Anti-aircraft fire was desultory and inaccurate. Second Battle of the Aisne. As the Germans aimed for the Allied left flank, the Allies sought the German right wing. The French lost at least 50,000 at Ypres, while the Belgians suffered more than 20,000 casualties at the Yser and Ypres. The offensive began on the evening of 13 September, after a hasty pursuit of the Germans. In dense fog on the night of 13 September, most of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) crossed the Aisne on pontoons or partially demolished bridges, landing at Bourg-et-Comin on the right and at Venizel on the left. Trench warfare was also new for the Germans, whose training and equipment were designed for a mobile war to be won in six weeks, but they quickly adapted their weapons to the new situation. the River Aisne, where the First and Second Armies dug in, preparing trenches that were to last for several years. Here the Germans strongly entrenched themselves, but they left detachments also entrenched in commanding situations on the slopes and spurs of the heights, and these advanced points of defence were well supported by artillery. As the Germans aimed for the Allied left flank, the Allies sought the German right wing. Without waiting for the outcome, the Belgian government and 65,000 troops departed from Ostend that night, leaving an army of 80,000 to hold off the enemy. The enemy had to be chased across the Ourcq, and on September 11, when that had been effected, our cavalry approached the Aisne, two brigades being to the direct south of Soissons and three to the south-east, near the villages of Couvrelle and Cerseuil, which stand on high ground sloping down towards the Aisne's tributary, the Vesle. The offensive began on the evening of 13 September, after a hasty pursuit of the Germans. Aviators were able to recognise the advantage of observing artillery fire. After crossing the Marne, the British force found itself in the Aisne depart ment. British aircraft were used to report troop movements, although few were equipped with wireless. British attacks are repelled and both sides dig in: for the British, the Aisne was the root of trench warfare. Low crops in the unfenced countryside offered no natural concealment to the Allies. The French offensive achieved little and ended with the disintegration of the French Army. Aided by aircraft spotting, German gunners quickly found their targets. Next day the entire outer ring collapsed, prompting a mass evacuation of civilians to the neutral Netherlands. The first day of the Battle of the Aisne. 13. Defensive firepower was limited to rifles and two machine guns allotted to each battalion. The Advance to the Aisne (6 September – 1 October) consisted of the Battle of the Marne (7–10 September) and the Battle of the Aisne (12–15 September). Although the Belgian forces fought a desperate battle along Yser, the BEF came under attack around Ypres. Soon the trenches were deepened to about seven feet. The French Army (5th and 6th) and the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) launched a frontal assault at the Aisne on 13th September. 12. When the mist evaporated under a bright morning sun, they were mercilessly raked by fire from the flank. The Germans made plans on 28 September to capture the port of Antwerp and crush the Belgian forces. The British suffered heavy losses, because Duchene was reluctant to abandon the Chemin des Dames Ridge, after it had been captured at such cost the previous year, had ordered them to mass together in the front trenches, in defiance of instructions from the French Commander-in-Chief Henri-Philippe Petain. The first battle of Aisne took place from September 13 to September 28. Cavalry Division The period is called "Race to the Sea". 9-Apr-1917 The French were turned back and took 96,000 casualties. Second Battle of the Aisne 16 April – 9 May 1917 – 355,000 Casualties German soldiers at the Battle of the Aisne firing from the cover of some trees. One 6-inch gun poked out at each mile; none of these forts had high explosive projectiles or smokeless gunpowder and several thousand surrounding acres had been cleared to provide unobstructed fields of fire. This article is about the 1914 battle. During the battle, the French had around 250,000 casualties. This resulted in the “Race to the Sea” as Entente and German forces simultaneously sought to turn the northern flank of their opponent. Synonyms for battle of the Aisne in Free Thesaurus. The heavy siege howitzers that had destroyed the defences of Namur and Liège had been placed well beyond the range of Belgian artillery. First Battle of the Aisne (Première Bataille de l'Aisne) 13-Sep-1914 —27-Sep-1914. Belgian guns belched dense, black smoke, revealing their exact location and the fields cleared by the defenders deprived the forts of any concealment. The First Battle of Marne was won by the French in less than ten days, but it led to two main events of World War I: the First Battle of Aisne that lasted between the 12th and 15th of September, 1914, and Race to the Sea that lasted between 17th September and 19thof October, 1914. At Chivres-Val east of Venizel, there was an escarpment the Germans had selected as their strongest position. The German Army used only percussion shells, which, according to Canadian sources, "not