100 Years ago - Battle on the Aisne

FRENCH TANK

Micheler. Petain. Montdesir: FRENCH GENERALS IN CONSULTATION

EMPTY SHELLS OF 7Smm. GUNS FIRED BY RUSSIAN ARTILLERYMEN AT THE BATTLE OF COURCY

FRENCH TROOPS LEAVING THE TRENCHES FOR AN ATTACK


https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/france-strikes-home-n76crjjcs?CMP=TNLEmail_118918_2003531

France strikes home

We are not disposed to rate too high the rumours of discontent that escape from beleaguered Germany. But the German High Command must know that continued retreat in the West cannot fail to have its reactions at home

April 18, 1917

Since Monday the Armies of France have been attacking the enemy in a battle that is set on a vast scale. With them go the deep affection, the proud confidence, the high hopes of the peoples of the Empire. A year ago it was the Germans who were on the offensive. They spared nothing to beat down the barrier raised against their advance by the French lines around Verdun. They failed because France too spared nothing. The Verdun defensive demanded of her great sacrifices, prolonged endurance, and, above all, determination like a rock. She rose above all these demands. Great Britain does not forget Verdun today.
But there is more than Verdun that is enshrined in our memories. There are the long, weary months of holding on, when France bore all but the whole weight of the land war in the West. There is the great record that she has of proud loyalty to Great Britain; of the lion’s share of an almost crushing burden; of a high and unshaken resolve never to falter till tyranny should be overpast. The memory of all that is warm in the hearts of the British peoples now, as they watch the French go forward once more against.the German hosts. The British offensive they are following with pride and a stubborn confidence. The French awakes in them almost more poignant emotions. They wait with an ache of longing for the day when the deliverance of France shall be accomplished. They believe - now that the German ranks thin under the blows of a great French offensive, added to the British - that that day has dawned.
Yet they know that the French have before them an immense labour. The German line that is attacked stretches first along the northern bank of the Aisne from Conde to Craonne - looking down through its whole length from the heights of the two great plateaux of Vregny and of Craonne upon the French, who hold the lower ground. At Craonne it turns south and crosses the Aisne near Berry-au-Bac, going thence just north of Reims and east to the uplands of Champagne. It is a line long set in these positions, bristling with posts as strong as years of German elaboration can make them, favoured by nature for defence and rich in means of lateral communication. Upon it the Germans have concentrated a great mass of troops for its defence. They knew well, too, what they had to expect, for ten days of a withering French artillery preparation had warned them.
The British offensive had opened a week before and had opened inauspiciously for them. We are not disposed to rate too high the rumours of discontent that escape from beleaguered Germany. But the German High Command must know that continued retreat in the West cannot fail to have its reactions at home. Germany cannot afford such reactions just now. The Austrian peace overtures to Russia may not mean much. It may be a small thing to Von Hindenburg that on Sunday prayers for peace were offered in the churches of Vienna. But these things, if no trustworthy indications of what is at the moment in Germany and Austria Hungary, can hardly be less than sinister signs of what may be.
The Germans themselves seem to labour, in the report which they issued yesterday, to impress upon their people the importance of the battle. They call it “one of the greatest battles of the mighty war, and therefore also in the history of the world.” They repeat again their phrase of the day before about the “far-reaching object” of the French attack. Their meaning is not very clear, and we notice some disposition here to make the most of the phrase. Probably the German original would better be rendered as “with an ambitious aim”. Its use may only be designed to din into German ears the now familiar formula about the Allies’ failure to “break through”.
Far more significant is the reference of the German communique to the “object” of their High Command. This, the world is told, was, “even if war material was lost, to spare the lives of our forces and to inflict heavy losses on the enemy.” The Germans were not in the habit of holding language like that about pitched battles. But it is wise to remember that German communiques nowadays are drafted with a keen eye to the possibilities of the future and under the constant strain of a necessity to be prepared at any moment to explain away defeat.
The French communiques about the offensive are a great contrast. They show that our Allies have made an excellent start: From Soupir, on the Aisne, to Craonne they have taken all the first German position. From Craonne to south of Juvincourt they hold the second line as well. Yesterday’s fighting gave them the whole of the German first line on a front of 10 miles east of Prunay. On part of this front they pushed farther and captured a strong line of heights between Mont Cornillet and Vaudesincourt. East again, Auberive has fallen to them and the strong German salient that covered it.
These successes have cost the enemy more than 2,500 prisoners. On Monday he lost over 11,000. Between Soissons and Reims the French batteries have again opened on the enemy, and many isolated detachments that were still holding fragments of his broken lines have been reduced. So great an offensive, against so wide a front so strongly held and buttressed by such a mass of troops in reserve, must develop slowly.
No sound conclusions can be drawn from the fortunes of the first days, but they are hopeful and give no excuse for doleful predictions. This is a battle of position. It ranges the resolute might of France against the desperate might of Germany. It is for people at home to recognize this; to remember that the initiative is with the Allies, and that the French offensive is of the substance of the strategic plan as certainly as the British.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/greatest-battle-of-the-war-blkt9swwv?CMP=TNLEmail_118918_2003531

Greatest battle of the war

Both the French and English have made and repaired roads and railways and brought forward heavy guns and ammunition with extraordinary rapidity, and it is difficult to see that the enemy has gained anything at all by changing the venue of the battle which it was impossible for him to avoid

