Brimont and Berru are further covered and linked up by the Fort of Fresne (360 feet), situated four miles north-east of Rheims.
These defensive works, conceived and executed after the war of 1870, had, in consequence of the evolution of strategical and tactical doctrines, been abandoned or disarmed before the war of 1914. After evacuating Rheims on September 12, 1914, the Germans grasped the importance of these works, to which they clung tenaciously, after hurriedly organising them. It was against these naturally strong positions, further strengthened by trenches, that the French 5th Army, in pursuit of the enemy, found themselves brought to a standstill on the evening of September 12. From September 13 to 18, the French tried in vain to capture them. The 5th Division, under General Mangin, did succeed in capturing the Château de Brimont, in the plain, but were unable to hold it.
Later, the Germans converted these hills into one of the most formidable positions organised by them in France. Brimont, Berru, Fresne and Nogent l'Abbesse, whose guns slowly destroyed Rheims, were, so to speak, her jailers for four years.
In April, 1917, during the French offensive of the Aisne, one division, known as the "Division of aces" (because its four regiments have the fourragère decoration), penetrated into Berméricourt and advanced to the outskirts of Brimont, but was unable to hold its ground against the furious counter-attacks of the Germans. It was only in October, 1918, that the French 5th Army, in conjunction with the victorious attacks of the 4th Army in Champagne, after forcing the Germans back to the Aisne and the canal, and after crossing the Aisne canal on October 4 in front of Loivre and near Berméricourt, forced the enemy, whose communications were now threatened, to abandon one of the most valuable portions of his 1914 positions. On October 5, the French re-entered Brimont and Nogent l'Abbesse, progressed beyond Bourgogne, Cernay-les-Rheims, Beine, Caurel and Pomacle, and, in spite of desperate enemy resistance, drove back the Germans to the Suippe.
After visiting the fort return to the village of Brimont.
From here the Château de Brimont may be visited, but this will have to be done on foot as the road has been destroyed, traces only of it being left in places (the lower photograph on p. [152] shows the beginning of the road in the village).
The Château de l'Ermitage, also known as the Château de Brimont, is situated about 500 yards south of the village, at the entrance to a large park, completely devastated. It was the scene of desperate fighting (see p. [152]).
Return to Brimont, cross the village (skirting the church) and continue straight on to the Cran de Brimont Redoubt on the road to Rheims. Numerous German trenches, etc., are to be seen here.
Turn to the right into G.C. 9, which dips down to the Plain of Rheims. The region hereabouts bristle with barbed-wire entanglements and is crossed with numerous trenches. It was ranged to an incredible degree by the bombardments.
At the bottom of the hill which starts at the Cran de Brimont, cross Soulains Wood, of which only a few torn tree-stumps remain.