(6) Sector of Massiges: The safety of the French troops which had advanced to the wood and the Maisons de Champagne was assured by the capture of the heights of Massiges. This sharply undulating upland (199 on the north and 191 on the south) formed a German stronghold that was believed to be impregnable. From the top they commanded the French positions in several directions. The two first attacking parties marched out in columns at 9.15 a. m., preceded by field-artillery fire. In fifteen minutes they had reached the summit. Then their difficulties began. In the face of a withering rifle and machine-gun fire they could proceed but slowly along the summits by the communication alleys, blasting their way through with hand grenades, and supported by the artillery, which was constantly kept informed of their movements by means of flag signals. The Germans surrendered in large numbers as the grenadiers advanced. The French formed an uninterrupted, ever-lengthening chain of grenade-bearers in the communication alleys, just as buckets of water were passed from hand to hand at fires in former times. This chain started from Massiges and each fresh arrival of grenades at the other end was accompanied by a further advance.
The fight continued in this manner from September 25, 1915, to October 3, 1915, with fierce perseverance against stubborn opposition. The Germans poured a continuous stream of reenforcements into the section and offered a resistance that has rarely been equaled for obstinacy and courage. According to French reports, they stood up to be shot down—the machine-gun men at their guns, the grenadiers on their grenade chests. Every attempt at counterattacking failed them. Having the heights of Massiges in their possession enabled the French to extend their gains toward Ville-sur-Tourbe, while taking in flank those trenches they had failed to capture by a frontal attack. The loss of these heights seemed to have particularly disturbed the German General Staff. It was at first denied in the official reports, and then explained that the ground had been abandoned owing to artillery fire, whereas the French Headquarters Staff claimed that they had captured the ground mainly by hand-grenade fighting at close quarters.
The Battle of Champagne presents a number of curious aspects. How came the Germans to be so overwhelmingly surprised? Beyond all doubt, they expected a great French offensive. In the orders of the day issued by General von Ditfurth on August 15, 1915—five weeks before the French attack began—we read, "The possibility of a great French offensive must be considered." General von Fleck was rather late: on September 26, 1915, when the French had already taken nearly the whole first-line trenches, he expressed the opinion that "The French Higher Command appears to be disposed to make another desperate effort." What is tolerably certain is that the German General Staff did not foresee the strength of the blow nor suspect the vigor with which it would be delivered. Even the command on the battle field itself apparently failed to recognize what was happening before their eyes. Inside the shelters of the second line two German officers were placidly enjoying the delights of morning in bed, when they were disturbed by noises which it was beyond their wits to account for. The door of their little house was rudely thrust open and excited voices said rude things in French. Then bayonets made their appearance, and soldiers, hot and breathing hard after their steeplechase across the German trenches, pulled the officers from their beds with scant respect, informing them briefly that they were prisoners. This was the first intimation which the stupefied officers received that the enemy had broken through their lines.
They seemed to have had an excessive confidence in the strength of their first line, and the interruption of telephonic communications had prevented their being informed of the rapid French advance. Then as to the disposition and employment of reserves: Here it looks as though that perfect organization and semi-infallible precision which characterize the German army had, for the nonce, gone awry in the Champagne conflict. In order to make up for the insufficiency of the local reserves the German military authorities had to put in line not only the important units which they held at their disposal behind the front (Tenth Corps brought back from Russia), but the local reserves from other sectors (Soissons, Argonne, the Woevre, Alsace), which were dispatched to Champagne one battalion after another, and even in groups of double companies. Ill provided with food and munitions, the reenforcements were pushed to battle on an unknown terrain without indication as to the direction they had to take and without their junction with neighboring units having been arranged. Through the haste with which the reserves were thrown under the fire of the French artillery and infantry—already in possession of the positions—the German losses must have been increased enormously. A letter taken from a soldier of the 118th Regiment may be cited as corroborative evidence: "We were put in a motor car and proceeded at a headlong pace to Tahure, by way of Vouziers. Two hours' rest in the open air with rain falling, and then we had a six hours' march to take up our positions. On our way we were greeted by the fire of the enemy shells, so that, for instance, out of 280 men of the second company only 224 arrived safe and sound inside the trenches. These trenches, freshly dug, were barely thirty-five to fifty centimeters (12 to 17 in.) deep. Continually surrounded by mines and bursting shells, we had to remain in them and do the best we could with them for 118 hours without getting anything hot to eat. Hell itself could not be more terrible. To-day, at about 12 noon, 600 men, fresh troops, joined the regiment. In five days we had lost as many and more."
