Battle of Aubers

Battle of Aubers
Part of the Second Battle of Artois on the Western Front of the First World War
Aubers Ridge and Festubert, 1915
Date 9 May 1915 Location south of Armentières, France 50°36′N 2°49′E / 50.600°N 2.817°E / 50.600; 2.817 Result German victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom  India	German Empire
Commanders and leaders
Sir John French	Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria
Casualties and losses
9 May: 11,161	9 May: 902 (partial)

The Battle of Aubers (Battle of Aubers Ridge) was a British offensive on the Western Front on 9 May 1915 during the First World War. The battle was part of the British contribution to the Second Battle of Artois, a Franco-British offensive intended to exploit the German diversion of troops to the Eastern Front. The French Tenth Army was to attack the German 6th Army north of Arras and capture Vimy Ridge, preparatory to an advance on Cambrai and Douai. The British First Army, on the left (northern) flank of the Tenth Army, was to attack on the same day and widen the gap in the German defences expected to be made by the Tenth Army and to fix German troops north of La Bassée Canal.

The attack was an unmitigated disaster on the part of the British. No ground was gained, no tactical advantage was gained, and they suffered more than ten times the number of casualties as the Germans. To make matters worse the battle precipitated a political crisis back home, which became the Shell Crisis of 1915.