Third Battle of Artois
The Third Battle of Artois (25 September – 4 November 1915, also the Loos–Artois Offensive), was fought by the French Tenth Army against the German 6th Army on the Western Front of the First World War. The battle included the Battle of Loos by the British First Army. The offensive, meant to complement the Second Battle of Champagne, was the last attempt of 1915 by Joseph Joffre, the French commander-in-chief, to exploit an Allied numerical advantage over Germany. Simultaneous attacks were planned in Champagne-Ardenne to capture the railway at Attigny and in Artois  to take the line through Douai to force a German withdrawal from the Noyon salient. Background. Joffre's plan was a series of attacks along the Western Front, supported by Italian attacks across the Isonzo River and a British Expeditionary Force (BEF) attack near Loos-en-Gohelle. At first, Field Marshal John French and General Sir Douglas Haig opposed the attack, because of the lay of the land, a lack of heavy artillery, ammunition and reserves. The generals were over-ruled by the British minister of war, Lord Horatio Kitchener, who ordered French and Haig to conduct the offensive. Prelude . The Tenth Army massed seventeen infantry and two cavalry divisions for the offensive, backed by guns and artillery pieces. The 6th Army had about thirteen divisions and from the French field artillery fired rounds of ammunition and the heavy artillery at the German defences. Obsolete 90 mm guns were used to fire another Battle. An artillery bombardment began on 21 September, and on 25 September the Tenth Army attacked at to be sure that the morning mist had dispersed. XXI Corps attacked the rest of Souchez village and La Folie farm, XXXIII Corps made some progress but the III and  XII corps to the south was repulsed. On the XXI Corps front, the 13th Division, attacking near Souchez with had casualties of in the first few days. During the afternoon it began to rain, impeding artillery observation and attack times were altered to even later in the day, which made co-ordination with the British First Army on the northern flank much more difficult. By 26 September, the XXXIII and XXI corps had taken Souchez but the III and XII corps had made little progress south-east of Neuville-St Vaast. The French failed to breach the German second line  of defence and a breakthrough could not be achieved. Joffre sent the French IX Corps to assist the British attacks at Loos but this action also yielded little of strategic value. Foch was also ordered by Joffre to conserve infantry and ammunition to reinforce the simultaneous offensive in Champagne; ammunition expenditure in Artois had been so vast that the offensive was to be reduced but without giving the British the impression that they were being left in the lurch. In very wet weather, the Tenth Army captured Vimy Ridge, except for the highest point, where German counter-attacks retook the  ground from XXXIII Corps. Foch took over ground on the British right flank but it became impossible to co-ordinate attacks for the same day. The Battle continued until 13 October but ended amidst the autumn rains, mutual exhaustion and inter-Allied recriminations. Aftermath. Analysis. The two French 1915 offensives in Artois had advanced the front line by on a front. After advancing in their previous offensive in May, the French advanced an additional by the end of their September offensive. Fayolle reported that the Third Battle of Artois had been a failure, because of uncut wire and the firepower  of German machine-guns and artillery. The success of infantry attacks was dependent on the ability of the artillery to cut the wire, destroy German field fortifications and prevent the German artillery bombarding French infantry by using counter-battery fire; the simultaneous Second Battle of Champagne continued into October. Casualties. The official historians of the recorded casualties to the end of October. In 2008, Jack Sheldon used figures taken from the French Official History to record fewer than half of the French casualties suffered in the spring offensive from April to June. James Edmonds, the British official historian, recorded and  casualties at the Battle of Loos. Elizabeth Greenhalgh wrote that of the casualties, had been killed or listed as missing, against the capture of and many trench mortars and items of equipment.