War memorial, Arras, France.
"Our orders didn't get through until the last minute and then they were all garbled. No one, including our officers, seemed to know what we were supposed to be doing, or where we were going. Officers were supposed to have synchronized their watches in so far as it was possible at that time of day. At a certain time, our barrage was supposed to lift and we were to climb out of the trenches and go forward. Well, we did — but it wasn't all at the same time! We were given false information and told the artillery had smashed the enemy defences and we would get through the wire — did we hell!"
Sergeant Jack Cousins of the 7th Bedfordshire regiment describing his experience in the May 3 and 4, 1917 final major attack of the Battle of Arras, the Third Battle of the Scarpe, fought on a sixteen-mile front from Vimy to Bullecourt. Nearly 6,000 British troops, including Canadians and Australians, were killed in the attack.
Cheerful Sacrifice: The Battle of Arras, 1917 by Jonathan Nicholls, page 197, copyright © Jonathan Nicholls [1990 repeatedly renewed through] 2011, publisher: Pen and Sword, publication date: 2010
1917-05-03, 1917, May, Battle of Arras, Arras, Battle of the Scarpe, Third Battle of the Scarpe, Arras war memorial
