1914
September 4. The window glass in the aisle of the north transept was broken by a bomb falling in the adjoining street. Other shells fell directly on the cathedral, striking the gable of the north transept; the upper nave windows were pierced, and the rose window over the central west portal. Some of the portal statues, including the Virgin of the group of the Visitation, and an apostle of the south porch were broken. There were various external indications of projectiles and minor injuries.
September 17. Three shells fell on the cathedral, striking the stone gallery and roof of the north transept; the chevet was subjected to similar injury, and the glass of the choir chapel windows was destroyed.
September 18. Thirteen shells fell on the cathedral. The windows of the south aisle of the nave to the transept were broken, many being emptied of their ancient glass. The buttresses on the south side were mutilated in their lower parts, and many of the pinnacles broken off or destroyed. The flying buttress at the angle of the choir and north transept was entirely destroyed. The stone gallery surrounding the base of the nave roof was ruined in many places, and parts of it thrown onto the roof created other injuries and broke windows.
September 19. The day of the fire. Sixteen shells on the cathedral, one on the summit of the north tower. At 2:30 P. M. (the exact hour varies in different accounts) an incendiary bomb set afire the scaffolding erected in May, 1913, for the repair of this tower. Although not the first catastrophe, it was the most serious. The fire spread with great rapidity, the great roof, with its magnificent internal woodwork of the fifteenth century, was wholly consumed. The "Clocher à l'Ange", at the furthest extremity of the roof, and which dated from 1485, fell. Its name was derived from a copper angel formerly on the summit, removed for security in 1860. The carillon on the low tower at the crossing of the nave and transept, and which had been re-established by the Académie Nationale de Reims, was destroyed. Much of the old glass in the upper windows, dating from the thirteenth century, was destroyed, as well as much of the external sculpture. The internal injuries were also very grave. The cathedral was filled with straw, requisitioned by the German command for the use of wounded German soldiers it was proposed to place within the church, but who were only taken there after the evacuation; some of them lost their lives in the fire. The greater part of the interior furniture was destroyed, including the eighteenth century woodwork of the choir, together with the stalls and the archiepiscopal throne. A tapestry of the coronation of Charles X was lost. The remarkable sculptures surrounding the interior of the nave doorway were ruined.
September 24. Three bombs struck the cathedral, one of which fell on the vault of the crossing, bared by the fire of September 19. One struck the third buttress on the south side of the nave.
October 12. A bomb of large calibre fell on the high gallery of the chevet, ruining eight metres of the arcading. Two gargoyles of the chevet were broken off.
October 13. A shell fell on the north side of the cathedral at 3 P. M.
November 11. A bomb fell near the cathedral, enveloping it in thick clouds of smoke.
November 12. A shell exploded on the roof, demolishing a pinnacle on the south side of the chevet, and damaging some sculptures. Shrapnel fell within near the high altar.
November 22. Two shells fell on the superstructure, accomplishing no great harm.