IN CHAMPAGNE.
We are now to read the story of the great offensive which the Allies undertook in the West during the month of September 1915. I have already told you that the German lines were by this time so studded with skilfully placed forts, full of machine guns, that no living infantry could carry them until a road had been blasted through by artillery fire. You remember the maze of trenches and forts known to the French as the Labyrinth. The same sort of fortification extended along the whole German line. It was folly to break through the enemy's line on a narrow front, for the troops which entered the gap were at once enfiladed and exposed to a murderous fire on their flanks. This is precisely what happened in the unsuccessful attack at Stony Mountain. If the German front was to be really broken, a rent of at least fifteen miles must be made in it. In order to do this, long preparation was necessary. Thousands of guns and mountains of ammunition were required, and, above all, the part of the line to be broken must be carefully selected.
Look at the map on page [336], and note the position of that portion of the German line which extends between the Argonne on the east and Auberive on the west. The cross railway line, by means of which the Germans supplied their front in Champagne, was in some places only four or five miles from the French trenches, and the main line was not more than ten or twelve miles away. If the French could break through in this region on a wide front, they could send their cavalry forward to cut the German lines of communication; in which case the enemy would be obliged to fall back, and his retreat might easily become a rout. The French, therefore, decided to make their big push in Champagne. An advance on this part of the line not only promised success, but Champagne itself was very suitable for a great combined attack of infantry and artillery. Unlike Artois and Flanders, the country consists of rolling chalk downs, with open, bare, and shallow valleys. Guns could thus be used to the best advantage, and infantry could push forward without being impeded by villages, mounds of refuse, railway embankments, and small enclosed fields. On the dull levels of Champagne the freedom of France had thrice[69] been won. Was history to repeat itself, and was a fourth deliverance to result from the great movement now about to be made?
A writer[70] thus describes the district:—
"There is scarcely a region in all France where a battle could have been fought with less injury to property. Imagine, if you please, an immense undulating plain, its surface broken by occasional low hills and ridges, none of them much over six hundred feet in height, and wandering in and out between these ridges the narrow stream which is the Marne. The country hereabouts is very sparsely settled; the few villages that dot the plain are wretchedly poor; the trees on the slopes of the ridges are stunted and scraggly; the soil is a chalky marl, which you have only to scratch to leave a staring scar, and the grass which tries to grow upon it seems to wither and die of a broken heart. This was the great manoeuvre ground of Châlons, and it was good for little else, yet only a few miles to the westward begin the vineyards which are France's chief source of wealth, and an hour's journey to the eastward is the beautiful Forest of the Argonne."
The French devoted most of the summer to preparations for the great attack. The British took over thirty additional miles of the line, and thus released a large number of troops for the venture. New units were formed, and the factories worked night and day to produce the immense quantity of ammunition which would be needed. Artillery of every size and pattern, from light mountain guns to monster howitzers, were gradually brought together, until nearly 3,000 guns faced the Germans. Had these guns been placed side by side they would have extended for more than fifteen miles. Every battery knew exactly the portion of front which it was to attack. About twenty captive balloons, fitted with telephones and wires, were provided for directing the fire of the guns. A network of light railways was built in order to bring up the vast supplies of ammunition, and from the railhead a highroad nine miles long and forty feet wide was constructed across the plain.
Dug-outs for men, stores for ammunition, and underground first-aid stations were constructed; and, so that the infantry could reach their positions without being destroyed by German shell fire, no less than forty miles of reserve and communication trenches were made. In some places saps and tunnels had been run out towards the German lines, so that the men making the first assault could spring suddenly from the earth. The hospitals were emptied ready for the stream of wounded that would soon flow into them. Officers and men were diligently instructed; everything was foreseen and provided for; nothing was left to chance.
