slopes leading to the fort. Literally mowed down, regiment after
regiment left heaps of dead and wounded in front of the French
wire entanglements; 60 per cent. of the enemy effectives engaged
melted away in these two sanguinary days. After a terrific artillery
preparation—five times on March 16th and six times on March 18th—they
again swarmed up the slopes of the fort only to be thrown back with
heavy loss. On April 2nd the enemy sustained another check, but during
the night of June 2nd they reached the northern moat. While, on June
4th and 5th, six of their divisions attempted unsuccessfully to
outflank the fort on the north by Fumin and on the south by Chenois
Wood, the battle continued to rage on the fort itself and in front of
the southern side.
[Illustration: VAUX FORT. THE MOATS IN JUNE, 1916]
From March to June 2nd, the fort and its surroundings received no less
than 8,000 large calibre shells daily. Only one entrance was left,
_i.e._ the north-west postern, which enemy artillery fire rendered
unserviceable. The commander of the fort (Raynal) and his men were
imprisoned in the underground chambers of the fort, being no longer
able to hold their ground outside. To economise food and water, the
surplus contingents were ordered to leave the fort. On the night of the
4th a first detachment made its escape under the direction of Aspirant
Buffet, who returned to the fort the next evening with orders. The
same night 100 more men managed to get away. Carrier pigeons and
optical signals now furnished the only means of communication with the
French lines. On the 4th, the last pigeon was released. On the morning
of the 5th, thanks to two signalmen who volunteered to change a signal
post which the Commandant had difficulty in observing, communications
were maintained. The same night the Commandant sent his last message
that could be read in its entirety, and which ended: “We have reached
the limit, officers and soldiers have done their duty. Long live
France!” Nevertheless, the fort continued to hold out and refused to
surrender. On the night of the 6th reinforcements tried to relieve it
and reached the moat of the counter-scarp, but after losing nearly all
their officers they were compelled to fall back. The Germans gained a
footing in the ruins of the superstructure, and eventually succeeded
in driving the French out of the casemates by lowering baskets of
grenades with retarded fuses and by using liquid fire and poison gas.
Driven back into the underground passages, the French continued the
fight with grenades and bayonets. The 2nd regiment of Zouaves and the
Colonial regiment of Morocco made a last effort on the morning of the
8th to relieve the garrison. They reached the approaches of the fort,
from which clouds of thick black smoke, caused by a violent explosion
in one of the casemates, were pouring. Exposed to the fire of the enemy
machine-guns installed in the superstructure of the fort and attacked
by constantly increasing reinforcements, they were unable to hold their
ground.
[Illustration: THE APPROACHES TO VAUX FORT IN MARCH, 1916
The Fort is on the left at the back]
When, on the night of June 8th, after seven days and nights of
continual fighting, the heroic defenders of the fort were at last
overpowered, the unwounded among them had not tasted a drop of water
for two days.
Five months later (November 2nd) the Germans were driven out of the
fort, which they hurriedly evacuated (_see pp. 63–64_).
[Illustration: THE SOUTH-WEST SIDE OF VAUX FORT]
III.—From Vaux Fort to Souville Fort
_On leaving Vaux Fort return along the same road to the fork (photo,
p. 60) and turn to the right. About one kilometer from the fork, on the
left, the escarpments of_ =Souville Fort= border the road. _Go to the
fort on foot (about 200 yards from the road)._
[Illustration: THE OLD ENTRANCE TO SOUVILLE FORT (Sept. 1916)]
=Souville Fort=, which stands as high as that of Douaumont, commands
the background of the Douaumont—Vaux line. After taking this line,
the enemy, from June 15th to 22nd, undertook the destruction of the
fort. On the 23rd the entire CIIIrd German Division attacked, but was
repulsed with very heavy losses in front of the French second line
trenches. The attack was renewed by two divisions on July 11th and
12th, but failed to reach the moats of the fort.
[Illustration: SOUVILLE FORT (_March 1917_).]
