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View from Chemin des Dames looking across the valley of the Ailette River towards Laon Cathedral in the city of Laon, France and barely visible in the distance. The Chapelle St. Berthe is down the slope in the near distance. Laon was one of the first-day objectives of French commander-in-chief Robert Nivelle's offensive in the the Second Battle of the Aisne. © 2014 by John M. Shea
Western Ottoman Empire showing the travels of Rafael De Nogales, Inspector-General of the Turkish Forces in Armenia and Military Governor of Egyptian Sinai during the World War, from his book Four Years Beneath the Crescent.
British infantry, artillery, cavalry, and a tank, likely on the Arras front, 1917. From The Nations at War by Willis J. Abbot 1918 Edition.
Soldiers of the Great War Known Unto God, Cabaret Rouge Cemetery, Souchez, France. © 2013 by John M. Shea
Headstones at La Nécropole Nationale de Pontavert. The cemetery contains the remains of 6,815 soldiers, 67 of them British, 54 Russian, and the remainder French. Of the total, 1,364 are entombed in the ossuary. © 2014 by John M. Shea
"The infantry suffered greatly during the Chemin des Dames offensive, although not because of insufficient artillery support. On 20 April the battle was quieter. General Mangin sent a report to the GQG insisting on gains, but Nivelle knew better: the German retreat had been orderly and French troops had never been able to out manoeuvre the enemy. However public opinion knew nothing of this and Mangin's self-propaganda was fairly clever: 'Over 12 kilometres along the Aisne, from Soupir to Missy-sur-Aisne, our line south of the river has advanced by 6 to 7 kilometres. The Condé redoubt (...), the villages of Chivy, Bray-en-Laonnais, Ostel, Chavonne, Vailly, Celles, Condé-sur-Aisne, Laffaux, Nanteuil-la-Fosse, Sancy, Jouy, Aisy, have fallen into our hands (...). The observation posts that the enemy had over the Aisne valley are now ours, along with others at Chemin-des-Dames, giving us views over the Ailette valley and beyond.'" ((1), more)
"After the [Second Battle of Gaza] the British entrenched on the line Tell et Tine-Esch Schaluf-El Mansura-Ch. el Maschrafe, particularly protecting their right flank.The Turkish losses in the battle were 391 killed, 1,336 wounded and 242 missing. They captured six British officers and 266 men. The British losses in the battle were estimated by the Turks as very high, and confirmed as such by the British prisoners." ((2), more)
"The troops of all the German tribes under your command, with steel-hard determination and strongly led, have brought to failure the great French attempt to break through on the Aisne and in Champagne. Also there the infantry again had to bear the brunt, and, thanks to the indefatigable assistance of the artillery and other arms, has accomplished great things in death-defying perseverance and irresistible attack. Convey my thanks and those of the Fatherland to the leaders and men. The battle on the Aisne and in Champagne is not yet over, but all who fight and bleed there shall know that the whole of Germany will remember their deeds, and is one with them to carry through the fight for existence to a victorious end. God grant it." ((3), more)
". . . as soon as we went over I kept well back from the creeping barrage. I was very frightened, you could see the shells bursting only fifty yards in front. Then we came to the barbed wire and it wasn't properly cut . . . It was sheer murder, that was. There were paths cut through the wire and, like animals, we crowded into the paths. That's where most of our casualties came from, machine guns were trained on the gaps, blokes just fell in heaps. Somehow I got through that OK and kept on going, but then I looked to my left and right and couldn't see another soul. To my utter dismay, I was on my own. I panicked and dived into the nearest shell hole and stopped there till it was dark. That was one of the longest days of my life. When I crawled back, a Scots Regiment had taken over our bit of the line and were going to shoot me as they thought I was a German. I never saw a single German that day, yet the whole battalion was wiped out." ((4), more)
