WW1 Battles - Battle of Festubert May 15th-25th, 1915
France’s Commander Joseph Joffre wanted action. ‘Papa’ Joffre, as the French affectionately called him, was putting pressure on the British high command to push forward. He had even accused the British forces of not “pulling their weight”.
The British Second Army was still fighting in Ypres, so it had been left to the British First Army to fulfill the commitment made to the French.
The Artois Offensive began on May 9th after a five-day artillery bombardment by French guns, and saw the French Tenth Army penetrate German defenses and almost gain the crest of Vimy Ridge. But French reserve troops arrived too late to bolster the offensive, and with the arrival of additional German reserves, the French ended up suffering terrible losses.
The British First Army had contributed to this push by trying to break through the German lines both north and south of Neuve Chapelle (which is north of Festubert) on Aubers Ridge. The Battle of Aubers Ridge began with a forty minute bombardment by British 3-pounders and trench mortars, as heavy artillery was in short supply. Aubers Ridge was an absolute disaster for the Brits. The bombardment before the land assault had failed to cut barbed wire and had only served to make the ground even more inhospitable by churning up the ground around the massive drainage ditches that crossed the land. In the southern prong of the attack, wave after wave of British troops were cut down by German machine guns and artillery. The northern prong of the attack was equally bad, as heavy fire from German positions mowed down advancing British troops; one of the Indian brigades lost roughly 1,000 men within minutes.
At nightfall, the remaining men of the British First Army withdrew. They had suffered 11,000 casualties in less than a day of fighting.
Battle of Aubers Ridge
The Artois Offensive continued at the Battle of Festubert (also called the second Battle of Artois) from May 15th-25th. After the failure at Aubers Ridge, where the two-pronged attack described above had meant troops were spread out too far apart to be effective against such strong German defenses, British General Haig focused his efforts on a smaller front that stretched from Festubert north to Neuve Chapelle.
The artillery portion of the battle began May 13th with more than 400 howitzers and guns blazing. For 60 hours, British guns pounded German positions in an attempt to cut barbed wire and take out German machine gun nests to prepare for the ground assault. Finally, on the night of May 15th the infantry – including members of the British Indian Corps; Willcocks, Lahore and Meerut - began their assault.
First Night Assault by British Troops
On the night of May 15th and into the 16th, the British 2nd Division and Indian Meerut troops advanced across the terrain toward their target and made good progress at first, through the artillery barrage had failed to take out German strong-points. The British 7th, on the right, also made progress toward their objective of la Quinque Rue, despite coming under fire from German positions that were dug in between the British 2nd and 7th. Finally, on the night of May 16th, the Germans withdrew on a 3,000 yard front to a position behind la Quinque Rue.
The British interpreted the German withdrawal as an encouraging sign that the German reserves were stretched, and ordered the British 1st Corps to consolidate their position along la Quinque Rue with strength bolstered by the 3rd Canadian Brigade. Efforts to move forward that day failed, so General Haig ordered a renewed attack on May 18th.
Battle of Festubert with the Canadian Orchard at the bottom of the map
British General Sir Douglas Haig 1916
Securing La Quinque Rue
The main attack focused on capturing a mile-long stretch of La Quinque Rue, with the Indian Corps securing Ferme du Bois to the north and the 7th Division occupying part of the trenches that the Germans had abandoned. The Canadian 14th (Royal Montreal Regiment), 15th (48th Highlanders) and 16th (Canadian Scottish) Battalions or 'Bns' were 