[Illustration: Heights on left bank
Froid-Terre Redoubt
Froide-Terre Hill
Road to Douaumont
Thiaumont Redoubt
Road to Douaumont
Douaumont Fort
Hardaumont Wood
Vaux Ravine
Hill 349
Chapitre Wood
Vaux Fort
PANORAMA SEEN FROM THE CROSS-ROADS AT THE CHAPEL OF ST. FINE (_entirely
destroyed_).]
[Illustration]
The “+” on the sketch-map above shows the spot from where the panorama
should be viewed. The car in the photo came from Souville Fort, turning
to the right towards Vaux Village.
_After visiting the village return to the cross-roads and take the road
on the right to Douaumont, seen on the left half of the above panorama
(p. 66). The bombardments have left no trace of St. Fine Chapel._
IV.—From Souville Fort to Vaux Village and Pond
_After visiting Souville Fort return to the cross-ways at St. Fine
Chapel, seen in the above photo._
[Illustration: ATTACKING WAVES OF INFANTRY CROSSING FUMIN WOOD (_Oct.
1916_).]
It was the ruins of this chapel that the enemy reached on July 12th,
1916, and that the 2nd regiment of Zouaves, at the order of General
Mangin, recaptured in order to relieve Souville Fort.
_At the cross-roads, take the_ I. C. 12 _on the right to Vaux village.
The road dips down into a gorge between the woods of Le Chapitre and
Fumin._
=Chapitre and Fumin Woods.=—To the west and east of the road leading
to Vaux village, these two woods cover the flanks of the plateau which
dominates Vaux Ravine and supports Vaux Fort. It was there that the
Germans sought to outflank the fort on the west to reach Souville,
but they were held in check during May. From June, 1916, these woods
were subjected to bombardments of incredible intensity. A powerful
German attack on June 23rd failed, but another on July 12th enabled
the Germans to get a footing in Fumin Wood. In August and September
frequent enemy attacks gave them temporary local gains. On October 24th
and 25th, and again at the end of the month, French counter-attacks
captured the enemy strongholds and cleared the woods completely.
The defence of the “R” outworks by the 101st line regiment was
intimately connected with the attacks on Fumin Wood and Vaux Fort.
These outworks were at the foot of the slopes of Fumin Wood, about
half-way between the village and fort of Vaux. Bombarded by heavy
guns on June 1st and 2nd, it was unsuccessfully attacked by the enemy
at 8 p.m. on the evening of the 2nd. Twice on the 3rd and once on
the 4th the French, reinforced by a few units, although deprived of
water and subjected to machine-gun fire on the flank, repulsed new
German attacks. A company of the 298th which, on the night of the 5th,
relieved that of the 101st (reduced to 39 men), held out three days
more under increasingly difficult conditions, and was only overpowered
on the night of the 8th after the capture of the fort of Vaux. These
positions were recaptured during the French offensive of October
2nd. 1916. The works known as the “Petit Dépôt,” “Fulda Boyau,” and
“Sablière,” bristling with machine-guns and scarcely touched by the
French artillery preparation, offered a stubborn resistance, and were
only captured by the 74th Division in the evening after a whole day of
exceedingly hard fighting.
[Illustration: DEFENCE WORKS IN VAUX VILLAGE (_January, 1916_).]
[Illustration: WHERE VAUX VILLAGE (_entirely destroyed_) STOOD BEFORE
THE WAR. (_Photo, April 20th, 1917._)]
=Vaux-les-Damloup.=—From March 8th the Germans sought to enter this
village from the Woevre. The 1st battalion of their XIXth regiment of
Reserves, believing it to be empty, was well-nigh exterminated. On the
10th, after a nine-hour night bombardment with torpedoes, units of the
XVth and XVIIIth C.A. attacked the village. Although numbering more than
six to one, it was only after four successive attacks that they gained
a footing in the ruins of a block of houses behind the church. Soon
after they advanced as far as the ruins of the church. Five times they
sought to debouch, but were each time literally mowed down by the fire
of the French machine-guns and mountain batteries. After two costly
checks on March 16th and 18th the Germans again attacked on the evening
of the 30th, but it was only three days later and at the cost of very
heavy casualties that they were able to take and keep the village.
