5 - Second Artois, January–June 1915

Summary

At lunch in his headquarters to celebrate New Year’s Day 1915, Foch summed up the past four months and was confident of victory. He could think of no better position after the war was over than that of Governor of Metz, where he had been when the Franco-Prussian war began. For the moment, what was needed, once the weather improved, was more artillery and more munitions – munitions in sufficient quantities so as to be able to economise on men. Foch was equally upbeat in his New Year greetings to the commander-in-chief. French artillery, he wrote, had proved its ability to silence that of the enemy. The French infantry were stopped not by the enemy’s artillery but by his defensive works, so the answer was to exploit their own artillery superiority in order to destroy those defences, by bringing the 75s nearer to the front lines and protecting them with dugouts or shields. There should be intimate coordination between infantry and artillery, shelters and communication trenches to get support troops up close, and lots of observers for the artillery. Tenth Army was undertaking all these preparations. Whilst the rain continued, that was all they could do, but, when the weather improved, the results of their preparation would be seen.