Battle of the Aisne (1918)
| date | May 27 to June 6, 1918 |
|---|---|
| place | between Soissons and Reims |
| output | The German attack stalled |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
|
|
|
| Troop strength | |
|
7th Army 1st Army 29 divisions 4,630 guns 500 aircraft |
French 6th Army 19 French and 4 British divisions 2 cavalry divisions 1400 guns. |
| losses | |
|
about 130,000 men |
French 98,000 men |
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The Third Battle of the Aisne from May 27 to June 6, 1918, from the German side under the code names Blücher and Yorck attack , also known as the Battle of Soissons and Reims , was an offensive as part of the German spring offensive of 1918 . It began at the end of May 1918 on the central western front and was another attempt to force victory on the western front . On May 29, Soissons fell into German hands, as with the Michael company , the attack initially brought considerable land gain, the Marne was reached across the board as in September 1914, but in contrast to the first year of the war, it was no longer possible to cross the river. In the final phase a big bow was struck. The German forces, however, were insufficient to continue the attack; since the beginning of June he had not advanced any further against the resistance of the newly strengthened Entente troops .
prehistory
The spring offensive sparked by the German Supreme Army Command was launched on March 21, 1918 from the St. Quentin - Cambrai front line and provided for the separation of the British from the French army. The "Michael attack" was brought to a complete standstill by opposing counterattacks in the Amiens and Montdidier area by the beginning of April after considerable initial successes and land gains in the Somme region . The Fourth Battle of Flanders (“Georg attack”) initiated on April 9th did not bring the hoped-for success either. After a break of four weeks, Field Marshal von Hindenburg and General Ludendorff believed they could risk another attack on the central western front on the Aisne in order to turn the war they had hoped for.
On May 1, 1918, the Supreme War Council of the Entente met in Abbeville on the opposing side , and the Commander-in-Chief General Foch demanded that the front troops be reinforced by 12,000 American soldiers each month in order to be able to compensate for the losses incurred. The request of the American commander in France, General John Pershing , to be able to deploy a unified US army on the Western Front as soon as possible, has not yet been met. At the beginning of May there were already 400,000 Americans in France, but only seven divisions were fully trained for the major battle. The already trained 1st US Division already proved itself in April to support the French front in the Cantigny area , three other American divisions were already deployed in Lorraine as reserves with the eastern French Army Group. At this time the Entente already had a clear material preponderance over the Germans; in artillery (18,500 against 17,500 guns), in combat vehicles (around 500 French and 400 English versus around 30 German) and in aircraft (4,500 versus 2,800).
planning
The Army Group "German Crown Prince" was supposed to repeat the operation of September 1914 under the code name "Blücher" and force a direct breakthrough on Paris via the Aisne . The mountains around Laon offered the 7th Army , which was designated for this purpose, favorable preconditions for concealing the preparations for the attack. The main attack was organized by the Commander in Chief Colonel General von Boehn and his Chief of Staff Colonel Reinhardt . The 7th Army lay with its right wing between the confluence of the Ailette and the Oise and with its left wing in the area northeast of Reims . The 1st Army under General der Infantry von Below , holding in the area on both sides of Reims , had to join the offensive with its right wing as part of the "Goerz attack" after winning the Aisne-Marne Canal between Berry-au-Bac and Loivre .
For the attack of the right wing of the 1st Army (group "Brimont" and left wing of the group "Schmettow") it was crucial that the attack by the left wing of the 7th Army started successfully. As soon as the necessary attack artillery had been regrouped, the left wing of the 18th Army east of Noyon would also use the Oise under the code name "Yorck attack" and the still defensive VII Army Corps under General von François via the Ailette to attack. The time for a new approach to the southern front of the 18th Army, from the area west of Noyon to the height of Montdidier, depended on the success of the 7th Army.
While the offensive was in progress, the old direction of attack against Amiens was resumed between May 27 and June 2 as a diversion on the inner wing of the 2nd and 17th Armies.
