Battle Viewed From the French Front
By G. H. Perris
Special Correspondent with the French Armies
George H. Perris was with the French Armies in Picardy throughout the German offensive. The aim of the Germans was to drive a wedge between the British and French Armies at the point of juncture near La Fère, and Mr. Perris was admirably situated to obtain not only the story of the fighting on the allied right, but a good general view of the whole great battle and of the strategic methods adopted by the German command. Current History Magazine, through its connection with The New York Times, has full use of these important dispatches, which are copyrighted.
[See Map on Page [198].]
A little before 5 A. M. on March 21, between the Scarpe and the Oise, there began an extremely violent artillery preparation, including barrages largely composed of gas shells, especially near Cambrai, and toward the Oise a strong counterbattery fire and a plentiful bombardment of the allied rear and communications.
At 9:45 A. M. an infantry attack began. Each German division engaged had a front of attack of about a mile and a half, and seems to have been disposed as follows: Two regiments, less a battalion of each, were in the first line, and one regiment was in reserve. Battalions were echeloned in a depth of two companies, each with six light machine guns, constituting the first wave. The second wave of two companies, carrying heavier machine guns, followed at an interval of 100 yards. These were followed at 200 or 300 yards' distance by light bomb-throwers and the battalion staff. Finally there came one-inch and other very light field guns, called "artillery of accompaniment," which deployed as required. The divisional reserves consisted of five infantry battalions. No new gas was used, and although the enemy has tanks they were not brought into action.
FIFTY GERMAN DIVISIONS
The first attack was made by perhaps fifty divisions, or about 750,000 men. Of these at least ten divisions, and perhaps thirteen or fourteen, were thrown into the corner of the field between St. Quentin, La Fère, and Noyon. They were divided into six columns.
The first consisted of a division with three battalions of chasseurs, which, debouching from La Fère, quickly took Tergnier, and on the evening of March 22 came to a stop before Vouel, the next village westward, and a division which came into action on the evening of the 22d passed the first, and on the following day pushed on toward Chauny.
The second column consisted of two divisions. The former advanced from the old line near Moy, on the Oise, through La Fontaine and Remigny and to the southwest. It stopped at Liez, on the Crosat Canal, on the 22d. That night it was passed by the other division, which, on the 23d, captured Villequier-Aumont, on the St. Quentin-Chauny road. To the right of this was the third column, composed of two divisions. The first attacked through Cerizy to Benay and Hinacourt, and was stopped on the evening of the 22d at Lamontagne. It was passed that evening by the other division on the canal, which, after occupying Genlis Wood, closed up to the second column.
The fourth column included the 1st and 10th Divisions, of which the former attacked through Essigny to Jussy, and on the 23d was at the north of Ugny, while the latter on its right passed the canal and reached Ugny and Beaumont.
Of the fifth column, which occupied the region of Villeselve, and the sixth, in the Ham-Noyon sector, my information is slighter, owing to the severity of the trial of the British contingents there before the French took over the front.
One division of the sixth column attacked at Le Plessis, north of Guiscard, on the 24th, and on the following day took Muirancourt, Rimbercourt and Croisilles. Its right was then prolonged by a division at Freniches.
BRITISH FRONT BROKEN
On the evening of the 22d the front of the British Army ran along the Crozat Canal from Tergnier, through Jussy, to the east of St. Simon.
Very well do I remember the bridgehead of Jussy as I saw it after the German retreat a year ago. The town, built almost wholly of brick, was absolutely leveled to the ground, not a single wall standing. I saw it again last Summer, when General X., a fine soldier and an enlightened gentleman, had set up a camp hospital and swimming bath, and the bridge had been decorated to celebrate the entry of America into the war. It was seven miles behind the front, and I confess we never thought to see the boche there again.
At 6 P. M. on the 22d General ——received the news that the British front had been broken between Beauvois and Vaux, nine miles due west of St. Quentin, and that his corps must fall back to Ham and the villages of Sancourt and Matigny, immediately north of it. At 8 or 9 o'clock next morning the news came in that the enemy was just debouching from the south of Ham toward Esmery-Hallon. The British 5th Corps was then in the region of Guiscard-Beaumont-Guivry ready for relief.
On the morning of the 24th two German divisions, the first and second columns, continued their movements in the Oise Valley, while the third and fourth columns took Ugny and Genlis Wood. On the 25th one division reached Croisilles, while another attacked Baroeuf on the north of the Oise, half way between Noyon and Chauny.