[Illustration: VAUX POND (_March 1917_).]
The road comes to an end at Vaux Pond. The village extended beyond the
wooden foot-bridge seen in the photo. No trace of it is left, and the
tourist will look in vain for any indication in the desolate waste
around him of this erstwhile picturesque and flourishing village. It
has literally been wiped out.
_Turn the car round 100 yards from the pond, at the place where a
narrow-gauge rail-track formerly ran (see photo below)._
[Illustration: VAUX POND IS THE EXTREME POINT WHICH CAN BE REACHED BY
MOTOR-CARS.]
[Illustration: THE SOUTHERN OUTSKIRTS OF FLEURY AFTER THE FRENCH
COUNTER-ATTACK OF JUNE 25TH, 1916.]
V.—From Vaux Village to Douaumont Fort
After turning the car round at Vaux Pond, return by the same road to
the cross-ways at St. Fine Chapel (_see pp. 66 and 67_), continue
another fifty yards, then take on the right the road to Douaumont.
About 500 yards farther on is the site of what was the village of
=Fleury-devant-Douaumont=.
[Illustration: FLEURY. THE GRANDE RUE IN JULY, 1916.]
From June 21st to September 30th, 1916, the village was often disputed.
After violently bombarding it from June 21st to 23rd, four German
Alpine regiments carried it, pushing forward to the south of the
Fleury-Vaux railway where the French 75’s checked them with very heavy
loss. On the 24th–25th the French reoccupied the eastern part of the
village. On the 27th two battalions of the French 241st line regiment
entered Fleury, but were soon driven out, after which they clung to
the southern and western parts. The enemy bombardment of July 9th–10th
levelled the village. On the 11th, picked German troops attacked and
outflanked it on the south. French counter-attacks succeeded on the
following days in driving the Germans back somewhat, 800 prisoners
being taken in ten days. On August 2nd–3rd the village was reoccupied
and 1,350 more prisoners taken. It was lost, then partly retaken on
August 5th at the point of the bayonet. Two weeks of constant grenade
fighting, from hole to hole, by battalions of Alpine Chasseurs from
Alsace, carried all that remained of the trenches adjoining the
positions “Trois Arbres” and “Montbrison.” On August 17th the Moroccan
Colonial Regiment finished the conquest of the village with their usual
dash.
_In the ruins of Fleury, on the right, there is a road which, after
passing through Caillette Wood, comes to an end about 400 yards from_
=Douaumont Fort=. _The latter can be reached from here on foot._
_One kilometer after the ruins of Fleury the road divides. Take the
right-hand one, the other leads to Bras by the northern slopes of
Froide-Terre Hill._
The uphill road follows the ridge, at the end of which is Douaumont
Fort, then passes south of =Thiaumont Redoubt=.
[Illustration: FLEURY IN RUINS, OCTOBER, 1916.]
=Thiaumont Redoubt=, S.W. of Douaumont Fort, dominating Froide-Terre
Hill and the Bras road to the W., and the Fleury road to the S.,
formed the left extremity of the last but one line of resistance which
passed in front of Verdun, _via_ the village of Fleury and the forts
of Souville and Tavannes. For five months (May–September, 1916), which
saw some of the hardest fighting in the battle of Verdun, the Germans
wore themselves down against this line. Neither the repeated furious
attacks, nor poison gas, nor the incredibly intense bombardments could
break the resistance of the French, who clung desperately to their
positions.
_A little further on the road passes the site of_ =Thiaumont Farm=,
_all traces of which were swept away by the battle_.
=Thiaumont Farm=, captured on June 1st, was reconquered on the 2nd.