Now let us look closely at the portion of the German line which was to be assaulted. From the village of Auberive (page [336]) the trenches ran eastward. Beyond Souain a series of hills lay in front of the French line, and on each of them a redoubt had been erected. The Germans had held this position since the Battle of the Marne, and for more than a year they had striven to make it impregnable. In many cases the trenches had walls of concrete, and the wire entanglements were as much as sixty yards deep. In front of the entanglements the ground had been honeycombed with mines, and strewn with sharpened stakes and obstacles of all kinds. Every German fired from behind a shield of armour plate, and at every fifteen yards along the trenches there was a machine gun. Here and there were revolving steel turrets, each containing a quick-firing gun. In some places there were five lines of trenches, one behind the other, all linked together so as to form a labyrinth very similar to that which the French had captured in Artois. Remember that these trenches only formed the first line of German defence. Behind them was a second line, and between the two were the artillery. Light railways came right down to the front, so that troops and ammunition and supplies could be moved very readily and speedily. The Germans boasted that they had created an inland Gibraltar, and they smiled superior when their aviators told them what preparations were going on behind the French lines. They were quite certain that nothing could shift them.
The Great French Advance in Champagne. By permission of The Graphic.
While the British advanced between La Bassée and Lens, the French assaulted the German lines on a seventeen-mile front in Champagne. They carried all before them, and captured 21,000 prisoners and over 120 guns. A British surgeon who witnessed the onslaught tells us how the French dashed forward like an avalanche. "They are superb, these Frenchmen."
Of course it would never do for the French to attack in Champagne while the rest of the Allied troops lay quiet in their trenches. The enemy must be engaged at various points all along the line, so that he could not mass reinforcements against the great attack. Further, he must not be allowed to know exactly where the main thrust was to take place. The Allies intended, as we shall learn later, to make a big offensive between La Bassée and Lens, and to fight holding battles elsewhere.
Early in the month of September, during perfect autumn weather, a general bombardment began along the whole front. The airmen were very busy, and in the third week of the month there were no fewer than twenty-seven fights over the British front alone. On 23rd September the bombardment began to grow very violent. The guns had begun the overture to the great drama on which the curtain was now about to rise.
All was now ready. The French trenches were packed with men, waiting for the guns to cease fire and the order to advance. Meanwhile the greatest bombardment that the world had ever known was in progress. General Joffre had instructed his artillery commanders to smash up the enemy's trenches, and to destroy their dug-outs in such a fashion "that may make it possible for my men to march to the assault with their rifles at the shoulder." It is impossible to describe in words the awful din of the guns. The sky overhead was a canopy of flying shells, and a rain of death fell upon the German trenches. Wire entanglements were blown into a myriad fragments; concreted trenches were swept into shapeless ruin, and the troops holding them were buried alive in their dug-outs. Hundreds of men went mad through sheer terror. The big shells raised huge geysers of earth and smoke wherever they fell, and the French gunners, stripped to the waist, never ceased or slackened their fire for three days and two nights. Upon and behind the German trenches a cascade of fire continued to fall; the enemy could neither advance nor retreat.
At 5.30 on the morning of 25th September the réveillé rang out along the French lines. It was a gray, dismal morning, but the men were in good heart. They drank their morning coffee, looked to their equipment, and waited for the word that would launch them against the foe. Every man wore a patch of white calico on his back, so that the French gunners might know their own men, and not fire upon them. At 9.5 the regimental flags were unrolled; for the first time in this war the troops were to go into action with colours flying.
At 9.15 the guns suddenly ceased to fire, whistles shrilled all along the line, and bugles pealed the charge. "En avant! Vaincre ou mourir!"[71] shouted the officers, and a human wave of blue-gray, fifteen miles in length and topped with steel, surged from the trenches. Onward, with hoarse cheering and snatches of song, they went, under a hail of fire from the German batteries and from machine guns hurriedly withdrawn from deep dug-outs which the French guns had not wrecked. Despite the terrible gunfire, stretches of unbroken wire still remained, and amidst these death-traps many men fell. Numerous others were shot down in front of steel obstacles which had to be blown up before the advance could proceed. Nevertheless the French infantry swept on, and plunged into the ruin of the German first line. Leaving detachments to ferret out prisoners from the deeper dug-outs, the French made for the second line. So fierce did the German fire become, that they frequently had to lie flat on the ground and crawl forward. But in a lull they rose again to their feet and advanced once more. Soon they were on the edge of the woods, where the German field guns, unable to get away, were firing at point-blank range. They flung themselves upon the guns, and in a few seconds had captured whole batteries. Prisoners were taken by the hundred—broken, stricken men, dazed and stupefied by the terrible bombardment.
