| Third Battle of Artois | |||||||||
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| Part of theWestern Front of theFirst World War | |||||||||
 Franco–British offensive, September 1915 | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 German Empire | |||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
 Crown Prince Rupprecht | |||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| 6th Army: 9 divisions | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
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TheThird Battle of Artois (25 September – 4 November 1915, also theLoos–Artois Offensive) was fought by the FrenchTenth Army against the German6th Army on theWestern Front of theFirst World War. The battle included theBattle of Loos by the BritishFirst Army. The offensive, meant to complement theSecond Battle of Champagne, was the last attempt that year byJoseph Joffre, the French commander-in-chief, to exploit an Allied numerical advantage over Germany. Simultaneous attacks were planned inChampagne-Ardenne to capture the railway atAttigny and inArtois to take the railway line throughDouai, to force a German withdrawal from the Noyon salient.
Joffre's plan was a series of attacks along the Western Front, supported byItalian attacks across theIsonzo River and aBritish Expeditionary Force (BEF) attack nearLoos-en-Gohelle. At first,Field Marshal John French and GeneralSir Douglas Haig opposed the attack, because of the lay of the land, a lack of heavy artillery, ammunition and reserves. The generals were over-ruled by the British minister of war,Lord Kitchener, who ordered French and Haig to conduct the offensive.[1] In Artois, the6th Army (Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria) faced, in the northern half of its sector up to and Bully Grenay, the BritishFirst Army (General Douglas Haig) and in the southern half, the FrenchTenth Army (GeneralVictor d'Urbal).[2] The French plan aimed to capture the heights between Liévin and Bailleul, followed by a breakthrough and pursuit in the direction of Douai.[3]
The Tenth Army massed seventeen infantry and two cavalry divisions for the offensive, backed by630 field guns and420 heavy artillery pieces. The 6th Army had about thirteen divisions and from19 to 13 September, the French field artillery fired1.4 million rounds of ammunition and the heavy artillery250,000 rounds at the German defences. ObsoleteDe Bange 90 mm guns were used to fire another63,500 shells.[4]
An artillery bombardment began on 21 September, and on 25 September the Tenth Army attacked at12:25 p.m. to be sure that the morning mist had dispersed. XXI Corps attacked the rest ofSouchez village and La Folie farm, XXXIII Corps made some progress but the III and XII corps to the south was repulsed. On the XXI Corps front, the 13th Division, attacking near Souchez with14,790 men had casualties of41 per cent in the first few days. During the afternoon it began to rain, impeding artillery observation and attack times were altered to even later in the day, which made co-ordination with the British First Army on the northern flank much more difficult.[5] By 26 September, the XXXIII and XXI corps had taken Souchez but the III and XII corps had made little progress south-east ofNeuville-St Vaast.[6]
The French failed to breach the German second line of defence and a breakthrough could not be achieved. Joffre sent the French IX Corps to assist the British attacks at Loos but this action also yielded little of strategic value.[6] Foch was also ordered by Joffre to conserve infantry and ammunition to reinforce the simultaneous offensive in Champagne; ammunition expenditure inArtois had been so vast that the offensive was to be reduced but without giving the British the impression that they were being left in the lurch. In very wet weather, the Tenth Army captured Vimy Ridge, except for the highest point, where German counter-attacks retook the ground from XXXIII Corps. Foch took over ground on the British right flank but it became impossible to co-ordinate attacks for the same day. The Battle continued until 13 October but ended amidst the autumn rains, mutual exhaustion and inter-Allied recriminations.[7]
The two French offensives in Artois in 1915 had advanced the front line by 3.1–3.7 mi (5–6 km) on a 5.6 mi (9 km) front. After advancing 1.9 mi (3 km) in theSecond Battle of Artois in May, the French advanced the front line by 1.2–1.9 mi (2–3 km) in the September offensive. Fayolle reported that the Third Battle of Artois had been a failure, because of uncut wire and the firepower of German machine-guns and artillery. The success of infantry attacks was dependent on the ability of the artillery to cut the wire, destroy German field fortifications and prevent the German artillery bombarding French infantry by usingcounter-battery fire; the simultaneousSecond Battle of Champagne continued into October.[4]
The official historians of theReichsarchiv recorded51,100 German casualties to the end of October.[8] In 2008, Jack Sheldon used figures taken from the French Official History to record48,230 casualties, fewer than half of the French casualties suffered in the spring offensive from April to June.[9]James Edmonds, the British official historian, recorded61,713 British andc. 26,000 German casualties at theBattle of Loos.[10][a] Elizabeth Greenhalgh wrote that of the48,230 French casualties,18,657 men had been killed or listed as missing, against the capture of2,000 prisoners,35 machine-guns, many trenchmortars and other items of equipment.[4]
