Casualties in the thirteen attacking battalions were severe. Posted 21 April, 2020 (edited) I am trying to find out more about the dramatic events of 4 May 1917 on the heights of the Chemin des Dames- when a french attack on the RIR 110 caused the Winterberg tunnel to collapse entombing 250 men. The German artillery was outnumbered about 3:1 and on the front of the 14th Division 32 German batteries were bombarded by 125 French artillery batteries. On the night of 2/3 June, two German divisions made five attacks on the east, west and central parts of the Californie Plateau and the west end of the Vauclerc Plateau. North of the farm of La Folie, the Germans were pushed back and three 155 mm (6.1 in) howitzers and several Luftstreitkräfte lorries were captured. [32], On 16 May, a German counter-offensive, on a front of 2.5 mi (4.0 km) from the north-west of Laffaux Mill to the Soissons–Laon railway, was defeated and after dark more attacks north of Laffaux Mill and north-west of Braye-en-Laonnois also failed. Their names are as follows: The Second Battle of the Aisne began on 16 April but the duration and extent of the battle have been interpreted differently. By late March, GAN had been reduced by eleven infantry, two cavalry divisions and 50 heavy guns, which went into the French strategic reserve. laurentnice. As the attackers tried to capture the Widas and dig in near the German second line, Sturmbataillone and Sturmregimenter of the counter-attack divisions would advance from the rückwärtige Kampfzone into the battle zone, in an immediate counter-attack, (Gegenstoß aus der Tiefe). At the time, it was scarcely a carriage road, but it was the most direct route between Paris and the Château de Boves, near Vauclair, on the far side of the Ailette. Behind the main line of resistance was a Grosskampfzone (battle zone), a second defensive area 1,500–2,500 yd (1,400–2,300 m) deep, also placed as far as possible on ground hidden from enemy observation, while in view of German artillery observers. Positions necessary for the new method were defined in Principles of Field Position Construction (Allgemeines über Stellungsbau). [14], Groupe d'armées du Nord (GAN) on the northern flank of Groupe d'armées de Reserve (GAR) had been reduced to the Third Army with three corps in line, by the transfer of the First Army to the GAR. Bois-des-Buttes, Ville-aux-Bois, Bois-des-Boches and the German first and second positions from there to the Aisne had also been captured. On 10 May, another German attack at Chevreux was defeated and the French advanced north of Sancy and on the night of 10/11 May, and the following day, German attacks were repulsed on the Californie Plateau and at Cerny. Nivelle had to resign, and the French Army became plagued by many refusals to march amounting to mutinies in several infantry divisions. The new French strategy was not one of passive defence; in June and July the Fourth, Sixth and Tenth Armies conducted several limited attacks and the First Army was sent to Flanders to participate in the Third Battle of Ypres. It acquired the name in the 18th century, as it was the route taken by the two daughters of Louis XV, Adélaïde and Victoire, who were known as Ladies of France. [44] A 2003 web publication gave 108,000 French casualties, 49,526 in the Fifth Army, 30,296 casualties in the Sixth Army, 4,849 in the Tenth Army, 2,169 in the Fourth Army and 1,486 in the Third Army. Carte du Chemin des Dames, en novembre 1917. A noteworthy visitors' centre that offers guided tours is now located at the site. Despite the French holding improvised defences and the huge volumes of German artillery-fire used to prepare attacks, the German organised counter-attacks (Gegenangriffe) met with little success and at Chevreux north-east of Craonne, the French had even pushed further into the Laon Plain. La bataille du chemin des Dames, le contexte France, printemps 1917 L'année 1917 place le Chemin des Dames au centre des événements militaires. During the Second Battle of the Marne, the last fight on the Chemin des Dames occurred between 2 August and 10 October 1918. [9], During the German withdrawal to the Siegfriedstellung (Hindenburg Line) in March 1917, a modest withdrawal took place in the neighbourhood of Soissons. Le 16 avril 1917 la vallée de l’Aisne voit se jouer le début de la plus grande offensive française depuis 1914. This he did without harsh collective punishments. More attacks on the night of 9/10 May were defeated by the French artillery and machine-gun fire; the French managed to advance on the northern slopes of the Vauclerc Plateau. The tunnels and caves under the ridge nullified the destructive effect of the French artillery, which was also reduced