The enemy occupied the ruins on the 9th, after their big attack of the
previous day. On the 12th, 13th, 15th and 17th they sustained four
serious checks in front of the defences. Exasperated at the French
resistance, they deluged the positions and those of Froide-Terre, on
the 21st, with poison gas and more than 100,000 shells. At 6 o’clock
on the morning of the 23rd five Bavarian regiments attacked, but
although they reached the defences of Froide-Terre, they were unable
to hold them. However, those of Thiaumont remained in their hands. In
a magnificent attack on June 30th, and despite enemy cross-fire, the
French 248th line regiment reoccupied Thiaumont at noon, lost it at
four o’clock, but recaptured it again the next day and kept it until
relieved, in spite of furious German counter-attacks. From July 4th
to 9th Thiaumont was retaken and lost four times by the Germans, but
a fifth attack enabled them to hold it. Fighting around the defences
was continual during the rest of the month. From August 1st to 4th
the French 96th line regiment, supported by the 122nd, reconquered
Thiaumont and its approaches. From the 4th to the 8th it was defended
by the 81st, but on the evening of the 8th, after losing and retaking
it, they were driven out by a powerful German attack. Since June 23rd
Thiaumont had changed hands sixteen times.
[Illustration: THIAUMONT REDOUBT OCCUPIED BY THE FRENCH IN MAY, 1916
The Central Shelter having been pierced by a shell on May 6th, the
Redoubt was afterwards only used as an Artillery Observation-Post.
The Entrance Trench in the foreground was each day levelled by enemy
shells, only to be re-made during the night.]
From the middle of August the French command changed their tactics.
Abandoning the costly direct attacks, the redoubt was gradually
encircled. On October 24th Moroccan Colonial troops, Zouaves and
Tirailleurs, in a dashing grenade and bayonet attack, recaptured
Douaumont, the Farm and Redoubt of Thiaumont and the Dame and
neighbouring ravines.
[Illustration: THIAUMONT REDOUBT IN RUINS OCCUPIED BY THE GERMANS A
MONTH LATER
BARBED-WIRE ENTANGLEMENT IN FRONT OF THE FRENCH LINE]
[Illustration: THE APPROACHES TO DOUAUMONT FORT AND VILLAGE.
=a= [fan-shape sign] The upper photo on p. 78, =Dame Ravine=, was
taken from here.
=b= [fan-shape sign] The lower photo on p. 80, =Helly Ravine=, was
taken from here.]
_Leave the car at Thiaumont Farm and go on foot to Douaumont Fort,
following the temporary narrow-gauge line for about 1,300 yards. These
rails follow the old road which was entirely destroyed._
DOUAUMONT FORT
(_See photo, p. 29._)
This modern stronghold, which the Crown Prince called “the N.E. angular
pillar of the permanent fortifications of Verdun,” occupies at Hill 388
the culminating point of the hard limestone plateau which forms the
region of Verdun. Lying between Bras Ravine (which descends towards the
W. and the Meuse) and Vaux or Bazil Ravine (extending towards the E.
and the Woevre), the fort dominates the entire region. As the key of
the battlefield it was fiercely disputed.
[Illustration: DOUAUMONT FORT IN JANUARY, 1916.]
Before the battle of 1916 it was only bombarded twice by the German
artillery. Of the 250 shells fired at it early in November, 1914, 170
reached the mark without, however, causing serious damage. The few
8-inch shells received on March 29th, 1915, did no damage whatever.
[Illustration: THE FRONT ON THE MORNING OF FEBRUARY 26TH (26/2), AFTER
THE GERMANS HAD OCCUPIED THE FORT BY SURPRISE, AND ON THE MORNING OF
THE 27TH (27/2), AFTER THE FRENCH COUNTER-ATTACK.]
On February 25th, 1916, almost at the beginning of the battle, units
of the German XXIVth Infantry Regiment (IIIrd Brandenburgers), wearing
French Zouave uniforms, surprised and occupied the fort. On the morning
of the 26th the French 153rd D.I. (20th C.) counter-attacked fiercely
five times, advancing their line beyond the fort and surrounding
the enemy on three sides. Thanks, however, to a communicating
trench connecting up with their lines, the enemy were able to keep
their ground. From the 26th to the 29th they furiously attacked the
approaches of the fort without being able to surround it. A redoubt,
200 yards E. of the fort, was alternately lost and recaptured three
times on the 26th. From March 8th to May 19th the fighting continued
with varying fortune.