one in several hundred ever hit its aerial target, and fell to earth frequently at some point in the British lines and there burst.". Skilful use of trench mortars and hand and rifle grenades (first used against British troops on 27 September), enabled the Germans to inflict great losses upon Allied troops, who had neither been trained nor equipped with these weapons. East of Chemin des Dames, the French Fourth, Fifth and Ninth armies made only negligible progress beyond the positions they had reached on 13 September. The First Battle of the Aisne (French language: 1re Bataille de l'Aisne) was the Allied follow-up offensive against the right wing of the German First Army (led by Alexander von Kluck) & Second Army (led by Karl von Bülow) as they retreated after the First Battle of the Marne earlier in September 1914. What are synonyms for battle of the Aisne? 12 – 15 September 1914: the Battle of the Aisne. The First Battle of the Aisne (French: 1re Bataille de l'Aisne) was the Allied follow-up offensive against the right wing of the German First Army (led by Alexander von Kluck) and the Second Army (led by Karl von Bülow) as they retreated after the First Battle of the Marne earlier in September 1914. Antonyms for battle of the Aisne. Battle of the Aisne 1917. Without training for stationary warfare, the troops merely dug shallow pits in the soil. The First Battle of the Aisne (French: 1re Bataille de l'Aisne) was the Allied follow-up offensive against the right wing of the German First Army (led by Alexander von Kluck) & Second Army (led by Karl von Bülow) as they retreated after the First Battle of the Marne earlier in September 1914. The bom… 273,000 Austrian casualties were inflicted and they fled the country. The First World War – The First Battle of the Aisne 13 – 28 September 1914. Two of the forts were quickly reduced to rubble; the others fell in methodical succession. The Aisne was the scene of two more important battles: 2nd Battle of the Aisne (16th April, 1917 - 9th May, 1917) and 3rd Battle of the Aisne (27th May, 1918 - 6th June, 1918). Deep, narrow paths cut into the escarpment at right angles, exposing any infiltrators to extreme hazard. Read a brief overview of the First Battle of the Aisne and the part it played in the establishment of the entrenched front lines on the Western Front. French and Britis… From the Belgian channel town of Nieuwpoort, the trench lines ran southward for many miles, turning southeast at Noyon, continuing past Reims, Verdun, Saint-Mihiel and Nancy; then cutting south again to the northern Swiss border twenty miles (32 km) east of Belfort. The First Battle of the Aisne (French: 1re Bataille de l'Aisne) was the Allied follow-up offensive against the right wing of the German First Army (led by Alexander von Kluck) & Second Army (led by Karl von Bülow) as they retreated after the First Battle of the Marne earlier in September 1914. Germans Entrench their Positions on the Aisne. British attacks are repelled and both sides dig in: for the British, the Aisne was the root of trench warfare. The Serbian campaign was disastrous for Austria-Hungary and Kolubara marked the turning point in favour of the Serbians. On the evening of September 13 the enemy's main forces retired to the high ground about 2 miles north of the Aisne, and along the road known as the Chemin des Dames. These were at first intended only to afford cover against enemy observation and artillery fire. Only their 60-pounders (four guns to a division) were powerful enough to shell enemy gun emplacements from the Aisne's south shore, and these guns were inferior to German artillery in calibre, range and numbers. In a strategic triumph at the First Battle of the Marne, the French forces - assisted by the British - had succeeded in throwing back the German offensive, recapturing lost ground in the process. The World War I First Battle of the Marne featured the first use of radio intercepts and automotive transport of troops in wartime. The French offensive achieved little and ended with the disintegration of the French Army. Casualties and losses: : About 12.000. Subscribe to our Spartacus Newsletter and keep up to date with the latest articles. The Aisne was the scene of two more important battles: 2nd Battle of the Aisne (16th April, 1917 - 9th May, 1917) and 3rd Battle of the Aisne (27th May, 1918 - 6th June, 1918). French casualties were heavy, with 98,000 losses; their British allies suffered 29,000 casualties. On the first day of battle, the British suffered almost 60,000 casualties. This article is about the 1914 battle. It seemed that Paris would be taken as both the French Army and the British Expeditionary Forcefell back towards the Marne River. An outer ring of eighteen forts ranged from seven to nine miles from the city, an inner ring from one to two miles. The first battle of Ypres officially started on October 19. They initially won a singe bridgehead but a German counter-attack, drove the Allies back to the river. I found a detailed description of the battle … The cemetery now contains over 670 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War. The Chemin des Dames Ridge provided a long natural defensive position and the Germans began to dig in. Maunoury exploited the gap with help from the French Fifth Army and British Expeditionary Force, … At daybreak on 29 September, General Hans von Beseler, called out of retirement at the age of sixty-five, arrayed six divisions in an arc facing the outer ring of forts. On 24 September, Lieutenants B.T. Under the thick cover of the foggy night, the BEF advanced up the narrow paths to the plateau. Other protective measures included camouflage and holes cut into trench walls then braced with timber. Siege howitzers now lobbed massive shells into the Allied trenches. The forces on the northern plateau commanded a wide field of fire.