The fighting in Argonne was not on the same scale as the battle of Verdun but was just as fierce and cutthroat. Vauquois, Varennes, Montfaucon, just three of many places where fighting caused a considerable number of deaths.
|
 |
european institute of cultural routes |
|
| Caroline Hamajda |
| 30 March 2009 |
|
|
The configuration of the land, a forest made up of almost impenetrable shrubbery, gave an unusual character to the First War in Argonne.
From October 1914, French and German soldiers set up camp amongst a backdrop which for many became a shroud.
The thickness of the vegetation prevented the artillery from seeing where it was shooting. However, gunfire was continuous: the machine gunners shot constantly day and night to counter against any surprise attacks from the enemy. During the day, machine gun fire was joined by grenades and explosives.
Hundreds were killed and injured every day.
Mines were placed underground in order to blast the enemy at strategic points and occupy the land. During the first trimester of 1915, between the Four-de-Paris and the Aire valley, French soldiers dug more than three kilometres of tunnels for mines and used more than seven tons of explosives.
|
News of the front line...
|
The Battle of Argonne as Magritte saw it
|
The place known as Four-de-Paris is located in Biesme valley, between two mountain ranges. It was originally a peaceful hamlet dependant on the Marne community of Vienne-le-Chateau.
From October 1914, Von Mudra’s German troops took hold of Bagatelle and Saint-Hubert. At the end of November, the road linking the Four-de-Paris to Varennes was abandoned by French troops.
Ravin des Meurissons
On 7th January 1915, in the Meurissons ravine, an attack from the Germans was quickly stopped but the decision to dig trenches was taken as this advance was certainly the announcement of a more major offensive.
The following day, 8th January 1915, the German artillery burst into the area and three regiments of Bavarian fighters tried to take back the French position. In confusion fire killed different assailants and defenders. The French divisions resisted the pressure.
On the neighbouring plateau, the Bavarians shattered the momentum of the 11th company of the 46th regiment. Germans infiltrated the ravine; luckily the 11th continued to hold on: the sick and the cooks got the guns and fought back.
As fatigue came over the fighters, a bugle announced the arrival of reinforcements. A large part of the 2nd Garibaldian batallion and men of the 89th regiment charged into the vault under the shrubbery. A hand-to-hand fight began.
The assailant was pushed back and abandoned the ravine.
Gruerie Wood
In Gruerie Wood, situated to the North of the road, fighting was just as insane : hilltops and ravines were the focus of relentless fighting. Fontaine-au-Charmes, Fontaine-Madame, Fontaine Marie-Therese are names immortalised by the First World War.
In September 1914, French troops trying to cut the enemy’s communications were driven onto a plateau bordered on every side by a brook while the Germans tried to reach Biesme valley by using the ravines. These two progressions generated continual fighting.
Fighters of the 32nd army corps who held Gruerie Wood were in contact with the enemy for over a year. Attacks, counter-attacks, the opposing trenches were only thirty metres apart, sometimes less. Behind the barrages made up of sacks of sand, there was a lot of worry and to fight, the soldiers left and attacked the neighbour, often with a bayonet, sometimes even with a dagger.
|
|
|
Bagatelle Trench
On 18th April 1915 the 150th French infantry regiment decided to take over the Bagatelle trench.
The offensive started at 2pm and was successful: 80 metres were taken. But a German counter-attack reduced this advance to nil; the French were soon pushed back.
Nine days later, the French won 1.5 metres. The 25th April, the Germans tried to advance but the 150th regiment did not give up any land.
In the evening of the 1st May 1915, as the 3rd battalion of the 150th infantry regiment came to take over from the men of the 2nd battalion of the 161st, the Germans ran into French trenches. The German attack was violent: the artillery fire formed a barrier between the back lines and the front making liaisons and supplying munitions impossible.
The 9th company, under control of captain Juge, held on and resisted admirably, but the grenades missed. There were many dead and injured. Captain Juge encouraged his men, holding his gun in his fist and standing on the parapet. He was hit by a bullet, collapsed, then courageously stood until another bullet hit him; he cried out “Hold strong my children, be strong.� Hit again by another projectile, he was evacuated.
The 9th company was practically wiped out: only one officer and twenty-three men were left standing, there were no more grenades and nearly no more ammunition. The 10th and 11th companies tried to contain the German advance but were caught unawares and underwent enormous loss before falling back. The 10th company was short of munitions and had to resist using rifles and bayonets before drawing back and continuing to resist.
The attackers grew tired; they too had undergone considerable loss. The 12th company was encircled and broke free angrily. At 7pm, the Germans reached the second line’s trench; the 12th company who had left the trap, returned and pushed them back. The French soldiers seized bags of grenades carried by the assailants and used these weapons to take back ground and capture a machine gun.
At 9pm, calm returned. The first French line was in the hands of the Germans, but the second line was reinforced.
