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
Compiègne, 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-Château, 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 that the foresight of the Germans had led them
to fortify 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.
It must be admitted that military necessity knows no law, and it
must also be admitted that human life has a valuation to be expressed
in terms far higher than any building however beautiful. In an
inspired article written by Major General von Ditfurth, in the
"Hamburger Nachrichten," this latter point is clearly brought out.
He wrote:
"It is of no consequence if all the monuments ever created, all
the pictures ever painted, and all the buildings ever created 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 naturally 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. If Rheims were far away from the line of march, and if the
Germans had deliberately gone thither for the purpose of destroying
it--as some prejudiced accounts seem to state--then there would not
be room for two opinions. Wanton vandalism is vandalism largely
in the ratio that it is wanton. But, to be perfectly impartial,
it must be admitted that the second phase of the battle of the
Aisne made the bombardment of Rheims a military necessity. To make
this clear requires a setting forth of the new strategical plan
developed by Field Marshal von Heeringen upon the collapse of the
plan for the drive on Paris, which was foiled by the battles of
the Marne.
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