Failure at Fresnoy and Rumours of Mutiny

Wednesday 9th May 1917

5th Division was given the task this morning of trying to recapture Fresnoy after its seizure by the enemy yesterday. As it transpired the attack never really got going because the Germans shelled Arleux, forming-up point for the intended assault, very heavily. The 1st Bedfords did not take part in this abortive attack and are now holding the line east of the village of Willerval. 

Today the Devons have made another attempt to take The Red Patch in Bullecourt. Again they made ground but again they were beaten back.

We have heard rumour today that the offensive undertaken by the French in on a stretch of the front line known as the Chemin des Dames between Soissons and Laon and in Champagne further east has ground to a halt. My journalist colleagues have taken to calling this attack the Nivelle Offensive after the commander-in-chief of the French Army. Our allies have gained a good amount of territory in which they have been aided by tanks of their own design(1). They are reported to have taken around thirty thousand prisoners.

It is difficult to know with any certainty but there are dark rumours. Some French units are reputed to have resorted to drunkenness and to have refused to take part in any attack. This seems scarcely credible given that they are fighting in and for their own motherland, and some suspect these rumours are the work of German spies and fifth-columnists(2)

The 6th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, is in billets at Berlencourt-le-Cauroy, about eighteen miles west of Arras. They are evidently in fine fettle as their transport section won 37th Divisional Transport Competition by 87 points from all other regiments in the division. A Company also won the Divisional Field Firing Competition against one company each from the other twelve battalions in the division.

Source: X550/7/1

(1) The Saint-Chamond (below top) and Schneider CA (below bottom) tanks

(2) Not so. This period and what happened next have been called the French Mutinies, where units refused to take any offensive action, though they would hold the line against attack. This seems to have begun on 3rd May when 2nd Division refused to attack and, later became collectively drunk and abandoned their weapons. By the end of May twenty more divisions were infected by some form of mutiny. The reason is not difficult to understand. France had suffered huge numbers of casualties during the war so far, proportionately vastly higher than those of Great Britain. Up to 9th April 1917 France had already lost 978,000 dead, Britain and her Empire just under half that number at 478,000. By the beginning of this offensive France had lost about one million men (out of a total male population of twenty million).

After the war the US War Department produced casualty statistics which make grim reading. France and her colonies mobilised 8,410,000 - from these there were 6,160,800 casualties this would suggest nearly three men in every four became a casualty though, of course, many men were wounded more than once, still the proportion would have been high. Of these casualties 1,357,800 were fatalities (16% of those mobilised), there were 4,266,000 instances of wounds (50% of those mobilised) and the remaining 537,000 taken prisoner (6% of those mobilised). Total French population was 39.6 million and deaths of soldiers and civilians combined were between 1.697 and 1.737 million - between 4.29% and 4.39%. By contrast the figures for Britain and her Empire are 8,904,467 mobilised and total casualties of 3,190,255 (36% of those mobilised) of which 908,371 (10%) were fatalities, 2,090,212 cases of wounds (23%) and 191,652 prisoners (2%). The population of Britain was 45.4 million (380 million if one includes the principal Imperial combatants - Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, Newfoundland and South Africa). Deaths for British soldiers and civilians alone came to between 867,829 and 1,011,697 or between 1.91 and 2.23% of the population. From this it is evident that in the French Army one stood a one in six chance of dying compared to a one in ten chance in the British Army, one was also twice as likely to be wounded, so perhaps it is no surprise that one was three times as likely to surrender. No combatants other than Romania, Serbia and the Ottoman Empire lost more people during the war as a proportion of their total population than France - German figures are proportionately fractionally lower than those of France.

Nivelle had promised less costly attacks as part of this offensive and had planned for about 10,000 - in the event it is calculated that between 118,000 and 180,000 became casualties. This overshadowed what may be regarded as an otherwise successful offensive compared to others undertaken by the Allies before the end of 1918. By contrast the British lost around 160,000 around Arras and the Germans about the same number, meaning that for the combined offensive the Allies lost roughly twice as many men as the Germans.