The advance of the storm troops of the 7th Army in the 55 km wide starting position between Vauxaillon and Brimont took place before the night of the attack. For the attack of the 7th Army, 18 divisions in five corps groups were assigned at the first meeting, two general commands were to cover both wings - one in the Noyon area and one near Reims, while the other three corps in the middle were to break through the Aisne was.
Deployment of the forces
For the "Blücher attack", the 7th Army had a total of 29 divisions of infantry, plus 1158 batteries , 1631 of which were heavy artillery and 1233 mine throwers (4,630 artillery pieces) and around 500 aircraft.
The right wing, which was set against the Ailette section and Soissons, was formed from the
- Group "François" (General Command VII Army Corps ) with the 211th and 241st Divisions
- Group "Larisch" ( Generalkommando 54 ) with the 5th and 6th Divisions in the front and the 6th Bavarian Reserve Division behind.
In the middle, against the ridge of the Chemin des Dames , three corps groups were posted
- Group “Wichura” (General Command VIII. Reserve Corps ) with the 14th Reserve Division , the 37th and 113th Divisions , followed by the 197th Division and the 13th Landwehr Division , which was detached on the first day of the attack, in the second meeting.
- Group "Winckler" (General Command XXV. Reserve Corps ) led the main thrust with the 1st Guard Division , 33rd Infantry and 10th Reserve Division , with the 231st Division in the second line .
- Group "Conta" (General Command IV. Reserve Corps ) with the 10th and 28th Divisions , as well as the 5th Guard Division in the first and the 103rd Division in the second meeting.
The left wing of the 7th Army formed the
- Group "Schmettow" ( General Command 65 ) with the 50th and 52nd divisions in front and the 7th reserve division behind.
- the group "Brimont" (General Command XV. Army Corps ) ( 33rd Reserve Division and 213rd Division ) of the 1st Army supported the offensive, another eight divisions (including the 45th , 47th , 51st Res.-Div . , 36th , 115th , 195th , the 12th Bavarian and 2nd Guard Divisions ) were available as army reserves.
The opposite French 6th Army under General Denis Auguste Duchêne had 14 infantry and 4 cavalry divisions (12 infantry divisions primarily) and 1400 guns on the day of the attack.
On the left wing of the Duchêne army was the XXX. Corps under General Hippolyte-Alphonse Pénet at the Ailette
- 19th Division - Général Pierre Trouchaud near Vaux
- 55th Division - Général Joseph Mangin at Nampcel
- 151st Division - Général Pierre des Vallières near Chavigny
- 2nd Cavalry Division - Général Hennoque near Vézaponin
In the middle on the Chemin des Dames was the XI. Corps under General Louis Ernest de Maud'huy
- 21st Division - Général Dauvin near Vailly-sur-Aisne
- 22nd Division - General Jean Renouard at Euilly
- 61st Division - Général Louis Modelon at Crouy
- 74th Division - General Charles Lardemelle as reserve at Osly-Courtil
The XXI followed to the right. Corps under General Jean-Marie Degoutte
- 39th Division - General André Massenet at Villers-Hélon
- 45th Division - Général Stanislas Naulin at Chenay
- 157th Division - General Joseph Bodin de Galembert, in reserve at Braine
Holding the right wing between Craonne - Cormicy , the British IX. Corps under Sir Alexander Hamilton-Gordon
- 8th Division - Major General William Heneker at Roucy
- 21st Division - Maj. General David Graham Campbell at Chalons le Vergeur
- 25th Division - Major General Edmund Guy Bainbridge at Montigny sur Vesle
- as reserve: 50th Division - Major General Henry Jackson at Beaurieux
The 1st Cavalry Corps under Général Eugène Féraud served as an army reserve behind the front
- 4th Cavalry Division - Général Paul Louis Alexandre Lavigne Delville near Dormans
- 1st Cavalry Division - General Joseph de Rascas de Château-Redon
- 5th Cavalry Division - Général Alphonse Lacombe de la Tour at Pierry
The Blücher attack on May 27th
On May 27, at 2 am, the German batteries began a three and a half hours with about 4,000 guns barrage . After the gas bombardment , the explored enemy artillery positions were bombarded for 65 minutes, after which the fire was concentrated for a further 85 minutes against the main transport and supply lines of the French. At around 4:35 a.m. the fire was directed for five minutes on the first French main battle line , then the attack of the German infantry followed under cover of the fire roller, which had now been moved forward .
