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The Battlefields Experience

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The Battlefields Experience
The Battlefields Experience
The Battlefields Experience
The Battlefields Experience
The Battlefields Experience
The Battlefields Experience
The Battlefields Experience
The Battlefields Experience
The Battlefields Experience
The Battlefields Experience
The Battlefields Experience
The Battlefields Experience
The Battlefields Experience
The Battlefields Experience
The Battlefields Experience
The Battlefields Experience
The Battlefields Experience
The Battlefields Experience
The Battlefields Experience
The Battlefields Experience
The Battlefields Experience
The Battlefields Experience
The Battlefields Experience
The Battlefields Experience
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+33 3 22 76 29 60

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Tuesday9am - 5pm
Wednesday9am - 5pm
Thursday9am - 5pm
Friday9am - 5pm
Saturday9am - 5pm


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 Armies had suffered about 160,000 and the German 6th Army about 125,000 casualties. 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 to take place on the Aisne 50 miles to the south. The aim of the French offensive was to break through the German defences in forty-eight hours. At Arras the Canadians were to re-capture Vimy Ridge, dominating the plain of Douai to the east, advance towards Cambrai and divert German reserves from the French front.The British effort was an assault on a relatively broad front between Vimy in the north-west and Bullecourt to the south-east. After a long preparatory bombardment, the Canadian Corps of the First Army in the north fought the Battle of Vimy Ridge and took the ridge. The Third Army in the centre advanced astride the Scarpe River and in the south, the Fifth Army attacked the Hindenburg Line but was frustrated by the defence in depth and made few gains. The British armies then engaged in a series of small operations to consolidate the new positions. Although these battles were generally successful in achieving limited aims, they came at considerable cost.When the battle officially ended on 16 May, British Empire troops had made significant advances but had been unable to achieve a breakthrough. New tactics and the equipment to exploit them had been used, showing that the British had absorbed the lessons of the Battle of the Somme and could mount set-piece attacks against fortified field defences. After the Second Battle of Bullecourt , the Arras sector returned to the stalemate that typified most of the war on the Western Front, except for attacks on the Hindenburg Line and around Lens, culminating in the Canadian Battle of Hill 70 .
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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