Summer Offensive 1915 - Second Battle of Artois
[h2]Summer Offensive 1915 Update[/h2]
At the time of writing, there have been 1,137,028 Central Powers losses, to 1,143,957 Entente casualties. Almost a 1:1 ratio, with a minor lead for the Central Powers... it could still easily go either way, unlike the Second Battle of Artois, which we'll discuss more in the rest of this post. The Summer Offensive 1915 campaign will continue to run until Monday 22nd of June, when the Gorlice-Tarnów Offensive ended. Read more about that operation on the Tannenberg Steam Hub.
[h2]The Second Battle of Artois[/h2]
On this date in 1915, the Second Battle of Artois was in the final stages, with French attackers encountering increasingly challenging German defenses. In particular German positions on reverse slopes were preventing an advance. As you can see on the diagram below, reverse slopes could not easily be hit by regular artillery guns, requiring high angle howitzers instead. At times the French infantry found themselves forced to attack German positions which were entirely undamaged and without even holes in their barbed wire defenses. These attacks went poorly.
French infantry were already exhausted, even as they were called on to dig forward trenches to serve as jump-off points for new attacks - while under German artillery fire. One successful attack with fresh troops would go on to be hit hard by a German counterattack, while French reinforcements were delayed in support trenches now full of wounded men and prisoners.
The British were still launching smaller attacks to try and divert German attention from the French Tenth Army, but experienced ammunition shortages for both artillery and the troops who did successfully capture German trenches. Bad weather including mist and fog led to some friendly fire from British artillery on advancing soldiers. Ultimately the writing was on the wall for the offensive, and it would be formally ended on June 18th.
You have until the 22nd - the battle rages on!
At the time of writing, there have been 1,137,028 Central Powers losses, to 1,143,957 Entente casualties. Almost a 1:1 ratio, with a minor lead for the Central Powers... it could still easily go either way, unlike the Second Battle of Artois, which we'll discuss more in the rest of this post. The Summer Offensive 1915 campaign will continue to run until Monday 22nd of June, when the Gorlice-Tarnów Offensive ended. Read more about that operation on the Tannenberg Steam Hub.
[h2]The Second Battle of Artois[/h2]
On this date in 1915, the Second Battle of Artois was in the final stages, with French attackers encountering increasingly challenging German defenses. In particular German positions on reverse slopes were preventing an advance. As you can see on the diagram below, reverse slopes could not easily be hit by regular artillery guns, requiring high angle howitzers instead. At times the French infantry found themselves forced to attack German positions which were entirely undamaged and without even holes in their barbed wire defenses. These attacks went poorly.
French infantry were already exhausted, even as they were called on to dig forward trenches to serve as jump-off points for new attacks - while under German artillery fire. One successful attack with fresh troops would go on to be hit hard by a German counterattack, while French reinforcements were delayed in support trenches now full of wounded men and prisoners.
The British were still launching smaller attacks to try and divert German attention from the French Tenth Army, but experienced ammunition shortages for both artillery and the troops who did successfully capture German trenches. Bad weather including mist and fog led to some friendly fire from British artillery on advancing soldiers. Ultimately the writing was on the wall for the offensive, and it would be formally ended on June 18th.
You have until the 22nd - the battle rages on!