[c] There is an outlying peak known as Mont Sans Nom, 210 m (700 ft) high, with a hollow then a ridge to the north-west, the highest part of which is the western summit of Mont Haut at 260 m (840 ft). Three fresh French divisions made preparations to resume the offensive on 20 May. [31] On 10 May, a French attack took a small amount of ground north-east of Mont Haut and a big German attack on Mont Téton was repulsed. [8], The German defences between the Suippes and the Vesle, lay on a plateau overlooked by Mont Berru 267 m (876 ft) high and along Moronvilliers Ridge, which was about 10 km (6.2 mi) long and about 210 m (690 ft) high. The 11th Regiment advanced quickly up Le Téton in the dawn sun and the German defenders fought hand-to-hand on the narrow summit. On 20 April, French troops got onto the summit of Le Casque and on 22 April, the eastern and lower summit of Mont Haut was secured by the 45th Division. In 1918, the number of German prisoners taken since 17 April, was given as 6,120, with 52 guns, 42 mortars and 103 machine-guns. To relieve the pressure, the 20th Regiment of the 33rd Division resumed the attack on Le Casque; Rendsburg and Göttingen trenches were captured and the French entered the wood on the hill, before reaching the summit of Le Casque at 6:00 p.m. and then being forced to retire by German counter-attacks. A survivor was rescued and the tunnel cleared and occupied until a German shell started a fire and the new garrison retired. [27], In the attack of 17 April, the Fourth Army had swiftly reached the crest of the Moronvilliers massif but German observation over the battlefield had enabled accurate German artillery-fire against the French infantry. [11], The high ground from Mont Cornillet to the west, ran north-east to the height of Mont Blond, on to Mont Haut and then descended by Le Casque to Le Téton. Generalleutnant (Lieutenant-General) Georg von Gersdorf, the 58th Division commander, disagreed with Beaulieu and eventually resigned. [23] The 83rd Regiment managed a costly advance to the summit of Mont Cornillet but German machine-guns on the ridge between Mont Cornillet and Mont Blond, slowed the advance. If Le Téton had not been captured, the troops in the French centre, were to drive the Germans from Bois de Côte 144 and attack the hill from the east. East of the Suippes, on the right flank of the XVII Corps, four and a half battalions were to attack Aubérive and the trenches beyond, up to those at the western fringe of Bois des Abatis. By 6.45 a.m., part of Erfurt Trench and the communication trenches leading towards it, had been captured but the Germans retained a foothold, at the west end of the trench. The French took 491 prisoners two field guns, eight mortars and eighteen machine-guns. SOURCE:The Sphere. Les bouteilles graduées de penois notamment dans le tunnel du Mont Cornillet concentré de vinaigre apparaissent en 1875 et le type avec (Marne) qui abritait plus de 600 soldats allemands. [10] West of the Suippes to the south of Aubérive, the Moroccan Division, a regiment of the Foreign Legion and the 185th Territorial Brigade were to take Aubérive, the German blockhouses at Vaudesincourt, Le Golfe and Mont Sans Nom. Hi all, I hope this subject is in the right place. French artillery replied with heavy bombardments on the peak and on Moronvilliers village, in the hollow beneath. EVENING. Even knowledge of the arrival of more guns was not conclusive, because the quantity of guns and munitions held by the Allies had become so enormous, that even the presence of a thousand guns and the expenditure of millions of shells could be a feint. [25], The 33rd Division attacked the heights of Le Casque and Le Téton at 5:00 a.m. Copyright © 10/01/2021 Alamy Ltd. All rights reserved. The 34th Division (Gen. de Lobit) carried the Mont Cornillet and Mont Blond hills, which the enemy attempted in vain to recapture. The rest of the regiment occupied the pill-boxes and blockhouses on the summit and the north slope. German losses in dead and wounded were considerable; in the Cornillet tunnel, more than 600 corpses were found. The advance had begun while the German front-line infantry was still sheltering underground and the German artillery did not begin barrage-fire until 5:05 a.m. Higher up the slope, another trench led to Grand Bois de la Côte 179 and protected Le Téton from an attack from the north-east. [24], Aubérive redoubt fell at dawn, to attacks by the XII Corps divisions and at 3:30 p.m., Aubérive was found abandoned and swiftly occupied by detachments of the 24th Division, which had crossed from the right bank of the Suippes and by Territorials of the 75th Regiment; the Germans had withdrawn to a redoubt south of Vaudesincourt. German counter-attacks from Moronvilliers were dispersed by French artillery, directed over the heights from observation posts on Mont Haut and next day German columns, trying to reach the summits through