"And when the lights are out, and the ward is half shadow and half glowing firelight, and the white beds are quiet with drowsy figures, huddled outstretched, then the horrors come creeping across the floor: the floor is littered with parcels of dead flesh and bones, faces glaring at the ceiling, faces turned to the floor, hands clutching neck or belly; a livid grinning face with bristly moustache peers at me over the edge of my bed, the hands clutching my sheets. Yet I found no bloodstains there this morning. These corpses are silent; they do not moan and bleat in the war-zone manner approved by the War Office. They are like dummy figures made to deceive snipers: one feels that there is no stuffing inside them. . . . I don't think they mean any harm to me. They are not here to scare me; they look at me reproachfully, because I am so lucky, with my safe wound, and the warm kindly immunity of the hospital is what they longed for when they shivered and waited for the attack to begin, or the brutal bombardment to cease. . . ." ((5), more)
(1) From its beginning on April 16, 1917, Robert Nivelle's offensive, the Second Battle of the Aisne — the Battle of Chemin des Dames — was a failure, certainly in light of the expectations Nivelle had raised. General Charles Mangin had also fought under Nivelle in the Battle of Verdun. He was called 'The Butcher.' The French crossed the Aisne River, and ultimately took the heights of Chemin des Dames ridge, but the Germans retreated across the Ailette River to the heights of Laon.
The 1917 Spring Offensives: Arras, Vimy, Chemin des Dames by Yves Buffetaut, page 170, publisher: Histoire et Collections, publication date: 1997
(2) Excerpt from German General Otto Liman von Sanders' account of the Second Battle of Gaza, the main action of which was fought on April 20, 1917. Like the First Battle of Gaza, fought from March 26 to 28, the Second ended in a British defeat, preventing them from advancing on Palestine. The two defeats led to the replacement of General Archibald Murray, commanding British forces in the Middle East from his headquarters in Cairo, Egypt, by General Edmund Allenby. Allenby would build on Murray's methodical construction of roads and supply lines along the Mediterranean coast to support the advance.
Five Years in Turkey by Liman von Sanders, page 167, publisher: The Battery Press with War and Peace Books, publication date: 1928 (originally)
(3) Telegram of April 22, 1917 from German Kaiser Wilhelm II to his son the Crown Prince,commanding in Champagne where German forces had halted the the attack in the Second Battle of the Aisne launched on April 17, and part of French commander Robert Nivelle's spring offensive. The Aisne River was south of the heights of Chemin des Dames, and had been held by the German's since their retreat to it in September, 1914 after the battles of the Marne and Aisne.
They Shall Not Pass: The French Army on the Western Front 1914-1918 by Ian Sumner, Vol. V, 1917, p. 163, copyright © Ian Sumner 2012, publisher: Pen and Sword, publication date: 2012
(4) Private Reg Eveling of the 7th Border Regiment describing his part in the attacks on Gavrelle on April 23, 1917 in the Battle of Arras. The Regiment lost 15 of 19 officers and 404 of 505 other ranks. The same day, the British suffered further heavy losses attacking the Chemical Works in the village of Roeux including 2,000 dead, wounded, or missing Seaforth Highlanders.
Cheerful Sacrifice: The Battle of Arras, 1917 by Jonathan Nicholls, page 188, copyright © Jonathan Nicholls [1990 repeatedly renewed through] 2011, publisher: Pen and Sword, publication date: 2010
(5) Excerpt labeled 'In the Ward (ii)' from the writings on April 24, 1917, of Siegfried Sassoon, British poet, author, Second Lieutenant in the Royal Welch Fusiliers, and recipient of the Military Cross for gallantry in action. Sassoon had been wounded, shot through the shoulder by a sniper, in an April 16 attack on the village of Fontaine-lès-Croisilles in the Battle of Arras.
Siegfried Sassoon Diaries 1915-1918 by Siegfried Sassoon, pp. 161–162, copyright © George Sassoon, 1983; Introduction and Notes Rupert Hart-Davis, 1983, publisher: Faber and Faber, publication date: 1983
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