The French 6th Army had concentrated its reserves near the front line in accordance with antiquated tactics and was surprised by the new German offensive tactics.
The German reserve corps Conta, Wichura and Winckler attacked in the first meeting with 15 divisions on the Vauxaillon – Winterberg – Villerberg section. The enemy's defense, six French and three British divisions, was quickly put down. The British 150th Brigade under Brigadier-General Hubert Rees was taken prisoner in Germany. The 10th and 28th Divisions initially got stuck on the northern slopes of the heights. The attack of the 14th Reserve Division north of Celles came to a halt in front of the second French position. The 113th Division suddenly broke into Vailly-sur-Aisne at noon and seized the undamaged Aisne Bridge. East of the forest of Pinon , the group “Wichura” first stormed the contour line from Fort Malmaison to Ostel , then the plateau north of Condé. At the same time, the French XI. Corps the aisne line, which could be crossed by all attacking German divisions. In the morning the Aisne between Vailly and Maizy was crossed, the second position of the still holding French 157th Division was broken. Meanwhile the 33rd Division at Pont-Arcy and the 10th Reserve Division at Bourg crossed the Aisne. The advance guard of the 10th Reserve Division had reached the Vesle west of Fismes via Bazoches by evening . The 28th Division stood before Fismes, the 10th Reserve Division reached the river east of Courcelles .
The right wing of the 1st Army, the Brimont group, joined the “Schmettow” group south of the Aisne an hour later and easily reached their targets, which were stuck between Cormicy and further along the Aisne-Marne Canal to Loivre. On the evening of the first day of the attack, the front of the 7th Army was able to be advanced over a width of 25 kilometers by up to 20 kilometers to the south and southwest.
28th of May
The 7th Army was able to reach and cross the Vesle on a broad front. Braisne and Fort Condé fell into German hands. The right wing of the 7th Army, the General Command 54, ran into the French resistance in front of Coucy-le-Château . The left wing corps of the 18th Army, the "Hofmann" group (General Command XXXVIII. Reserve Corps ), crossed the Oise between Manicamp and Pontoise and united at Gameleu with that from the Saint-Gobain area via the Aisne-Oise Canal advanced group "François" (General Command VII Army Corps). In the evening the bulk of the German 7th Army was already south of the Oise and Vesle.
Marshal Foch ordered every meter of terrain to be defended and refused tactical retreats for fear that the German troops might still reach Paris. General Pétain relied on a mobile defense in order to let the German shock attacks run nowhere and then to set up quick counterattacks. On the French side, several divisions from the reserve arrived on the beleaguered new front in the course of the day: the 43rd Division under General Camille Michel appeared at Braisne, the 1st Cavalry Corps under General Feraud secured the 170th Division south of Fismes under General Rondeau was at Attichy , the 4th Division intervened north of Neuilly-Saint-Front in the fighting. The 20th division under General Putois secured at Ville-en-Tardenois .
May 29th
On May 29, the 7th Army reached the line Villemontoire - Fère-en-Tardenois - Coulonges - Brouillet with a protruding center . The left wing of the army penetrated in the course of the day with constant fighting to the northeast edge of the forest of Villers-Cotterêts . The upper reaches of the Ourcq and the road from Reims to Dormans were reached over a wide area. The Germans stormed Juvigny and occupied the Nouvron plateau . After the capture of Pasly and Cuffies, the group "Larisch" managed to move into the burning Soissons with the 5th Division under General von Wedel . South of Soissons, however, the French had caught themselves and were already launching counter-attacks that completely stopped the right wing of the 7th Army. The French who had been cut off and who had still held their ground on the heights of Belleu and Sepimonts, southeast of the city, then carried out their withdrawal movement. Boehn's center reached Loupeigne on the road from Fismes to Fère-en-Tardenois , the important traffic junction was taken by the 36th Division under Lieutenant General von Leipzig .
