page_title: German attack on Lagnicourt
section_title: XIV Reserve Corps
hierarchical_section_title: German attack on Lagnicourt / Background / XIV Reserve Corps
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Otto von Moser (1860-1931), Generalleutnant und Militärhistoriker
context_page_description: The German attack on Lagnicourt 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, cause as many casualties and destroy as much equipment, particularly artillery, as possible.
  Sturmbock was also to deprive the British of the means to attack Gruppe Arras as it fought the Battle of Arras and Gruppe Quéant 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 and preparing for the Battle of Bullecourt 3–17 May 1917, a bigger effort.
  The attack by two divisions of Gruppe Quéant and two divisions of Gruppe Cambrai to the south, fell on the positions of the 1st Australian Division and 2nd Australian Division.
context_section_description: 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 Siegfriedstellung, the IX Reserve Corps, responsible for the line from the Scarpe to Croisilles, became Gruppe Arras and the XIV Reserve Corps  Gruppe Quéant (Generalleutnant [Lieutenant-General] Otto von Moser from 12 March 1917) held the Siegfriedstellung from Croisilles to Mœuvres. The 6th Army HQ had decided that the 11,000 yd (6.3 mi; 10 km) front held by the Gruppe 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 (3. Garde-Infanterie-Division) was being transferred to the Gruppe after having had three months of rest and training.
caption: Generalleutnant Otto von Moser
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