The innumerable springs give rise to excessive moisture. Tiny rivulets intersect the clay soil, and mud collects easily, making the paths impassable. Log roads had to be made in order to facilitate the bringing up of reliefs and supplies. Trenches were no sooner dug than they filled with water and mud, necessitating continuous baling, often with makeshifts such as pails, shovels, dishes, mess-tins, etc.
These trenches, dug haphazard under enemy fire, were very irregular in line, and French and German trenches sometimes overlapped. The fusillade was uninterrupted, but erratic, except for a few snipers perched here and there in the trees. At night, the forest was swept at random by rifle and machine-gun fire, to make movement dangerous and to prevent surprise. Rockets continually lit up the night. Here the rifle was merely an auxiliary weapon, but grenade and bomb fighting went on all day without respite.
Under this continuous rain of hand projectiles, and the hurricane of shells which destroyed the trenches, the casualties were heavy. Apart from the losses in actual battle, there were often hundreds of killed and wounded in a single day. In the attack or defence of a trench the fighting immediately became a hand-to-hand struggle, in which the long, cumbersome rifle generally gave place to the knife and revolver.
Owing to the difficulty of approaching the enemy trenches in the open, advances were made by pushing saps ahead, or by blowing them up with mines. On both sides incessant digging of galleries and mine-chambers went on underground, whence a race in speed and skill between the opposing sappers, for it was a case either of blowing up the enemy first, or being blown up by him. Over the mine-destroyed trenches, through the smoke and under the rain of earth and stones caused by the explosions, the soldiers dashed forward to occupy the new shell-crater, or to fight for it if the enemy had reached it first. Then would follow a bloody hand-to-hand struggle with grenades, knives, bayonets, daggers, axes, etc., resulting in the gain of a few yards of ground.
From the end of 1914 to March 31, 1915, between Four-de-Paris and the Valley of the Aisne, the French sappers excavated over 3,000 yards of mine galleries, and fired fifty-two mine-chambers, using nearly 16,000 lbs. of explosives.
The Stationary Warfare
(September, 1914, to September, 1918.)
Activity on the Argonne front was greatest during the first year of the war. The German positions were held by part of the Army of the Crown Prince, whose technical adviser was the old Marshal von Haeseler. This army was composed mainly of first-class troops, including the XVIth (Metz) Corps, one of the best in Germany, and superior to the famous Prussian Guards. This Corps was commanded by General von Mudra, a sapper skilled in mine warfare, who had under his command numerous well-equipped pioneers. The French Divisions of the 5th and 2nd (Active) Corps, though inferior in equipment, outrivalled the enemy in courage and daring. They held the sector for many months, and their tenacity was more than a match for German technique. They quickly adapted themselves to the necessities of forest fighting, and from February, 1915, they were fully equal to the enemy in discipline and equipment.
In October, 1914, the line, as a whole, crossed the entire width of the Argonne, from the north of Vienne-le-Château to the north of Neuvilly. As a matter of fact, there was no continuous line, the French troops holding only rudimentary trenches, as stationary warfare was still distasteful to them. They believed the pause to be but temporary, and that they would soon resume the advance. They constantly attacked the Germans, who, equally aggressive, endeavoured to gain ground, and to wear down the French resistance by attacks on trenches, and by ceaselessly-renewed local engagements.
The line was very irregular, with constant re-entrants and salients, and frequently shifted. The French had established themselves on the two parallel roads which cross the forest: at Bagatelle on the northern road, in Gruerie Wood and at the Barricade on the southern road. Between the two roads they seized and consolidated positions, such as the Pavillon St. Hubert and Fontaine-Madame. On the northern road and around Bagatelle, during the last months of 1914, the Germans alternately advanced and retreated about half a mile. In October, they captured St. Hubert, only to lose it again. Later, they advanced to within 400 yards of Four-de-Paris on the east, but in November they were stopped in this sector. In the centre, in spite of repeated attacks, they were unable to take Fontaine-Madame.