The main thrust of the Allied spring offensive of1917 was to be launched on the Aisne on 16April by the French. A week earlier,

Commonwealth forces were to begin a diversionaryattack at Arras with the aim of drawing German forcesnorth.

The offensive began on 9 April on a 22.5 km frontfollowing a five day artillery bombardment from 2,800guns. The 14 Commonwealth divisions outnumberedthe opposition, but having withdrawn to the heavilyfortified Hindenburg Line in the spring of 1917, theGerman defensive position was strong. Initial gainswere encouraging. In the north, the four divisions ofthe Canadian Corps, fighting side by side for the firsttime, suffered heavy losses but scored a great tacticalvictory in the capture of the 60 metre high Vimy Ridge.

In the centre, near Arras, there was an advance of 5km, but south of the River Scarpe, very little progresswas made. Further south, on 11 April, an Australianattack supported by tanks was repulsed at Bullecourtwith many casualties.

The arrival of German reserves and the launch of theFrench offensive on the Aisne delayed the secondphase of the Arras attack until 23/24 April, when fiercefighting added a further 1.5 km to the advances allalong the front. The action was renewed once againon 3 May to support and encourage the French, whoseown offensive was not going well, but further gainswere negligible. Fighting continued on a reduced scale,and by the time it was brought to a close at the end ofMay, Commonwealth casualties had reached almost170,000 dead, missing or wounded.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

1917: The Battle of Arras

Canadian artillery at Vimy Ridge,National Archives of Canada

The Dead

Those who died in the Battle of Arrasare commemorated in numerouslocations in the Arras area. Arepresentative selection is given below.Burial numbers are mentionedprimarily to give some idea of scale;they include unknowns, casualtiescommemorated by special memorialand refer only to Commonwealthdead.

Nine kilometres north of Arras,Canadian Cemetery No. 2, Neuville-

St. Vaast, was established by theCanadian Corps after the successful

storming of Vimy Ridge on 9 April 1917. It was greatly increased in the years following theArmistice when graves were brought in from the surrounding battlefields. More than twothirds of the 3,000 burials are unidentified. The numerous little cemeteries made aboutthis time by the Canadians were generally not named, but serially lettered and numbered.The original name for this cemetery was CD 5.

At Thelus, 2 km to the south, the Canadian Corps burial officer used two mine craters forburials from the Vimy battlefield. Most date from 9 or 10 April 1917. The craters areessentially mass graves with the names of those known to be buried there inscribed onpanels fixed to the enclosing walls. The original name for Zivy Crater Cemetery (53burials) was CB 1, for Lichfield Crater Cemetery (57 burials) CB 2 A.

Roclincourt, a little east of the N17 Arras – Lens road, was just within the Allied linesbefore the Battle of Arras began and it was from here that the 51st (Highland) and 34thDivisions advanced on 9 April. The 1st Canadian Division attacked further north, across theLens road. Roclincourt Valley Cemetery (originally called Roclincourt Forward CemeteryNo. 2) was begun after 9 April 1917 and of the 94 original burials, 40 belonged to the 51stDivision. The 450 graves brought in from the battlefields after the Armistice are almost allof April 1917, and mostly of the 34th and 51st Divisions.

Athies, 4 km east of Arras, was captured by the 9th (Scottish) Division, which included theSouth African Brigade, on 9 April 1917. Point-du-Jour was a house on the road north fromthe village to Gavrelle and by 1917 it had become a German redoubt, which was captured

Faubourg d’Amiens Cemetery and the Arras Memorial

Lichfield Crater Cemetery

by the 34th Division on 9 April. Twocemeteries were made on the right ofthe road, No. 1 Cemetery, usedbetween April and November 1917 for82 burials, becoming the presentPoint-du-Jour Military Cemetery.

Enlarged after the Armistice, thecemetery was used again in March2002 for the reburial of 23 unidentifiedcasualties found buried together on theold battlefield nearby. It now containsa total of 475 graves.

Roeux, 8 km east of Arras, was builtover a system of caves which helpedto make its capture in 1917exceptionally difficult. It was attackedby the 9th (Scottish) Division withoutsuccess on 12 April. The chemicalworks close to the railway station weretaken by the 51st (Highland) Division on 22 April, and after incessant fighting the villagewas cleared by the same division on 14 May. The chemical works were lost again andretaken on 16 May. Brown’s Copse Cemetery, 1 km north-west of the village was namedfrom a small copse, the Bois Rossignol. It was begun in the summer of 1917 with burialsfrom the battlefields and further graves were brought in from a wide area north and eastof Arras after the Armistice. More than 850 of the 2,000 burials are unidentified.

