Battle of Neuve Chapelle

Date: March 10, 1915 • Location: Lorgies, France

This milestone marked the outbreak and beginning of this historic period, which spanned 1915.

The Battle of Neuve Chapelle, the first deliberately planned British offensive of the First World War, began.

The Battle of Neuve-Chapelle took place in the First World War in Artois in France. The attack was intended to cause a rupture in the German lines, which would then be exploited with a rush to the Aubers Ridge and possibly Lille. A French assault at Vimy Ridge on the Artois plateau was also planned to threaten the road, rail and canal junctions at La Bassée from the south as the British attacked from the north. The British attackers broke through German defences in a salient at the village of Neuve-Chapelle but the success could not be exploited.