THE BATTLE OF THE AISNE.
When Sir John French came to think over the operations of the day, he
was uncertain in his own mind as to the intention of the enemy. Did they
mean to make a great stand on the Aisne heights, or were they merely
fighting a rearguard action in order to gain time in which to prepare
for some new movement? It was most important that the Germans should be
made to reveal their plans; so Sir John decided to put the matter to the
test on the morrow by making a general advance.
All night long the engineers were hard at work strengthening the new
crossings and repairing the old bridges, so that they would bear the
weight of heavy guns and lorries. The infantry were no less busy,
digging themselves in on the ground which they had won the previous day.
The real attack was to be made by the First Army Corps, under Sir
Douglas Haig, and we will now follow the fortunes of his command. On
September 13 he had fought his way northward for about two miles, and
was now holding the hillsides and the woods around the village of
Troyon, directly to the north of Bourg. You must not confuse this Troyon
with Fort Troyon, which was mentioned in Chapter XXVII. Fort Troyon is
an outlying fort of Verdun, on the right bank of the Meuse; the Troyon
of which I am now speaking is a tiny village about three miles north of
Bourg, on the Aisne. To the north of Troyon are steep wooded slopes, and
to the west is an undulating and densely-wooded country, rising towards
high hills. Dense woodlands lay between Troyon and the position which
the First Corps now held.
Shortly after midnight on 14th September Haig mustered his 2nd Infantry
Brigade, which was billeted in the village of Moulins,[127] about a
mile to the south of Troyon. Rain fell at intervals, and heavy mist made
the dark night still darker. Silently the battalions of the King's Royal
Rifles, the Royal Sussex, the Northamptonshire, and the Loyal North
Lancashire regiments, with the 25th Artillery Brigade, took their
places, and waited for the word of command. The German position which
they were about to assault was the strongest along the whole line. The
enemy had dug deep trenches and gun pits, and the ranges were well
known, so that a fierce struggle might be expected. Both sides were on
the watch, and every now and then the crack of rifles and the screech of
shells broke the silence, while searchlights from the heights swept the
scene. Brigadier-General Bulfin, who was in command, had sent out a
patrol of officers to discover the position and strength of the enemy.
Shortly before 3 a.m. it returned, and reported that the enemy was
strongly posted near a sugar factory to the north of Troyon.
Then the word was given, and the King's Royal Rifles and the Royal
Sussex Regiment moved forward in silence. There was no talking in the
ranks; the orders were given in whispers, and were quickly passed along
the line. Everything depended on taking the enemy by surprise. As the
British moved on in dead silence there was a sudden sharp cry of pain. A
stray shot had hit a man in the arm, and he could not repress a cry. But
the brave fellow silenced his moans immediately by thrusting a piece of
turf between his teeth. He held it there until he was sufficiently
recovered to crawl back to his own lines.
The German outposts were now reached. The British moved rapidly forward,
and soon drew near to the factory near which the Germans were posted.
They were met by a fierce fire from the factory and from the guns in the
entrenchments near at hand. Our men flung themselves to the ground, and
began creeping forward, taking cover with great skill. It was a scene
worthy of the brush of Rembrandt.[128] Away on the left rose the dusky
heights; in front the factory loomed darkly against the sky; from
windows and loopholes came thin sparks of flame; all around were wooded
slopes wrapped in gloom. Along the British front the darkness was
relieved by flashes of light from the rifles of the widely-extended
infantry. From the distant trenches came the thunder of guns. All the
time a light rain was falling, and a soaking mist made the darkness more
obscure.
The German fire was so hot that the British were brought to a
standstill. Shortly afterwards the Northamptons appeared on the east,
and began moving towards the hills. Very slowly they gained ground, but
all attempts to oust the Germans from the factory failed. The darkness,
the mist, and the sodden ground prevented our artillery from lending
effective aid.
The eastern sky began to pale; the shadows slowly fled from the woods,
and dawn was at hand. The thin British line could not be expected to
hold its own when the full light of day revealed them to the German
marksmen and gunners, so reinforcements were hurried up, and a desperate
attempt was made to advance. But little headway was made until the
Guards' Brigade arrived. The Grenadier, Coldstream, and Scots Guards, as
you probably know, rejoice in a long and proud record of military glory.