by poor weather and by German air superiority, which made French artillery-observation aircraft even less effective. Vimy Ridge, the Scarpe Heights, the caverns, spurs and plateau of the Chemin des Dames and the Moronvilliers massif had been occupied for more than two years, carefully surveyed by German engineers and fortified to make them impregnable. The Tenth Army captured the Californie plateau on the Chemin des Dames, the Sixth Army captured the Siegfriedstellung for 2.5 mi (4.0 km) along the Chemin des Dames and then advanced at the salient opposite Laffaux. Et cela, aussi bien du côté du neuf que des produits Chemin Des Dames 1917 occasion. Dimanche 6 mai 1917. The road connects the N2 and D1044 and is commonly known as Chemin des Dames. Europe 1. [37] The politicians and public were stunned by the chain of events and on 16 May, Nivelle was sacked and moved to North Africa. [31], Between Vauxaillon and Reims and on the Moronvilliers heights the French had captured much of the German defensive zone, despite the failure to break through and Army Group German Crown Prince counter-attacked before the French could consolidate, mostly by night towards the summits of the Chemin des Dames and the Moronvilliers massif. Vauxeny and Vauxaillon were occupied a few days later. On 25 January 1915 German forces captured the Creute farm (today La Caverne du Dragon or the Dragon's Lair), the last remaining French position on the plateau. Furthermore, during the following 12 days of the battle, French losses continued to rise to 120,000 casualties (dead, wounded, and missing). Nivelle was superseded by General Philippe Pétain, who adopted a strategy of "healing and defence", to resume the wearing-out of the German Army while conserving French infantry. A German counter-attack on the Californie Plateau was smashed by artillery and infantry small-arms fire and 350 prisoners taken. Defending infantry would fight in areas, with the front divisions in an outpost zone up to 3,000 yd (2,700 m) deep behind listening posts, with the main line of resistance placed on a reverse slope, in front of artillery observation posts, which were kept far enough back to retain observation over the outpost zone. Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}49°26′35″N 3°42′37″E / 49.44306°N 3.71028°E / 49.44306; 3.71028, Learn how and when to remove these template messages, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Oise-Aisne American Cemetery and Memorial, Panoramic views of The Dragon's Lair site, the visitors' centre, and the museum, Pictures of Chemin des Dames – Fort de Conde, Caverne du Dragon, Site covering Chemin des Dames in WW1 (in French), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chemin_des_Dames&oldid=1004046744, Articles needing additional references from August 2014, All articles needing additional references, Wikipedia articles needing reorganization from November 2019, Articles with multiple maintenance issues, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from March 2019, Articles needing additional references from June 2019, Wikipedia articles with WorldCat-VIAF identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. By the end of the day the 26th Division had held on to 100 yd (91 m) of the German front trench and the 25th Division had been forced back to its jumping-off trenches. [33], At 8:30 p.m. on 23 May, a German assault on the Vauclerc Plateau was defeated and on 24 May, a renewed attack was driven back in confusion. The French should have terminated the offensive after the first day when it became clear that the expected results were not being achieved. The objective of the attack on the Aisne was to capture the prominent 80-kilometre-long (50 mi), east–west ridge of the Chemin des Dames, 110 km (68 mi) north-east of Paris and then advance northwards to capture the city of Laon. The caverns originally were a tunnel system created from excavations of limestone for building purposes in the 17th century. The mutinies in the French armies became known in general to the Germans but the cost of the defensive success on the Aisne made it impossible to reinforce Flanders and conduct more than local operations on the Aisne and in Champagne. General Robert Nivelleplanned the offensive in December 1916, … There are numerous war memorials and cemeteries, German, French and British, all along the chemin. The Sixth Army operations took c. 3,500 prisoners but no break-through had been achieved but the German second position been reached at only one point. The ridge's strategic importance first became evident in 1814 when Napoleon's young recruits beat an army of Prussians and Russians at the Battle of Craonne. Le nom de Craonne, situé