The major offensive
On June 20th 1915, as the Germans decided to abandon sporadic attacks which were too fruitless and wearing for the fighters, an offensive was planned over a larger area. This offensive was preceded by a violent showering of suffocating shells.
A Prussian division and a division from Wurtembourg attacked in Gruerie Wood. Partly intoxicated by the gases, nearly buried in the trenches, the French infantrymen of the 32nd corps resisted fiercely. Nonetheless, the Germans seized Fontaine-aux-Charmes.
The aim of the Germans was to get into Biesme valley and climb up to the Islettes. Barriers stopped anyone passing and the French reserves counter-attacked.
On 2nd July, a new preparation of artillery led to a second large-scale attempt. The Germans reloaded. They came up against men of the 42nd division who would not give way: the Germans failed with many losses of lives.
The French line was built on strong points and had good observatories. A French assault was planned for the 14th July, but the Germans attacked first. They infiltrated in small groups and encircled the first lines. The French quickly responded and returned through ravines filled with gas. Despite being pelted with bullets, they used bayonets to clear out the shrubbery and took up all the abandoned positions.
This failure lessened the Germans’ fervour. In the Argonne area, they reinforced their positions and did not try to leave forcefully but continued to chip away slowly at the French defenses. The two camps remained on permanent alert.
|
The name “Vauquois� demands respect. It is the symbol of relentless fighting and its land carries the indelible scars of the First World War.
In September 1914, during the violent German push towards the South, the hill on which part of the village was built was taken over by Germans. The 3rd French army could not resist the terrible pressure and abandoned Vauqouis despite its strategic position as an observatory for the artillery.
The Germans set up at Vauquois. Access to the hill was naturally arduous due to the ravines and glacis which surrounded it, and the besiegers undertook the task of fortifying this position. Shelters were dug into the rocks. Each house became a stronghold: the cellar windows were turned into embrasures, the garden walls were crenellated. Trenches were dug in the inclines in front of the village.
Re-taking control of Vauquois was one of the main objectives for the French army. On the 28th October 1914, two battalions of the 46th regiment cantoned in the Black Wood launched an attack on the fortress. However, without any artillery preparation or knowledge of the German defence, the French were knocked down by well-hidden enemy shooters. An avalanche of high-calibre shells ruined any hopes of taking control.
However, the next day, 29th October 1915, after a short but rapid preparation of artillery, other French companies launched an attack, armed with bayonets. Unfortunately these courageous men met the same fate: they were knocked down by machine guns and rifles.
A third assault was carried out on 17th February 1916. Over more than half a day, the canons fired on Vauquois. Three mines were meant to blow up the French troops; only one went off and started an avalanche of rocks which fell on the French soldiers ready to attack. Despite this incident, the men climbed their ladders up to carry out an assault on Vauquois.
Musicians of the 31st regiment grouped on Mamelon Blanc in view of the enemy and played the “Marseillaise�. Many musicians fell, killed or injured but the attack had begun. The soldiers at the head climbed the hills, entered Vauquois and reached the ruins of the church.
The Germans were shocked but did not give up. German batteries, situated on the hills of Argonne and Montfaucon bombarded the village.
|
Vauquois Hill
|
The hill and the commemorative monument
|
The French loss was enormous and the decision was taken to recede. The French troops set up on the hills and prepared for a new assault. On the 28th February, a surprise attack failed but on 1st March, French canons hoisted up to Mamelon Blanc fired on the German’s positions. From further afield, large pieces of French artillery crushed the Vauquois hill.
The French assailants ran towards the village. Standing on a parapet, a bugler announced their arrival before being shot down. Staying on his observatory, General Valdant saw the musician collapse and, turning towards his men, he raised his military hat and said, “Take a bow men�.
Jumping from hole to hole, the French soldiers reached the plateau for a first time; they were pushed back but returned to maintain their position. They took the houses one by one and continued up to the church. The village was already in ruins: it was no more than a heap of rubble. The cellars were emptied, the garden walls knocked down. Only the butte still stood.
The following day, 2nd March, the Germans submitted the assailants to continuous howitzer fire before trying to take back the land. The French drew back under the pressure than returned with force.
Attacks and counter-attacks followed. The night was not at all restful and these fights continued for four days and four nights. The conditions became insupportable and the order was given to the French to recede. But on 4th March, in the afternoon, the 76th infantry regiment seized the German trenches situated to the West of the church and reached the cemetery wall.
Despite the mines which exploded here and there and the grenades thrown by the Germans, the hill of Vauquois was re-captured. The 5th March, a counter-attack was suppressed, and then again during the night of the 15th to 16th March, a new attempt was easily suppressed.
A devious and deadly war started. The Germans did not like the presence of the French at the top of this observatory as the French could monitor the slightest movements in the areas of Varennes and Montfaucon. On the 22nd March, the Germans threw flaming liquids into the first trenches. Wormholes were dug under the French’s positions in order to place more and more powerful mines. Craters were formed, huge basins where man-to-man fighting took place.
