Arras: 2nd Battle of the Scarpe: 46th Brigade: 24 April 1917

[FrancesH]

I am trying to clarify the role of 46th Brigade in this battle. I understand that the overall British aim that day was 'to capture part of the Hindenburg position and push the Germans to the Drocourt-Queant line south of the Scarpe' (thank you Long Long Trail), and I have read the Brigade War diary which gives the minutiae of what they were doing. However, I haven't got a good enough military history brain to fit the two together! I would like some kind person to explain in a few sentences what 46th were doing as part of the overall British plan. The WD shows that their fighting centred around Bullet, Shovel and String Trenches, if that helps, and they were attacking Guemappe Cemetery.

[Skipman]

The Official History is probably the best place to look, or the 15th Division History. Fortunately, the Official History 1917 Vol 1 is available free on archive.org

 

https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.210683/page/n489/mode/2up?q=15th+Division+renewed

 

Mike

[FrancesH]

Thank you Skipman. I did have a look at this, but it doesn't quite serve my purpose. What I want is just a brief explanation of how what I know from the 46 Brigade WD fits into the overarching strategy! I feel certain that someone with more of a military history background could give me this, their only hesitation being surprise that it's needed! 

[Robert Dunlop]

FrancesH, the background to 46 Brigade's involvement in the Second Battle of the Scarpe goes back to the Battle of the Somme in 1916. The Somme battle exerted tremendous pressure on the new German High Command of Ludendorff and von Hindenburg. The pressure was exacerbated by the situation on the Eastern Front, as well as Romania's entry into the war, etc, etc. The decision was taken to shorten the frontline on the Western Front, in order to reduce the number of divisions required to man the frontline. This would create more reserves. A huge effort went into building the Hindenburg Line. Jack Sheldon's book on 'The German Army at Cambrai' provides a lot of background on the decision-making and the wider impact of the effort involved.

The Hindenburg Line did not run the whole length of the Western Front. It ran from the Arras sector in the north to Laffaux, near Soissons, in the south. If you think of the frontline as a railway line stretching from the English Channel to the Swiss border then it was as if the Germans had put in a set of points near Arras and then created a second shorter railway that ran from that junction directly down to a second set of points near Laffaux. When the Germans withdrew to the Hindenburg Line, they abandoned the original stretch of the railway between the two sets of points and fell back on the new line. 

Near Arras, the Germans realised that there was a major threat to the northern point of the Hindenburg Line. They created what was the equivalent of a siding, which ran north from Quéant (just below the start of the northern end of the Hindenburg Line) up to Drocourt, near Lens. The aim of the Drocourt-Quéant Line was to prevent any break-out if Vimy Ridge was captured.

46 Brigade was involved in an attempt to break-through that part of the Hindenburg Line north of Quéant and then push the German defenders back towards the newly created Drocourt-Quéant Line which in the sector that 46 Brigade was attacking, lay behind the Hindenburg Line.

Does this make sense? Is it the sort of information that you were after?

Robert

[FrancesH]

Hi Robert, that's really helpful. Obviously I now need to read what you've written through again with a map in front of me, but yes I can understand your railway analogy! Just checking -- as I understand it although the first bit of the battle of Arras was successful for the British, later it got bogged down: the 2nd battle of the Scarpe (being a sub-battle of Arras) was not successful and led to high losses, certainly for 46 Brigade. Thank you so much for this helpful response. 

[Robert Dunlop]

On 30/06/2021 at 14:47, FrancesH said:

...later it got bogged down: the 2nd battle of the Scarpe (being a sub-battle of Arras) was not successful and led to high losses, certainly for 46 Brigade.

There is no question that the battle was costly. If you want to understand the German perspective then check out Jack Sheldon's book "The German Army in the Spring Offensives 1917: Arras, Aisne and Champagne".

'Success' is a more difficult issue. In terms of ground gained, very little 'success' compared, as you say, to the assault on Vimy Ridge for example. The lack of 'success' by this indicator is often attributed, in part, to the intervention of Oberst Fritz von Lossberg. He had refined the defensive tactics to cope better with major offensives associated with heavy artillery support. Von Lossberg's reputation was so great that he was given authority to make decisions without recourse to the actual general officers commanding. 

The Arras battles did have a significant impact though. Firstly, they drew attention away from what was happening with the French army. This was very important after the failure of the Nivelle offensive in mid-April (part way through the Arras campaign), which led to widespread problems that are often labelled as 'mutinies'. 

There is a more subtle impact that is often overlooked. During the battle, British military intelligence functions continued to evolve, expand and improve within the fighting units, including the artillery. On the German side, the contribution of and reliance upon von Lossberg has been noted above. The British were able to pick up how the Germans were conducting the new defensive tactics, which led to more effective British counter-strategies during Third Ypres for example. Conversely, the Germans failed to perceive what was coming. They turned to von Lossberg again after Messines ridge was captured in June but his ability to dominate a battle was eroded to such an extent by the British that Ludendorff had to step in; von Lossberg became very ill as a result of the stress.

Robert

 

[FrancesH]

Thank you Robert! Sorry I didn't reply sooner -- I've now enabled notifications.