Battle of Arras (1914) 1914
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Year | 1914 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
|---|---|---|
| Era | World War I era (1914–1918) | derived from year |
| Location | France | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | World War I | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | 50.2897, 2.7808 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Arras (also known as the First Battle of Arras, 1–4 October 1914), was an attempt by the French Army to outflank the German Army, which was attempting to do the same thing during the "Race to the Sea", their reciprocal attempts to exploit conditions created during the First Battle of the Aisne. At the First Battle of Picardy (22–26 September) each side had attacked expecting to advance round an open northern flank and found instead that troops had arrived from further south and extended the flank northwards.
The Tenth Army (General Louis Maud'huy) attacked advancing German forces on 1 October and reached Douai, where the 6th Army (Crown Prince Rupprecht) counter-attacked, as three corps of the German 1st, 2nd and 7th armies attacked further south. The French were forced to withdraw towards Arras and Lens was occupied by the Germans on 4 October. Attempts to encircle Arras from the north were defeated and both sides used reinforcements to try another flanking move further north at the Battle of La Bassée (10 October – 2 November). The reciprocal flanking moves ended when both sides reached the North Sea coast and then tried breakthrough attacks during the First Battle of Flanders.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Arras (1914) (revision 1379281247), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Battle of Arras (1654) 1654 · 0 km
- Battle of Arras (1917) 1917 · 0 km
- Siege of Arras (1640) 1640 · 0 km
- Siege of Arras (1414) 1414 · 0 km
- Battle of Arras (1940) 1940 · 7 km
- Battle of the Scarpe 1918 · 8 km
Other battles of the World War I
- Action of 22 September 1914 1914
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- Battle of Antivari 1914
- Battle of Cocos 1914
- Battle of Coronel 1914
- Battle of Dornach (1914) 1914
- Battle of Galicia 1914
- Battle of Heligoland Bight (1914) 1914
- Battle of Kolubara 1914
- Battle of Kraków (1914) 1914
All 138 battles of the World War I →
Browse more: battles in France · Europe · World War I era battles