For two hundred and fifty years they have played a leading part in our
wars, and on their colours are blazoned some of the most glorious
victories in British annals. Every man of the Guards' Brigade who
advanced in the gray of that September morning was eager to prove
himself worthy of the name and fame of his regiment. "Fix bayonets!" was
now the order, and away swept the British, unsupported by artillery,
towards the enemy's trenches. There was fierce hand-to-hand fighting for
a few minutes. Then the Germans, unable to stand the fierce onset and
the thrust of cold steel, broke and fled, leaving five guns and more
than three hundred prisoners in the hands of the victors.
The factory, however, still held out. It was a solid stone building,
with every door bolted and barred, and every window lined with rifles.
The Loyal North Lancashires, who lay before it, heard the shouts of
their victorious comrades to the right and left, and now strained every
effort to win a like success. Towards midday some of them rushed a door
of the factory, battered it down, and forced their way in over
barricades and the piled corpses of the slain. In a few minutes the
factory was in British hands. The Loyal North Lancashires poured into
it, and held it throughout the day.
In the full light of that cold and windy morning, the British saw
clearly that the task before them was enough to make the stoutest heart
quail. The Germans had retreated to a line of trenches on a stretch of
rising open ground. To carry these trenches meant an advance through a
tornado of lead from rifles and machine guns. Behind the trenches was
concealed German artillery, which was dropping shells on them so fast
and furiously that advance was impossible. There was a great sigh of
relief when, about nine o'clock, British shells began to whistle over
the heads of the infantry. At last the artillery had come to their aid.
Now we must leave these gallant men for a moment and see what was
happening to the Allies on either flank. To the right of the 1st
Division the Moroccans, who had already taught the Germans to fear them,
were holding their trenches valiantly. To the left of the 1st Division
was the 2nd Division, advancing towards Braye, which you will see on the
extreme right of the picture-diagram (page 249). Its right wing had been
checked by German artillery and rifle fire, and was now held up. Between
the firing lines of the 1st and 2nd Divisions there was a stretch of
ground left open, and Sir Douglas Haig saw at once that the enemy would
probably try to thrust in a wedge at this point. He therefore hurried
the 3rd Infantry Brigade into the gap, but only just in time. Almost
immediately it was fiercely shelled, and a strong force of Germans was
seen advancing. Two battalions of the 3rd Brigade at once dashed towards
them; a battery of field guns galloped up, and opened fire at short
range, and the enemy hastily withdrew.
Later in the day the enemy actually gained a footing between the First
and Second Corps, and threatened to cut the communications of the
latter. Sir Douglas Haig at this time was very hard pressed, and he had
no reserves. The only reinforcements which Sir John French possessed
consisted of three brigades of Allenby's cavalry. They now galloped up,
dismounted, and took their places in the firing line. By their timely
help the enemy was driven back, and the danger was averted.
Desperate fighting continued the whole of the morning and far into the
afternoon. Attack and counter-attack continued almost without a pause.
The Germans rolled forward in waves, only to be beaten back; the British
advanced in their turn, only to suffer a like fate. In each case it was
as though lines of breakers were dashing against the cliffs of a rocky
seashore. Big guns thundered; Maxims and rifles cracked unceasingly.
Huge siege guns, with a range of 10,000 yards, also hurled their
enormous shells upon the British. These were the guns which had battered
down the forts of Maubeuge a few days before.
About four in the afternoon the German counter-attacks grew so weak and
infrequent that Sir Douglas Haig thought the time had come for a general
advance. Our men pushed forward gallantly, but every inch of ground had
to be won at a heavy price of dead and wounded. The officers suffered
very severely; one brigade lost three of its four colonels. By this time
the long day's struggle was beginning to tell upon our gallant fellows.
Nevertheless before night fell a long stretch of difficult and dangerous
ground had been won; six hundred prisoners and twelve guns had been
captured. For the first time our men occupied an entrenched position on
the plateau itself. In his dispatch Sir John French pays a high and
well-deserved tribute to Sir Douglas Haig and the First Army Corps. He
says: "The action of the First Army Corps, under the direction and
command of Sir Douglas Haig, was of so skilful, bold, and decisive a
character that he gained positions which alone have enabled me to
maintain my position for more than three weeks of very severe fighting
on the north bank of the river."
* * * * *
Very briefly I must sum up the work of the French on 14th September and
the following days. The 6th French Army, to the left of the British, had
made good progress on the 14th; but by the evening of the 15th had been
driven back to within only a few hundred yards of its crossing places.
