BOMBARDMENT OF RHEIMS AND SOISSONS
To be considered almost as a part of the advance upon the Aisne were the
bombardments of Soissons and of Rheims, the former being a part of the
first phase of the Aisne battles, the second belonging to the second
phase. Soissons, it will be remembered, lies at the western end of the
high bluffs that form a bank to the River Aisne for over fifty miles. It
is on the high road between Rheims and Compiegne, and on the south side
of the Aisne, and consequently returned into French hands on September
13, 1914. No sooner did the French armies enter the little town,
however, than Soissons, dominated by the twin towers of its ancient
cathedral, became a target for the concentrated fire of the Germans,
whose artillery, it will be remembered, had been supplemented that
morning by the huge guns brought on from Maubeuge by the magnificent
forced marches of General von Zwehl. By noon the lower half of that once
lovely city was in flames. On every hand walls collapsed as though they
had been made of pasteboard. Women and children were buried beneath the
ruins or blown to pieces as they fled into the streets. One of the
towers of the cathedral was damaged, and there was not a corner of the
town that was safe from fire. The French batteries tried to cover the
city and silence the batteries opposing them on the north front of the
river, but the odds were too great.
All day long, and throughout the greater part of every night, for the
first three days of the battle of the Aisne, September 13, 14, and 15,
1914, the bombardment of Soissons was continual, and, in addition to
being a wreck, the town became a shambles.
Closely allied to the Soissons bombardment, and occurring simultaneously
with the battle of the Aisne, was the series of engagements occurring in
the quarries around Autreches and Coucy-le-Chateau, fought by advanced
bodies in front of the right wing of the German army encamped on the
ridge of the Aisne. These engagements developed the illuminating fact
that during times of peace German capital had been invested in these
quarries and with their usual intrigue the Germans had fortified these
quarries, so that they were veritable fortresses, and indeed, formed a
continuation of that line of defense the crowning point of which was the
Aisne cliff near the plateau of the Craonne. During the days when the
British First Army Corps, under Sir Douglas Haig, was performing the
astounding feat of crossing the Aisne and holding the land thus gained
against a veritable tempest of counterattack, these stone quarries were
taken and lost again every few hours. The French infantry of General
Manoury's army, far less exhausted than the harassed regiments of
General von Kluck's forces, found little difficulty in forcing the
Germans back from Autreches, but, no sooner were they well established,
than the roar of the combined guns of General von Kluck and General von
Zwehl would make the position untenable, and under cover of that
appalling rain of death, the German infantry would creep back to
reoccupy the positions from which they had been ousted by the bayonets
only a few hours before. It was the German tactics of machine vs. men, a
direful and cruel battle plan to the opposing forces.
Upon the day that the advance of the British definitely stopped, or, in
other words, when General Joffre and Sir John French realized that
further effort against the defenses of the Germans on the ridge beyond
the Aisne would only mean loss of life to no gainful purpose, the
bombardment of Rheims began. The old city had suffered severely during
the German advance upon the Marne. Still, it had not been pillaged, and
when the Germans retreated across the Aisne the old city held much of
its glory unimpaired. Still the flawless beauty of Rheims Cathedral
stood guard over the ancient city.
Then on September 18, 1914, the shelling of the city began and a
bombardment of the most terrific character continued for ten days.
Rheims Cathedral, which the French declared was outside the zone of
direct fire and was used as a hospital with the Red Cross flag flying,
and which the Germans asserted to have been used for a signal station
and to have been surrounded by gun stations, was said to have been
demolished by the German guns. This act created a sensation throughout
the world, for Rheims Cathedral was like a gem from Paradise, regarded
by most art lovers as one of the most beautiful buildings in the world.
Every civilized country was shaken with grief when the news of the
disaster to Rheims Cathedral was published.
The Germans were apparently unmoved by the world's indignation. They
claimed to have acted only from "military necessity," which, according
to the old brutal theory, still regarded by the Huns, knows no law. In
an inspired article written by Major General von Ditfurth, in the
"Hamburger Nachrichten," this latter point is emphasized. He wrote:
"It is of no consequence if all the monuments ever created, all the
pictures ever painted, and all the buildings ever erected by the great
architects of the world were destroyed, if by their destruction we
promote Germany's victory over her enemies.... The commonest, ugliest
stone placed to mark the burial place of a German grenadier is a more
glorious and perfect monument than all the cathedrals in Europe put
together.
"Let neutral peoples and our enemies cease their empty chatter, which is
no better than the twittering of birds. Let them cease their talk about
the cathedral at Rheims and about all the churches and castles of France
which have shared its fate. These things do not interest us."
Opinions have differed concerning Von Ditfurth's appraisal of the
comparative values of Rheims Cathedral and the tombstone of a German
grenadier, but even the champions of military necessity were glad to
learn later that the cathedral still stood, though much damaged. There
was military excuse for the bombardment of the city of Rheims. But the
cathedral was by far the most conspicuous object in the Rheims
landscape. It was optional with the Germans to spare it except for some
casual shell that missed its aim. On the contrary they chose the great
church as a special target, as evidenced by repeated damage to the
cathedral and by the destruction of buildings all about it by shell
fire. This was certainly not military necessity, though the city of
Rheims had a place in the new strategical plan developed by Field
Marshal von Heeringen upon the collapse of the drive on Paris, which was
foiled by the battles of the Marne.