First World War battle
The German attack on Lagnicourt ( [Operation Battering Ram]) on 15 April 1917 was a military operation on the Western Front during the First World War. Four German divisions conducted a spoiling attack on the positions of the 1st Anzac Corps of the British Fifth Army. The attack was intended to delay the advance of the Fifth Army towards the Hindenburg Line, inflict casualties and destroy as much equipment, particularly artillery, as possible.
 was also to deprive the British of the means to attack (IX Reserve Corps) as it fought the Battle of Arras (9 April to 16 May 1917) and (XIV Reserve Corps) to the south. The German commanders hoped to gain time to prepare more defences and to show that the retirement to the Hindenburg Line had not diminished German morale or the ability to attack. The Fifth Army was recovering from the First attack on Bullecourt (11 April) and preparing for the Battle of Bullecourt (3–17 May 1917), a much bigger effort.
The attack by two divisions of and two divisions of to its south, fell on the positions of the 1st Australian Division and the 2nd Australian Division. The Australians repulsed the attacks, except at Lagnicourt, where German troops broke in, took prisoners, destroyed six artillery pieces and captured confidential documents. Australian counter-attacks cut off some of the attackers and inflicted 2,313 casualties against 1,010 Australian.
The Fifth Army hurried forward more artillery and consolidated its defences, adding more advanced posts. Preparations for the next attack at Bullecourt continued and the Germans reinforced the Hindenburg Line () defences in the area. The attack was criticised by German commanders, especially for its rushed preparations, sparse results and severe casualties. The British moved no reserves from the 1st Anzac Corps area and continued the offensive at Arras.
Background.
Hindenburg Line.
General Erich von Falkenhayn, the head of (Chief of the General Staff) was dismissed on 29 August 1916 and replaced by Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg and General Erich Ludendorff. The new regime, known as the third OHL, ended the offensive at Verdun on the Western Front and requested proposals for a new shorter defensive position in France. Crown Prince Rupprecht, commander of Army Group Rupprecht of Bavaria (), was ordered to prepare a rear defensive line and work on the new Hindenburg Line ( [Siegfried Position]) defences began.
Hindenburg ordered that the Somme front be given priority in the west for troops and supplies. By the end of September, Rupprecht had no reserves left on the Somme and another thirteen fresh divisions were sent to oppose the British, troops being scraped up wherever they could be found. For the (defensive battle) expected in 1917, the Hindenburg Line was to be built across the base of the Noyon Salient, from Neuville Vitasse near Arras, through St Quentin and Laon to the Chemin des Dames ridge. The new fortified areas (, similar to ones built on the Russian front) were intended to be a precaution () which could shorten the Western Front, economise on troops and create reserves against the offensives expected in 1917. The had the potential to release the greatest number of troops and was begun first.
Operation Alberich.
Ludendorff ordered 9 February to be the first day of the (Alberich Manoeuvre) and 16 March the first marching day. On 17 March, the 1st Army, at the north end of the Bapaume Salient, withdrew swiftly. was abandoned by 18 March and next day Boyelles and Boiry-Becquerelle were evacuated. The withdrawal went straight back to the (Hindenburg Line) except for outposts and raids mounted on British outposts during 20 and 21 March. Bapaume was abandoned, with many houses still on fire. Next day, parties of Germans at Beugny in the fought until nightfall then slipped away. A party at Vaulx-Vraucourt was surprised and driven back to Lagnicourt, which was captured on 26 March. A German counter-attack from Noreuil and a British attack on Bucquoy were repulsed.
On 17 March, withdrawals by the 2nd Army began north of the Avre and by 18 March, the other German armies and the southern wing of the 6th Army began to withdraw from of the old front line ( as the crow flies). The Somme River and canal crossings from Offoy to Péronne were destroyed and pools of water wide, near road embankments, made crossings anywhere else impossible, the damage being made worse by the spring thaw. On 18 March the main body of German troops reached the Hindenburg Line () where work was still being done to remedy defects in the original position. Outpost villages close to the south of Quéant had to be held for longer than expected to complete the extra work. Heudicourt, Sorel and Fins were lost on 30 March. The northern outpost villages were captured on 2 April and Lempire fell three days later.
XIV Reserve Corps.
During the Battle of the Somme in 1916, divisions had quickly become exhausted and it had proved impractical to replace corps headquarters and their constituent divisions at the rate necessary to rest tired divisions; corps HQ remained on the Somme and took over fresh divisions as they arrived. By 1917 the connexion between Corps HQ and their component divisions had been dissolved on the rest of the Western Front and territorial titles introduced. After the retreat to the , the IX Reserve Corps, responsible for the line from the Scarpe to Croisilles, became and the XIV Reserve Corps ( [Lieutenant-General] Otto von Moser from 12 March 1917) held the from Croisilles to Mœuvres. The 6th Army HQ had decided that the front held by the was too vulnerable to be held by two divisions. On 13 April, the 6th Army chief of staff notified Moser that the 3rd Guard Division was being transferred to the after having had three months of rest and training.
Prelude.
Fifth Army.
