ABSTRACT
Hans Delbrück, the father of modern military history, wrote that warfare is the single most complex human endeavour; so complex, in fact, that man can never comprehend all of the myriad variables that play a part. Warfare experienced a sharp increase in the number of variables involved during the First World War: all the more reason for historians to be drawn to 'seminal moments', like the Somme, in their attempt to make sense of it all. Despite its importance, Second Artois seems to have been all but forgotten, despite its being well memorialized. Statues and monuments abound in the region, including an increasingly derelict monument atop Vimy Ridge dedicated to the Moroccan Division, and the vast ossuary and chapel of Notre Dame de Lorette. Those without a working knowledge of the French language may never come across a suitable narrative of the battle. The lack of research on Second Artois has obscured their vital importance to the development of war.