Commanding a relatively high position east of Arras, Monchy-le-Preux saw fightingbetween 9 and 11 April when the 12th, 15th and 37th Divisions took the village and theground between it and the River Scarpe. Orange Trench Cemetery, north of the village,was made after the fighting and the graves are all of April and May 1917. Half of the 118burials are unidentified. Monchy British Cemetery, 2 km west of the village, was begunas soon as the village was taken and continued in use as a front-line cemetery until theGerman offensive of March 1918. In April 1998, the cemetery was used once again for theburial of 27 sets of remains found near Monchy-le-Preux. Two of the bodies weresuccessfully identified.

Wancourt, 8 km south-east of Arras, wascaptured on 12 April1917 after very heavyfighting and Feuchy

Chapel British

Cemetery, a little southof the village, was begunby the VI Corps BurialOfficer in May. At theArmistice, it contained249 graves and was thenenlarged when morethan 800 burials (mainlyof April and May 1917)were brought in from the battlefields and small burial grounds of Fampoux, Roeux,Monchy and Wancourt. More than half of the burials are unidentified. Wancourt British

Cemetery, a little south-east of the village, was originally known as Cojeul ValleyCemetery, or River Road Cemetery. It was opened about ten days after the village wastaken and at the Armistice contained 410 graves. In the following years more than 1,500graves were brought in from small cemeteries and isolated positions on the battlefieldssouth-east of Arras. More than 800 of the burials are unidentified.

Feuchy Chapel British Cemetery

The Grand Place, Arras, shattered by shell fireAustralian War Memorial

Heninel, 10 km south-east of Arras, was

captured in asnowstorm on 12April 1917 by the

56th (London) and21st Division. The

50th (Northumbrian)Division, advancing from

the village on the twofollowing days, capturedWancourt Tower. The 65burials in Rookery British

Cemetery (named from agroup of trenches) were

made by the 18th and 50thDivision Burial Officers inApril-June 1917.

Noreuil, 16 km south-eastof Arras, was the scene of afierce engagement betweenAustralian troops and theGermans on 15 April 1917.Noreuil Australian

Cemetery (244 burials)was begun in April 1917but more than 80 of thegraves, almost all of the50th Australian InfantryBattalion, were laterdestroyed by shell fire.

The Missing

The Arras Memorial

stands in the Faubourg-d'Amiens Cemetery inArras itself andcommemorates 35,000servicemen from theUnited Kingdom, SouthAfrica and New Zealandwho died in the Arrassector between the

spring of 1916 and 7August 1918 who haveno known grave. Manywere killed in the Battleof Arras. Thecloistered memorial,designed by Sir EdwinLutyens with sculpture

by William ReidDick, was unveiled

by Lord Trenchardin 1932.

The Canadian missing from the battle are rememberedon the Vimy Memorial, about 8 km north-east ofArras. This memorial, which overlooks the Douai Plainfrom the highest point of Vimy Ridge, serves as thenational memorial to all Canadians who served in battleduring the First World War and particularly to the60,000 who gave their lives. It also bears the names of11,000 Canadian servicemen who died in France -many of them in the fight for Vimy Ridge - who haveno known grave. The memorial was designed by W SAllward and unveiled by King Edward VIII in 1936.

Those Australians who lost their lives in the Battle ofArras and who have no known grave arecommemorated at the Australian National Memorial atVillers-Bretonneux, some kilometres to the south, 16km east of Amiens.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is responsiblefor marking and maintaining the graves of those members ofthe Commonwealth forces who died during the two worldwars, for building and maintaining memorials to the deadwhose graves are unknown and for providing records andregisters of these 1.7 million burials and commemorationsfound in most countries throughout the world.

Enquiries about the location of cemeteries, individual burialsand commemorations may be directed to the office below orto the Debt of Honour Register - a search by surname databaseat the Commission’s web site at www.cwgc.org

For further information contact:

Commonwealth War Graves Commission2 Marlow RoadMaidenheadBerkshireSL6 7DXUnited Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0) 1628 507200Fax: +44 (0) 1628 771208E-mail: enquiries@cwgc.org

Commonwealth War Graves CommissionFrance Area Rue Angèle Richard62217 BeaurainsFranceTel: +33 (0) 3 21 21 77 00Fax: +33 (0) 3 21 21 77 10E-mail: france.area@cwgc.org

The Commonwealth cemeteries and memorials in the Arrasarea are included in Cemeteries and Memorials in Belgium andNorthern France, a specially overprinted Michelin road atlasavailable from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.To order a copy contact either of the above offices.

Vimy Memorial