THE CHEMIN DE DAMES.
At the outbreak of war, the German Schlieffen Plan came into operation. This was to advance through neutral Belgium in a wide sweep keeping the German right flank as wide as possible. At the same time, the left flank was to deliberately retreat back into Alsace-Lorraine so as to encourage the French to push forward into a trap of their own making as the wide sweeping right flank would encircle them from behind.
As ever, when contact between armies occur, the best laid battle plans go out of the window. The stubborn resistance of the BEF at Mons and Le Cateau held up the German advance, the Belgian forts and army delayed the right flank sweep for more than two weeks and the sheer pomposity of the German general staff who rebelled against orders to retire so as to suck in the French on the left flank, ensured that the Schlieffen plan went awry.
There followed a series of Franco-German battles that we know as the Battles of the Frontiers through the autumn of 1914 with the French suffering catastrophic numbers of casualties as they attacked in suicidal full frontal charges in their blue tunics and red trousers.
Following the retreat to the Marne, Joffre’s counter attack, involving the BEF steadied the line in early September and as the Germans were pushed back to the Aisne, both sides started to dig in and where possible, the Germans occupied the high ground from the Swiss border to the English Channel and this ever increasing network of trenches and fortifications became the Western Front for the next four years.
One such high ground ridge was the Chemin de Dames (The Ladies Way), a chalky ridge running east to west and so named by Louis XV as a route for his two daughters to travel along in privacy.
Click here for an overview The Chemin des Dames
Our day started at the eastern end at the village of Berry au Bac. Following the heavy fighting further north in March and April 1918, the remnants of six British Divisions that had been badly mauled in the German Spring offensive were sent to a ‘quiet’ sector of the line for a rest and a refit. This quiet sector was the Chemin de dames, and therefore, it came as quite a shock when the Germans launched the next phase of their spring offensive in May 1918 in this area and many good British soldiers were killed in the desperate struggle to hold the Germans back.
Berry au Bac has a large CWGC cemetery nearby known as La Ville au Bois, and we stopped to pay our respects. The Chemin de Dames is best known for the May 1917 Nivelle Offensive which included a large number of French tanks, Renault FT17, Schneider and Chamond, and therefore, it is no surprise that the French Tank Corps memorial is sited at Berry au Bac. There is a Schneider tank on display, the Renault FT17 that was there on my previous visit was missing, there is a large memorial wall to the dead French Tank Corps troops and a personal memorial remembering General Estienne, said to be the founding father of French tanks and French tank warfare.
Turning westward, we continued our journey along the top of the ridge, and despite me having seen it before, you are still staggered by the idea that General Robert Nivelle believed that he could break the German line here in 1917 by attacking full frontally and severely uphill.
Our next stop was at Hurtebise Farm, the scene of fierce fighting in September and October 1914 and also a hallowed location in French history as Napoleon defeated the Prussian General Blucher here in March 1814, although Blucher and Wellington would get their revenge a year later at Waterloo.
At a French car boot sale in Brittany some years ago, I bought a very nice piece of trench art, a 37mm German shell case nicely etched with decorative patterns and the word Hurtebise engraved on it. I had it with me as we stopped to take photographs of the restored Hurtebise Farm and the dual 1814/1914 monument. The farm was also the scene of a brave French rear guard action in May 1940 and this is remembered on a plaque on the farmstead boundary wall.
Carrying on for another 500 yards, you arrive at the Caverne du Dragon (Dragon’s Cave) museum. This is situated in what was the old French front line and consists of a series of underground caves that the French utilised. At this point, the opposing front line trenches were so close, that the defenders could hear each other talk and easily throw grenades at each other.
Unfortunately, you are not allowed into the caves unless on a guided tour, and as we parked up, around 100 French school children arrived in two coaches for a pre-booked visit, and we would have had to wait for 90 minutes for our tour. So reluctantly, we drove on.
Continuing our journey, we stopped at the totally rebuilt village of Cerny en Laonnois, this was the centre of the Nivelle offensive, for a mid-morning coffee break. There are many monuments and memorials on the Chemin de Dames, and we stopped at many of them, including this one to the French 36th Basque Division, men who came from the Spanish border region to fight for France.
But, whilst in Cerny en Lannois, I spied a white stone obelisk that looked very British in its design, so after finishing my coffee, I walked over to it and was not surprised to see that it commemorated the men of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment who fought and died here in May and June of 1918.
At the very west end of the Chemin de Dames, you come to Fort Malmaison, another 19th Century French fort which was open to visitors on my last visit, but which was closed and locked up on our recent visit. However, adjacent to the fort is one of the largest WWII German cemeteries, and although we understand the narrative of the German Blitzkrieg of May and June 1940, visiting this cemetery gives you an idea of how much resistance the French put up to the German offensive.
Returning to the car, we retraced our steps back to the Plateau Californie observation platform. A towering structure which you can climb and which gives the observer a bird’s eye view over the whole of the 1917 Nivelle offensive battlefield. Today, the countryside is idyllic and picturesque farmland dotted with rebuilt villages, and it is obviously very difficult, like at Verdun, to understand the sheer scale of the fighting and the number of casualties that occurred here.
However, the landscape is also dotted with numerous cemeteries representing and remembering the war dead from each combatant nation, French, British, German and Italian.
We made a deliberate decision to stop at least one cemetery from each nation and I have attached a selection of photos below.
Final stop of the day was at the British memorial at Soissons. Sadly, arriving at 16.50pm the gates had been locked at 16.30, and we couldn’t gain full access to the tablets of names. [The memorial is now fenced and locked each day due to the anti-social, mainly drug related behaviour in the vicinity – Ed]
Lieutenant Colonel Edward Robert Seymour Prior, DSO, MC and Bar, was commanding the 8th Battalion of the South Lancashire Regiment but after the British losses at the opening of the German Spring offensive in March 1918, he was given command of the 11th Battalion the Cheshire Regiment.
It was with 11/Cheshire’s that Prior headed for the Chemin de Dames, to take command and re-fit and re-build the battalion following their earlier mauling. As I mentioned previously, the Chemin de Dames was seen as a quiet sector where rest and recuperation could take place, but on May 27th 1918, the Germans launched a surprise offensive against this French held sector of the line and the resting British understrength divisions found themselves in the midst of a second maelstrom.
On this day, Lieutenant Colonel Prior, gallantly led his men into the attack and was killed in action. His body was never identified and today he is remembered on the Soissons Memorial, so I was very sorry not to be able to get a photograph of his name, as amongst my small but meaningful collection of Great War items with known provenance, I am the proud owner of Lieutenant Colonel Prior’s South Lancashire cap.
