Western Front - British extent?

[daggers]

Is it possible to estimate the distance between the flanks of the British portion of the Western Front at any point of the war?  I have heard it may have been as little as 75 miles, but something more authentic would be helpful.

 

Daggers

[Fattyowls]

Trying to estimate distances on the ground is almost impossible due to the squiggly* nature of the lines across the landscape. However I have seen a figure as low as 26 miles in the immediate aftermath of 1st Ypres when the British and Indian sector ran from Sint-Elooi to the Aire canal just south of Givenchy. They were holding the southern side of the canal bank around Cambrin and Cuinchy  by the January, and extended north to more of the Ypres salient as reinforcements arrived. In a straight line it's just over 20 miles as far as I can see. I think the reference is in Chris Baker's 'Truce' but I could be wrong.

 

Pete.

 

*other words to describe the line followed not being straight are available but that was the second one that came into my head.

[nigelcave]

75 miles sounds about right at one stage or the other post, say, January 1916 - in particular the BEF iine shrank somewhat during the Advance to Victory and the Americans, for example, almost certainly held a longer part of the line by the end of the war. (The actual figures are out there, I just do not have them to hand as I am in the abroad.) On the other hand, the issue is not so much the length of front held as the significance of that stretch and what level of forces were deployed by the enemy. On that basis, the BEF faced a disproportionate number (and quality) of available German divisions in the autumn of 1918.

[Terry_Reeves]

Statistics of The Military Effort etc shows the minimum as 20 miles on 16 September, 1914 and the maximum as 123 miles between 4th February and 20 March 1918 allowing  for salients and re-entrants. At the cessation of hostilities it was 64 miles. The line varied considerably  over the course of the war.

 

The average length was around 73 miles.

 

TR

Edited 3 December , 2018 by Terry_Reeves

[daggers]

Many thanks to all.  Squiggly is as good as any and I would defy anyone to calculate the length of squiggle of the trench system.

I will hold to 75 miles as near enough for my purpose.

D

[Fattyowls]

2 hours ago, daggers said:

Many thanks to all.  Squiggly is as good as any and I would defy anyone to calculate the length of squiggle of the trench system.

I will hold to 75 miles as near enough for my purpose.

D

 

Very understanding of you, kinked or kinky was my first thought (in its 1914 sense of tightly curled of course). Both Nigel's and Terry's posts are most illuminating to me too, I'd like to add my thanks.

 

Pete.

[nigelcave]

I am doing this from memory, so bear with me; I think that the BEF faced approximately 90, possibly a few more, German divisions in its 'zone' at the end of the war, the AEF (purely for example) about half that. The problem then is, what does a division mean in the German army in November 1918 in terms of men? Many of them were depleted to the extent that, worst case scenario and in terms of infantry, they were not much bigger than a battalion of effectives.