First Battle of Artois

See also: First Battle of Champagne

The First Battle of Artois (17 December 1914 – 13 January 1915) was fought during the First World War between the French and German armies on the Western Front. The battle was the first offensive move on the Western Front by either side after the end of the First Battle of Ypres in November 1914. The French attack failed to break the stalemate.

First Battle of Artois
Part of the Western Front of the First World War
Area of operations, 1914
Date 17 December 1914 – 13 January 1915 Location Artois, France 50°30′N 02°30′E Result Indecisive
Belligerents
France United Kingdom	German Empire
Commanders and leaders
Joseph Joffre	Erich von Falkenhayn Rupprecht of Bavaria
Artois class=notpageimage| Artois, a region of northern France of around 4,000 km2 (1,500 sq mi) around Arras, Saint-Omer, Lens and Béthune.

Background

During what became known as the Race to the Sea the Battle of Arras (1–4 October) had been fought, after which local operations, particularly on the Lorette Spur, continued during the First Battle of Flanders to the north.

Subsequent operations

In May 1915, the Tenth Army conducted an offensive known as the Second Battle of Artois. The Third Battle of Artois, sometimes called the Artois–Loos Offensive, took place from 25 September to 15 October 1915.

References

Books

• Doughty, R. A. (2005). Pyrrhic victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01880-8.

Further reading

• Boff, J. (2018). Haig's Enemy: Crown Prince Rupprecht and Germany's War on the Western Front (1st ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-967046-8.
• Clayton, A. (2003). Paths of Glory: The French Army 1914–18. London: Cassell. ISBN 978-0-304-35949-3.
• Edmonds, J. E.; Wynne, G. C. (1995) [1927]. Military Operations France and Belgium, 1915: Winter 1914–15 Battle of Neuve Chapelle: Battles of Ypres. History of the Great War Based on Official Documents by Direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Vol. I (Imperial War Museum and Battery Press ed.). London: Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-89839-218-0.
• Haeften, Hans von, ed. (1932). Der Weltkrieg 1914 bis 1918: Militärischen Operationen zu Lande, Achter Band: Die Operationen des Jahres 1915: Die Ereignisse im Westen im Frühjahr im Sommer, im Osten vom Frühjahr bis zum Jahresschluß [The World War 1914 to 1918, Military Land Operations Volume Eight: The Operations in the Year 1915: The Events in the West from the Spring into the Summer and in the East from the Summer to the Year's end] (in German). Vol. VIII (online scan ed.). Berlin: Verlag Ernst Siegfried Mittler und Sohn. OCLC 838300036. Retrieved 25 November 2013 – via Die digitale landesbibliotek Oberösterreich (The Upper Austrian Provincial Library).
• Hoeppner, E. (1994) [1921]. Deutschlands Krieg in der Luft: ein Rückblick auf die Entwicklung und die Leistungen unserer Heeres-Luftstreitkräfte im Weltkriege [Germany's War in the Air: the Development and Operations of German Military Aviation in the World War] (in German) (trans. Battery Press ed.). Leipzig: K.F. Koehler. ISBN 978-0-89839-195-4.
• Humphries, M. O.; Maker, J., eds. (2010). Germany's Western Front, 1915: Translations from the German Official History of the Great War. Vol. II. Waterloo Ont.: Wilfrid Laurier University Press. ISBN 978-1-55458-259-4.
• Krause, J. (2013). Early Trench Tactics in the French Army: the Second Battle of Artois, May–June 1915 (1st ed.). Farnham: Ashgate. ISBN 978-1-40945-500-4.
• Sheldon, J. (2008). The German Army on Vimy Ridge 1914–1917. Barnsley: Pen & Sword. ISBN 978-1-84415-680-1.
• Sheldon, J. (2012). The German Army on the Western Front, 1915. Barnsley: Pen & Sword. ISBN 978-1-84884-466-7.
• Wynne, G. C. (1976) [1939]. If Germany Attacks: The Battle in Depth in the West (Greenwood Press, NY ed.). London: Faber & Faber. ISBN 978-0-8371-5029-1.