page_title: Battle of Arras (1917)
section_title: Tactics: British Expeditionary Force
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Arras (1917) / Background / Tactics: British Expeditionary Force
caption_attribution_description: English: The Battle of Arras, April-may 1917 Troops of the 10th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers at Wagonlieu, 8 April 1917. This battalion took Monchy-le-Preux on 10 April 1917 with the loss of 12 officers and 240 other ranks.
context_page_description: The Battle of Arras was a British offensive on the Western Front during World War I. From 9 April to 16 May 1917, British troops attacked German defences near the French city of Arras on the Western Front. The British achieved the longest advance since trench warfare had begun, surpassing the record set by the French Sixth Army on 1 July 1916. The British advance slowed in the next few days and the German defence recovered. The battle became a costly stalemate for both sides and by the end of the battle, the British Third and First Army had suffered about 160,000 casualties and the German 6th Army about 125,000.
  For 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 Allied objective from early 1915 was to break through the German defences into the open ground beyond and engage the numerically inferior German Army in a war of movement. The British attack at Arras was part of the French Nivelle Offensive, the main part of which was the Second Battle of the Aisne 50 miles to the south.
context_section_description: Three of the armies of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF, Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig) were in the Arras sector, the Fifth Army (General Hubert Gough) in the south, the Third Army (General Edmund Allenby) in the centre and the First Army (General Henry Horne) in the north and the plan was devised by Allenby. The British used the lessons of the Somme and Verdun the previous year and planned to attack attacking on an 11 mi (18 km) front, from Vimy Ridge in the north to Neuville-Vitasse, 4 mi (6.4 km) south of the Scarpe river. The preliminary bombardment was planned to last about a week except for a much longer and heavier barrage at Vimy Ridge.
caption: Troops of the 10th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers at Wagonlieu, 8 April 1917
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