Generaloberst Ludwig von Falkenhausen: German Sixth Army, Vimy Ridge & Arras 1917
Generaloberst Ludwig von Falkenhausen commanded the German Sixth Army during the opening of the Battle of Arras and the Canadian attack on Vimy Ridge in April 1917.
A long Prussian career
Falkenhausen entered the Prussian Army in 1862 and served in the wars of 1866 and 1870–71. He later became a senior corps commander and military writer before retiring. At the outbreak of the First World War, aged nearly seventy, he returned to active service.
He commanded formations in Lorraine, then an army detachment holding the front between Metz and the Vosges. In August 1916 he was appointed commander of the German Sixth Army in Flanders under Army Group Crown Prince Rupprecht.
Sixth Army at Arras
By April 1917 Falkenhausen’s Sixth Army held the sector attacked by the British First and Third Armies. At Vimy Ridge, German formations included the 1st Bavarian Reserve Division, 79th Reserve Division and 16th Bavarian Infantry Division across the relevant sectors of the ridge and its northern approaches.
The German defensive system relied on trench lines, deep dugouts, wire, machine guns and reserves positioned behind the front. The Allied opening bombardment, counter-battery work and creeping barrage created severe disruption. On the Canadian front the Germans lost most of the ridge over 9–12 April.
After Vimy
The loss of Vimy and the wider opening of the Arras battle brought criticism of Sixth Army’s defensive arrangements. Falkenhausen left command shortly afterward and was replaced. He then became Governor-General of occupied Belgium for the remainder of the war.
Why he belongs in the Vimy story
Vimy is often told almost entirely through Canadian command and national memory. A battle dossier also needs the opposing headquarters. Falkenhausen represents the German army-level command responsible for the sector and for the defensive system the Canadian Corps had to defeat.
I use Falkenhausen here to keep the battle two-sided. Understanding an assault means understanding what the defender believed would stop it, how reserves were organised and why those assumptions failed. That is analysis, not hindsight judgement on individuals who did not possess the information available to us now.