On the 26th one division was near Noyon, another at Larbroye, southwest of that town, and a third at Suzoy, two miles west of it. Clemenceau's classic phrase, "Remember that the Germans are at Noyon," had unexpectedly come alive again.
ALLIED TEAMWORK
Noyon, unlike Chauny, Ham, and other neighboring places, was not greatly damaged by the Germans before their retreat last year. South of the town rises a conical hill called Mont Rénaud, which is capped with a wood hiding the château built on the site of an ancient abbey. On Thursday, when the Germans were ensconced on Mont Rénaud, a French General expressed in the presence of the English General commanding a cavalry division his intention of retaking it. The British commander at once asked that his own troops should have the honor of making the attack. This was agreed to, and the British cavalry, dismounted, carried the hill by assault in face of a stubborn defense by the enemy.
I am assured that along the line where the French relieved the British troops, or where they have been acting together, the best relations have prevailed, and that the co-operation of the staffs and field officers has been most cordial.
The French, like the British, aviators, by the boldness of their bombing and their machine-gun work on the line of the German advance, have done much to compensate for the allied losses and the unavoidable delay in getting the French batteries into their new positions. Prisoners say the German 88th Division was nearly wiped out, and that the 206th suffered almost as badly.
VON HUTIER'S METHODS
Details of the first advance from St. Quentin to Noyon illustrate the new method pursued in this offensive in the particular way in which one large unit passes through another in order to carry the movement forward as rapidly as possible.
Another feature is its readiness to change the direction of march when great difficulty is found by the Germans or a marked weakness on the allied side invites such a change. Of the divisions named above, six disappeared from that front in the course of the concentration toward Noyon. They had been diverted westward when it was recognized that the Oise could not be forced, and Amiens became the chief objective.
It is certain that General von Hutier's plans were based upon his experience in the capture of Riga. * * * Western resistance, whether French or British, is a very different thing from that which the Russians put up at Riga. Enormous as are the forces the enemy put into this blow, though for the last week they outnumbered and generally overwhelmed those hurried up to meet them, they had to pay terribly for their success. German war doctrine recognizes this as inevitable in what is intended for a decisive operation against great antagonists. Against soldiers less experienced, disciplined, and inspired than those of the western Allies Hindenburg would have succeeded.
The adaptability of direction of attack which I have indicated is remarkable, but the same adaptability in the attack upon Verdun, where the right and left banks of the Meuse were alternately tried, gave no result. This time the main direction has been thrice changed. It began with the wings at St. Quentin and Croisilles; it then moved to the right centre from Bapaume to Albert; finally it is concentrated on the left centre on both sides of Montdidier.
Because of its methods and speed the battle thus far has been mainly one of artillery. German cavalry has been met in small numbers, but it has not taken a brilliant part. The enemy's aviation service has been notably inferior to that of the Allies. Only light guns with a few four-inch pieces have been able to keep up with the advance, and trench mortars do not seem to have been brought up quickly. On the other hand, groups of allied machine gunners and machine riflemen, taking advantage of the depressions of the ground, have everywhere taken heavy toll of their adversaries. By the time they can transport their heavier guns the Allies will have their former superiority ready to answer them.
FAILED TO BREAK THROUGH
March 26.—A full third of the German forces on the western front have been engaged on one-eighth of its extent. It is not impossible that a secondary offensive may be declared, but it may be taken that we now know the worst, and that the utmost possible strength has been put into the first blow.
The choice suggests the need of obtaining a rapid decision and the hope of shaking the will of our people. If it resulted in a break-through it would be justified as good strategy; if not, a number of prisoners and miles of ravaged territory have been taken, with no compensation for the costs.
So far there is nothing like a break-through. The French are holding strongly in the Oise Valley, in safe connection with the British on the Somme.
FRENCH SOLDIERS CONFIDENT
March 27.—I have been along the French front today, and the news is that, although the battle broke with extraordinary violence, it found the French prepared, and all is well.
As I watched the sun set in a crimson flood yesterday behind the Noyon hills there seemed to be a pause in the struggle. At least, the bombardment had slackened, and at one of the headquarters of the French Army on the Oise there was no news of an attack then proceeding.