The original British plan for the Fifth Army to co-operate with the Third Army attack into the salient formed around Bapaume during the Battle of the Somme in 1916 was made redundant. The German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line () forestalled the British attack and the Fifth Army was ordered to push back German rearguards and prepare to attack the Hindenburg Line between Quéant and Bullecourt, to support the Third Army offensive, a much more difficult task. The Fifth Army had been stripped of divisions and artillery and bringing up the remaining guns and ammunition over the supply desert created by German demolitions was slow. The Hindenburg Line was far more formidable than the decrepit defences abandoned during the withdrawal but if the Fifth Army could penetrate the Hindenburg Line, the task of the Third Army, advancing south-eastwards down the Arras–Cambrai road would be eased. Bullecourt was from the road at Vis-en-Artois and under at Fontaine-lès-Croisilles, the first objective of the Cavalry Corps advancing in front of the Third Army.
Gough suggested that the Fifth Army could support the main offensive but for lack of means could only attack on a narrow front. Bullecourt was substituted for Quéant which was behind four defensive positions. The attack would then pivot to the right flank to capture the junction of the Hindenburg Line and the Drocourt–Quéant Switch Line (). If successful, the 4th Cavalry Division would pass through to meet the Cavalry Corps from Arras. Fifth Army attacks on 2 April captured the German outpost villages from Doignies to Croisilles and Gough ordered that risks be taken to advance as much heavy artillery as possible. On 5 April Gough issued orders to the V Corps and 1st Anzac Corps for an attack on a front with Bullecourt in the centre. Riencourt was the second objective and Hendecourt the third objective, where the 4th Cavalry Division was to advance to rendezvous with the Cavalry Corps. The Fifth Army received D Company, Tank Corps, five tanks for each corps and two in army reserve. The heavy guns were delayed by German road demolitions and the field artillery had to be moved in relays due to a shortage of horses. The 4th Australian Division was not able to use all its seven artillery brigades until 8 April, even after hauling field guns with crews and ammunition by lorry. On the right of V Corps to the north, the 62nd (2nd West Riding) Division took over from the 7th Division on 5 April; both divisional artilleries moved forward in stages and began wire cutting on 7 April. Australian patrols found no gaps in the wire, about deep, east of Bullecourt.
First attack on Bullecourt.
8–10 April.
The Hindenburg Line defences enclosing the village of Bullecourt formed a re-entrant for about to the (Balcony Trench) around Quéant, defended by the German 27th Division. On 8 April it was announced that wire cutting, begun on 5 April, would take another eight days. At dusk on 9 April, patrols went forward and found that the Hindenburg Line was occupied but that the wire cutting bombardment had made several lanes through the wire. Preparations were made in a rush, the 4th Australian Division to attack with two brigades, the 4th on the right and 12th on the left. The attack had to cover to the wire and another to the first trench at 4:30 a.m., about an hour and 48 minutes before the sun rose, to evade crossfire in the re-entrant between Quéant and Bullecourt. Artillery-fire would continue as normal until zero hour then maintain barrages on the flanks.
At 1:00 a.m. Bullecourt was subjected to a gas bombardment by Livens projectors and Stokes 4-inch mortars as the six Australian battalions assembled out in the snow of no man's land and waited for the tanks to arrive. The left flank of the 12th Australian Brigade was only from Bullecourt and dawn was approaching. Zero hour was put back but the tanks had only reached Noreuil and Holmes ordered the infantry back under cover; snow began to fall again and shielded the retirement. Patrols of the 2/7th and 2/8th battalions, West Yorkshire Regiment began to advance from 4:35 a.m. and at 5:10 a.m. the patrols began to retire having suffered 162 casualties.
11 April.
At a conference at the 4th Australian Division HQ, it was decided that the infantry would advance fifteen minutes after the tanks, rather than wait on a signal from them. Only four tanks reached their start line by 4:30 a.m. but drowning the sound of their engines with machine-gun fire failed and they were heard in the German defences. The tank on the right flank deviated to the right, suffered mechanical difficulties and returned to the railway. Another tank also veered right and crossed the first trench of the opposite Grenadier Regiment 123 and was knocked out by machine-guns firing armour-piercing (K bullet) ammunition. The next tank to reach the German lines was snagged by wire then crossed the first trench before being knocked out. The last tank started late followed a similar path to the first. The four tanks comprising the left-hand section were late and two were knocked out short of the German trenches; the third tank arrived behind the Australian infantry and silenced a machine-gun in Bullecourt. The tank was hit twice, returned to the railway and was hit again.
The Australian infantry in the German defences were cut off. When the 4th Australian Brigade ran out of grenades it was forced back and the remnants of the brigade not taken prisoner tried to retreat and suffered many more casualties. In the 12th Australian Brigade, the 46th Australian Battalion in the first trench was forced out and the 48th Australian Battalion further forward was surrounded. The 48th Australian Battalion bombed its way back to the first trench. The artillery of the neighbouring 2nd Guard Division and 220th Division added to the defensive barrage in front of Bullecourt and prevented any renewal of the Australian attack. As the Australians were being forced back, they were unable to salvage ammunition and grenades from the dead and wounded. The British artillery had eventually begun to fire a barrage but this fell on the Australian-occupied trenches, making them untenable. The senior surviving Australian officer ordered the second trench to be evacuated and then the first. At 12:25 p.m. the 48th Australian Battalion, the last in the German trenches, made an orderly retreated over the bullet-swept ground. By noon the German counter-attack had succeeded; few Australians had managed to