In some places the assault was pushed into the second German line; in other places men still battled furiously in the first line. Battalions became mixed up, but in a short time order was restored, and the troops surged on again. Wounded men cried out to their comrades to leave them and proceed. "Go on," they cried, "don't mind us. It's only you who are whole who matter now." Then the guns came up with a thunderous rumble, and unlimbering like magic, prepared the way for a further advance of the infantry. African troops were ordered up to finish the business with cold steel, and behind them came the cavalry—dragoons, chasseurs, and Spahis—making a charge and fighting from the saddle for the first time since the trench war began. They sabred the fleeing Germans and swept up hundreds of prisoners, while the "trench cleaners," as the Algerians and Senegalese are called, scoured the ruined earthworks for the lurking foe.
The most desperate fighting was on the left, where the cavalry charged the line of wooded hills between Auberive and Souain. The French infantry on the extreme left were held up before they had advanced little more than half a mile, but, later on, they took trench after trench, and by midday were two miles in front of their starting-point. It was in this part of the line that the Colonial troops, led by General Marchand,[72] made a splendid advance, in the course of which their brave leader fell. He was standing on the parapet of a German trench, smoking his pipe and urging his men forward, when he was struck down.
All through the wet afternoon the battle continued, and only when twilight fell was it possible to reckon up the gains of the day. On a front of fifteen miles, the French had pushed forward, on the average, two and a half miles. Our allies had drawn near to the village of Tahure, but they had not captured it, neither had they seized the Butte[73] of Tahure which overlooks the railway, nor the Butte of Mesnil which you see to the south-east of Tahure. Eastward of the latter hill there is high ground from which spurs stretch out southwards like the open fingers of a hand. On each of the fingers of this Hand of Massiges,[74] as the French called it, the Germans had constructed a great stronghold of criss-crossed trenches with forts at intervals. It was as though five labyrinths lay side by side. So strong was the position that the Germans said it could be held against a whole army by two washerwomen with machine guns. The French, however, had already carried part of it, and also the farmhouse which you see on the westward edge of the high ground. The whole German first line had gone, and large parts of the second line west of Navarin Farm and east of Tahure had been captured.
For every yard of front which the French had won they had taken an unwounded prisoner, and for every mile, nine guns. During the fighting some 21,000 prisoners were captured. The Germans surrendered by hundreds at a time. Most of them had been without food for several days and were suffering from thirst, and all of them had been completely cowed by the terrible bombardment.
Though the French had made such good progress, the battle was far from over. German counter-attacks were already preparing and might be expected any moment. At all costs the enemy must be prevented from bringing up his reserves and strengthening his remaining line of defence. So while the French infantry worked like inspired giants all through the night, digging themselves in, building parapets, and installing their machine guns, heavy batteries lumbered and swayed forward over the scarred and pitted ground, and began a new bombardment from advanced positions. On the next day, Sunday, all the summits of the downs were cleared from Auberive to the Butte of Souain. A hill facing the Butte of Tahure was captured by the evening, and the northern slopes of the Hand of Massiges were won.
By means of artillery and bomb attacks the line slowly advanced and was knitted up all along its length. The fighting during Sunday was far more trying than that of Saturday. "If you only knew what these days and nights are like," wrote an officer; "condemned to remain crouching in the mud under an avalanche of shells, under an almost unceasing rain, with but few supplies brought up, in the midst of bodies more or less mangled by shot and shell, and in our ears always the groans of the dying and the moans of the wounded."
