Let us now consider the method which our foe employed in preparing the
attacks.
The French attacks must be classified as partial attacks and as attacks
en masse. The former invariably preceded the latter. The numerical
strength of the troops thus employed varied from a company to a
division. They were never an end in themselves, but a mere link in the
chain of a general, comprehensive plan. A destructive "drum-fire" was
followed up by an attack upon a particular trench. Having secured the
trench, they did one of two things. Either they used every effort to
secure a second trench, several hundred meters further along the line,
so that, working and fighting toward each other, they might reasonably
expect to unite the two trenches; or, using the captured trench as a
base for an attack en masse, they sought to indent our line and to
break it, a thing which was never attempted when a partial attack was
made.
In conducting these attacks en masse, the French always adhered to
their well-known scheme. A compact line of sharpshooters at the front
was followed at a distance of one hundred meters by densely packed
masses of company and battalion columns.
This method, of attack, from which they never swerved, occasioned them
a shocking loss of life. The losses sustained by a French regiment in
storming a position may be estimated conservatively at forty to fifty
per cent. French prisoners confirmed this estimate. To this wholesale
slaughter to which they condemn their men the fact is probably due that
the French rarely use the same regiment twice for purposes of attack.
Surely they must reckon with the demoralizing effect sustained by men
who have been forced to climb over hillocks of their own dead in order
to reach the enemy!
A French officer, whom we took prisoner, told us that the havoc wrought
by the German artillery fire upon the closed columns of the French had
been frightful. He added:
"These attacks constitute an insane slaughter; strictly speaking,
they are not attacks, but a mad dancing in shambles, through a
charnel-house, upon a cemetery. And yet we will be forced to continue
this way until the French Government sees fit to recognize the futility
of our method, or until we contrive to break through."
Not enough can be said in praise of our artillery. Heavy and light
artillery as well performed wonders. Their co-operation with our
infantry was wonderful--could not have been improved upon. Often,
our well-directed artillery fire nipped in the bud French efforts at
attack. Truly, the artillery which took part in the battle of the
Champagne has every reason to be proud of its record.
At the beginning of the period of which I am writing, the French
attacks were directed principally against our positions near Perthes
(the centre and left wing of the Eighth Army Corps). Then the French
concentrated their attacks upon the outer left wing of the Eighth
Army Corps and the right wing of the Eighth Reserve Corps (16th
Reserve-Division). Finally the French offensive degenerated into
a desperate, mad, wild struggle for the now famous Hill 196 (two
kilometers north of le Mesnil-les-Hurlus). At first they were probably
obsessed by the idea that the hill was valuable because of the outlook
which it afforded. Later, the government, or the War Ministry, seems to
have issued an order that the hill must be taken at whatever cost. They
paid the cost--paid horribly, suffered overwhelming losses, offered
hecatombs of victims, and still did not gain the Hill--thanks to the
heroism of the defending regiments.
This--Hill 196--was the most seriously menaced point, and accordingly
the Guard was installed there, which, together with the Rhenish,
Silesian and Saxon regiments, performed deeds of great valour. True to
the traditions of their race, they withstood the terrific onslaughts
made by the French hordes, onslaughts for the making of which the
French continually sent out fresh regiments. Attack after attack
failed. Those who escaped the fire of the artillery and the machine
guns fell under the butts and blades of the German bayonets.
Just as the interest and action of a drama continues to ascend until
the end of the last act, so the Battle of Champagne reached its
culmination and conclusion in the mad struggle that raged around Hill
196.