View over the battlefield of the Loretto Heights, France. Notre Dame de Lorette, a pilgrimage site, stood on the Heights, and was, with Vimy Ridge, part of the high ground seized by German troops in the Race to the Sea after the Battle of the Marne in 1914. French commander Joffre hoped to capture Loretto Heights and Carency, a village the Germans had fortified, in the First Battle of Artois in December, 1914. He tried to take the hill again in mid-February, 1915.
Westl. Kriegschauplatz: Kämpfe auf der Lorettohöhe.Western theater of war: fighting on the Loretto HeightsReverse:Kriegshilfe München N. W. 19.Zum Gloria-Viktoria AlbumSammel. u. Nachschlagewerk des VölkerkriegesFor Gloria Viktoria AlbumCollection. and reference work of international warWar Fund Munich N. W. 19th
"A new attack, which we undertook on the 11th [May, 1915], failed under flanking fire coming from the villages of Carency, Souchez, and Neuville-Saint-Vaast, and it was evident that these points of resistance must be captured before trying to advance to the ridge."
The great French offensive to seize the high ground of Vimy that began on May 9, 1915, advanced on a front of four miles, to a depth of two or three miles. But on either flank, there was no advance, and further progress could not be made without the reinforcements who were seven miles back. The French, including the Moroccan Division that had broken the German line, could not hold their position. In the coming days, the French proceeded as General Foch wrote, taking Carency on May 12. French Commander Joffre continued the Second Battle of Artois until June 24. The Germans held Vimy Ridge until the Canadians took it in 1917.
The Memoirs of Marshal Foch, translated by Col. T. Bentley Mott by Ferdinand Foch, page 208, copyright © 1931 by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., publisher: Doubleday, Doran & Co., publication date: 1931
1915-05-11, 1915, May, Foch, Second Battle of Artois, Second Artois, Carency, Souchez, Neuville-Saint-Vaast, Neuville, St. Vaast, Loretto Heights, Vimy Ridge, Vimy, Souchez, Notre Dame de Lorette
