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By September 26, a significant portion of the German Sixth Army (mostly troops from [[Bavaria]]; the army commander was Bavarian Crown Prince Rupprecht) was in position north of the Somme, just east of the town of Albert, with the intent of attacking westward to reach the [[English Channel]] coast and roll up the Allied left. Damage to French railways slowed the German preparations, though, and in the meantime Joffre had begun assembling a provisional sub-army force under General Louis de Maud'huy to meet the threat and yet again attempt a flanking maneuver of its own.
By September 26, a significant portion of the German Sixth Army (mostly troops from [[Bavaria]]; the army commander was Bavarian Crown Prince Rupprecht) was in position north of the Somme, just east of the town of Albert, with the intent of attacking westward to reach the [[English Channel]] coast and roll up the Allied left. Damage to French railways slowed the German preparations, though, and in the meantime Joffre had begun assembling a provisional sub-army force under General Louis de Maud'huy to meet the threat and yet again attempt a flanking maneuver of its own.
Attacks by German cavalry on the 25th and 26th drove back the handful of French units around Albert, to clear the path for Rupprecht's advance. Maud'huy brought down two corps from the vicinity of Arras, however, and the 27th and 28th saw intense fighting immediately east and northeast of Albert, with a cavalry battle farther north near Arras preventing a German breakthrough in that sector. Much of the combat was uncoordinated and involving relatively small units, due to the frantic attempts on each side to piece a solid line together. By nightfall on September 29, the result was once more a stalemate and the extension of the line northward to Arras. Maud'huy's provisional force was at this time formalized as the French Tenth Army.
Attacks by German cavalry on the 25th and 26th drove back the handful of French units around Albert, to clear the path for Rupprecht's advance. Maud'huy brought down two corps from the vicinity of Arras, however, and the 27th and 28th saw intense fighting immediately east and northeast of Albert, with a cavalry battle farther north near Arras preventing a German breakthrough in that sector. Much of the combat was uncoordinated and involving relatively small units, due to the frantic attempts on each side to piece a solid line together. By nightfall on September 29, the result was once more a stalemate and the extension of the line northward to Arras. Maud'huy's provisional force was at this time formalized as the French 10th Army.
==Phase II: Arras to Ypres==
===Battle of Arras===
With the stabilization of the line around Albert, the remaining corridor of territory available for maneuver had shrunk significantly, to a span of some 60 miles between Arras and the North Sea. To exploit it as quickly as possible, Falkenhayn ordered Rupprecht on September 28 to secure the city of Arras and its northern outskirts, and from there attempt another turning of the French left. At the same time, Joffre, keeping Castelnau and the Second Army on the defensive, shifted Maud'huy and the 10th Army to the north, ordering him to advance to Arras and attack eastward towards Douai, through what he believed was a virtually unoccupied region.
As a result, the two flanking units, neither really aware of the other's existence, collided with each other on October 1. The 10th Army initially made significant progress, pressing to and a short distance east of Douai and repulsing units of the I Bavarian Reserve Corps, but the following day, as more units arrived, the Germans regained the initiative and were able to capture Douai and a number of French prisoners, along with the high ground east and northeast of Arras. Over the next two days, the fighting shifted ever farther to the northwest, as the Sixth Army advanced into the Arras suburbs and seized both the city of Lens and the prominent Vimy Ridge to the north, but suffered heavy casualties in the process and were unable to break through to Arras itself.
==References==
==References==