Operations on the Ancre, January–March 1917
| Operations on the Ancre, January–March 1917 | |||||||||
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| Part of First World War | |||||||||
 The Western Front, 1917 |
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 United Kingdom & British Empire France & French Empire
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 German Empire
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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Robert Nivelle Douglas Haig Hubert Gough Henry Rawlinson |
Erich Ludendorff Kronprinz Rupprecht von Bayern Max von Gallwitz |
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| Strength | |||||||||
| Fourth Army, Fifth Army | 1st Army | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| 2,151 (incomplete) | 5,284 prisoners | ||||||||
Operations on the Ancre took place from 11 January – 13 March 1917, between the British Fifth Army and the German 1st Army, on the Somme front during the First World War. After the Battle of the Ancre (13–18 November 1916), British attacks on the Somme front stopped for the winter. For the rest of the year and early January 1917, both sides were reduced to surviving the rain, snow, fog, mud fields, waterlogged trenches and shell-holes. As preparations for the offensive at Arras due in the spring of 1917 continued, the British attempted to keep German attention on the Somme. The Fifth Army was instructed by Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig to prepare systematic attacks to capture portions of the German defences. Short advances could progressively uncover the remaining German positions in the Ancre valley, threaten the German hold on the village of Serre to the north and expose German positions beyond to ground observation. Artillery-fire could be directed with greater accuracy by ground observers and make overlooked German defences untenable.
A more ambitious plan for the spring was an attack into the salient that had formed north of Bapaume, during the Battle of the Somme in 1916. The attack was to be made northwards from the Ancre valley and southwards from the original front line near Arras, to meet at St Léger as soon as the ground dried, to combine with the offensive due at Arras. British operations on the Ancre from 11 January – 22 February 1917, forced the Germans back 5 mi (8.0 km) on a 4 mi (6.4 km) front, ahead the scheduled German retirements of the Alberich Bewegung (Alberich Manoeuvre/Operation Alberich) and eventually took 5,284 prisoners. On 22/23 February, the Germans fell back another 3 mi (4.8 km) on a 15-mile (24 km) front. The Germans then withdrew from much of the R. I Stellung to the R. II Stellung on 11 March, forestalling a British attack, which went un-noticed by the British until dark on 12 March; the main German withdrawal further south from the Noyon salient to the Hindenburg Line (Operation Alberich) commenced on schedule on 16 March.
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