au cœur de la bataille du Chemin des Dames, a été popularisé par The German retirement was carried out in a rush and many guns were left behind, along with "vast" stocks of munitions. The Chemin des Dames became the scene of great battles. Embarquement en auto à Vic, à neuf heures trente ; route par Soissons, Sermoise, Bazoches. Battle of the Chemin des Dames - 1917 1HR 8MIN April 1917. [11] A rückwärtige Kampfzone (rear battle zone) further back was to be occupied by the reserve battalion of each regiment. Chemin des Dames literally translates as Ladies' Way. [15][a][b] Large reconnaissance forces were set towards the Dallon spur on 1 April, which were not able to gain footholds in the German front defences, although the British Fourth Army to the north captured the woods around Savy. The French infantry reached the new German positions with an advance of 4 mi (6.4 km). The final count, when the offensive was over, was 271,000 French casualties and 163,000 Germans casualties. [18], After another attack on 4 April, the villages of Dallon, Giffecourt, Cerizy and côtes (hills) 111, 108, and 121 south of Urvillers, were captured and the German position at the apex of the triangle from Ham to St Quentin and La Fère was made vulnerable to a further attack. This page was last edited on 31 January 2021, at 21:15. Le Chemin des Dames. During the nights of the 6/7 and 7/8 May, the Germans attacked from Vauxaillon to Craonne and on the night of 8/9 May German attacks were repulsed at Cerny, La Bovelle, Heutebise Farm and the Californie Plateau. The German positions also dominated the southerly slope over which the French attackers were progressing. [39], The operations in Champagne on 20 May ended the Nivelle Offensive; most of the Chemin-des-Dames plateau, particularly the east end, which dominated the plain north of the Aisne had been captured. L’objectif est de briser les lignes allemandes pour s’emparer de la ville Laon, noeud ferroviaire stratégique allemand. À l'époque, le front allemand présente une avancée dans la région de Noyon. An attack on 5 May southeast of Vauxaillon took Moisy Farm and Laffaux Mill and repulsed German counter-attacks. [5] The German withdrawal forestalled the attacks of the British and Groupe d'armées du Nord (GAN) but also freed French divisions for the attack. Le 16 avril 1917 débute au Chemin des Dames l’offensive française commandée par le Général Robert Nivelle. All are named after the river which flows on the south side of the ridge. The 7th Army commander Boehn, was not able to establish a defence in depth along the Chemin-de-Dames, because the ridge was a hog's back and the only alternative was to retire north of the Canal de l'Oise à l'Aisne. Le 90e anniversaire de l'année 1917, au Chemin des Dames … [30], Nivelle ordered the Tenth Army forward between the Fifth and Sixth armies on 21 April. In his analysis of the battle, Loßberg opposed the granting of discretion to front trench garrisons to retire, as he believed that manoeuvre did not allow the garrisons to evade Allied artillery-fire, which could blanket the forward area and invited enemy infantry to occupy vacated areas unopposed. Concrete machine-gun emplacements proved immune to all but the heaviest and most accurate howitzer-fire and the main position was protected by an observation line along the crest in front, which commanded no man's land, which was 800–1,200 yd (730–1,100 m) deep. Second, don’t fall in love with your new concept: If it fails stop. Le but était de prendre en tenaille les troupes allemandes qui s'y trouvaient. [2] Nivelle threatened to resign if the offensive did not go ahead and having not lost a battle, had the enthusiastic support of the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George. [45] In 2005, Doughty quoted figures of 134,000 French casualties on the Aisne from 16–25 April, of whom 30,000 men were killed, 100,000 were wounded and 4,000 were taken prisoner; the rate of casualties was the worst since November 1914. The Second Battle of the Aisne (French: Bataille du Chemin des Dames or French: Seconde bataille de l'Aisne, 16 April – mid-May 1917) was the main part of the Nivelle Offensive, a Franco-British attempt to inflict a decisive defeat on the German armies in France. The Second Battle of the Aisne (French: Bataille du Chemin des Dames or French: Seconde bataille de l'Aisne, 16 April – mid-May 1917) was the main part of the Nivelle Offensive, a Franco-British attempt to inflict a decisive defeat on the German armies in France. The penetration broke into open country and fighting went on from 27 May to 6 June 1918, but ran out of energy owing to lack of a strategic objective and lengthening supply lines. [29] On the