Battle of Soissons (1915)
The Battle of Soissons (French: La Bataille de Crouy ) was part of the First World War and took place from January 8-14, 1915 on the central western front on the Aisne section north of Soissons . The conflict served on the German side as a diversionary attack and relief from the attacks launched by the French in Champagne and Artois at the same time . Parts of the German 1st Army succeeded in repelling French attacks and stabilizing the situation after a counterattack. The newly won front line could also be brought closer to the Aisne and straightened.
prehistory
The German 1st Army under Colonel General von Kluck , (Chief of the General Staff Major General von Kuhl ) held an approximately 70 km wide section on both sides of Soissons just north of the Aisne, where the French succeeded in the First Battle of the Aisne (mid-September 1914) was to form a strong bridgehead north of the river. As a result of the race to the sea , this section, which is closest to the French capital, lost its strategic importance for the warring parties for several months.
On December 27, 1914, the Chief of Staff of the 7th Army , Lieutenant General von Hänisch in the main headquarters, was informed that, in view of the first French attack in Champagne on December 14th, the Supreme Army Command was in the area of the medium army group (in the 3rd Army ) a German attack company to restrain opposing forces.
In the order of the day of December 17th, the French commander-in-chief, General Joffre , pointed out to his troops “that the task now is to finally free the soil of France from the enemy; the fatherland counts more than ever on the will to win of every individual ”. In addition, new attacks by the French 10th Army began on December 17th in Artois against the Loretto heights north of Arras .
The Army High Command 1 was able to provide an infantry brigade as a reserve due to the shortening of the front. With their help, the planned attack should be carried out in mid-January. With the leadership of the attack General of the Infantry von Lochow , the commanding general of III. Army Corps, commissioned. As Chief of Staff of the Corps, Hans von Seeckt played a key role in planning the attack .
Since further German reinforcements on the western front were not to be expected, far-reaching plans had to be postponed; in the area of the 1st Army could only with the III. Army Corps, a local advance on the Vregny plateau , northeast of Soissons , should be envisaged. The aim of this enterprise was to throw back the enemy between the road Terny- Soissons and Missy sur Aisne over the Aisne.
Soon after the preparations for the attack began, however, the 1st Army had to surrender its vacated reserve to the Gaede Army Department on the orders of the Supreme Army Command . Colonel-General von Kluck still held on to the attack. Only weak reinforcements could the III. Army Corps, if the rest of the army front is exposed; A total of 19½ battalions of infantry, 32½ field and heavy batteries and ammunition were available for a day of combat.
Involved armed forces
| German Empire | France |
| Parts of the 1st Army (from Kluck) | Parts of the 6th Army ( Joseph Maunoury )
5th Group Reserve Divisions ( Henri Berthelot ) |
|
5th Infantry Division ( Wichura )
9th Infantry Brigade 8th Leib Grenadier Regiment 48th Infantry Regiment 10th Infantry Brigade Grenadier Regiment No. 12 · Infantry Regiment No. 52 · Brandenburg Rifle Battalion. 3 5th Field Artillery Brigade Field Artillery Regiment No. 18 Field Artillery Regiment No. 54 1st Company / Engineer Battalion No. 3 7th Reserve Division (IV. RK) 13th Reserve Infantry Brigade 14th Reserve Infantry Brigade
|
55th Reserve Division (Buisson d'Armandy)
110th Infantry Brigade 231st Infantry Regiment (5th and VIth Battalion) 246th Infantry Regiment (5th and VIth Battalion) 276th Infantry Regiment (5th and VIth Battalion) 30th Artillery Regiment (division with 3 batteries) 45th Artillery Regiment (division with 3 batteries) Moroccan Brigade 1st Moroccan Hunter Regiment (IV and VI battalions) 2nd Moroccan Fighter Regiment (1st and 2nd Battalion) 56th Reserve Division (Théodore de Dartein) 112th Brigade 350th Infantry Regiment (5th and 6th Battalion) 361st Infantry Regiment (5th and 6th Battalion) · 65th and 69th Jäger Battalions on foot 40th Artillery Regiment (division with 3 batteries) |
course
French attack
During the preparations for the attack on January 8th, 10 a.m., the French, consisting of the 5th Group Reserve Divisions (55th and 56th Reserve Divisions and the mixed Brigade Klein) made an advance against the positions at Clamecy to the north Soissons. Despite resistance, the Brandenburg troops deployed here in the 5th Infantry Division , namely the Leib Grenadier Regiment "King Friedrich Wilhelm III." (1st Brandenburg) No. 8 and the Brandenburg Jäger Battalion No. 3 in several days of fighting pushed back from parts of their trenches. Parts of the troops destined for the attack had to be used to replace them, including the accelerated advance of the light field howitzer division, under the command of Major Freiherr zu Putlitz, commander of the field artillery regiment "General-Feldzeugmeister" (2nd Brandenburgisches) No. 18th
On January 11th, General von Lochow decided, in view of further violent French advances south of Clamecy, to first deploy all available forces on the threatened right wing to a counterattack, postponing the previous plan. The reinforced 5th Infantry Division under Lieutenant General Wichura should not only push back the French armed forces, but also wrest the dominant heights north of Soisson from them. Preparations for this company had also been in progress for a long time, so that only minor new explorations and troop relocations were necessary.
