First tank battles ww110/11/2023 ![]() ![]() After a long preparatory bombardment, the Canadian Corps of the First Army in the north fought the Battle of Vimy Ridge, capturing the ridge. The British effort was an assault on a relatively broad front between Vimy in the north-west and Bullecourt to the south-east. At Arras the Canadians were to capture Vimy Ridge, dominating the Douai Plain to the east, advance towards Cambrai and divert German reserves from the French front. The aim of the French offensive was to break through the German defences in forty-eight hours. The British attack at Arras was part of the Anglo-French Nivelle Offensive, the main part of which was the Second Battle of the Aisne 50 mi (80 km) to the south. The Allied objective from early 1915 was to break through the German defences into the open ground beyond and engage the numerically inferior German Army ( Westheer) in a war of movement. The battle became a costly stalemate for both sides and by the end of the battle, the British Third Army and the First Army had suffered about 160,000 casualties and the German 6th Army about 125,000.įor much of the war, the opposing armies on the Western Front were at stalemate, with a continuous line of trenches from the Belgian coast to the Swiss border. The British advance slowed in the next few days and the German defence recovered. The British achieved the longest advance since trench warfare had begun, surpassing the record set by the French Sixth Army on 1 July 1916. From 9 April to, British troops attacked German defences near the French city of Arras on the Western Front. ![]() The Battle of Arras (also known as the Second Battle of Arras) was a British offensive on the Western Front during the First World War.
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