The German center crossed the Ardre section and reached Romigny, the vanguard reached the Passy-Grigny line and stood five kilometers north of Dormans close to the Marne . In the center, the Winckler, Wichura and Conta corps carried the fighting forward in a fan shape towards the south to the Marne. More than 35,000 prisoners have migrated backwards since the attack. The groups "Winckler" and "Wichura" crossed the Soissons- Château-Thierry road , conquered Lartennes, Arcy, Grand-Rozoy, Oulchy-le-Château and pushed the French back into the woods of Villers-Cotterêts .
In the east the 1st Army now intervened heavily in the fighting, the group "Wellmann" (General Command VII. Reserve Corps ) advanced from the line Vitry-les-Reims against Cernay and the eastern apron of Reims. The groups "Schmettow" (Generalkommando 65) and "Ilse" (Generalkommando XV. Army Corps) rejected French counter-attacks that broke out from the northern front of Reims and took Thillois.
30th May
Around noon, General Duchêne ordered the counterattack of all available forces (seven infantry and three cavalry divisions) between Soissons and Oulchy-le-Château to stop the Germans. The IV Reserve Corps (10th, 36th and 28th Divisions) advanced directly south on the road from Fère to Jaulgonne. The commander of the 28th Division, Lieutenant General von Buchau, was killed in these battles. The commanding general von Conta reached the Marne between Château-Thierry and Jaulgonne. The 231st Division broke through the French positions with infantry regiments No. 443 and 444 and reached the Marne at 1 p.m. The 36th Division, catching up to the left, forced the breakthrough to the river, the Grenadier Regiment "King Friedrich I." (4th East Prussian) No. 5 and the Danzig Infantry Regiment No. 128 also reached the river.
In the 1st Army, the group "Brimont" could not advance further in front of the resistance of the enemy stiffened. Its four assigned divisions ( 86th , 213rd and 242nd Division and 33rd Reserve Division ) were in front of the Reimser Heights north of Faverolles — Thillois — St. Brice got stuck on the Vesle. Only the right wing, the 86th Division, in cooperation with the 7th Reserve Division, was able to join the "Schmettow" group. The left wing lagged far behind, only the 33rd Reserve Division managed to cross the marshy Vesle lowland in the evening, the 213rd Division was able to win the south bank of the Vesle. The 242nd Division fought against French colonial troops in the northern suburbs of Reims. The area conquered by the 7th Army since the start of the attack reached a depth of up to thirty kilometers over a width of fifty kilometers, the number of prisoners brought in by the 7th Army rose to 42,000 men, 400 artillery pieces and well over 1,000 machine guns were captured.
31. May
Boehn's left wing forced the north bank of the Marne on May 31 between Château-Thierry and Dormans in a width of 25 kilometers and directed the fire of the artillery that had drawn up on the south bank. The French 38th Corps under General Mondesir, which had withdrawn from Flanders, arrived here as reinforcements on the south bank.
On the western front of the attack, the groups "Hofmann" and "Francois" came to conquer the plateau of Nampcel and Nouvron in order to get their hands on the north bank of the Aisne, which was still held by the French. A French counterattack organized by General Petain met on May 31 on the heights of Nouvron and Nampcel. After hard fighting the Germans occupied Nouvron, Tartier and Guisy, threw the tenacious opponent back on Nampcel and Fontenoy, but were unable to reach Vic-sur-Aisne. The French held their own between Noyon and Moulin-sous-Touvent, in the Carlepont forest and in the area between Autrèches and Vic.
The group "Winckler" wanted to take comprehensive action against the forest of Villers-Cotterets when another counterattack by the French began at Bercy-le-Sec. The German attack was halted briefly, the thrust repulsed, and the French pushed back against Longpont. The groups "Wichura" and "Winckler" crossed the line Bercy-Villemontoire-Parcy-Oulchy and pushed the enemy back to the west via Chaudun, Vierzy, St. Remy and Treville.