west bank the Moroccan Division was repulsed on the right and captured Mont sans Nom on the left. [27], On 17 April the Fourth Army on the left of Groupe d'armées de Centre (GAC) began the subsidiary attack in Champagne from Aubérive to the east of Reims which became known as Bataille des Monts, with the VIII, XVII and XII Corps on an 11 km (6.8 mi) front. Uffindell called this politically convenient, since this excluded the Battle of La Malmaison in October, making it easier to blame Nivelle. To the north-east of the hill the advance reached a depth of 1.5 mi (2.4 km) and next day the advance was pressed beyond Mont Haut. [3], The Second Battle of the Aisne involved c. 1.2 million troops and 7,000 guns on a front from Reims to Roye, with the main effort against the German positions along the Aisne river. The cost of the Nivelle Offensive in casualties and loss of morale were great but German losses were also high and the tactical success of the French in capturing elaborately fortified positions and defeating counter-attacks, reduced German morale. [34], In 2015, Uffindell wrote that retrospective naming and dating of events can affect the way in which the past is understood. On 1 April, a French attack along the line of the Ailette–Laon road reached the outskirts of Laffaux and Vauxaillon. [4] The original plan of December 1916 was plagued by delays and information leaks. Alberich freed 13–14 German divisions which were moved to the Aisne, increasing the German garrison to 38 divisions against 53 French divisions. The Entente strategy was to conduct offensives from north to south, beginning with an attack by the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) then the main attack by two French army groups on the Aisne. 1917, Le chemin des dames : Vincent Moulia, un mutin condamné à mort s’évade. [12], "Principles of Field Fortification" (Allgemeines über Stellungsbau) was published in January 1917 and by April an outpost zone (Vorpostenfeld) held by sentries, had been built along the Western Front. Three battles were fought along the Chemin des Dames east-to-west ridge located to the north of Paris during the First World War. The Germans had been forced out of three of the most elaborately fortified positions on the Western Front and failed to recapture them. French assault on the Chemin des Dames during the Second Battle of the Aisne. Après les batailles de la Somme et de Verdun, l’IGN poursuit la publication de ses cartes commémoratives, avec une nouvelle parution consacrée au Chemin des Dames en 1917. The British Commander-in-Chief, Sir Douglas Haig, supported the concept of a decisive battle but insisted that if the first two phases of the Nivelle scheme were unsuccessful, the British effort would be moved north to Flanders. The German defenders suffered much less, but lost some 20,000 prisoners, 40 cannons, and 200 machine guns. Une photo rare, montrant les ennemis d'hier ensemble pour une photo. The front line then remained static until March 1917, during which time several thousand soldiers died in local attacks or coup de main operations. From 16 April – 10 May the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Tenth armies took 28,500 prisoners and 187 guns. On 13 April at 5:00 a.m., XIII Corps attacked with two divisions; the 26th Division on the right took the German first line and then defeated two German counter-attacks but the 25th Division on the left was repulsed almost immediately by uncut wire and machine-gun fire, despite French field artillery being advanced into no man's land at the last minute to cut the wire. When the French armies met the British advancing from the Arras front, the Germans would be pursued towards Belgium and the German frontier. South of the river, the Fifth and Tenth armies on the plain near Loivre, had managed to advance west of the Brimont Heights. [35], The offensive advanced the front line by 6–7 km (3.7–4.3 mi) on the front of the Sixth Army, which took 5,300 prisoners and a large amount of equipment. All are named after the river which flows on the south side of the ridge. The canal was crossed further north and Berméricourt was captured against a determined German defence. Half of the tanks were knocked out in the German defences and then acted as pillboxes in advance of the French infantry, which helped to defeat a big German counter-attack. The reserve was obtained by creating 22 divisions by internal reorganisation of the army, bringing divisions from the eastern front and by shortening the western front, in Operation Alberich. De quoi nourrir vos convictions personnelles avec la référence Chemin Des Dames 1917 si la seconde main fait partie intégrante de vos habitudes d'achat. The others