FIGHTING IN ARTOIS AND THE VOSGES

On the first of August, 1915, the situation on the western front was as follows: The position of the Belgian troops has been described; the British held the line from the north of Ypres to the south of La BassÉe. The Germans had closed in to some extent round Ypres during the two big battles, and the trenches now ran in a semicircle about the city at a distance of from two and one-half to three miles. The line turned south at St. Eloi, skirted the west of the Messines ridge, turned east again at Ploegstreet Wood, and south to the east of ArmentiÈres. Hence the trenches extended southwestward to Neuve Chapelle and Festhubert to La BassÉe. The remainder of the front—down to the Swiss frontier—was defended by the French, along by Lille, Rheims, and the fortresses of Verdun, Toul, Epinal, and Belfort.

After the battles of May and June, 1915, in Artois, activity on the western front became concentrated in the Vosges, where the French by a series of comparatively successful engagements had managed to secure possession of more favorable positions and to retain them in spite of incessant and violent counterattacks. The supreme object of the allied commanders at this stage was to wear down their opponents through vain and costly counteroffensives, and to absorb the German local resources in that sector. It had been decided by the Allies to begin a fresh offensive on the western front in August, 1915, but owing to incomplete preparations, the attempt was of necessity postponed till the third week in September. It was extremely urgent that some determined move should be made as speedily as possible; the Russians were suffering defeat and disaster in the east, and were already retreating from Warsaw in the first days of August, 1915. The British and the French meanwhile could do little more than engage in local actions until their arrangements for offensive operations on a vast scale should be completed. On the other side, the Germans were also busily making preparations to provide against every possibility in case of retreat. New lines of defenses were constructed across Belgium; formidable complex trenches guarded by barbed-wire entanglements; concrete bases for heavy guns connected by railways; and a large fortified station was erected. These preparations rendered possible a very rapid transportation of troops and munitions to Brabant and Antwerp.

The fighting on the western front during August, 1915, may be described as a fierce, continuous battle, a lively seesaw of capturing and recapturing positions, followed at regular intervals by the publication of the most contradictory "official" reports from the German, French, and British headquarters. Many of them gave diametrically opposite accounts of the same events. In the first week of the month the Germans made furious attacks against the French positions at Lingekopf and Barrenkopf. All through the Argonne forest the combatants pelted each other with bombs, hand grenades, and other newly invented missiles. Several determined attempts were made by the Germans to recapture the positions lost at Schratzmannele and Reichsackerkopf, but the French artillery fire proved too strong. Soissons was again bombarded; desperate night attacks were delivered around Souchez, on the plateau of QuenneviÈres, and in the valley of the Aisne; local engagements were fought in Belgium and along parts of the British front; trenches were mined and shattered, while aeroplanes scattered bombs and fought thrilling duels in the air. The Belgians were forced partly to evacuate their advanced positions over the river Yser, near Hernisse, south of Dixmude. In the Argonne the Germans, by a strong infantry charge, penetrated the first line of the French trenches, but were unable to hold their ground.

On August 9, 1915, a squadron of thirty-two large French aeroplanes carrying explosives, and accompanied by a number of lighter machines to act as scouts, set out to bombard the important mining and manufacturing town of SaarbrÜcken, on the river Saar, in Rhenish Prussia. This was where the first engagement in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 was fought. Owing to mist and heavy clouds, only twenty-eight of the aeroplanes succeeded in locating the town, where they dropped one hundred and sixty bombs of large caliber. A number of German aviators ascended as soon as the flotilla's arrival had been signaled, and a lively skirmish ensued between them and the French scouts. The results and casualties of the raid have not leaked out.

The German General Staff was evidently not unacquainted with the fact that the Allies had a big "drive" in contemplation. Most of the fighting had been forced by the Germans with ever-increasing violence and energy. Toward the middle of August, 1915, their attacks became fiercer still. After a deadly bombardment that literally flattened the countryside, and in which shells of all calibers as well as asphyxiating gas bombs were hurled against the French positions between the Binarville-Vienne-le-Chateau road and the Houyette ravine in the Argonne, the German infantry dashed from their trenches in great numbers and close formation and charged across the intervening ground. So furious was the onslaught that the French were driven well back out of their shattered defenses. Within a few hours strong reenforcements hurried to the spot enabled the French to deliver a counterattack and recover some of the lost ground. Simultaneously, the Germans attempted to storm the French position in the neighborhood of La Fontaine-aux-Charmes, but with less success. During the last week of July and the first half of August, 1915, large bodies of German troops were detached from the armies operating on the eastern front and poured into France and Flanders. Different estimates fix the numbers at from 140,000 to 200,000.

