Current Information:

Born-Bow

The Battle of Arras was a series of offensives by the British Army between 9th April 1917 and 16th May 1917. It had been planned in conjunction with the French who would attack in Artois and between them the Allies would force the Germans out of the large salient they had held since the line of trenches was first established. But the Germans had spoiled this plan by falling back to the new and very strong Hindenburg Line in January 1917 and the salient no longer existed.  For the want of an alternative plan the attack went ahead anyway. It all started well for the British who made substantial gains on the first two days but then the offensive ground to a halt and by the end their losses amounted to over 150,000.

The First Battle of the Scarpe (9-14 April)

On 9th April 1917, 4th Division attacked the German line between Fampoux and Gavrelle. Other divisions had made the initial assault and it was the task of 4th Division to pass through them and attack the 4th German trench system. At 10am the 1st Somerset Light Infantry and 1st Hampshire battalions led 11 Brigade’s advance on the Oppy-Mericourt line following behind 9th Division As they moved forward German shell fire caused some casualties but they continued their advance and although the wire along the Oppy-Mericourt line was thick and uncut they managed to get through it and by 4pm all their objectives had been captured. By the end of the day 11 Brigade had advanced over 3 miles and sustained 300 casualties.

In the evening of 10th April an advance towards the line from Gavrelle to the Chemical Works road was ordered but without adequate artillery and the promised cavalry support the leading platoons met concentrated machine-gun fire and were destroyed after which the attack was called off. All of 4th Division attacked on 11th April, the day on which Edward Campbell lost his life, to secure a line running from Plouvain to Greenland Hill then through Inn to the Hyderbad Redoubt. 1st Somerset was on the left of this line but congestion in their starting line meant that their advance was delayed by 5 minutes by which time the enemy had opened up with heavy machine-gun fire and progress was limited. Moving down a communication trench their leading platoons got to within 200 yards of the enemy front line where they consolidated with a series of posts.