April 19, 1917

Today fresh progress has been made by the French, this time chiefly to the east of Reims, as far as Auberive. The movement of the attack is therefore extended into Champagne. Yesterday the number of German divisions in the front. line, originally 13, was increased during the action on the 25-mile front between Soissons and Reims to 19. In today’s struggle east of Reims 16 were employed. Two thousand five hundred more prisoners were taken.
According to the information obtained from the examination of many of the 11,000 prisoners captured on the first day of the big attack, the German losses were enormous. But the most significant feature of their evidence is their general agreement that they had received orders to hold the positions which they occupied before the attack at all costs. That they attempted to do so there is no doubt. There was no sort of question of a voluntary strategic retirement. Consequently the fact that along almost the whole of the extensive front substantial progress was made by our Allies during both days is of the first importance. I hear, too, that every counter-attack - and there were many - has been repulsed, and that good work has been done in surrounding and disposing of isolated little bodies of men who put up an obstinate resistance and got left behind the line of the general advance.
The battle is not a new one. It is a continuation of the huge engagement which, in combination with our own armies, the French have been carrying on ever since the compulsory flitting of the enemy began. So far as Hindenburg’s object in retreating consisted in delaying the anticipated and dreaded offensive of the Allies and avoiding a repetition of the Battle of the Somme, it has almost entirely failed.
There has been practically no delay. Both the French and English have made and repaired roads and railways and brought forward heavy guns and ammunition with extraordinary rapidity, and it is difficult to see that the enemy has gained anything at all by changing the venue of the battle which it was impossible for him to avoid. That battle is not yet won, but an excellent beginning has been made.
There was in France, as well as in England, a considerable body of the public which expected that when the great push for which they are always looking began, it was to sweep the enemy before it like leaves before the wind. In both countries these amateur strategists have got to learn to possess their souls in patience. At some points there are bound to be delays, and there may even be temporary reverses, for the enemy is not yet disposed to throw up the sponge. He has plenty of fight still left in him. But for all that, from the way in which the greatest battle of the war has opened we have every reason for being confident that the victory, which may prove the decisive victory of the world struggle for liberty, will be ours.


https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/french-tactics-on-the-aisne-8dbqfhz79?CMP=TNLEmail_118918_2003531

French tactics on the Aisne

The story of the fighting which took place round this Soupir Plateau from April 16 to 18 is worth telling. It was a fine piece of work and a typical example of the methods by which the French made their advance

April 25, 1917

East of Vailly, as in the now eliminated salient to the west of it of which the lille Vailly-Laffaux formed the base, the general characteristic of the ground north of the Aisne is that it consists of a series of bare plateaux separated by deep ravines striking down into the valley more or less at right angles to the river.
These uplands are the outlying spurs of a much longer plateau parallel to the course of the Aisne and about five miles to the north of it, along which the Chemin des Dames runs eastwards from the Soissons-Laon road across the Oise-Aisne Canal to Courtecon and Craonne.
Just to the west of the Canal one of these buttress spurs stretches down between Ostel and Braye-en-Laonnois is at an elevation of about 600ft, or the same average height as the main plateau, to the village of Soupir. The steep slopes on its east side are covered by a thick wood, the upper part of which is called the Bois de la Bovette and the lower the Bois des Gouttes d’Or.
The story of the fighting which took place round this Soupir Plateau from April 16 to 18 is worth telling. It was a fine piece of work and a typical example of the methods by which the French made their advance.
OBJECTS OF THE ATTACK
On the morning of the first day of the attack (April 16) the French line at this point ran south of the woods, vast Moussy and Soupir westwards to Chavonne, where it crossed the river and followed the south bank as far as Vailly. The first objective of the division which was to carry the position was, on the east, a farm close to the canal, a mile or so south of Braye, and, on the left, the spurs of the two woods round to the farm of Cour Soupir, on the edge of the slope between them and the pIateau. Slopes, woods, and plateau were all covered by a network of German trenches right back to the Chemin des Dames, and the Metz, or eastern, farm was in full view of the enemy batteries on the Chemin des Dames plateau, while the whole position was exposed to the fire of a large number of machine-guns.
On that first day the battalion which attacked from the left found the system of trenches in the south wood still undestroyed, and it was decided to make a flank, instead of a frontal, attack and to put the operation off till next day, while the artillery dealt with the nest of machine-guns round Braye. In the evening, in less than two hours, a force of two battalions made their way into the southern edge of the woods, where they were screened from the fire of the batteries on the plateau and got through to the Bois de la Bovette; the next morning another regiment got up to the German second position between Braye and Cour Soupir, the right wing pushed quickly forward to the canal tunnel close to Braye, and finally, in spite of a determined resistance, the enemy were obliged to retire hurriedly only just in time to save their whole force from being cut off and surrounded, as the French troops on the right kept pressing on their left flank, while the French left carried the plateau at the point of the bayonet and another regiment still farther to the west crossed the river and took Vailly.
NO “STRATEGIC” RETREAT
Here, as elsewhere, there was no sort of question of a strategic retreat. The Germans were so confident of the strength of their position that when they did make up their minds to go it was too late to bring up the gun teams to save their artillery. There was a fierce hand-to-hand fight round the batteries, but the French chasseurs and fantassins were “all over” the enemy, and in the end took so guns with their supplies of ammunition and nearly 2,000 prisoners, including 30 officers, besides a large haul of machine-guns, stands of rifles, officers’ baggage, notebooks, half-finished letters, and food. The Germans were so sure that they would not have to go, and they did, notwithstanding, go in such a hurry, that the French found in an officers’ mess the table laid for a meal and the dishes waiting to be eaten. They also found that none of the dugouts and shelters had been destroyed, as the enemy had had no time to blow up the mines they had prepared, which had apparently been in existence for a considerable time.
As the result of the three days’ work the French not only gained the original objective of the line between Braye and Soupir, but are now on part of the ground to the left of the canal well up to the Chemin des Dames. I am not surprised that the Germans thought they were certain of holding the position. From the other side of the river it looks practically impregnable in the face of machine-gun fire, and its capture was a brilliant success for our Allies.