For several days the fighting in the Arras region slowed down. The Germans had brought forward new batteries and stationed them around Lens and Loos, replacing those captured by the British during the first day's battle. These guns were now constantly active, sending heavy shells into Liévin, Bois de Riaumont, and into the suburbs of Lens and Monchy. The neighboring ridge and slopes were also subjected to machine-gun fire.
Beyond bombarding German positions, the British made no important advance, though preparations were going forward for the next stage in the great battle of Arras.
The French continued to make gains along the Oise, pressing back the Germans toward the Chemin-des-Dames, which runs along the top of the heights north of the river. On April 20, 1917, General Nivelle's troops occupied Sancy village and gained ground east of Laffaux. The French front in this sector now faced the fort of Malmaison, which crowns a range of high hills protecting the highroad from Soissons to Laon. The Germans launched a heavy attack on April 19, 1917, in which large forces of troops were employed in the region of Ailles and Hurtebise Farm. The French artillery and machine guns delivered such a withering fire against the attackers that they were thrown back in disorder with appalling losses.
In Champagne the French continued to make progress, capturing important points in Moronvilliers Wood.
British troops south of the Bapaume-Cambrai road slowly advanced on Marcoing, a place of considerable importance and an outpost to Cambrai. In this push, begun on April 20, 1917, they captured the southern portion of the village of Trescault, which lies about nine miles from Cambrai. They also surrounded on three sides Havrincourt Wood, which from its high position constitutes a formidable barrier in the way of advance, and which the Germans will eventually be forced to evacuate. Ground was also gained by the British between Loos and Lens, and every attempt made by the Germans to regain lost positions was repulsed.
On the French front in western Champagne the Germans on the 21st made desperate efforts to recapture the positions on the heights which they had lost in the previous week. Mont Haut, the dominating position in this region, was the principal objective against which they launched repeated attacks, all of which came to naught. There were numerous minor operations on the Rheims-Soissons front during the night of the 21st. Rheims was repeatedly bombarded, the Germans paying particular attention to the cathedral, which received further damage from shells.
What might be termed the second phase of the battle of Arras was begun in the morning of April 23, 1917, when the British resumed the offensive. At 5 o'clock in the morning the British advance started east of Arras on a front of about eight miles, capturing strong positions and the villages of Gavrelle and Guémappe. The occupation of these places and of strongholds south of Gavrelle as far as the river Scarpe broke the so-called Oppy line, defending the Hindenburg positions before Douai. The British were successful in clearing the enemy out of the neighborhood of Monchy, which commands the region for forty miles. The Germans appreciating the value of this position had launched twenty counterattacks against it in the ten previous days. It proved to them the bloodiest spot in all this war-ravaged region, and when the British advanced at early dawn on the 23d, thousands of dead in field-gray uniforms littered the approaches to the position. During the day the British took over 1,500 prisoners.
On this date, April 23, 1917, the Germans attacked the French lines in Belgium at several points in the course. Bodies of Germans succeeded in penetrating some French advanced positions, but after spirited hand-to-hand struggles were killed, captured, or driven off. In most cases the Germans never got in touch with the French, but were rolled back by the concentrated fire of the French artillery. Fighting continued in the Champagne, where the Germans renewed again and again their efforts to capture the new French positions on Mont Haut.
On the second day of the offensive the British had made gains east of Monchy, and had pushed on between that village and the river Sensée to within a short distance of Cherisy and Fontaine-les-Croisilles, holding all their newly won positions against attack.
It was noted by the British command that the Germans during this second phase of the battle of Arras had fought with exceptional ferocity, which even the heavy losses they incurred did not weaken. On the front of about eight miles seven German divisions were employed. British guns were effective in shattering massed counterattacks, and there was considerable hand-to-hand fighting in which the British were sometimes badly handled, but at the close of the day the British had recovered all the positions they had been forced out of temporarily. The fighting continued on the 24th, but was less ferocious, the opponents having exhausted themselves in the previous day's efforts. In the second and third day of the offensive the British captured 2,000 prisoners.