page_title: German attack on Lagnicourt
section_title: Analysis
hierarchical_section_title: German attack on Lagnicourt / Aftermath / Analysis
caption_attribution_description: English: Lewis gun displayed in Elgin Military Museum in St. Thomas, Ontario Polski: Karabin Lee-Enfield No. 1 Mk III* i rkm Lewis. Eksponaty Elgin Military Museum w St. Thomas, Ontario
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: In 1933 Charles Bean, the Australian official historian, wrote that 23 infantry battalions and attached storm troops, amounting to 16,000 men, had attacked 4,000 Australian troops, reached the objective in only one place and had soon been forced back, with about double the casualties that they had inflicted. Bean wrote that in his war diary (volume II, p.143 et seq.), Rupprecht had concluded that apart from the destruction of 22 guns Sturmbock  had been something of a failure and cost about nine per cent of the attacking force. Rupprecht made no comment about the claim made by Moser that the attack had compelled the Australians to reinforce the area and OHL apparently did not believe that Sturmbock reduced the pressure at Arras.
  The only reserves that were moved after the attack were within the 1st Anzac Corps. German prisoners complained about the short notice of the attack and lack of time to reconnoitre, which was also noted in the divisional after-action reports read by Rupprecht. Moser called the operation the latest example of a big attack on the western front and that a memorandum was published containing a collation of the reports. The Germans had found that the Australian Lewis guns had been of great effectiveness, "cleverly emplaced and bravely fought" and many reports noted the need for a similar weapon.
  In 1939, the authors of volume XII of Der Weltkrieg, the Reichsarchiv official history, wrote that the success of the attack was limited by the short notice and insufficient artillery support. The authors agreed with Moser that several days were necessary to arrange a night attack but disagreed that the situation at Arras was too dangerous to delay; the preparations could have been carried out over a longer period and been camouflaged to retain surprise. Jack Sheldon wrote in 2015 that the Fifth Army reacted to the attack by consolidating its positions in the area as quickly as possible. That the Australians had been surprised and that their artillery had been vulnerable led to more advanced posts being established and many more clashes between patrols in no man's land.
  The British (sic) seemed not to have been expecting our morning visit. We surprised them while they were still asleep and when they met us they were still only half-dressed. One Tommy ran through our lines. In his hurry he had only been able to put on one boot. Despite the seriousness of the situation, we laughed heartily at that.
  — Wehrmann (Soldier) Rings RIR 77
caption: Lewis gun
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