The Loss of Fresnoy

Tuesday 8th May 1917

A very heavy German attack took place at Fresnoy this morning. They crushed the British and Canadian defenders at the point where 95th Brigade (32nd Division) joined 4th Canadian Brigade. It seems our defenders have been pushed back to the eastern outskirts of Arleux. The adjutant of 1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, was in contact today to tell us that the Battalion is moving forward again. At 9.30 this morning they received orders to advance on Fresnoy. The Battalion could go into action tomorrow. 

Towards noon today 8th Battalion, Devonshire Regiment, attached The Red Patch in the south-west sector of the ruins of Bullecourt. At first the attack gave good expectation of success, we have been told, but was eventually beaten back again due to stiff resistance and sticky mud in the trenches after a night of rain. Meanwhile the 2nd Australian Brigade succeeded in taking about 150 yards more of the Hindenburg Line.

Source: X550/2/5

Twentieth Day of the Battle of Arras

Saturday 28th April 1917

Here in the city of Arras we were awakened this morning just before dawn by a roar of artillery as the Great Push resumed. 12th (Eastern) Division of VI Corps was given the task of advancing a short way to ensure that the northern flank of the bulge, or salient, around Monchy-le-Preux was reduced. The results were mixed, some advances being made but some attacking units taking dreadful casualties.

On the XVII Corps front, 34th Division was given the unenviable task of capturing Roeux, taken and then largely lost again by 51st (Highland) Division on Saint George’s Day. Some progress was made and parts of the village entered but a heavy counter-attack drove parts of the division back to its starting lines again. So Roeux, as I write this, still appears to be in enemy hands. This village is acquiring as bloody a name as Thiepval, Guillemont and Ovillers did last summer on the Somme.

37th Division also attacked yesterday, despite the fact that some Battalions had been reduced fro a theoretical strength of around one thousand to about two hundred by the severe fighting a few days ago. The target was again Greenland Hill, between Roeux and Gavrelle. The adjutant of 6th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, has wired me reporting that they almost gained their objective, but were hit in the flank by fire from the chemical works outside Roeux. From other sources we understand that the Bedfords were probably a long way from their objective, having mistaken a trench about two hundred yards from their starting point for the trench in front of their true objective which lay three hundred yards beyond that. 63rd Brigade of this Division actually managed a breakthrough just west of Fresnes but steady losses from German counter-attacks has forced them to fall back to the road between Gavrelle and Plouvain. Meanwhile 111th Brigade managed to advance its line by about 800 yards up to the Gavrelle to Plouvain road. My colleague Ian McLeod, who is with the 6th Battalion, tells me that the unit has lost 294 men in the attacks at Greenland Hill of whom 51 are dead and 57 missing. In total this month the Battalion has lost so many men that only 58 are fit for duty.

Attacks have also been made north of Arras by 1st Army at Oppy and Arleux. 188th Brigade of 63rd (Royal Naval) Division was given the task of forming a defensive flank for the attack of 2nd Division further north.  4th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, was placed under the orders of 188th Brigade but did not go into action, despite the failure of the Brigade to achieve its objectives.

This failure had a serious impact on 2nd Division which had its right flank uncovered (“in the air” in military parlance) as it made its attack. The Division was already seriously under strength - around 3,500 men instead of a full strength figure in excess of 12,000. The Division was to capture the shattered remains of Oppy Wood and the village of Oppy itself beyond it. The attack began from forming up tapes laid by 1st Field Company, East Anglian Royal Engineers (now known officially as 483rd Field Company, Royal Engineers). 6th Brigade took the wood but were repulsed from the village and then from the wood as well. 5th Brigade made some progress north of the wood and the village. As I write this we believe that both 63rd and 2nd Divisions are to attack again in the next few minutes.

North of these two British divisions is the Canadian Corps which, fresh from its magnificent capture of Vimy Ridge, was given the task of taking the village of Arleux. They succeeded magnificently in their task and the village is now in their hands. These men from the prairies, mountains and wastes of Canada must be regarded as amongst the very best in the World.

Away from the fighting, we have heard that 7th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment has arrived at the Arras front. They are billeted in what the adjutant described as “Hun trenches” near Neuville-Vitasse and this evening expect to move up to the front line near Chérisy.

Sources: X550/5/3; X550/8/1; WW1/WD3; information from Ian McLeod