were interred in ossuaries or into collective graves. [33] During the night the French took the wood south-east of Chevreux and almost annihilated two German battalions. Furthermore, the agonizingly slow evacuation of the French wounded also demonstrated a lack of logistical preparations. Mais, le 16 décembre 1916, Joffre, qui commande depuis août 1914 et ne semble pl… Le secteur de front choisi pour laffrontement est le Chemin des Dames, dans le départem… Chaleur atroce. Loßberg and other officers had severe doubts as to the ability of relief divisions to arrive on the battlefield in time to conduct an immediate counter-attack (Gegenstoß) from behind the battle zone and wanted the Somme practice of fighting in the front line to be retained and authority devolved no further than the battalion, so as to maintain organizational coherence, in anticipation of a methodical counter-attack (Gegenangriff) after 24–48 hours by the relief divisions. French attacks could only take place at night or during twilight and snow, rain, low clouds and fog made aircraft observation for the artillery impossible. 55:02. German artillery-fire had not been heavy and the defence had been based on machine-gun fire and rapid counter-attacks. Qui plus est, avant l'attaque, les Allemands ont abandonné leurs premières tranchées et construit un nouveau réseau enterré à l'arrière, plus court, de façon à faire l'économie d'un maximum de troupes : la ligne Hindenburg. Conduct of the Defensive Battle (Grundsätze für die Führung in der Abwehrschlacht) was published on 1 December 1916. Laffaux was captured and then lost to a counter-attack before changing hands several times, until finally captured on 19 April. A total of 629 men were sentenced to death, but only 28 men, who had fired weapons at their superiors, were executed. The ending of the battle is usually given as mid-May. By April, the French advance had only progressed beyond Neuville-sur-Margival and Leuilly. On the north bank of the Aisne the French attack was more successful, the 42nd and 69th divisions reached the German second position between the Aisne and the Miette, the advance north of Berry penetrating 2.5 mi (4.0 km). [10], In a new manual of 1 December 1916, Grundsätze für die Führung in der Abwehrschlacht im Stellungskrieg (Principles of Command for Defensive Battle), the policy of unyielding defence of ground regardless of its tactical value, was replaced by the defence of positions suitable for artillery observation and communication with the rear, where an attacking force would "fight itself to a standstill and use up its resources while the defenders conserve[d] their strength". In October, after the Allied victory at the Battle of La Malmaison, the German forces left the Chemin des Dames and moved to the north of the Ailette River valley. This, of course, provided ample warning that a major French attack was coming. It is some thirty kilometres long and runs along a ridge between the valleys of the rivers Aisne and Ailette. Elle commence le 16 avril 1917 à 6 heures du matin par la tentative française de rupture du front allemand entre Soissons et Reims vers Laon, sous les ordres du général Nivelle : « L'heure est venue, confiance, Mais l’échec est terrible. On 2 June a bigger German attack began, after an intensive bombardment of the French front, from the north of Laffaux to the east of Berry-au-Bac. Eventually normality came back in the fall of 1917. He was replaced by the considerably more cautious Pétain with Foch as chief of the General Staff, who adopted a strategy of "healing and defence" to avoid casualties and to restore morale. Celle qui a le plus marqué la mémoire collective est celle qui s’y déroula entre le 16 avril et le 24 octobre 1917. Courcy on the right flank was captured by the 1st Brigade of the Russian Expeditionary Force in France but the advance was stopped at the Aisne–Marne canal. [1] The French Prime Minister Aristide Briand supported Nivelle but the war minister Lyautey resigned during a dispute with the Chamber of Deputies and the Briand government fell; a new government under Alexandre Ribot took office on 20 March. The British captured Messines Ridge on 7 June and spent the rest of the year on the offensive in the Third Battle of Ypres (31 July – 10 November) and the Battle of Cambrai (20 November – 8 December). The British army took over the defences at the western end of the ridge during the following twelve months, thus bringing relief. [26], On the second day, Nivelle ordered the Fifth Army to attack north-eastwards to reinforce success, believing that the Germans intended to hold the ground in front of the Sixth Army. Rouquerol, J., 1934, "Le Chemin des Dames 1917", Editions