 |
| German Infantry Poised to Attack |
Action shifted in early October to the vicinity of Arras and Souchez village near the Lorette Heights and Vimy Ridge. Once the Germans were contained before Albert, French cavalry units headed north to take part in the operations to block attacks on Arras and Lens and outflank the German right wing. French reinforcements flooded into Artois between 29 September and 2 October, transported by bus from the railway stations around Amiens. On 2 October, however, the French were buffeted by a powerful assault at Monchy-le-Preux, to the northeast of Arras.
Next, elements of several German armies tried but soon abandoned a direct assault on the city of Arras. They had been frustrated primarily by the French 77th Division, recently arrived from Lorraine. It was commanded by a senior general, Ernest Barbot, who had been scheduled for retirement had war not broken out in 1914. His troops were deployed north of Arras on 2 October around the village of Souchez which is strung along the Arras-Bethune highway. His use of the 75 cannon at point-blank rage convinced the German commanders they would not take Arras via coup-de-main.
Subsequently, two corps of German cavalry were ordered to break into the French rear and cut the rail lines bringing reinforcements. The village of Vimy was captured. The German horse troops, however, unexpectedly ran into some local territorial troops fighting effectively from prepared positions and got bogged down. Another opportunity lost.
On 4 October, Foch arrived on the scene, re-energizing the two armies in the sector, Castelnau's Second Army and Maud'huy's Tenth Army. Also, the additional French troops that the German cavalry was hoping to block began arriving in force around Arras and went on the attack. The cavalry commander, General Marwitz, was compelled to withdraw east of the heights.
 |
| Memorial at Souchez to General Barbot and the 77th Division |
With what they believed to be a temporary advantage, the French attacked on 8 October but were surprised to find that a new corps arriving from the east, the XIVth, had force-marched from Mons to reinforce the Germans. These new troops effectively slammed the door on the advancing French. The German Army needed to keep moving north though. Sixth Army had been probing north towards Lens, which they captured on 4 October, and on to La Bassée and Lille where they would collide with British troops moving into the sector from the Aisne. These newly arrived Tommies would play a critical role in what was to be the last phases of the Race to the Sea. Rudyard Kipling in his History of the Irish Guards gives an overview of the major redeployment the General French's BEF would conduct in October 1914:
Held up along their main front, the Germans struck at the Flanders plain, the Allies striving to meet the movement and envelop their right flank as it extended. A British force had been sent to Antwerp; the Seventh Division and the Third Cavalry Division had been landed at Zeebrugge on the 7th October with the idea of helping either the Antwerp force or co-operating with the Allied Armies as circumstances dictated. Meantime, the main British force was being held in the trenches of the Aisne a hundred and twenty miles away; and it seemed good to all concerned that these two bodies of British troops should be consolidated, both for purposes of offence, command and, by no means least, supply, on the Flanders flank covering the Channel. . . It will be remembered that the Second and Third British Army Corps were the first to leave the Aisne trenches for the west. On 11 October the Second Army Corps was in position between the Aire and Béthune and in touch with the left flank of the Tenth French Army at La Bassée.
It was in the 11-mile gap between La Bassée and Armentières in the north that the final act of the Race to the Sea would be played out. The fierce fighting would result in setting an immovable section of the Western Front that would not be abandoned by German forces until October 1918.
No comments:
Post a Comment