Battle of Hill 70

Battle of Hill 70
	Part of The Western Front of the First World War
	; Canadian soldiers in a captured German trench
Date	15 to 25 August 1917
Location	Lens, France50°27′20″N 2°49′8.50″E / 50.45556°N 2.8190278°E
Result	Allied victory
Belligerents
Canada	German Empire
Commanders and leaders
Sir Arthur Currie	Otto von Below
Strength
4 divisions	5 divisions
Casualties and losses
8,677	c. 10,000; including 1,369 taken prisoner

The Battle of Hill 70 took place in the First World War between the Canadian Corps and attached units against five divisions of the German 6th Army. The battle took place along the Western Front on the outskirts of Lens in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France between 15 and 25 August 1917.

The plan was to inflict casualties, to draw German troops away from the 3rd Battle of Ypres and to make the German hold on Lens untenable. The Canadian Corps captured Hill 70 and to establish defensive positions from which combined small-arms and artillery fire, some of which used the new technique of predicted fire, would inflict mass casualties on German counter-attacks. The Germans were prevented from transferring divisions to the Ypres Salient but did not bring in troops from other areas.

The Canadian Corps failed to enter Lens but German and Canadian assessments concluded that it succeeded in its attrition objective. The battle was costly for both sides and many casualties were suffered from extensive use of poison gas, including the new German Yellow Cross shell (mustard gas).