CHAPTER XLII.
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.