[Illustration: THE ENTRANCE TO DOUAUMONT FORT IN JANUARY, 1916.]
From the 19th to the 22nd French heavy guns bombarded the fort, the
explosion of a shell on the 20th causing hundreds of victims. To hamper
the enemy Intelligence Service six of their observation balloons were
destroyed by a French flying squadron on the morning of the 22nd. At
11.50 the 10th Brigade (5th D.I.) attacked the fort and its approaches.
At noon the 129th line regiment occupied the N. and N.W. corners of
the fort. The 74th regiment was unable to take the N.E. corner, but the
36th succeeded in capturing all the trenches west of the Fort. During
the night and all the next day the enemy intensified their bombardment
and increased the number of their counter-attacks, without breaking
through the defences of the 10th Brigade, which maintained all its
gains until relieved on the night of the 23rd. Exasperated at this
check, the Germans, on the 24th, engaged no less than an army corps of
reinforcements and retook the fort.
[Illustration: THE INTERIOR OF THE FORT ON MAY 22ND, 1916, THREE HOURS
AFTER THE ATTACK.
French Infantry and Sappers in a trench hurriedly made around an
outwork of masonry still held by the enemy with machine-guns.]
Five months later (October 24th) they lost it again after a heavy
bombardment and attack, during which a French 16-inch shell pierced
the superstructure of the fort and started a fire. A dense fog overhung
the fort when, at 11.40 a.m., the signal for the attack, directed by
General Mangin, was given. When, at about 2.30 p.m. the fog lifted,
French observers perceived the Moroccan Colonials of the Nicolaï
battalion scaling the ruins of the fort. On arriving there, the latter
found units of the 321st line regiment which, operating _in liaison_ on
their right, had preceded them and already hoisted the French flag on
the ruins of the fort. Two sappers of the 19-2 Co. of Engineers slipped
into the basement of the fort, and with the aid of four Colonials
captured twenty-four German soldiers, four officers, two guns and three
machine-guns in one of the counter-scarp shelters. Other enemy soldiers
in one of the casemates surrendered, with the German commander of the
fort, on the night of the 24th. The next morning the entire fort,
together with a great quantity of arms, munitions and foodstuffs, was
in the hands of the French. Four enemy counter-attacks on the 26th
failed to retake it.
[Illustration: SOLDIERS OF THE MOROCCAN COLONIAL REGT. OCCUPYING THE
MOATS OF THE RECONQUERED FORT (photographed on the morning of
Oct. 25th, 1916, the day after the victory)]
On the night of the 24th a sergeant of the 4th Zouaves captured,
unaided, a German company and six officers. Returning from
revictualling duty, he was taken prisoner by some Germans occupying a
shelter near the fort Coolly informing them that Douaumont and Damloup
Battery had fallen, he called on them to surrender. The attitude of the
sergeant was so convincing that after some hesitation they laid down
their arms and were brought into the French lines.
Douaumont was entirely cleared on December 15th by the 37th D.I., which
fought a hard battle in the woods before the village. Having learned
the time of the attack, the Germans were on their guard, but after
a furious combat the 2nd Tirailleurs drove back the VIth Prussian
Grenadiers and crossed Helly Ravine (_photo, p. 80_).
=Hardaumont= and =Caillette Woods= and =Douaumont Village= _may be
visited, on foot from the fort of Douaumont_.
The plateau E. and S.E. of Douaumont Fort ends in wooded slopes,
which overhang Vaux (Basil) Ravine. That furthest to the E. contains
Hardaumont Wood, while on the most western slope is Caillette Wood.