The disorder in which the reenforcements were engaged appears strongly from this fact: On only that part of the front included between Maisons de Champagne and Hill 189 there were on October 2, 1915, no fewer than thirty-two different battalions belonging to twenty-one different regiments. During the days following the French rush through the first line, the Germans seemed to have but one idea, to strengthen their second line to stem the advance. Their counterattacks were concentrated on a comparatively unimportant part of the battle front in certain places, the loss of which appeared to them to be particularly dangerous. Therefore on the heights of Massiges the German military authorities hurled in succession isolated battalions of the 123d, 124th and 120th regiments; of the Thirtieth Regular Regiment and of the Second Regiment Ersatz Reserve (Sixteenth Corps), which were in turn decimated, for these counterattacks, hastily and crudely prepared, all ended in sanguinary failures. It was not the men who failed their leaders, for they fought like tigers when reasonable opportunities were offered them.
That strong offensive capacity of the Germans seemed also, on the occasion, to have broken down. General von Ditfurth's order of the day bears witness to this: "It seemed to me that the infantry at certain points was confining its action to a mere defensive.... I cannot protest too strongly against such an idea, which necessarily results in destroying the spirit of offensive in our own troops and in arousing and strengthening in the mind of the enemy a feeling of his superiority. The enemy is left full liberty of action and our action is subjected to the will of the enemy."
It is of course impossible to estimate precisely what the German losses were. There are certain known details, however, which may serve to indicate their extent. One underofficer declared that he was the only man remaining out of his company. A soldier of the third battalion of the 123d Regiment, engaged on the 26th, stated that his regiment was withdrawn from the front after only two days' fighting because its losses were too great. The 118th Regiment relieved the 158th Regiment in the trenches after it had been reduced to fifteen or twenty men per company. Certain units disappeared completely, as for instance the Twenty-seventh Reserve Regiment and the Fifty-second Regular Regiment, which, by the evening of the 25th, had left in French hands the first 13 officers and 933 men, and the other 21 officers and 927 men. Certain figures may help to arrive at the total losses. At the beginning of September, 1915, the German strength on the Champagne front amounted to seventy battalions. In anticipation of a French attack they brought there, before the 25th, another twenty-nine battalions, making a total of ninety-nine battalions. Reckoning the corresponding artillery and pioneer formations, this would represent 115,000 men directly engaged. The losses due to the artillery preparation and the first attacks were such that from September 25 to October 15, 1915, the German General Staff was compelled to renew its effectives almost in their entirety by sending out ninety-three fresh battalions. It is assumed that the units engaged on September 25-26, 1915, suffered losses amounting to from sixty to eighty per cent (even more for certain corps which had entirely disappeared). The new units brought into line for the counterattacks, and subjected in connection with these to an incessant bombardment, lost fifty per cent of their effectives, if not more. Hence it would be hardly overstating the case to set down 140,000 men as the sum of the German losses in Champagne. It must also be taken into account that of this number the proportion of slightly wounded men able to recuperate quickly and return to the front was, in the case of the Germans, very much below the average proportion of other engagements, for they were unable to collect their wounded. Thus nearly the whole of the troops defending the first position fell into French hands.
After recounting the losses of one side, let us turn to analyze the gains of the other. The French had penetrated the German lines on a front of over fifteen miles, and to a depth of two and a half miles in some places, between Auberive and Ville-sur-Tourbe. The territorial gains may be thus summarized: The troops of the Republic had scaled the whole of the glacis of the Épine de Vedegrange; they occupied the ridge of the hollow at Souain; debouched in the opening to the north of Perthes to the slopes of Hill 195 and as far as the Butte de Tahure; carried the western bastions of the curtain of le Mesnil; advanced as far as Maisons de Champagne and took by assault the "hand" of Massiges. The territory they had reconquered from the invaders represented an area of about forty square kilometers. On and from October 7, 1915, they beat back the furious efforts of the Germans to regain the lost ground. Nevertheless, in spite of the utmost resolution on the part of commanders, and of valor on the part of the French troops, the Germans were not completely overthrown, and the annihilating results expected from the action of the mass of troops and guns employed were not attained. It was a victory, but an indecisive one.
On October 5, 1915, General Joffre issued the following manifesto from Grand Headquarters:
"The Commander in Chief addresses to the troops under his orders the expression of his profound satisfaction at the results obtained up to the present day by the attacks. Twenty-five thousand prisoners, three hundred and fifty guns, a quantity of material which it has not yet been possible to gauge, are the trophies of a victory the echo of which throughout Europe indicates its importance.