Gravestone of an unknown soldier of the Seaforth Highlanders, a Scottish regiment, in Cabaret Rouge British Cemetery. © 2013 by John M. Shea
Cuidich 'n Righ (Aid the King)A Soldier of the Great WarSeaforth HighlandersKnown Unto God
"Officially, the Battle of Arras ended on 17 May — but in reality it ceased at the termination of the last major British attack, which was on 4 May, 1917. For most of the troops, however, the war still had a long, terrible path to follow.On the Arras battlefront the village of Bullecourt finally succumbed to the 58th (2nd/1st London Division on 17 May."
The British suffered 159,000 casualties in the 1917 Battle of Arras, a battle that lasted 39 days at an average cost of 4,076 casualties per day. In Cheerful Sacrifice, his history of the battle, Jonathan Nicholls compares Arras to other deadly offensives by the British, noting that the Battle of Arras had the highest daily rate: the Battle of the Somme (1916) 141 days, 2,943 casualties per day; the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele, 1917) 105 days, 2,323 daily casualties; Britain's final offensive of 1918, 96 days, 3,645 casualties per day.
Cheerful Sacrifice: The Battle of Arras, 1917 by Jonathan Nicholls, page 209, copyright © Jonathan Nicholls [1990 repeatedly renewed through] 2011, publisher: Pen and Sword, publication date: 2010
1917-05-17, 1917, May, Arras, Battle of Arras, casualties, Unknown Seaforth Highlander