ravines south-west of Moronvilliers, were also repulsed by French artillery-fire. The left flank of the 59th Regiment was stopped by the Germans at Flensburg Trench, which connected the German defences of Mont Cornillet and Mont Blond, losing touch with the 83rd Regiment. During the afternoon and evening, companies on the left flank made some progress westwards. An icon used to represent a menu that can be toggled by interacting with this icon. The French alleged that German troops had feigned surrender, while hiding hand grenades in their raised hands, after which the Germans were all killed. On the western flank, the French had been repulsed west of the Thuizy–Nauroy road. By 3 June, Army Group German Crown Prince had recovered hardly any ground lost from 16 April to 20 May on the Aisne front and on the Moronvilliers Heights. An attack from the south on Mont Blond and Mont Haut, could be subjected to enfilade fire by the Germans on Mont Cornillet and Mont Perthois. [23], The difficulties of the VIII Corps divisions continued and the 16th Division was attacked by the German Infantry Regiment 145 which had just arrived, after an extensive artillery bombardment, to force the French 95th Regiment from the western fringe of the wood. [10] The objectives of the 16th Division were on a slight incline, which in the conditions of 1917, was more dangerous to the attacking force than a steep one, because of the lack of dead ground. [7] The Fourth Army held an 18 km (11 mi) front, just north of the Reims, St Hilaire le Grand, St Ménéhould to Verdun road, between Massiges and Ferme Marquises, about 120 m (400 ft) below the peak of Mont Haut. The "Monts" were held against a German counter-attack on 19 April, between Nauroy and Moronvilliers, by the 5th Division and 6th Division, which had been trained as Eingreifdivisionen (specialist counter-attack divisions), supported by the 23rd Division plus one regiment. [24] The 2nd Battalion of the 83rd Regiment, held on to the north end of the trench until 5:30 p.m., when it ran out of ammunition and withdrew behind the crest, where the survivors repulsed a German attack at midnight. [34], The French attack between Mont Cornillet and the north of Le Téton on 20 May, failed on the north slope of Mont Blond and the north-west slopes of Mont Haut but succeeded to the north-east, north of Le Casque and Le Téton, where 985 prisoners were taken. At dusk, the French consolidated the craters on the northern crest; near midnight some German soldiers were captured as they headed for Nauroy, who turned out to be from the tunnel garrison and disclosed the main entrance. The main German defensive position was in the ruins of Bois de la Grille to the south-west of Mont Cornillet and west of the Thuizy–Nauroy road. [22] On 18 April, the 45th Division on the right, completed the capture of the Konstanzlager and dug-outs nearby, the 34th Division consolidated and the 83rd Regiment was relieved by the 88th Regiment. The eastern slope declines close to the bank of the Suippes, between St Martin-l'Heureux and Aubérive and the southern slope declines south of the road from Reims to St Hilaire le Grand, St Ménéhould and Verdun as it descends into the Plain of Châlons. To reach the crest of Mont Cornillet, the French had to advance 230 m (250 yd) up a steep slope swept by machine-gun fire. Oct 28, 2013 - Explore Erica Calmon's board "World War 1" on Pinterest. [21], The capture of the Konstanzlager was vital to the possession of Mont Blond and the final objectives along the twin summits of Mont Haut, the north-west trench of Le Casque and Mont Perthois to the south, between Mont Haut and Le Casque. [19] On 25 April, the 34th Division was relieved by the 19th Division. Après la bataille de la Marne en 1914, le front s’est immobilisé sur une ligne qui n’est pas due entièrement au hasard. French preparations could not be disguised from the German observers on the hills above the Châlons Plain but as similar activity was occurring at many places, from the North Sea to Switzerland, it was not until the arrival of large number of guns had been detected by the Germans, that the possibility of a French offensive became known. On 8 September, trench raiders to the east of the St Hilaire–St Souplet road, blew in dugouts and took twenty 20 prisoners. Ce vaste opposé à la ligne de front. The main redoubt was intact and parts of Leopoldshöhe Trench were untouched. To the west, the German counter-barrage was fired late and Mont Sans Nom was captured by 5:00 a.m. More than 500 prisoners, six guns and several machine-guns were captured. Most of the German defences on the southern slopes of Mont Cornillet, Mont Blond, Mont Haut and Mont Perthois had been badly damaged but many intermediate strong points, machine-gun nests remained. Découvrez le profil de Jean-François Weiss sur LinkedIn, la plus grande communauté professionnelle au monde. In the afternoon, a German attack