(_September, 1914, to September, 1918._)
Activity on the Argonne front was greatest during the first year of the
war. The German positions were held by part of the Army of the Crown
Prince, whose technical adviser was the old Marshal von Haeseler. This
army was composed mainly of first-class troops, including the XVIth
(Metz) Corps, one of the best in Germany, and superior to the famous
Prussian Guards. This Corps was commanded by General von Mudra, a sapper
skilled in mine warfare, who had under his command numerous
well-equipped pioneers. The French Divisions of the 5th and 2nd (Active)
Corps, though inferior in equipment, outrivalled the enemy in courage
and daring. They held the sector for many months, and their tenacity was
more than a match for German technique. They quickly adapted themselves
to the necessities of forest fighting, and from February, 1915, they
were fully equal to the enemy in discipline and equipment.
In October, 1914, the line, as a whole, crossed the entire width of the
Argonne, from the north of Vienne-le-Château to the north of Neuvilly.
As a matter of fact, there was no continuous line, the French troops
holding only rudimentary trenches, as stationary warfare was still
distasteful to them. They believed the pause to be but temporary, and
that they would soon resume the advance. They constantly attacked the
Germans, who, equally aggressive, endeavoured to gain ground, and to
wear down the French resistance by attacks on trenches, and by
ceaselessly-renewed local engagements.
The line was very irregular, with constant re-entrants and salients, and
frequently shifted. The French had established themselves on the two
parallel roads which cross the forest: at Bagatelle on the northern
road, in Gruerie Wood and at the Barricade on the southern road. Between
the two roads they seized and consolidated positions, such as the
_Pavillon St. Hubert_ and _Fontaine-Madame_. On the northern road and
around Bagatelle, during the last months of 1914, the Germans
alternately advanced and retreated about half a mile. In October, they
captured St. Hubert, only to lose it again. Later, they advanced to
within 400 yards of Four-de-Paris on the east, but in November they were
stopped in this sector. In the centre, in spite of repeated attacks,
they were unable to take _Fontaine-Madame_.
[Illustration: THE BATTLE IN THE FOREST]
In January, 1915, the line crossed the Melzicourt Ford, a little
upstream from Servon, and the Servon-Vienne-le-Château road to the north
of Fontaine-la-Houyette, running thence, with numerous salients and
re-entrants, through Gruerie Wood, as far as Fontaines-aux-Charmes and
the outskirts of Bagatelle. From there it went south through
Fontaine-Madame to within three-quarters of a mile north of La Harazée,
then north towards St. Hubert, then south again, crossing the Meurissons
Stream, to within 300 yards of Four-de-Paris, finally turning eastwards
across the Woods of Bolante and Courte-Chausse, to the Valley of the
Aire between Neuvilly and Boureuilles.
For almost a year the struggle on this line continued with unabated
desperateness. It is impossible to enumerate here all the battles fought
almost daily in the sectors of Fontaine-aux-Charmes, Bagatelle,
Marie-Thérèse, Fontaine-Madame, St. Hubert, Four-de-Paris, Les
Meurissons, Bolante Wood, Courte-Chausse and Haute-Chevauchée. The most
important are referred to later, in the Itinerary. On the whole, the
French troops, with whom the Garibaldian Regiment co-operated for a
short time, made some progress and inflicted bitter defeats on the
enemy. To the east, in the Valley of the Aire, though they failed
against Boureuilles, they succeeded in March, after numerous attacks, in
taking Vauquois.
During 1915, the Germans several times resorted to massed attacks on an
extended front, especially in June and July. From June 20 to July 14 the
Crown Prince launched an offensive in great force, employing as much as
an entire army corps for a single thrust. On June 20, after an intense
bombardment with gas shells, his troops attacked on both sides of the
Binarville-Vienne-le-Château road. Gassed and almost buried in their
shattered trenches, the French could not stop the enemy, but on June 24
counter-attacks regained almost all the lost ground.
On the 26th, the Crown Prince renewed and developed the attack, which,
on the 29th, extended from the Four-de-Paris to about two miles beyond
the Binarville-Vienne-le-Château road. After a three days’ bombardment,
he hurled at least 40,000 men into action, three times in succession.
Against the salient from Bagatelle to the north of Four-de-Paris alone,
on a front of about five miles, he launched two divisions. Thanks to a
hail of shells and gas bombs, the enemy advanced and, through the
corridor of the Biesme, came within five miles of their objective, the
railway station of Les Islettes. The fire of the 75’s, however, barred
the road, and the French reserves subsequently counter-attacked and
retook the lost ground covered with enemy dead.
After some local attacks on July 2 and 7, the Germans launched a fresh
general attack on the 13th, from the Binarville-Vienne-le-Château road,
as far as the Haute-Chevauchée. After a bombardment with more than
45,000 shells, five regiments of the XVIth Corps rushed the shattered
trenches. It was a powerful thrust, especially on the east, where a few
trenches were lost; but in the course of several days’ fighting the
enemy was held, and on the 14th the French counter-attacked on the west,
pushed the Germans back north of the Servon road, and held for a short
time the Beaurain Wood to the west of this road. On September 7, the
enemy once more threw two divisions against the western side of the
forest; but in this attempt, as in the first, they failed to break
through.
In September, 1915, the French offensive in Champagne made itself felt
in the Argonne. On the 25th, a subsidiary attack, designed to cover the
flank of the main attack, was carried out between Servon and Gruerie
Wood, over difficult ground, strongly entrenched by the Germans, and
flanked by many machine-guns. After carrying the first German lines, the
French troops, who had been counter-attacked and decimated by
machine-guns on the western edges of the Gruerie Wood, were forced to
retire on their original positions. However, this minor operation
prevented the enemy from using the Argonne to launch a counter-offensive
on the flank of the main attack. On the 27th, they attacked in the
Fille-Morte and Bolante sector, doubtless to cover the despatch of
reinforcements from the Argonne to Champagne.
In October the Argonne front suddenly became as calm as it had
previously been active. The enemy, discouraged by their losses, in
despair of reaching the Sainte-Menehould-Verdun road, and with their
hands full elsewhere, remained on the defensive in the Argonne. Their
efforts were now turned in other directions--towards Les Eparges, the
Trench of Calonne, and Ailly Wood, from which they hoped once more to
threaten Verdun. The Crown Prince had expected to cross the Argonne, but
after sacrificing thousands of soldiers, he was unable to break down the
French resistance. The massed attack on an extended front having only
increased his losses without result, he returned to his original plan of
trench raids and small local operations, the object of which was to
nibble away the ground and exhaust the opposing troops as much as
possible.
From November, 1915, the sap and mine fighting was renewed, in which the
French gained the advantage. Every month, at one place or another, or at
several places at once--at Bolante, Fille-Morte, Hill 285, near the
Haute-Chevauchée road, at St. Hubert, Courte-Chausse, and Marie-Thérèse,
in the Vauquois sector--mines destroyed the enemy trenches, and there
were fierce fights with hand-grenades for the shell-craters.
The battering of the defences, the constant improvement of the
equipment, and the construction of deep bomb-proof shelters, mitigated
the hardships of war and effected a considerable reduction in the losses
of the French.
During the battle of Verdun, fighting in the Argonne was practically
limited to artillery duels, the French batteries on the eastern border
frequently engaging the enemy batteries in the Bois de Cheppy and
Montfaucon.
In 1917, the fighting consisted almost entirely of hand-to-hand
struggles for outposts or trenches. The French, who excelled in this
kind of warfare, constantly destroyed the enemy mines and brought back
numbers of prisoners from more or less extensive raids.