The Forest of Argonne consists of woods of beech, horn-beam, ash, and
oak which, with an undergrowth of hazels and shrubs of many varieties,
form almost impenetrable thickets. Lovely nooks and wild glens abound;
opposite narrow ravines, whose steep sides are clothed with copse-wood,
are cool valleys full of streams, pools, and springs.
These picturesque spots have often charming names: _Bois de la
Viergette_, _Ruisseau des Emerlots_, _Fontaine la Houyette_,
_Fontaine-aux-Charmes_, _Fontaine-Madame_ and _Bagatelle_. Sometimes the
names are quaint: _Fille-Morte_, _Moulin del’Homme Mort_,
_Ferme-la-Mitte_, _Chêne Tondu_ and _Courte-Chausse_. Below the long
ridge, which forms, as it were, the backbone of the forest, the _Chemin
de la Haute-Chevauchée_, and, a little further west, the _Pavillon St.
Hubert_ evoke memories of bygone hunting-parties. All these names,
yesterday but little known, are to-day famous, as for months they
recurred almost daily in the Communiqués of the Great War, and each of
them brings to mind, not one battle only, but a series of battles,
fierce struggles, and hand-to-hand encounters in the dense undergrowth.
The stationary warfare assumed a special character in the Argonne. Lanes
and footpaths formed the only breaks in the impenetrable thickets. There
were no gentle slopes, no convenient firing positions for the infantry,
no observation-posts for the artillery--everything being concealed by
the thick foliage; no easy roads, for though several wide valleys enter
the forest, they invariably end in narrow ravines which, except where
there are paths, present almost insuperable obstacles.
The innumerable springs give rise to excessive moisture. Tiny rivulets
intersect the clay soil, and mud collects easily, making the paths
impassable. Log roads had to be made in order to facilitate the bringing
up of reliefs and supplies. Trenches were no sooner dug than they filled
with water and mud, necessitating continuous baling, often with
makeshifts such as pails, shovels, dishes, mess-tins, etc.
These trenches, dug haphazard under enemy fire, were very irregular in
line, and French and German trenches sometimes overlapped. The fusillade
was uninterrupted, but erratic, except for a few snipers perched here
and there in the trees. At night, the forest was swept at random by
rifle and machine-gun fire, to make movement dangerous and to prevent
surprise. Rockets continually lit up the night. Here the rifle was
merely an auxiliary weapon, but grenade and bomb fighting went on all
day without respite.
Under this continuous rain of hand projectiles, and the hurricane of
shells which destroyed the trenches, the casualties were heavy. Apart
from the losses in actual battle, there were often hundreds of killed
and wounded in a single day. In the attack or defence of a trench the
fighting immediately became a hand-to-hand struggle, in which the long,
cumbersome rifle generally gave place to the knife and revolver.
Owing to the difficulty of approaching the enemy trenches in the open,
advances were made by pushing saps ahead, or by blowing them up with
mines. On both sides incessant digging of galleries and mine-chambers
went on underground, whence a race in speed and skill between the
opposing sappers, for it was a case either of blowing up the enemy
first, or being blown up by him. Over the mine-destroyed trenches,
through the smoke and under the rain of earth and stones caused by the
explosions, the soldiers dashed forward to occupy the new shell-crater,
or to fight for it if the enemy had reached it first. Then would follow
a bloody hand-to-hand struggle with grenades, knives, bayonets, daggers,
axes, etc., resulting in the gain of a few yards of ground.
From the end of 1914 to March 31, 1915, between Four-de-Paris and the
Valley of the Aisne, the French sappers excavated over 3,000 yards of
mine galleries, and fired fifty-two mine-chambers, using nearly 16,000
lbs. of explosives.