fighting spirit is weakening.
Battle of Epehy – British, Australian and French forces clear German outposts in front of Hindenburg Line.
Flanders: 28 September-2 October 1918
Fifth Battle of Ypres (28 September-2 October 1918) – in Flanders, the British Second Army and the Belgian Army join Foch’s Grand Offensive, a series of sequential attacks along the Western Front.
Battle for the Hindenburg Line: 29 September-10 October 1918
Battle of St Quentin Canal (29 September-10 October) – British, Australian, American and French forces break through one of the most heavily defended sections of the Hindenburg Line after massive British artillery bombardment.
Second Battle of Cambrai – British First and Third Armies also breach Hindenburg Line.
The final weeks: 17 October-11 November 1918
Battle of Courtrai (14-19 October) – British, French and Belgian forces attack in Flanders. Ostend, Lille and Douai recaptured on 17 October. Bruges and Zeebrugge fall two days later.
Battle of the Selle (17-25 October) – Germans forced out of new defensive positions behind the River Selle by British armies. Unprecedented number of Germans surrender.
Battle of Valenciennes (1-2 November 1918) – British and Canadians capture Valenciennes.
Battle of the Sambre (4 November 1918) – British and French Armies cross the Sambre Canal (poet Wilfrid Owen killed here) to threaten Maubeuge and Namur. To the south American forces advance north out of the Argonne forest. The Sambre is the last major battle fought by the British in the Great War.