The German positions were attacked on May 9, 1915. In brief detail the engagement was planned as follows: Sir Herbert Plumer with the Second Army was to protect Ypres while the Third Corps held Armentières. Sir Douglas Haig's First Army was to carry intrenchments and redoubts on the right of Prince Rupprecht's Army. The Fourth Corps was to attack the German position at Rouge Bancs northwest of Fromeles, and the First Corps and Indian Corps were to occupy the plain between Neuve Chapelle and Givenchy and then take the Aubers Ridge. The fighting was vigorously pressed by the British for several days and nights, followed by a lull, but on May 16, 1915, the struggle was renewed. The Second and Seventh Divisions, which had been badly shattered, were withdrawn from the fighting line, their places being taken by the Canadian Division and the Fifty-first Highland Division (Territorials). The British attack had failed to clear the way to Lille and Aubers Ridge was still in German hands. British and Canadian troops had again and again pierced but not broken the German lines, taking the first, second, and third trenches. The result was to split up the German line into innumerable fortified strong points. They were on the defensive, and the front with its pits, quarries, mills, farms, etc., had all been transformed into small forts that were packed with machine guns. These forts were linked together by tunnels and galleries reenforced with concrete. Had the British and Canadians been amply supplied with guns and ammunition, the task of reducing these many forts would still have been a long and difficult task. The British attack weakened when it was found that the artillery was not strong enough to reduce the German fortifications and it ceased entirely on May 26, 1915. The failure of the British at Festubert was attributed in many quarters to the shortage of munitions. In England press and public raised such an outcry as to produce a crisis that led to a Coalition Government. Festubert served to arouse the nation to a sense of the mighty task it had undertaken and the need of greater effort if victory was to be won. Out of this determination to prosecute the war more vigorously the War Committee was created and later the Allies' Grand Council of War in Paris. The Canadian Division after the Second Battle of Ypres had moved into billets where until May 14, 1915, the tired troops enjoyed a much-needed rest. Headquarters had moved to the southern section of the British line and preparations were under way for a new offensive operation. Reenforcements were constantly arriving from the Canadian base in England, where fresh troops from the Dominion gathered in increasing numbers.