The French attack of January 19th was wrecked even before it had reached the main position of the defenders. The reserves in readiness on the German side had not needed to be brought into action. The Vth Corps alone had driven back an enemy of four times its own strength. It lost 40 officers and 570 men; the loss of the French in killed and wounded was 145 officers and 3423 men, besides 44 officers and 458 men taken prisoners.
When the fog lifted at about eleven o'clock on the morning of the 20th, their long columns were seen retreating on Paris across the peninsula of Gennevilliers.
Prosecution of the Artillery Attack on Paris up to the Armistice.
After the repulse of this last struggle for release on the part of the garrison, the extension of the artillery attack to the north front of the defensive position was now determined on. The siege guns no longer needed against the minor French fortresses and on the Marne had been parked for this object at Villiers le Bel. The Army of the Meuse had prepared abundant material for the construction of batteries, and had collected a waggon park of above 600 vehicles. Twelve batteries had already been built in the lines between Le Bourget and the Lake of Enghien, the arming of which followed, for the most part, under cover of night. On January 21st eighty-one heavy guns were ready for action, and Colonel Bartsch opened fire at nine that morning on Forts La Briche, Double Couronne, and de l'Est.
The forts, which opposed the attack with 143 heavy guns, replied vigorously, and on the following day the thick weather prevented the German batteries from resuming their fire till the afternoon. But the ground in front was abandoned by the French, and the outposts of the Guards and IVth Corps took possession of Villetaneuse and Temps Perdu. During the nights the fire was directed on St. Denis, with every endeavour to spare the Cathedral, and many conflagrations occurred. By the 23rd the vigorous prosecution of the cannonade had materially subdued the fire of the defence. La Briche was wholly silenced, and the other forts only fired occasional salvos. During the night of the 25th four batteries were advanced to within 1300 and 950 yards respectively of the enemy's main works. The engineer attack also could now be undertaken, and a series of new batteries was constructed, which, however, were never used.
The effect of this bombardment of only six days' duration was decisive. The forts had suffered extraordinarily. In contrast to those of the south front they were destitute of the powerful backing of the enceinte, and they lacked, too, bomb-proof shelter. The provisional bomb-proofs were pierced by shells, the powder-magazines were in the greatest danger, and the garrisons had nowhere any more cover. The inhabitants of St. Denis fled to Paris in crowds, and the impaired immunity from storm of the sorely battered works was an insuperable obstacle to a longer maintenance of the defence. This northern attack cost the Germans one officer and 25 men; the French stated their loss at 180.
The fire of the forts on the east front was kept under, and the Würtemberg Field Artillery sufficed to prevent the enemy from renewing his foothold on the peninsula of St. Maur.
The south front meanwhile suffered more and more from the steady bombardment. The enceinte and the sunken mortar batteries behind the ceinture railway were still active, but in the forts the barracks were reduced to ruins, partly battered in and partly burnt down, and the garrisons had to take shelter in the emptied powder-magazines. The covered ways could no longer be traversed safely, the parapets afforded no protection. In Vanves the embrasures were filled up with sandbags; in the southern curtain of Issy five blocks of casemates had been pierced by shells penetrating the shielding walls. Even the detached gorge-walls of Vanves and Montrouge were destroyed, forty guns were dismounted, and seventy gun carriages wrecked.