On May 3, 1917, General Haig's troops struck a fourth blow against the German front east and southeast of Arras, penetrating the Hindenburg line west of Queant. The British push toward Cherisy, Bullecourt, and Queant was at the southern end of the day's major operation, which covered a range of nearly eighteen miles. At the north Fresnoy was the chief objective. It lies just east of Arleux, taken a few days before by the Canadians.
These two villages were strongly organized for defense with complicated trench fortifications, forming one of the strongest points on the Mericourt-Oppy-Gavrelle line. Fresnoy was carried by the Canadians after the most furious fighting, in which the German positions changed hands a number of times, but at last remained securely in possession of the troops from oversea. North and south of Fresnoy a two-mile front was won by the British, who also secured a grip on the German trench system north of Oppy.
While the British were dealing hammer blows on the enemy's lines the French had been preparing another coup, which was carried out on May 4, 1917. By this operation they captured the village of Craonne on the Soissons-Rheims front, several fortified points north and east of the village, and German first-line positions on a front of about two and a half miles.
Craonne was an especially valuable capture, for it stands on a height at the east end of the Chemin-des-Dames, protecting not only the plateau north of the Aisne, but the low ground between it and Neufchâtel. The Germans had held the place since the first battle of the Aisne, and against its cliffs many gallant French troops had vainly flung themselves, only to be thrown back with heavy losses. The possession of Craonne gave the French command of an open road through the valley of Miette where a few weeks before they had captured the German second line south of Juvincourt. They could now, advancing through this corridor, outflank the entire German position depending on Laon as its center.
[Illustration: The French Offensive on the Craonne Plateau, Champagne.]
Throughout May 4, 1917, the British were occupied in organizing and strengthening the new positions they had won in and around Fresnoy and in the sectors of the Hindenburg line near Bullecourt. Repeated German counterattacks were repulsed at all points, except in the neighborhood of Cherisy and the Arras-Cambrai road, where the British were forced to abandon some of their new positions. In the day's fighting the British captured over 900 prisoners. During the night General Haig's troops made considerable progress northwest of St. Quentin and northeast of Hargicourt, where the Malakoff Farm was captured.