Soissons had been heavily shelled, and part of it had been burned down.
The French left, however, was still moving up the Oise towards Noyon.
The 5th French Army, to the right of the British, had crossed the river
on the 14th, and had begun its assaults on the plateau above Craonne. If
it could seize the long, steep-sided spur of Craonne, it would be able
to turn the German positions on the whole line of heights. The Germans,
however, stubbornly held their own, and the French could make no
progress.
The 9th French Army, which had played such a leading part in the Battle
of the Marne, had driven the Germans into Rheims, from which they fell
back almost without firing a shot. The French were elated at the capture
of this historic city. But von Buelow had not been defeated; he had
moved back for the purpose of protecting the left of von Kluck's
position on the heights of the Aisne. He halted, as we know, on the
ridge along the northern bank of the Suippe, and Foch's attempts to
force him from this position not only failed, but he himself was driven
back by the Germans towards Rheims. The enemy captured the hill of
Brimont, north of the city, and brought up heavy siege guns to bombard
it at long range. More important still, the Germans had worked round on
the east, and had won another hill to the east of the city. They could
not, however, capture an adjoining hill, which was part of the defences
of Rheims.
Eastwards of Rheims the 3rd and 4th Armies were fighting hard with some
of the Saxon and Würtemberg troops, and also with the army of the Crown
Prince. South of the Argonne the German retreat on this part of the line
had also come to an end, and here, too, the invaders were holding an
entrenched position of such strength that it resembled a fortress.
* * * * *
The next day, 15th September, was not so favourable to the Allies as the
preceding day. On the British left two of our divisions were severely
handled, and one of them was forced back at evening almost to the line
of the stream. The 3rd Division, however, retook some high ground from
which it had been thrust back on the previous day. On the British right
there were constant attacks and counter-attacks, and the Guards' Brigade
did yeoman service. It was during this part of the fighting that
Bombardier Ernest Harlook, of the 113th Battery, R.F.A., won the V.C.,
as we shall read later.
Next day there was not much fighting on the British front. News arrived
that the French 5th Army had been obliged to fall back, and that the
Moroccans, on the British right, had retired, and thus left open the
flank of our First Corps. Next morning (17th September), however, there
was good news from the left. The French 6th Army had won back all the
ground which it had lost, and was now in a strong position on the edge
of the plateau. The British divisions which had been driven back to the
stream were not molested; but the 1st Division, perched high up on the
plateau at Troyon, came in for a bad time.
The Northamptons, on the extreme right, had clung to their positions, in
spite of every effort to dislodge them. On the morning of the 17th the
Germans in the opposite trenches showed a white flag as a token of
surrender. They were called upon to come forward, and they did so, right
to the edge of our trenches, and then most treacherously poured in a hot
rifle fire. Many of our men were shot down; but happily there was a
British machine gun, manned by a detachment of the Queen's, on the flank
of the trench, and only 400 yards away. It opened fire at once, cutting
a lane through the mass of the Germans, and killing three hundred of
them. About one hundred of the survivors held up their hands and were
made prisoners, while the rest fell back to their own trench. The trap
had failed. Shortly afterwards a battalion of the Guards arrived, and
drove them still farther back, with more loss.
On the next day (18th September) there was a lull in the fighting,
though the 1st and 2nd British Divisions made a general attack, during
which the Gloucesters, charging through the darkness, carried a line of
the enemy's trenches. The whole French line to the east was making no
progress, and it was now clear that the German positions could not be
carried by a frontal attack. In five days' furious and deadly struggle
but little ground had been gained. The forces opposed to each other were
too evenly matched, and the trenches of the enemy were too strongly
defended to be captured without a terrible loss of life. All that the
Allies could do was to dig themselves in deeply, and slowly and
painfully creep forward to the German lines by sap and mine.
It was clear that the Germans had recovered from their retreat, and were
now in such a position that they could defy our attacks. A deadlock had
set in all along the line. All dreams of rapidly driving the enemy out
of France had been rudely dispelled. General Joffre, however, was equal
to the occasion. He was ready with a new plan. What it was, and how it
succeeded, we shall learn in a later chapter.
[Footnote 127: _Moo-lan´_ (_n_ nasal).]
[Footnote 128: Born 1606, died 1669; one of the greatest of painters,
and the glory of the Dutch school. Many of his pictures are in deep
shade, and suggest the mystery that lies under the surface of things
seen.]