The defenses in Vauquois were on a permanent state of alert, although the battle of Verdun gave the area a short break. On the 26th September 1918, the first day of the Franco-American offensive in Argonne, Vauquois was finally relieved of its shackles.
|
On 13th July 1915, the Germans tried to progress towards the summits of the Argonne by taking the path of the Haute-Chevauchee, an ancient roman road, the back bone of the Argonne.
The aim of the assailant was clear: to reach Aubreville in order to override the rail road linking Chalons to Verdun.
This line had always been the target of the enemy artillery during the war.
On the French side, it was the 113th regiment who held onto this region with the 91st regiment to their left on the Bolante plateau.
Violent and concentrated artillery fire was immediately followed by a strong attack. Five German regiments making up part of the 16th corps reached the lines of the French defence.
The first German patrols quickly reached the crossroads of the forest and the majority of their troops followed.
|
Entrance of the Kaiser Tunnel
|
Bolante plateau as seen by Felix Valloton
|
Alerted to their confinement, the men of the 82nd infantry regiment, the 66th soldiers and the 131st infantry regiment climbed over the artillery barrages, over paths covered with bodies and ravines poisoned with toxic gas.
The night journey was tiring and the reinforcements arrived worn out and struggling to breathe.
The 3rd battalion of the 131st regiment climbed up the sleep slope of the Bolante plateau. Lying in the shrubbery, the Germans tried to resist but had to abandon their places.
The bugler played as the French, armed with bayonets but without the support of the artillery, reached Bolante plateau and the summit of the Fille morte.
Further to the right, the fighters of the 66th and the infantrymen of the 82nd took back their lost positions.
The battlefront was consolidated on the summit.
|
Situated to the extreme West of the battle of Verdun, Avocourt and the areas around were under pressure from the Germans throughout the war.
This area is partly wooded but vast bare hillsides were not suitable for moving about on so the two armies had to keep their positions.
The village had never been taken over by the Germans but had been completely flattened. On the 20th March 1916, while the battle of Verdun was in full swing, a German division launched into the nearby wood; it was the 11th Bavarian division, a corps reputed as being one of the best. The aim of the Germans was clear: they were trying to reach the rail road which went to Aubreville and Dombasle. This strategic line was constantly a target but the convoy for Verdun continued to pass.
An attack from the Bavarians with flaming liquid jets succeeded and the wood was taken over.
|
Dead soldier in Avocourt, collection of Dominique Bac |
|
|
On the 29th March 1916, French troops of the 210th regiment and a battalion of the 157th took control, returning to a small matter called “reduced to Avocourt�. The French soldiers were not re-supplied and were under pressure, waiting for the day to try remove the Bavarians from the wood.
Around 3 in the morning, the French officers directed a fanfare to wake everyone up. Unfortunately, a shower of gunfire fell over the musicians; only a drummer was unharmed. The French soldiers marched furiously, with the drummer at the front, towards the wood sheltering the Germans.
At eight, the wood was taken back by the French.
|
On the 26th September 1918, the 313th regiment from America headed up the terrifying height of Montfaucon. The division’s other regiments were deployed to the left and right of the mountain peak.
Tanks were driven up the promontory road when night fell, but a shower of gunfire fell on the armour-clad men who had to reciprocate. The next morning, a new attack was launched, still with the tanks being covered by machine-gun fire. At 11, the 313th regiment entered the village, joined by some of the armoured 37th division.
|
Plan of Attack for the 26th September 1918
|
Ruins in the village of Montfaucon
|
In the fighting in Argonne, we must not forget the courage of Italian soldiers fighting on the side of the French.
A garibaldian regiment was made available to the French General Gerard, commandant of the 2nd army corps and on the 26th December 1914, the transalpine soldiers had a difficult start.
|
The most tragic part of the story of the Italians in Argonne is without doubt the death of sub-lieutenant Bruno Garibaldi, grandson of Giuseppe Garibaldi. While he was in reserve and not supposed to take part in attack, the sub-lieutenant ran to the sides of his companions, his sword in hand and his green tunic unbuttoned, showing his symbolic red shirt. His hand was injured so he returned to the back to have it treated, then left again to fight. A bullet hit him but he remained standing, continuing to encourage his men. A second projectile, but this time fatal, hit his lung. Lying on the ground, he embraced an injured man who had fallen nearby and said “Embrace my brothers for me�.
|
Fighting in Argonne came to an end towards the end of September 1918.
The colossal efforts of the German army, led by the Kaiser and the Kronprinz, who maintain that this area was less difficult to conquer than Verdun, have not undermined the fervent desire of the French, Italian and American soldiers to hold onto their territory.
|
American monument in Montfaucon
|
Necropolis in Vauquois
|
But so many sacrifices were made, so many people lost. The monuments covering the Argonne and the numerous cemeteries are witnesses of this.
|
|
|
|
|
|
 news
|
|
|
|
documents
|
|
|
|
media library
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