The Germans rushed up all the men that they could spare from other parts of the line, and on Monday the Crown Prince tried to break through the French trenches in the Argonne. His troops advanced after a gas attack, but they were too weak to do more than carry a few yards. It was not necessary to draw off a single man from the Champagne armies to repulse him.
The second great French effort began on Wednesday, 29th September, when an attack was launched against the German position to the west of Navarin Farm. Already the French had pierced the second line on a front of about five-eighths of a mile. They strove hard to widen the gap so that the cavalry might push through, but again and again they were repulsed, and all that they could do was to dig shelter trenches and cling to the breach in the face of a murderous fire that assailed them in front and in flank. With this check the great battle of Champagne may be said to have ended.
The French had probably about 110,000 casualties in the five days' fighting. It was estimated that the Germans lost 140,000 men, including 21,000 prisoners, and 121 guns. Despite their great sacrifice of life, the distance gained by the French was too small to be shown on an ordinary map. But we shall make a great mistake if we measure the effect of the French effort by the amount of ground gained. The aim and object of generalship is not to occupy territory, but to foil the enemy's plans and destroy his forces. The victory at the Marne stopped any further invasion of France and ruined the German plan, while the resistance in Flanders and Artois prevented the enemy from reaching the Channel ports. The Champagne battles threw the enemy upon the defensive; it wore down his numbers and disheartened him, and proved that his most strongly fortified lines could be pierced, if the Allies were willing to pay the cost.
Though there was no great offensive on the Western front during the rest of the year, fighting continued in Champagne during October. The Germans sent reserves to this region, and on 6th October the French made an effort to carry the village and Butte of Tahure, in order that they might command the cross-railway which supplied the German front. After a long and strong bombardment by massed guns the French carried the crest of the Butte, and their guns now cut off the Germans in the village from support and reinforcements. Then they swept from the west and south into a wood in which the enemy had constructed seven lines of parallel trenches, and, after carrying them, entered the village, where over a thousand prisoners were taken. The summit of the Butte was now in the hands of the French, and this was the farthest point they reached during the year 1915.
This success and the capture of very strong trenches to the north of the Navarin Farm drove the Germans to desperate efforts. They knew that another vigorous thrust would push them back from their railway and force them to retreat. On the night of 8th October they made a great counter-attack on the Butte, but achieved nothing. Meanwhile their hold on the Butte of Mesnil, which formed an awkward sag in the French lines, had been greatly shaken. On 24th October the French carried a very powerful fortress in this position, and afterwards beat off numerous attacks. They had thus removed a danger from their flank and were enabled to straighten out their line.
On the 30th of the same month the Germans attacked the Butte of Tahure and retook the summit, capturing 21 officers and 1,215 men. They forced the French back to the southern side of the hill, but they could do no more. Nevertheless, they had eased their position. They could still use the cross-railway for supplying their lines during the winter's lull which was soon to set in.
A correspondent who visited the battlefields of Champagne during the month of September tells us that the ground over which the struggle had raged looked and smelled like a garbage heap. "Over an area as long as from Charing Cross to Hampstead Heath, and as wide as from the Bank to the Marble Arch, the earth is pitted with the craters caused by bursting shells, as is pitted the face of a man who has had the small-pox. Any of these shell-holes was large enough to hold a barrel; many of them would have held a horse; I saw one, caused by the explosion of a mine, which we estimated to be seventy feet deep and twice that in diameter. In the terrific blast that caused it five hundred German soldiers perished."
The battlefield was thickly covered with unexploded shells, hand-grenades, and bombs. In a captured trench the correspondent saw one of the steel revolving turrets, some six feet high and eight or nine in diameter, in which the Germans had installed a quick-firing gun. The door of the turret was fastened by a chain and padlock, and when burst open the bodies of three Germans were discovered. They had been locked in by their officers, and left to fight and die with no chance of escape.