Battle in the forest of Caures

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Map of the Battle of Verdun. Situation on February 21, 1916

The battle in the forest of Caures took place on February 21 and 22, 1916 south of the village of Flabas in the Meuse department north of Verdun . It was one of the three attacks with which the German army initiated the battle for Verdun . In the course of the fighting, the French lines behind Beaumont had to be withdrawn.

course

On February 21, 1916 at 8.12 a.m., the forest of Caures was defended by the 56e bataillon de chasseurs à pied (56e BCP) and the 59e bataillon de chasseurs à pied (59e BCP) (hunters battalion on foot ) - a total of 1,200 men under command by Lieutenant-Colonel Émile Driant . They belonged to the reserve associations and were not set up in Lille until August 4, 1914.

The German XVIII. Army Corps opened the attack against the Caures Forest with the 21st Division under General Ernst von Oven with four infantry regiments Fusilier Regiment "von Gersdorff" (Kurhessisches) No. 80 , 81 , 87 and 115 , a total of twelve infantry battalions. They were supported in this by seven batteries of their own 21st field artillery brigade as well as forty batteries of heavy artillery and 50 mortars . They fired at an area of ​​no more than 800 by 1300 meters - about one square kilometer - with about 80,000 artillery shells .

The entire section of the XVIII. Army corps between Flabas and Ville was only three kilometers long and numbered about 30,000 men after the intervention of the 25th Division . The artillery bombardment stopped at around 4 p.m. About 70 percent of the French chasseurs were wounded or dead. Nonetheless, even at night they carried out counterattacks in a battle that was hopeless for them. About 500 French survivors came out of their well-fortified shelters and got ready to fight on. At that time the French military doctrine was called offensive à outrance (offensive to the extreme).

On February 22nd, the German superiority finally succeeded in conquering the Caures forest, the decisive success was achieved by the Leibgarde Infantry Regiment (1st Grand Ducal Hessian) No. 115 , which pierced through the thin French lines to the left of the 87th. They had no chance against the German overwhelming power, which also used flamethrowers . Commander Lieutenant Colonel Driant burned his papers so that they would not fall into the hands of the Germans. He ordered a retreat to the village of Beaumont, but continued to fight with 80 soldiers. Driant was hit in the temple and died like most of his hunters, of whom only 110 to 160 survived. The German 25th Division succeeded in taking the villages of Beaumont and Wavrille south of the Caures Forest on February 24th.

The Germans buried Driant with full honors near the battlefield and forwarded his belongings to the widow via Switzerland. The French press celebrated his death as a national sacrifice and the memorial service, led by Cardinal Léon-Adolphe Amette , was held in Notre Dame . In October 1922, Driant's body was exhumed and transferred to a mausoleum , which is the scene of a memorial service for Driant and his hunters every February 21.

literature

  • Christophe Gué: Verdun In: François Lagrange (Ed.): Inventaire de la Grande Guerre. Universalis 2005, ISBN 2-85229-411-7 .
  • Jean-Jacques Becker : Dictionnaire de la Grande Guerre. André Versaille éditeur. Bruxelles 2008. ISBN 2-87495-014-9 .
  • Yvick Herniou & Éric Labayle: Repertoire des corps de troupe de l'armée française pendant la grande guerre. Volume 2, Chasseurs à pied, alpins et cyclistes, Unités d'active de réserve et de territoriale. Éditions Claude Bonnaud, 2007, ISBN 978-2-9519001-2-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Website of the city of Verdun on the Battle of Verdun (accessed on March 11, 2012).
  2. ↑ here the information varies depending on the source.

Coordinates: 49 ° 16 ′ 27 "  N , 5 ° 24 ′ 15.5"  E