| dbo:abstract |
Operations on the Ancre took place from 11 January – 13 March 1917, between the British Fifth Army and the German 1st Army, on the Somme front during the First World War. After the Battle of the Ancre (13–18 November 1916), British attacks on the Somme front stopped for the winter. Until early January 1917, both sides were reduced to surviving the rain, snow, fog, mud fields, waterlogged trenches and shell-holes. British preparations for the Battle of Arras, due in the spring of 1917, continued. The Fifth Army was instructed by the commander in chief of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, to make systematic attacks to capture portions of the German defences to pin down German troops. Short advances could progressively uncover the remaining German positions in the Ancre valley to ground observation, threaten the German hold on the village of Serre to the north and bring German positions beyond into view. Artillery-fire could be directed with greater accuracy by ground observers and make German defences untenable. A more ambitious plan for the spring was an attack into the salient that had formed north of Bapaume, during the Battle of the Somme in 1916. As soon as the ground dried, the attack was to be made northwards from the Ancre valley and southwards from the original front line near Arras further north, to meet at St Léger and combine with the offensive due at Arras. British operations on the Ancre from 11 January to 22 February 1917 forced the Germans back 5 mi (8.0 km) on a 4 mi (6.4 km) front, ahead of the scheduled German retirements of the Alberich Bewegung (Operation Alberich) and eventually took 5,284 prisoners. On 22/23 February, the Germans withdrew another 3 mi (4.8 km) on a 15 mi (24 km) front. The Germans then withdrew from much of Riegel I Stellung (Reserve Position I) to Riegel II Stellung (Reserve Position II) on 11 March, which went unnoticed by the British until dusk on 12 March, forestalling a British attack. Unternehmen Alberich, the main German withdrawal from the Noyon salient south of the Somme, towards the Hindenburg Line, commenced on schedule on 16 March. (en) |
| rdfs:comment |
Operations on the Ancre took place from 11 January – 13 March 1917, between the British Fifth Army and the German 1st Army, on the Somme front during the First World War. After the Battle of the Ancre (13–18 November 1916), British attacks on the Somme front stopped for the winter. Until early January 1917, both sides were reduced to surviving the rain, snow, fog, mud fields, waterlogged trenches and shell-holes. British preparations for the Battle of Arras, due in the spring of 1917, continued. (en) |
