Dear God, give us some cover! The Battle of Aubers Ridge

On the 9th May 1915, three British Divisions launched a pincer attack with the aim of recapturing trenches lost during the Battle of Neuve Chappelle two months earlier. The aim was to recapture these positions and push on to capture the heights of the Aubers Ridge, and then to see what happened. The plan was flawed from its inception, the artillery support was ineffective and what was supposed to be a gentle stroll across the Artois countryside, turned into an unmitigated disaster for the Allies. The offensive was abandoned after a single day, with casualty figures running at almost 10,000, with little to no material gain. This talk looks at the events of that day and aims to discover what went quite so wrong. 

 Matt Dixon is a battlefield historian, podcaster and writer and has been visiting the cemeteries and memorials of the Great War for almost 40 years. His particular interest are the 1915 battles of Artois.