The result of this momentary lull was to enhance the impression of calm order and confidence which is one's usual experience in passing from the rear to the front. One goes up in a state of suppressed agitation over the latest reports and rumors, and finds himself suddenly wrapped around by an atmosphere of businesslike quietude that extends nearly to the front trenches. Even in the firing line the stoical silence of the men and their immobility, except in spasmodic crises, seem to dominate the hellish roar of bursting shells.
From this point backward the machine works with a smoothness that rebukes our anxieties. In a circuit of forty miles, ending on the hills overlooking the left bank of the Oise, between Noyon and Chauny, I did not see a single sign of confusion, and there were many signs of satisfaction that the war had entered upon a decisive stage.
This is not strange. Very few soldiers hear as much of the latest news as one does in Paris or London; but all soldiers know more of the strength of their army than civilians can know. They may rarely see their General and understand little of military science; they may be unable to tell you exactly how the battle line stands, but they have a thousand ways of learning the quality of their chiefs and of knowing far in advance of the official bulletins whether things are going well or ill.
So far as my information goes there is good reason for this equitable state of mind. The German advance is remarkable, but it has been adequately paid for. Along the successive lines of heights southwest of St. Quentin the British, and afterward the French, who took this sector, had excellent firing positions, and retired from one to another in good order. The enemy came on wave upon wave, reckless of losses, as though certain points must be reached at any cost at certain hours. The allied troops fired upon them continuously, often exhausting their ammunition before the moment came for falling back. The Crown Prince's troops were at some points literally mown down. One machine gunner with a good target got through 30,000 cartridges, and could have fired twice that number had they been at hand. A Bavarian regiment lost half of its effectives in this drive toward the Oise.
NEW METHOD OF ASSAULT
The new method of assault by which the Germans obtained their first successes—new in its intensity, though not in its elements combined—seems to be as follows: After a short but heavy bombardment, in which gas shells play a larger part than ever, masses of troops brought up at the last moment are sent forward, wave after wave. The first wave must reach its objective at any cost, and, leaving the still resisting groups to be dealt with by bodies of grenadiers and flame pumpers, at once begins to throw heavy machine-gun and rifle fire upon the rear of the next line to be attacked, so as to prevent reserves from coming up. It is then passed by a second wave, which installs itself in the next position, engages it, and is in turn passed by a third wave, and so on.
Even when, as in this case, the method has been rehearsed with Teutonic thoroughness, it is one that involves losses which other than German armies could not be asked to bear.
THE GERMAN STRENGTH
March 29.—On the front of fifty miles, where the enemy had had only sixteen divisions, he commenced his great gamble with about thirty-eight divisions. It was already a heavy superiority, but there had been recognized up to last night a total of about eighty-seven divisions engaged, that is to say over a million men have been poured into this space, which forms only about an eighth of the western front, the greater part of these being new reserves, brought up after the operation was launched. They include many of the best imperial troops, the 1st, 2d, and 5th Guard Divisions, for instance, and two crack Bavarian divisions.
Three of the army commanders are reckoned among the most successful of the German Generals—von Below, who directed the Italian offensive; von der Marwitz, who did so much with his cavalry corps in the battle of the Marne to check pursuit and has done so well since in higher positions, and von Hutier, who tried new infantry tactics in the capture of Riga. The last named represents the army and the prestige of the Imperial Crown Prince. The other two serve the Crown Prince of Bavaria, and the enterprise received a special blessing from the Emperor.
Their whole design points to an intention of making this a singly decisive operation. Consider again the figures given above. Before the offensive the enemy had on this front from the sea to the Alps about 109 divisions in line and seventy-six in reserve. By calling the reserves they have been able (and it has been necessary) by the eighth day of the battle to put about eighty-seven divisions, 1,044,000 men, into the combat. Good observers consider that at the most they can hardly bring up more than forty more divisions.
LINE ALMOST BROKEN
March 30.—Immediately west of Noyon, Mont Rénaud and some neighboring hills have been recovered and are strongly held. The bridges over the Oise between Point l'Evêque and Chauny have been broken, and the river there is so well covered by artillery and infantry that there is no danger of a passage being forced.
This was the first fruit of the French northward movement on the evening of March 21. Several divisions of the neighboring French Army were rushed up in motor wagons to the aid of the British right wing, which was thus enabled to draw north along the Crozat Canal. Their guns and supply columns followed. On the next day a further force was placed opposite Chauny, and other French troops were ordered to extend their lines northwestward, keeping in touch with the retiring British right. The constant displacement required in this delicate task and the fact that the French were gradually drawing upon themselves an increasing part of the German onset explain the delay in making considerable counterattacks.
