While the Germans managed to find a way to use elite infantry (the Stürmtruppen) for assaults, both the British and the French started thinking of a way of delivering infantry literally to the enemies trench entrance, dealing with casemates and machine-gun nests, and protecting infantry in no...
These were quite a different class to the infantry officers, who were of a very low class. All professed themselves as confident as to their being able to end the war in their favour. They had no opinion of the Russians, who they considered already beaten. All gave the appearance, ...
French Armenian Legion - independent detachment (Mixed infantry and cavalry brigade) XX Corps (Lieutenant General Philip Chetwode) - subsidiary attack 10th Division 53rd Division Chaytor's Force (Major General Edward Chaytor) - eastern flank
which, by 20 April, had been virtually destroyed. Although the infantry assault was initially planned for 20 April, it was pushed back a number of times and finally set for the early
Picture - British infantry attack plan for 1 July. The only success came in the south at Mametz and Montauban and on the French sector. Before the infantry moved, the artillery had been called into action. Barrages in the past had depended on surprise and poor German bunkers for success;...
(Chef de Bataillon) in 1900. Unlike many French officers, he served mainly in mainland France, never Indochina or many of the African colonies, although he participated in the Rif campaign in Morocco. As colonel, he commanded the 33rd Infantry Regiment at Arras from 1911; the young ...
Near the French villages of Vimy and Petit-Vimy, a high chalk ridge dominated the flat Douai Plain. When the war had bogged down in 1914, the Germans had driven the French from the ridge, and had strongly fortified it. Offensives by both the French and British had failed to dislodge the...