The Story of the Great War, Volume 4 / Champagne, Artois, Grodno; Fall of Nish; Caucasus; Mesopotamia; Development of Air Strategy; United States and the War

by Unknown

At nearly every point the Germans were taken completely by surprise, for their defensive fire was not opened until after the flowing tide of the invaders had passed by. This was due neither to lack of courage nor of vigilance, but to the demoralizing effect on the nerves of the defenders by the terrific cannonade, which in all such cases induces a sort of helpless apathy.

The French actually penetrated into the first German trench over the whole attacking front at one rush; after that their progress met with fiercer resistance and varying checks. While certain units continued their advance with remarkable rapidity, others encountered machine guns still in action and either stopped or advanced with extreme difficulty. Some centers of the German resistance maintained their position for several hours; some even for days. A line showing the different stages of the French advance in Champagne would assume a curiously winding shape, and would reveal on one hand the defensive power of an adversary resolved to hold his ground at all costs, and on the other the mathematically successful continuity of the French efforts in this hand-to-hand struggle.

The Battle of Champagne must be considered in the light of a series of assaults, executed at the same moment, in parallel or convergent directions and having for their object either the capture or the hemming in of the first German position, the units being instructed to re-form in a continuous line before the second position. In order to follow the development clearly, the terrain must be divided into several sectors, in each of which the operations, although closely coordinated, assumed, as a consequence either of the nature of the ground or of the peculiarities of the German defenses, a different character. The unity of the action was nevertheless insured by the simultaneity of the rush, which carried all the troops beyond the first position, past the batteries, to the defenses established by the Germans on the heights to the south of Py. At the two extremities of the French attacking front, where the advance was subjected to converging fires and to counterattacks on the flanks, the offensive practically failed—or at least made no progress. The fighting that took place in Auberive and round about Servon was marked by several heroic features, but it led to no further result than to hold and immobilize the German forces on the wings while the attack was progressing in the center.

Detail Map of Battle in Champagne, September, 1915.

In accordance with the proposed arrangement of divisions into sectors, we will take as Number—

(1) The sector of the Épine de Vedegrange: Here the first German line was established at the base of a wide glacis covered with clumps of trees, and formed a series of salients running into each other. At certain points it ran along the edge of the woods where the supplementary defenses were completed by abatis. The position as a whole between Auberive and Souain described a vast triangle. To the west of the road from Saint-Hilaire to Saint-Souplet, the troops traversed the first German line and rushed forward for a distance of about 1,200 yards as far as a supporting trench, in front of which they were stopped by wire entanglements. A counterattack debouching from the west and supported by the artillery of Moronvillers caused a slight retirement of the French left. The troops on the right, on the contrary, held their gains and succeeded on the following days in increasing and extending them, remaining in touch with the units which were attacking on the east of the road. The latter had succeeded in a brilliant manner in overcoming the difficulties that faced them. The German position which they captured, with its triple and quadruple lines of trenches, its small forts armed with machine guns, its woods adapted for the defensive purpose in view, constituted one of the most complete schemes of defense on the Champagne front and afforded cover to a numerous artillery concealed in the woods of the glacis. On this front, about three miles wide, the attack on September 25, 1915, achieved a mixed success. The troops on the left, after having penetrated into the first trench, had their progress arrested by machine guns. On the right, however, in spite of obstacles presented by four successive trenches, each of which was covered by a network of wire entanglements and was concealed in the woods, where the French artillery had difficulty in reaching them, the attacking troops gained about one and one-half miles, took 700 prisoners and captured seven guns.

The advance here recommenced on September 27, 1915. The left took possession of the woods lining the road from Saint-Hilaire to Saint-Souplet as far as the Épine de Vedegrange. Along the whole extent of the wooded heights as far as the western side of the hollow at Souain the success was identical. Notwithstanding the losses they sustained and the fatigue involved in the incessant fighting, the troops pushed forward, leaving behind them only a sufficient force to clear the woods of isolated groups of Germans still remaining there. Between four and six in the afternoon they arrived immediately in front of the second German position. On the same day they penetrated this position at two points, and captured a trench over a thousand yards wide, called the "Parallel of the Épine de Vedegrange," which was duplicated almost throughout by another trench (the parallel of the wood of Chevron). A little farther east the French also penetrated the German trench to a depth of about 450 yards. But it was impossible to take advantage of this breach owing to a concentration of the heavy German artillery, a rapidly continued defense of the surrounding woods, and the fire of machine guns which could not be approached. These guns were planted in the trenches on the right and left of the entry and exit of the breach. The results attained by the French in this sector alone amounted to fifteen square miles of territory organized for defenses throughout nearly the whole of its extent. On September 28, 1915, they also took over 3,000 prisoners and forty-four cannon.

(2) Sector of Souain: The German lines round about Souain described a wide curve. Close to the French trenches, to the west at the Mill and to the east at the wood of Sabot, they swerved to the extent of about a mile to the north of the village and of the source of the Ain.