On the 24th the French repelled repeated attempts to cross the Oise, and their lines, which already stretched to Evricourt, more than half way from Noyon to Lassigny, were extended to the neighborhood of the latter town.
The difficulties inevitable in so rapid a movement of reserves were met everywhere with splendid cheerfulness and energy. One of the artillery regiments, brought up by motor wagon, had no horses with it, but got its pieces into action, and, having to retreat, dragged them back three miles by hand.
Meanwhile, definitely checked on the south, and feeling all the time for the line of least resistance, the German host was gravitating rapidly westward between Roye and Chaulnes. Now that the danger has completely passed, it may be said that it came very near breaking through the allied front in this region on the 25th. The 26th and 27th saw an accentuation of pressure at the point of junction, but, while the front was pushed back on the first day to l'Echelle-St. Aurin on the Avre, and on the next to Montdidier, other French troops had been brought up to strengthen the British right, and yesterday, after several hard combats, it seemed that the offensive was definitely contained.
BATTLE FOR MONTDIDIER
April 1.—Montdidier, quaintly seated on a steep hill beside the Amiens-Clermont railway, is an important crossroads. On Friday the enemy had pulled himself together and delivered along twenty-five miles of broken country from Demuin to near Lassigny a new mass attack, supported with a considerable number of field guns. On the French left the British held Demuin, but were driven out of Mézières. The French bore the main shock heroically. Step by step they fell back, leaving masses of German dead and wounded before their lines.
The combat continued throughout Sunday, spreading out a little at both ends, and it is impossible for me to piece together the fragmentary and often incoherent reports from the field so as adequately to represent its wild fluctuations.
Savagely set upon breaking through to Amiens and the Amiens-Paris railway, von Hutier's columns succeeded in reaching the Avre at Moreuil. Between Montdidier and Lassigny, where the front curves to the southeast, the enemy put no less strength into his outward thrust. Hand-to-hand fighting continued for hours in the villages of Orvillers on the west and Plessis de Roye, near Lassigny, and the neighboring hamlet of Plémont, all of which repeatedly changed hands. The German troops which got into Plémont and part of Plessis were driven out by a magnificent charge of the French, some units flying in disorder. The slaughter of yesterday's fighting is said to exceed anything seen in the preceding days of the battle.
On the ninth day a new chapter of the tragic story was opened. The Allies, their lines unbroken, were standing with clenched teeth on good positions and were hourly adding to their strength in men and guns. Amiens appeared to the enemy like a mirage on the western horizon, and the two Crown Princes may have reflected that there would be accounts to pay at home if this time, after sacrifices such as can only be paralleled in rare episodes of military history like the retreat from Moscow, they did not bring back a victorious peace.
BLOW AT JUNCTION POINT
A smashing blow at the Franco-British junction was then to be decisive. It was begun with means believed to be adequate to this aim and was directed westward on both sides of Montdidier toward the Beauvais-Amiens railway, with a supporting thrust from the threatened flank west of Lassigny.
Further south, toward Montdidier, which they already held, the Germans crossed the river, again suffering very heavy losses, but were arrested on the hills of the western bank. In the evening the struggle, despite the exhaustion of both sides, attained its fiercest intensity. Moreuil was recaptured on Saturday night by a mixed Canadian and French force, lost again during the night, and once more carried by storm in the old-fashioned way yesterday morning. No Stosstruppen, (shock troops,) no expert grenadiers or flame pumpers this time. Mixed in the same ranks, the British colonials in khaki and the French in light blue went forward irresistibly with the bayonet.
"The Canadians," says one of my informants, "performed prodigies of valor, and when the boches fell back they had lost half their effectives."
Full of their success, our troops turned northward and would not be satisfied till they had been firmly set on the wooded heights near the town. Later in the day several violent enemy attacks were made south of the Somme, but they seem to have been of rather a local and scattered kind, as though, at least for the moment, fresh efforts of the dimensions of those of Friday and Saturday were impossible.
The British have made some progress in the valley of the Luce, and two strong German attacks were repulsed between Marcelcave and the Somme, as were others in the British sphere on the north of the river. On the other hand, the British line was beaten back to the village of Hangard, [Hangard was lost and finally retaken and held by the French,] on the north bank of the Luce, nearly opposite Demuin.
