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| Second Battle of the Aisne | |||||||
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| Part of the Western Front of World War I | |||||||
 The Western Front in 1917 |
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 France |
 German Empire |
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| Commanders | |||||||
| Robert Nivelle, Charles Mangin, François Anthoine, Mazel |
Max von Boehn Fritz von Below |
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| Strength | |||||||
| 1 million, 7,000 guns | 480,000. | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 187,000 casualties1 | 163,000 casualties1 | ||||||
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The Second Battle of the Aisne (also sometimes called the Third Battle of Champagne), in 1917 was the main action of the French Nivelle Offensive or Chemin des Dames Offensive during World War I. The objective was a prominent, 80 km long, east-west ridge underlain by many quarries that had sheltered the German occupants from the French artillery preparation. The French frontal assault on the Chemin des Dames was received everywhere by intense, in-depth machine gun fire and thus stalled on the second day. It ended in disaster for both the French Army and its commander Robert Nivelle, destroying his career and sparking widespread mutiny in the army. Nivelle instigated the plan in December 1916 after he replaced Joseph Joffre as Commander-in-Chief of the French army.
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Background
When he succeeded Joffre as commander of the French army, Nivelle argued that a massive onslaught against the German lines would bring French victory in 48 hours.2 He believed the Germans were too bloodied from the battles at Verdun and the Somme to offer an effective, sustained defence, especially if it were preceded by a large-scale diversionary attack by the British.
The French War Minister, Hubert Lyautey, and Chief of Staff General Henri-Philippe Pétain, along with British Commander-in-Chief, Sir Douglas Haig, were all strongly opposed to this plan. In the face of this opposition, Nivelle threatened to resign if the offensive did not go ahead, and the French government found itself in a difficult situation.2 Nivelle had not yet lost a battle, and he also had the enthusiastic support of British Prime Minister David Lloyd George.2 Caught between a rock and a hard place, French Prime Minister Aristide Briand decided to support Nivelle, and the war minister resigned in protest.
The Nivelle Offensive was conceived as a vast operation, involving around 1.2 million troopscitation needed and 7,000 guns on a broad front between Roye and Reims. Its primary focus was a massive assault on the German positions along the Aisne river.
The plan, which had been in development since December 1916, was plagued by delays and information leaks. By the time the offensive began in April 1917, its details were well-known to the Germans, who had ample time to take appropriate defensive measures. Additionally, the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line had undercut most of the tactical assumptions of the French plan. Despite being forced to advance across relatively unknown ground, at a defensive position carefully chosen by the enemy - about which the French had little reliable intelligence - Nivelle determined to press the attack.3
Battle
On 16 April 1917, after a week of diversionary attacks by the British at Arras, nineteen divisions of the French 5th and 6th armies, led by Mazel and Charles Mangin, attacked the German line along an 80 km stretch from Soissons to Reims.3 An impressive amount of artillery firepower was concentrated on the German lines, but to no avail since the ridge was underlain by underground quarries that served as deep shelters. Forewarned, the Germans had concentrated about 100 machine guns, including the new MG08/15 light machine guns, for every 1000 metres of front; they were also well entrenched, and their positions were deep.4 Situated on the high ground overlooking the valley of the Aisne River, the German 7th army (under von Boehm) had little difficulty holding their positions. On the first day of combat alone, the French suffered over 40,000 casualties and lost 150 tanks. The creeping barrage was also poorly executed and failed to adequately cover the advance5.
On the second day, the French 4th army, led by François Anthoine, launched an attack east of Reims towards Moronvilliers. Fritz von Below's First Army easily repelled this assault.
Nivelle continued to order full-scale attacks until 20 April 1917. Some small gains were made by Mangin to the west of Soissons and although the assault was scaled back over the next few weeks, by 5 May 1917, a 4 km stretch of the Chemin des Dames Ridge had been captured. Incongruously, these smaller, scaled-back attacks proved more successful than the earlier, larger ones.
Aftermath
Although often characterized as a dismal failure, the offensive did net gains of as much as seven kilometers.4 However, it had been announced and billed as a crushing blow to the Germans, and no breakthrough had been achieved. Casualty rates were incredibly high; twenty percent for the entire army by 10 May, and some divisions suffered more than sixty percent.4
On 3 May the French 2nd Division refused to follow its orders to attack, and this mutiny soon spread throughout the army. Following a final, ineffective four-day assault, the Nivelle Offensive was abandoned in disarray on 9 May 1917.4
While the Germans lost around 40,000, the French suffered over 118,000 casualties. 6 The politicians and public were stunned by the chain of events in this tragedy of errors and, a week later, on 16 May Nivelle was finally sacked and moved to North Africa. He was replaced by the considerably more cautious Pétain, who made no attempts to commit his forces to large scale offensives. Henceforth the main burden of allied offensive efforts on the Western Front would fall upon British Empire forces and the soon-to-arrive American Expeditionary Force.
On 20 May 1917, General Max von Boehn who had commanded IX Reserve Corps was awarded Oakleaves (similar to a bar) to his Pour le Mérite for "outstanding leadership during the 1917 French Aisne offensive and distinction during the battle of Chemin des Dames".7
Footnotes
- ^ a b P Simkins, G Jukes, & M Hickey (2003). The First World War: The War To End All Wars. Osprey Publishing, pg. 123. ISBN 1-84176-738-7.
- ^ a b c Strachan, Hew. The First World War. (New York: Viking, 2003). 243
- ^ a b Strachan, 246.
- ^ a b c d Strachan, 247.
- ^ Keegan, John. The First World War. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999). 327.
- ^ from "Numbers, Predictions and War" by Trevor N. Dupuy page 101
- ^ Pour le Mérite website
References
- Evans, M. M. (2004). Battles of World War I. Select Editions. ISBN 1-84193-226-4.
- Keegan, John.The First World War. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999.
- Strachan, Hew. The First World War. New York: Viking, 2003.