Payot, Paris 1937. General Franchet d'Espèrey called La Malmaison "the decisive phase of the Battle...that began on 16 April and ended on 2 November....". Nivelle believed the Germans had been exhausted by the Battle of Verdun and the Battle of the Somme in 1916 and could not resist a breakthrough offensive, which could be completed in 24–48 hours. An attack on Brimont on (4–5 May), the capture of which would have been of great tactical value, was postponed on the orders of the French government and never took place. [23], The left flank division of the XXXII Corps and the right division of the V Corps penetrated the German second position south of Juvincourt but French tanks attacking south of the Miette from Bois de Beau Marais advanced to disaster. Much of the German artillery was silenced before the French attack. 1:51. Le Chemin des Dames (mai - juin 1917) Samedi 5 mai 1917. The Third Army began French operations, with preliminary attacks on German observation points at St. Quentin on 1–4 and 10 April. Deux frères axonais avaient fouillé le site dit du tunnel de Winterberg, sur le Chemin des Dames, en début d’année pour trouver les dépouilles des 270 soldats allemands morts en 1917. To soften up the German defences, General Robert Nivelle, an artilleryman by training and experience, inflicted a six-day artillery preparation involving 5,300 guns. On the Chemin des Dames, I Corps made very little progress and by evening had advanced no further than the German support line, 200–300 yd (180–270 m) ahead. Ludendorff was sufficiently impressed by the Loßberg memorandum to add it to the new Manual of Infantry Training for War. [19], The main attack by GAN was planned as two successive operations, an attack by XIII Corps to capture Rocourt and Moulin de Tous Vents south-west of the city, to guard the flank of the principal attack by XIII Corps and XXXV Corps on Harly and Alaincourt, intended to capture the high ground east and south-east of St. Quentin. The French War Minister, Hubert Lyautey and Chief of Staff General Henri-Philippe Pétain opposed the plan, believing it to be premature. Such methods required large numbers of reserve divisions ready to move to the battlefront. The artillery bombardment of the area actually cracked some of the overlying cliffs, which can be seen today. A German breakthrough was aided by orders of a French general to mass troops in the front line – a tactic by this date discredited. Vic-sur-Aisne. La RD 18 CD traverse dix-huit villages dont sept ont été totalement ou partiellement détruits et classés en zone rouge en 1923. Casualties had reached 20 percent in the French armies by 10 May and some divisions suffered more than 60 percent losses. The high French casualty count, in so few days and with such minimal gains, was perceived at headquarters and by the French public as a disaster. [43] In 1962, G. W. L. Nicholson the Canadian Official Historian, recorded German losses of c. 163,000 and French casualties of 187,000 men. With the gloom of winter still hanging over France, French soldiers were sure the Great War was about to end. Le lundi 16 avril 1917, au premier jour de l'offensive des dizaines de milliers de combattants étaient en première ligne au Chemin des Dames. The route was used during Stage 6 of the 2014 Tour de France as part of the race's tribute to the men killed in the 1914–18 War.[1]. The French infantry had suffered many casualties and few of the leading divisions were capable of resuming the attack. The rear edge of the German battle zone along the ridge had been reinforced with machine-gun posts and the German divisional commanders decided to hold the front line, rather than giving ground elastically; few of the Eingreif Divisions were needed to intervene in the battle. Beneath the ridge is an almost a square-kilometre cave network called "The Dragon's Lair" (La Caverne du Dragon). This situation developed into a threat of complete disintegration. Most perished, and according to a report in a french newspaper L’Union from 2018, they are still there. The German army took a defensive stand on the ridge in September 1914, stopping the advancing Allied armies after the Battle of the Marne. At Sapigneul in the XXXII Corps area, the 37th Division attack failed, which released German artillery in the area to fire in enfilade into the flanks of the adjacent divisions, which had been able to advance and the guns were also able to engage the French tanks north of the Aisne. Success would enable the French to menace the flank of the German forces to the south, along the Oise to La Fère and the rear of the German positions south of the St. Gobain massif, due to be attacked from the south by the Sixth Army of the GAR.