Like the actions of the preceding days, this battle has been in the main a conflict of infantry. On neither side has it been possible to get heavy artillery in position in time, but on the allied side French and British guns, freshly detrained, gave support of moral as well as material importance. When the 75 has a target of masses advancing in close, deep waves, its effects are terrible beyond words. In the open country the air squadrons of the Allies have also worked havoc in the enemy's ranks, besides bursting tons of explosives on his camps and lines of communication.
AGAINST ENORMOUS ODDS
April 8.—It is evident that the German onslaught has failed to break through. What the Allies have lost in ground they have saved in men; and, on the other hand, the enemy, who wanted not these miles of desolate territory, but a final decision, has paid inordinately without getting any nearer the desired result.
For five days his advance, though somewhat behind his ambitious program, was not seriously interrupted. On March 25 a certain General reached the region of Montdidier and began to build a human barrier. On March 23 began what may be called a four days' battle of arrest. Three French divisions had to meet and did meet the onset of fifteen German divisions. There were smaller units that fought one against ten.
The main German effort was against the Moreuil-Grivesnes-Montchel line, the object being (with 150,000 men in play there could be no less ambitious aim) to break right through to the south of Amiens and completely separate the French and British Armies. It culminated on the 31st with a suicidal assault by the pick of the Prussian Guards and other chosen divisions at Grivesnes, when a certain gallant Colonel, rifle in hand, directed the barricading of the windows of the château, and with not more than 500 men kept off three or four times as many assailants and had strength enough left at last to sweep those who remained out of the park.
I need not measure again the trivial gain for the enemy of this four days' battle. Perhaps the most significant fact about it is that while, overwhelming as was his original force, the enemy had repeatedly to withdraw and renew his units, not one French unit was relieved in that time. At Mesnil St. Georges one infantry battalion, with some groups of chasseurs, drove off five successive attacks by a whole German division. I might multiply such instances, but space would fail me to make them real with detail.
A pause of four days followed this failure. Then, on April 4, twelve divisions were again launched in the northern part of the same narrow field—10,000 men per mile of front. They won at great cost the ruins of two hamlets and a slice of fields beside them.
FIRST PHASE REVIEWED
April 14.—The first phase or act of the offensive, launched with unprecedented masses of troops, completely failed to reach its aim and entailed losses that no lesser success could warrant. Begun on March 21, with three armies—those of von Below, von der Marwitz, and von Hutier—counting nearly fifty divisions, about forty more had to be brought in before the first week was out.
By that time the French armies had been pushed northwestward with admirable rapidity and characteristically splendid spirit, and by the last day of the month the host of the Prussian Crown Prince, including the Guard and others of the best German units, had been fought to a standstill from Noyon and Lassigny to the Avre and the Somme.
Several hard combats in the last fortnight, the latest ending in the French recovering the village of Hangard on Friday and their useful advance yesterday near Arvillers, do but confirm this result. That the German losses are fully commensurate with the ambition of their aims and the prodigal method pursued is shown by another fact unprecedented in the history of war.
At the end of three weeks of the offensive about 1,500,000 men have been cast into the battle, and seventy-five divisions have become so dislocated as to have to be withdrawn for reorganization. It is therefore probable that the total German casualties up to date approach 500,000.
SECOND PHASE SUMMARIZED
The second phase may be regarded as having opened March 28 with the entry of General von Below's right wing into action east of Arras, and as culminating with the battle of Armentières, involving the army of General von Quest and the left wing of General von Arnim's army at Ypres, while a subsidiary operation by General von Boehm's army threatened the French between the Oise and St. Gobain Forest.
This northern battle began in a much smaller way than the original offensive, with about twenty divisions on a twenty-mile front, and it may have been its initial success that determined its prompt extension.
While it may fairly be said to have constituted a confession of failure in the earlier adventure, its development not only creates a new danger, but strengthens the German position athwart the Somme. The situation, therefore, must be looked at straightforwardly and spoken of without mincing words.
In the middle of March the German armies consisted of 4,000,000 men at the front, 1,300,000 on the lines of communication and in the interior, and others who can be added to the present effectiveness.
From the village of Hangard to Abbéville is about forty miles; from Merville to Calais is the same distance; to Boulogne a little more; from the Ypres front to Dunkirk is about thirty miles; to Nieuport a little less. These are the limits of the allied power of manoeuvre for the defense of the Channel.