Lens, Battle of

In World War I, battle May–August 1917 between Allied and German forces around the French town of Lens, an important railway junction and engineering town in a mining area, which was the scene of almost constant battle during the war. The damage to the town and surrounding area was so great that mining operations could not re-start until 1921.

Lens itself had been taken by the Germans October 1914 and this battle was the Allied push to recover it. Canadian troops made a determined attack on the town, gaining the suburbs, but the battle degenerated into house-to-house fighting and little real progress was made. The Germans launched several counterattacks but the Canadians held on to their gains. A final assault was planned, but by this time the enormous British losses in the battle of Ypres meant that the reserves for another attack on Lens were not available, and the Canadians were withdrawn, leaving the Germans in possession. It was finally taken 3 October 1918 after German defeats elsewhere led them to abandon the town.