On August 18, 1915, violent fighting broke out in the region north of Arras, in the course of which the French took an important field position. In a desperate bayonet charge the following night the Germans vainly endeavored to recover the ground. The French also captured a trench in a long battle spread over a wide section of the Alsatian front. In the Artois they seized the junction of the highroads between Bethune and Arras and between Ablain and Angres. North of Carleul they held the Germans in check against a heavy artillery, infantry, and bomb attack, but were driven out of some trenches they had previously won on Lingekopf. By the 20th the Germans had regained some of the trenches on the Ablain-Angres road, but lost them again in a French bayonet charge two days later. French aviators bombarded the railway stations at Lens, HÉnin-LiÉtard and Loos, in the Department of Pas de Calais. Arras, the scene of some of the severest conflicts in the war, was subjected to another prolonged bombardment by the heavy German artillery. Thus the pendulum swung to and fro; the main strength of Germany and Austria-Hungary was strenuously being exerted in the Polish salient, while on the western front the Germans also conducted a harassing and exhausting defensive. Meanwhile the Allies were gradually completing their preparations for the great coup from which so much was expected.

On August 31, 1915, the science of aviation lost one of its most daring and brilliant exponents by the death of Alphonse PÉgoud. No man before him ever took such liberties with the law of gravitation or performed such dare-devil pranks at dizzy altitudes up in the sky. He was the first to demonstrate the possibility of "looping the loop" thousands of feet from the earth; many have done the trick since, but for the pioneer it was a pure gamble with almost certain death. Even into the serious business of war PÉgoud carried his freak aeronautics, though it must be added that his remarkable skill in that direction had enabled him to escape from many a perilous situation. A few days before he fell PÉgoud carried out a flight of 186 miles over German territory. He returned unscathed, while the planes of his machine were riddled with bullet holes. On the occasion of decorating PÉgoud with the Military Medal in March, 1915, the French Minister for War said: "Time and again he has pursued the enemy's aeroplanes successfully. On one day he brought down a monoplane and a biplane and compelled another biplane to land while he was all the time within range of fire." The following two of his innumerable thrilling exploits deserve to be recorded: "At one time PÉgoud caught sight of a German ammunition depot and dropped nine bombs on it. The air concussion was so great from the explosion of the ammunition that his machine was all but wrecked, and he regained his equilibrium only after performing more than exhibition acrobatics. On another occasion, having located a captive German balloon, he ascended to a great height behind the clouds and then literally fell out of the sky toward his target. At a distance of only fifty yards he dropped a bomb which struck the balloon squarely. The vibration waves caused his aeroplane to bounce about like a toy boat on a rough pond. But PÉgoud still carried his good luck and, managing to steady the craft, sailed away amid a hail of German bullets."[1]

Of all the fighting on the western front during the month of August, 1915, the main interest attaches to that carried on in the struggle for the important mountain peaks in the Vosges which dominated German positions in the Alsatian valleys and plain. According to the French official reports, these operations resulted in the capture of the peaks named Lingekopf, Schratzmannele and Barrenkopf. The German official statement of September 2, 1915, however, claimed that the first and last of these had been recaptured. The French preparations for the attack on Lingekopf included the building of a mountain road eight miles long with communication trenches extending even farther, and also the construction of innumerable camps, sheds, ammunition and repair depots, as well as ambulance stations. The mountain road proved to be a triumph of engineering, as more than a hundred tons of war material passed over it daily without a single breakdown. The slopes which had to be stormed were thickly wooded, which greatly facilitated their defense, while the main French approach trenches were exposed to a double enfilade fire, rendering their use impossible in daytime. Between Schratzmannele and Barrenkopf there was a German blockhouse with cement walls ten feet thick. This was surrounded with barbed-wire entanglements and chevaux-de-frise. The French delivered their first attack on July 20, 1915. After a violent bombardment of ten hours, chasseur battalions stormed the German positions, capturing the Linge summit to the left and the Barren to the right. The Germans, however, firmly retained their hold on Schratzmannele. They caught the exposed French flanks with a stream of machine-gun fire and forced the chasseurs to retire to sheltered positions lower down the slopes. Two days later the French made another attack, and for quite a month, judging from the contradictory "official" reports, these peaks changed hands about twice a week. The French claim that they obtained "complete possession" on August 22, 1915, and that "the enemy, who had employed seven brigades against us, had to accept defeat." The German version, on the other hand, ran: "The battle line of Lingekopf-Barrenkopf thus passed again into our possession. All counterattacks have been repulsed."[Back to Contents]