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Tactics and Strategy
Thanks to industrial age artillery, barbed wired, machine gun fire and
snipers, the trench warfare of the Western Front was often deadlocked with opposing
trenches sometimes just tens of metres apart. At Neuve-Chappelle only 70 metres
of battered land stood between the Allies and the Central Powers. The goal of
the Neuve-Chapelle offensive was to take the village of Neuve-Chapelle and, if
possible, Aubers Ridge, which was five kilometres behind enemy lines. The hope
was to reduce the incursion the Germans had made into France in the previous
year of fighting. German supply railways in the plain of Douai were also a goal,
as their capture would choke off valuable supplies to the extended German army.
Originally the plan had been for the French to simultaneously attack the nearby
Vimy Ridge but that was postponed until later in the war.
While British (IV Corp, 7th Division and 8th Division) and Indian forces (Lahore
and Meerut Divisions) under the command of General Sir
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Douglas Haig would lead the charge, Canadians were on the
flank of the attack in order to prevent additional German soldiers from joining
in the fray. That flank attack would give the rookie Canadians some action, but,
unless the British punched through deep into the line, the Canadians would not
be in the thick of it.
At 7:30 on the morning of March 10, the Allies began an artillery bombardment
that was the largest the Great War had seen. In fact, more shells were used in
the intensive hour-long bombing than in all of the Boer War. But despite the
weakening of German defenses by the shelling, Allies could get no further than
Nueve-Chapelle itself, and even that two-kilometre advance cost over a thousand
lives. After two days, the offensive was cancelled. Canadians had, after months
of waiting and training, tasted the blood of war. |
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On sentry duty in a
frontline trench
Trench warfare was a game of metres lost and
gained. Often frontline Allied trenches would be as little as tens of metres
from the German line, as was the case in Neuve-Chapelle. |
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