on the summit of Le Casque and more attacks at dusk on Le Casque and Le Téton failed, as did an attempt at dawn on 28 May; a raid against the French on Mont Blond and a fresh attack on Mont Blond on 30 May, also failed. West of the Thuizy–Nauroy road, the French artillery bombardment failed to destroy many of the German fortifications and some of the trees in Bois de la Grille were still standing. The German equivalents for the first five peaks from west to east were Cornillet. On April 18 and 19, and May 4 and 5, the fighting was spasmodic and finally ceased. A fifth reserve position, the Suippesstellung lay further back. Special shells, used for this purpose, continued the destruction. East of Coucy-le-Chateau [north of Soissons] there were patrol encounters. German counter-attacks forced the 20th Regiment to halt below the summit and during lulls German artillery bombarded the summit from the west, north and south. [20] The 45th Division attacked Mont Blond, by advancing between the Prosnes–Nauroy track, Bois de la Mitrailleuse and Bois Marteau, to the south-east of Mont Perthois but was held up in the evening of 17 April, at the Konstanzlager, which lay on the road from Prosnes, at the junction with the Nauroy–Moronvilliers road, midway between Mont Blond and Mont Haut. Just inside the tunnel, heaps of German dead were found, apparently having panicked and made a rush for the exit. On the left flank of the division, Aubérive east of the river was rapidly captured. During Easter, General Martin Chales de Beaulieu, the XIV Corps commander and the general commanding the 214th Division at Moronvilliers, briefed his subordinates that only artillery demonstrations were likely, between Reims and Aubérive. The trench ran below and Côte 181 and Mont Sans Nom. Behind the German second line, the hilltops had been wired for all-round defence, connected by communication trenches. German infantry encampments, below the ridge on the north slope had been damaged and the roads from Nauroy, Mont Haut and Moronvilliers, to St Masmes, Pont Faverger, Betheniville and the Suippes valley north-west of St Hilaire-le-Petit, were blocked in places by shell craters. Mont-Cornillet-Tunnel. [16], Heavy rain fell and snowstorms continued throughout the night of 16 to 17 April. creusé dans les flancs du Mont Cornillet, piton occidental de l'alignement des Monts de Champagne. The Cornillet Tunnel had three galleries, with light railways along two of the galleries, a transverse connecting tunnel and air shafts up to the top of the hill. Le tunnel du mont Cornillet. We made some prisoners, including an officer. Plusieurs décennies furent nécessaires pour qu'on se rappelle les 400 cadavres murés dans l'une des trois. Postcard representing the southern entrance of the Mont Cornillet (Marne), occupied by the Germans until the French offensive in August 1917. The hills on the edge of the Châlons plain could be outflanked from west to east, only after the German defences on either side of the Thuizy–Nauroy road and between Mont Sans Nom and the Suippes had been captured. Gefreiter Brüggeney Tunnelkommandant Wintterlin. [18] The 24th Division with ​4.mw-parser-output .sr-only{border:0;clip:rect(0,0,0,0);height:1px;margin:-1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0;position:absolute;width:1px;white-space:nowrap} 1⁄2 battalions, attacked on a line from the salient at Bois des Abatis, west to the Suippes, north of Bois des Sapins. Counter-attacks against the 59th Regiment, from the neck between Mont Cornillet and Mont Blond and also from Mont Haut, were repulsed by small-arms fire and a bombing fight with hand-grenades. On the left of XII Corps to the east of the Suippes, the 24th Division established a flank guard by attacking through Bois des Abattis towards Germains and Baden-Baden trenches. Von Karl Debus gibt es den Bericht als Teil des Buchmanuskriptes (1941). The French heavy artillery switched their fire for two hours onto Mont Haut and Mont Perthois. An attack from the east on the hills was blocked by the entrenchments from Mont Sans Nom to the Suippes, which ran south-east around Aubérive-sur-Suippes on the left bank of the river. In the Mont Cornillet Tunnel, France: the formidable subterranean network that became a grave for its German garrison. DATE:Sept 1917. On the whole, the French offensive failed, and Rheims continued to remain under enemy gun-fire. [23] German infantry massed in the woods between Monronvilliers and Nauroy, opposite the VIII Corps front and after a preliminary bombardment, attacked Mont Cornillet and Mont Blond, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. [4], The second line, half-way up the slopes of the Moronvilliers hills, was destroyed from south of Mont Perthois to the Suippes, barbed-wire in the woods to the north-east of Mont Sans Nom was partially cut, making an attack on the German position on the ridges above the Suippes practicable.