First attack on Bullecourt

First attack on Bullecourt
Part of Flanking Operations to the Arras Offensive, Round Bullecourt (11 April – 16 June) Western Front, First World War
Relief map showing the Hindenburg Line and Wotan Line (Siegfriedstellung, Wotanstellung) defences around Bullecourt and Quéant, 1917
Date 11 April 1917 Location Bullecourt, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France 50°11′35″N 02°55′43″E / 50.19306°N 2.92861°E / 50.19306; 2.92861 Result German victory
Belligerents
British Empire	Germany
Commanders and leaders
Douglas Haig Hubert Gough	Paul von Hindenburg Crown Prince Rupprecht
Strength
1 division	1 division
Casualties and losses
10 April: 162 11 April: 3,289 (1,166 PoW)	11 April: 749
Bullecourt class=notpageimage| Bullecourt, a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department of France

The First attack on Bullecourt (11 April 1917) was a military operation on the Western Front during the First World War. The 1st Anzac Corps of the British Fifth Army attacked in support of the Third Army, engaged in the Battle of Arras (9 April to 16 May 1917) further north. The Report of the Battles Nomenclature Committee (1921) called operations subsidiary to the main Battle of Arras the Flanking Operation to the Arras Offensive.^[1]

To compensate for the lack of time and artillery, a company of twelve tanks would lead the attackers into the Hindenburg Line defences by crushing the barbed wire in front of the defences of the XIV Reserve Corps (Gruppe Quéant). The tanks were late and the attack of the 4th Australian Division was postponed but the 62nd (2nd West Riding) Division did not receive the message and patrols advanced into the Bullecourt defences, suffering 162 casualties before they returned to the British front line, in what became known as the "Buckshee Battle".

Next day the attack on Bullecourt went ahead, despite reservations, although several tanks broke down and others went off course. Both Australian brigades got into the German front position but were cut off and gradually overwhelmed, only a few Australians managing to break out. The Australians suffered 3,289 casualties, including 1,166 prisoners against 749 German casualties.

The Australian division and corps commanders apologised to the survivors and their German equivalents received the Pour le Mérite. The survivors expressed bitterness and a great distrust of the tanks, despite them starting a panic among some of the German defenders; Australians blamed the 62nd (2nd West Riding) Division for allegedly leaving them in the lurch. Australian distrust of tanks and of General Hubert Gough, the Fifth Army commander, lingered for much of the remainder of the war.