The Germans who, on March 8th and 9th, had taken Hardaumont Redoubt,
only entered Caillette Wood on April 2nd, after four days’ attacks
with asphyxiating gas and liquid fire. Despite a night march of
eleven miles, the 74th line regiment (5th D.I.) attacked the enemy
vigorously on the morning of April 3rd. On April 3rd, 4th and 5th the
French retook the wood, bit by bit. On the 15th three battalions of
the 36th line regiment and units of the 120th threw back the enemy
between Caillette and Fausse-Côte ravines, while on the 19th the 81st
Brigade enlarged these gains. From the 24th to the 26th the Germans
tried in vain to advance. On June 1st they engaged two and a half
divisions before they were able to occupy the greater part of Caillette
Wood. Moreover, their success was only temporary, for on October 24th
the French Division of General Passaga (“La Gauloise”) drove them
definitely out of Caillette Wood and partly from that of Hardaumont.
Nearly two enemy divisions were put out of action and seventeen
field guns, twenty-five heavy guns, including two of long range, and
numerous trench mortars were captured. The reconquest of Hardaumont
Wood was completed on December 15th by the same division which captured
“Lorient” and Hardaumont Redoubts.
* * * * *
=Douaumont Village=, situated below and 500 yards to the W. of the
fort, was almost encircled on the evening of February 25th, but
Zouaves and Tirailleurs extricated it. From the 25th to the 28th
the Vth German D.I. made five furious attacks, but were unable to
break down the resistance of the 95th line regiment and units of the
153rd D.I. which were defending the village. On March 2nd, after a
preliminary bombardment which destroyed the village and isolated the
battalion holding it, the CXIIIth German D.I., wearing French helmets,
attacked at 1.15 p.m. on the N. and E. The French machine-gunners soon
discovered the trick, however, and mowed them down. After a second
bombardment the enemy again attacked, overwhelming the defenders, one
company of whom resisted to the last man.
[Illustration: RUINS OF DOUAUMONT VILLAGE AND CHURCH.]
The remains of the French battalion took their stand fifty yards S.W.
of the village and prevented the enemy from debouching. On the 3rd two
battalions of the 172nd and 174th line regiments retook the village at
the point of the bayonet. During the night the Germans counter-attacked
twice unsuccessfully with heavy loss, 800 dead being counted in front
of one of the French trenches. On the 4th a third and more powerful
counter-attack succeeded in driving the French from the village, but
broke down against new positions 200 yards to the south. The French
were compelled to fall back in May and June, but returned victorious to
the ruined village on October 24th.
[Illustration: DAME RAVINE.
The road from Thiaumont to Bras follows it, ending at Haudromont
Quarries (_see Itinerary, p. 57_). The tree-stumps in the foreground
formed part of Chauffour Wood.]
[Illustration: POSITION OF GERMAN BATTERY DESTROYED IN CHAUFFOUR WOOD.]
[Illustration: HAUDROMONT QUARRIES IN SEPTEMBER, 1917.]
VI.—From Douaumont Fort to Bras and Samogneux
_A down-hill road leads direct from Douaumont Village to Thiaumont
Farm, where the tourist will take his car again._
_Follow the road, which turns to the left and passes through Dame
Ravine._ On all sides the chaotic waste testifies to the terrible
hammering which this region received from the guns (_see photo, p. 78,
and map, p. 73_).
_The tourist leaves_ =Chauffour Wood= _on his right_ (_photos, p. 78_).
This wood extends to the north of the road and approaches to within a
few hundred yards of Douaumont on the west. The CVth German Infantry
was cut to pieces here on the morning of February 26th, 1916, and on
March 2nd the XXIst German Division suffered a similar fate there.
During a powerful attack around Douaumont on April 16th the Germans
occupied a small salient S. of the wood, but were soon after partially
driven out, while on December 17th the wood was entirely cleared of
them by the Zouaves and Tirailleurs of the 38th D.I. The enemy’s
efforts to retake it and Albain Wood to the S.W. were unsuccessful.
_Continue to descend_; =Haudromont Quarries= _will be reached shortly
afterwards_.