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Battles in the Argonne
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
or "BATTLES ARGONNE IN THE, 1914-6. - On Sept. 14 1914 at early dawn the advanced guards of the French II. Army Corps left Ste. Menehould with orders to reach Grandpre the same day. The II. Corps was en fleche, about half a day's march ahead of the IV. Army Corps, which was on its left, and of the left corps of the III. Army on its right. At about 12 o'clock one of the advanced guards of the II. Corps carried, by a forced attack, the village of St. Thomas, a kind of natural fortress dominating the valley of the Biesme. A German staff officer was killed, on whom was found an order of the IV. German Army commanding them to hold the " fortified positions marked by La Justice (2 km. south of Cernay), hills 147 and 148, height 140 (between Servon and the Bois de Cernay), the Mare aux Bceufs, Bagatelle.. ." In the evening of the 14th the French Colonial Corps was stopped by the resistance of the enemy at Ville-sur-Tourbe; the II. Corps carried Servon, but, isolated by the delay of the III. Army and the check to the Colonial Corps, it could not emerge therefrom. It may be said that on the evening of Sept. 14 mobile warfare ceased in Argonne and trench warfare began.
The German staff had left the valley of the Biesme to take up its positions farther back; this decision seems to have been speedily regretted, for on the morning of the 15th great efforts were made by the Germans to regain the heights dominating the Biesme. The French forces tried at first to continue their northward march, but they soon felt the uselessness of their efforts. Then position warfare was accepted, but so regretfully that immobility was found difficult to observe; time was wasted, and, in war, time is blood. Nevertheless, the return towards the Biesme attempted by the Germans as early as Sept. 15 had not yet been completely successful by July 1918, at which moment the debacle for Germany began. On Sept. 15 1914 the Germans retook Servon, but could not debouch from it. Their efforts to do so remained fruitless during the whole of the war.
Further westwards the II. Corps in vain attempted to reach Binarville.. The Germans retook the south edge of that village and gained ground in the woods of La Grurie; but they came up against the most tenacious resistance and were never able to seize Vienne-le-Chateau, of which they did not leave a stone standing. More to the east obstinate fighting took place all through the winter of 1914 and the spring of 1915 at Bagatelle, a small ruined hunting-box. Bagatelle fell into the hands of the Germans, but although the latter penetrated into the woods as far as La Harazee, they were unable to cross the Biesme there. The right of the IV. Army was at a spot called St. Hubert, near the Meurissons stream which ends at Le Four de Paris. Le Four de Paris was under the authority of the III. Army, commanded by Gen. Sarrail. The V. Army Corps, left of the III. Army, had not been so rapid in its pursuit as the II. Corps; the liaison of the two armies could, therefore, not take place, as had been planned and was desirable, at the crossing-point of La Viergette on the Haute Chevauchee; the crossing-point was taken by the Germans. On Sept. 23 and 24 the V. Corps, which had succeeded in reaching Montblainville, gave way, lost Varennes and allowed the enemy to approach Meurissons and Le Four de Paris.
On Sept. 29 the XVI. German Corps attacked La Chalade, Le Four de Paris and La Harazee simultaneously, and reached the vicinity of the Biesme. It must be noted that, at that same time, Gen. von Strantz's army forced the Hauts de Meuse, entered St. Mihiel, seized Fort Camp des Romains, crossed the Meuse and endeavoured to advance westwards, beyond Chauvoncourt. This meant the envelopment of Verdun, by St. Mihiel and by the Biesme, and was the most critical period of the struggle in Argonne. But on Sept. 30 the German 98th was taken by surprise near La Chalade, two of its battalions being completely destroyed, or nearly so. The Germans were driven back to and beyond St. Hubert. Furious fighting went on at Bois de Bolante, La Fille Morte, and Courtes-Chanvres. From Oct. 6 the front was practically fixed in these parts.
On Nov. 20 1914 the 10th Div. of the French V. Corps, which was under Gen. Gouraud, became attached to the II. Corps. General Gerard, commanding the II. Corps, then became the real defender of Argonne, while the German facing him was Gen. von Mudra. On Jan. 5 1915 Gen. Gouraud made a successful attack at Courtes-Chanvres.
The Germans had been greatly assisted, at the outset, by a special trench-warfare materiel from Metz. On the French side the materiel and special mine-warfare units had to be improvised. During the winter of 1914-5 there were no projectiles even for the guns, and those manufactured in haste made the British 75-m m. guns explode.
Shortly after the II. Corps had settled in Argonne the French general-in-chief shifted the limit of the armies. The Aisne now marked the right of the IV. Army, commanded by Gen. de Langle de Cary, and the left of the III. Army, under Gen. Sarrail, whose headquarters were at Ste. Menehould. Ste. Menehould on one side and Varennes on the other were the fountain-head of all orders. Gen. Sarrail in the south, the German Crown Prince in the north, organized the combats that were more often sacrifices. The Aisne in the west, the Oise and the Verdun region in the east, were the limits of that bloody battlefield where the fighting was conducted in the woods, in trenches which were little more than streams, owing to the extreme dampness of the soil. The men were dying from cold and frozen feet; they were so worn out that the slightest wound became mortal.
It would be tedious to enumerate the units, both large and small, that passed through Argonne, won fame and wore themselves out. Nevertheless, mention must be made of the Garibaldi brothers and their legionaries, who, with heroic courage, showed the Germans in a fierce assault that Italian steel is as good as its men.
General Gerard was replaced, on Jan. 15 1915, by Gen. Humbert. The latter was appointed commander of the III. Army, after Gen. Sarrail's reverse, in the month of July 1915.
By the month of Feb. 1916 Verdun had become the centre of the gigantic struggle; Argonne was never quite calm, but the fighting there henceforth took the second place; large numbers of men were no longer sacrificed as at the outset. The armaments balanced little by little and, in Argonne especially, when the Germans had no materiel superiority, they no longer dominated in any way.
By a close examination of facts, one may convince oneself that the value of the German armies was due much more to the German war preparations, German material organization for war, than to the value of the soldiers and those in command. Had the Germans been obliged to improvise the defence of Argonne as the French were, they would have been defeated at a very early stage. (V. L. E. C.)
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Chisholm, Hugh, General Editor. Entry for 'Battles in the Argonne'. 1911 Encyclopedia Britanica. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/bri/b/battles-in-the-argonne.html. 1910.
