Franks planned to neutralise German guns within of the attack front. On the flanks of the British attack front of , guns had been located, for which guns ( the German total) were set aside. The guns in the path of the attack were each to be engaged by a British gun, a formula which required guns and howitzers to be reserved for counter-battery fire. Every of front had a medium or heavy howitzer for bombardment, which required , with guns and howitzers (five percent) deployed with the field artillery that was due to fire the creeping and standing barrages. Franks devised a bombardment timetable and added arrangements for a massed machine-gun barrage. The and heavy guns and howitzers were organised in forty groups and the guns and howitzers in sixty-four field artillery brigades within the attacking divisions and thirty-three Army field artillery brigades, divided among the three attacking corps; of ammunition was delivered, for each , per howitzer, for each medium and heavy piece and another and shells for the field guns.