June 1st
The left wing of the 7th Army was able to repel strong French counterattacks on June 1st and had launched new attacks on the right wing and in the westward center itself. The German attack got stuck on the north bank of the Aisne. The groups "Hofmann" and "Francois" succeeded in advancing against Vic-sur-Aisne and pushing the French back from the Autrêches-Nouvron line to Lautebraye and Bingre on June 2, but before Verny and on the heights of Tracy-le -Mont and Moulin-sous-Touvent could not break the French resistance. Wichura's troops advanced on June 1st against the depth line of the Savieres brook, on June 2nd they stood north of the Ourcq and stormed the towns of Chaudun and Longpont. The area south of the Monthiers to Dammard fell into the hands of the Germans along the entire length of the Clignon .
In the area southeast of Reims, Fort de Herbillon was massively attacked by the German troops with 15 armored vehicles. It was briefly captured by Infantry Regiment No. 465 of the 238th Infantry Division . However, due to the weak forces, it could not be held. The fort was recaptured by units of the 1st Colonial Corps under General Mazillier .
End of the offensive
As of June 3, the French counterattacks were already more effective than the Germans. The chief of the French general staff, General Petain , had already passed his XI degree in the forest of Villers Cotterets. Corps newly brought in, to the north of it the XXX., XX. and I. replenished and reorganized. The French have thrown 43 divisions into the battle since the beginning of the battle, five of which were of British and two of American origin. Reinforcement by the 3rd US Division under Major General Dickman arrived at Château-Thierry and strengthened the French defense on the Marne, which was already consolidating. Units of the 2nd US Division under General Bundy were arriving. There was already no further progress for the right wing of the German 7th Army, the group "Francois" got stuck in the Carlepont area on the north bank of the Aisne. The group "Winckler", which concentrated its main forces to the right, was just able to push the enemy back over the line Pernant-Chaudun to the west on Villers-Cotterets.
The heavily attacked group "Conta", which wrestled in the corner of the river between Ourcq and Marne, was pushed into the defense in the Orxois by superior French and American forces. Despite the use of numerous tanks, the French lost the heights of Pernant and Missy-aux-bois and were thrown back over the Ambleny-Cutry-Dommiers line south of the Fontenoy bridgehead.
Balance sheet
On June 6th, Ludendorff broke off the costly battle in the Marnebogen, he was now trying to initiate a new offensive on the south wing of the 18th Army . The Germans lost about 130,000 soldiers in the attack over the Aisne, the French 98,160, the British 28,703 and the Americans who participated on a large scale for the first time around 11,000 men. General Duchêne was removed from his command and the French 6th Army was transferred to General Degoutte .
General von Hutier prepared the new "Gneisenau attack" between Noyon and Montdidier . The 18th Army tried to break through to the south in the Lassigny area and to roll up the enemy front in the Compiegne area, which was blocking the right wing of the German 7th Army . On June 9th, three corps groups ( VIII. , IX. And XVII. Army Corps ), supported by the group "Hofmann", advanced southwards, set at thirty kilometers . A counterattack by the French 10th Army on June 11th finally stopped the Germans at the Matz .
literature
- Victor Giraud: Bataille de l'Aisne. Histoire de la Grande Guerre, Paris, Librairie Hachette, 1920.
- Reichsarchiv: The World War 1914 to 1918. Volume XIV: The conduct of war on the Western Front in 1918. ES Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1944, pp. 338–370.
- Crown Prince Wilhelm: My memories. ES Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1923, pp. 317-325.
- Hermann Stegemann: History of the War: Volume IV, Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart 1921, pp. 555-560.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Reichsarchiv: The World War 1914 to 1918. Volume XIV. (Supplement), ES Mittler & Sohn , Berlin 1944, Supplement 18.
- ^ History of Infantry Regiment No. 463rd from 1930