On January 12th, 11 a.m., a assembled assault regiment advanced to attack the occupied ridge east of Crouy. The enterprise succeeded, the French were, as prisoners later testified, completely taken by surprise. The enemy artillery fire subsided immediately. An hour later, under the command of Major General Finck von Finckenstein (commander of the 9th Infantry Brigade ), two further assembled assault regiments and the Brandenburg Jäger Battalion No. 3 took the French trenches north and northwest of Crouy and the northern edge of this village after some hard fighting . The neighboring 7th Reserve Division (Lieutenant General Bogislav Friedrich von Schwerin) had joined the attack with a regiment on its left wing and advanced as far as the southern edge of Cuffies .
The German counterattack
After this success, General von Lochow made the decision on the afternoon of January 12th to carry out the originally prepared plan of attack west of Vregny on the following day. At his urgent request, he was granted ammunition for another day of fighting by the Army High Command. The attack of the 5th Division began around noon in adverse rainy weather. Under the leadership of the commander of the 10th Infantry Brigade , Major General Sontag , three assembled regiments stormed the opposing positions near Vregny, one of them head-on, the other two on both sides. Again the French had been taken by surprise, for they had concentrated their reserves against the attack site at Crouy. In the evening the French troops only stayed in the wooded hollows that fell like a ravine to the Aisne. Lieutenant General Wichura considered piercing through to the Aisne immediately, but rejected this plan.
On January 13, the French began violent counter-attacks on both sides of the Soissons – Terny road, all of which failed. In addition to the 55th Reserve Division and a brigade composed of six reserve hunter battalions and a Moroccan hunter regiment, regiments of the French 14th Infantry Division (General Alexandre Faës) also entered the battle near Soissons.
The German Army High Command 1 had to reckon with further French counterattacks on the evening of January 13th and pulled the last two available battalions from the IX. Army Corps and IX. Reserve Corps with motor vehicles to Terny north of Soissons. Their use was unnecessary because on the night of 13-14 January the French withdrew their main forces over the Aisne, which had swollen from the rainy weather and tore away the war bridges at Missy and Venizel.
On January 14th, the left wing of the IV. Reserve Corps (General of the Artillery of Gronau ) succeeded after fighting with rear guards in taking possession of Vauxrot and the northernmost foothills of Soissons. The troops under General Lochow then reached the approximate line Crouy-Bucy le Long-Missy and advanced outposts to the Aisne. The aim of the German attack was thus achieved.
consequences
The German losses amounted to around 169 officers and 5,360 men, while around 5,200 prisoners were taken and 35 artillery pieces and 6 machine guns were captured. The French General Joffre was so indignant about the total loss of over 11,000 soldiers that he relieved all of the division commanders involved in the action from their positions. The German success at Soissons was due to the planned interaction of all branches of arms (infantry, artillery, pioneers), based on a dense and intact communication network. The experience gained from this attack remained the model for a spatially limited attack in trench warfare for a long time .
The attack deviated from the inflexible attitude of the 2nd OHL , according to which the lines reached were to be held in the first place under all circumstances and the strategically required, energy-saving front straightening consequently did not take place. The battle is also an exception to the general war events of 1915, as the German armies in the west usually had to defend themselves against the aggressively led offensives of the Allies.
Lochow received the order Pour le Mérite for the successful operation , Lieutenant General Wichura the Commander of the House Order of the Hohenzollers . Above all, however, the then Colonel and Chief of Staff Hans von Seeckt drew attention to himself with this success.
literature
- Reichsarchiv (Ed.): The World War 1914 to 1918. Volume 7: The operations of 1915. The events in winter and spring. Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1931, pp. 24-27. Digitized version of the Upper Austria State Library.
- Franck Beauclerc: Soissons et la bataille de Crouy: Les dessous d'un désastre. 1915. Ysec Éditions, Louviers 2009. ISBN 978-2-846732031
Web links
Single references
- ↑ Wilhelm Deist : The warfare of the Central Powers. In: Gerhard Hirschfeld , Gerd Krumeich , Irina Renz in connection with Markus Pöhlmann (Ed.): Encyclopedia First World War. Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2014, ISBN 978-3-8252-8551-7 , p. 254.
- ↑ Wilhelm Deist: The warfare of the Central Powers . In: Gerhard Hirschfeld , Gerd Krumeich, Irina Renz in connection with Markus Pöhlmann (Ed.): Encyclopedia First World War. Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2014, ISBN 978-3-8252-8551-7 , p. 254.
- ↑ Thomas Beckers: Hans von Seeckt . In: Gerhard Hirschfeld, Gerd Krumeich, Irina Renz in connection with Markus Pöhlmann (Ed.): Encyclopedia First World War. Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2014, ISBN 978-3-8252-8551-7 , p. 827.
- ^ Max von Schreibershofen: The overall picture of the war: The events in West Flanders and Northern France in January . In: Armand Léon von Ardenne , Ernst Bassermann , Max Theodor Behrmann u. a .: The big time . Volume I, Ullstein Verlag, Berlin 1915, p. 296 f.