Battle of Neuve-Chapelle
Map of the battle from the New York Times, May 1915
| date | March 10. bis 12. March 1915 |
|---|---|
| place | Arrondissement of Béthune , France |
| output | Conquest of Neuve-Chapelle by the British |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 4 divisions and 2 brigades | initially 2, later 3 divisions |
| losses | |
|
around 11,650 men |
around 10,600 men |
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The Battle of Neuve-Chapelle from March 10 to 12, 1915 was the first major independent and planned offensive of the British Expeditionary Force in the trench warfare of the First World War . It was aimed at taking possession of a high area east of Neuve-Chapelle , Arrondissement Béthune , and is one of the battles that, with methodical tactical planning, set the pattern for future offensives of the BEF.
background
In the autumn and winter of 1914/15, the BEF received its first reinforcements on the western front in the form of several newly formed divisions and units from India and Canada. This allowed the British to split their forces into two armies. As early as the end of October 1914, days of fighting for the possession of Neuve-Chapelle were waged during the First Battle of La Bassée .
The French commander-in-chief General Joffre planned another breakthrough offensive in the Artois , the Loretto battle , for the spring of 1915 after the winter battle in Champagne . Until this could take place, he wanted to keep up the pressure on the German western army, also to support the Russian ally, against whom the strategic weight of the Germans was directed in 1915. On the British side, the commander-in-chief of the BEF Field Marshal French strove to end the largely defensive use of his troops and to achieve his own success. The result was the plan for an independent operation that was to take advantage of the German weakness in a section of the front near Neuve-Chapelle.
Planning and preparation
For the Battle of Neuve-Chapelle, the British IV Corps under Henry Rawlinson with the 7th and 8th Divisions and the I. Indian Corps under James Willcocks with the Lahore and Meerut Divisions were selected, both belonging to the 1st Army under Douglas Haig . These troops with around 60,000 men were concentrated on a line between Richebourg and Fauquissart , the front ran roughly parallel to the road between Béthune and Armentières . They received support from around 500 guns. At the beginning there was only one division of the Westphalian VII Army Corps under Eberhard von Claer . The 13th and 14th divisions under the generals von dem Borne and von Ditfurth, which were in the attack section, had a front strength of a little over 10,000 men. The German trenches were not particularly deep and offered little protection from artillery fire. The Germans also had no developed rear positioning system. German reserves were ready in the woods of Biez.
Before the offensive, despite bad weather, the combat area was cleared up by aircraft of the Royal Flying Corps and maps of the German positions were made using aerial photographs. The British artillery was to perform a number of tasks according to coordinated fire plans, including cutting aisles through the German wire barriers, cordoning off the combat zone for German reinforcements, and holding down German artillery and machine-gun nests.
course
The preparatory artillery fire began at 7:00 a.m., followed by the attack by the Indian Meerut Division (Lieutenant General CA Anderson ) at 8:05 a.m. Three of the attacking battalions of the Garhwals Brigade (Brigadier General Charles Blackader ) achieved their goals, but one battalion was stopped by strong German resistance. Within half an hour, the German position system was broken into up to 1,500 meters. After the last German trenches had been cleared, the decimated Garhwals brigade halted to allow the second wave to attack. Communication difficulties prevented the break-in from being exploited, but by the evening of March 10, the village of Neuve-Chapelle was secured by the British and Indians.
On March 11th at 7 am the German 14th Division was able to repel an attack by the British 7th and 8th Divisions. At this point in time there were already German reinforcements from the II. Bavarian Corps and the XIX. Army corps arrived, including the 6th Bavarian Reserve Division . On the evening of that day the Lahore division (Lieutenant General Sir Henry Keary ) was pulled forward at Neuve-Chapelle and suffered heavy losses in their unsuccessful attack.
On March 12, the German side launched a major counter-attack, which was however repulsed by the British and they left Neuve-Chapelle in their possession.
Result
The British and Indian forces suffered losses of around 11,650 men for a relatively minor front shift. The goal envisaged by French and Haig to reach the high altitude area southwest of Aubers failed. Due to the unsuccessful German counterattack, the German losses are likely to be roughly the same.
The British Commander-in-Chief French and the war correspondent Charles à Court Repington blamed a lack of artillery rounds for the poor result and thus triggered the ammunition crisis of 1915 (English Shell Crisis ) in Great Britain . In response, after the formation of the liberal-conservative coalition government in May, a Ministry of Munitions was formed under David Lloyd George .
literature
- Geoffrey Bridger: The Battle of Neuve Chapelle. Pen and Sword, 1999, ISBN 0-85052-648-5 .
- Spencer C. Tucker , Priscilla Mary Roberts (Eds.): The Encyclopedia of World War I: A Political, Social, and Military History. ABC-CLIO, 2005, ISBN 1-85109-420-2 .
Web links
- The Battle of Neuve Chapelle and subsequent actions on 1914-1918.net
- Neuve Chapelle on ww1battlefields.co.uk
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jörn Leonhard: Pandora's box. History of the First World War. 4th, reviewed edition, CH Beck, 2014, ISBN 978-3-406-66191-4 , p. 277.
Coordinates: 50 ° 35 ′ 0 ″ N , 2 ° 47 ′ 0 ″ E