[1]. d. The French attacked also on April 16, beginning the Second Battle of the Aisne (The “Nivelle Offensive”). The Second Battle of the Aisne was one of the more disastrous French offensives of the First World War.It was the brainchild of General Robert Nivelle, who had replaced Joffre as the French commander in chief in November 1916. The First Battle of the Aisne (French: 1re Bataille de l'Aisne) was the Allied follow-up offensive against the right wing of the German First Army (led by Alexander von Kluck) and the Second Army (led by Karl von Bülow) as they retreated after the First Battle of the Marne earlier in September 1914. Those caught in the valley without the fog's protective shroud fared no better. …major independent military operation, the Battle of the Somme (July 1 to November 13, 1916), with disastrous results. The western front thus became a continuous trench system of more than 400 miles (640 km). A shortage of heavy weapons handicapped the British. There were two later battles on the Aisne; the second (April–May 1917) and the third (May–June 1918). Fighting continued until 28th September when it was acknowledged that frontal infantry attacks on well-defended positions, would cause heavy casualties and was unlikely to gain a breakthrough. British order of battle. They radioed back the location of the batteries, then droned in a wide circle, waiting to spot their own gunners' exploding shells. After their defeat by the Allied forces at The Battle of the Marne, the German armies had undergone a tactical withdrawal towards the River Aisne. Soldiers scouted nearby farms and villages for pickaxes, spades and other implements. Four artillery battery of 6-inch (150 mm) guns (a total of sixteen), were rushed from England. Each fort had two machine guns, but lacked telephone communications and means for observing gunfire. Casualties and losses: : About 12.000. The First Battle of the Aisne (French: 1re Bataille de l'Aisne) was the Allied follow-up offensive against the right wing of the German First Army (led by Alexander von Kluck) & Second Army (led by Karl von Bx¼low) as they retreated after the First Battle of the Marne earlier in September 1914. The French used tanks for the first time, but they were ineffective. The Serbian human cost was extensive too though and over a quarter of their population perished in the course of World War One. By the end of August 1914, most of the Allied army on the Western Front had been forced into a general retreat back between Paris and Verdun. Battle of the Aisne: The battle, fought from 10th to 13th September 1914 in the First World War, that saw the end of mobility and the beginning of four years of trench warfare on the Western Front. The Chemin des Dames Ridge provided a long natural defensive position and the Germans began to dig in. After French commander in chief Joseph Joffre ordered an offensive in September 1914, General Michel-Joseph Maunourys French Sixth Army opened a gap between Germanys First and Second Armies. For a three-week period following the unexpected development of trench warfare, both sides gave up frontal assaults and began trying to envelop each other's northern flank. British medical orderly attending a casualty on the Battlefield: Battle of the Aisne, … It was a follow up offensive after the first battle of the Marne. Fought between the French and the Germans the second battle of the Aisne resulted in 182,000 French and 163,000 German casualties. Fighting continued until 28th September when it was acknowledged that frontal infantry attacks on well-defended positions, would cause heavy casualties and was unlikely to gain a breakthrough. Contact was established along the entire front. Around 220,000 Germans were injured or killed. British order of battle. The French Fifth Army crossed the Aisne at Berry-au-Bac and captured the eastern tip of Chemin des Dames, a steep ridge named after the royal coach road Louis XV had built for his daughters. He was an artillery officer who had made his name during the later phases of the Battle of Verdun. For other battles of the Aisne, see, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Armistice between Russia and the Central Powers, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=First_Battle_of_the_Aisne&oldid=992819569, Battles of World War I involving the United Kingdom, Battles of the Western Front (World War I), Articles lacking in-text citations from September 2011, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 7 December 2020, at 07:24. General Duchene was dismissed by Petain , amid an atmosphere of crisis in Paris. Although the Germans never published the figures, it is believed that Geman losses were similar to those of France. Deep, narrow paths to the Allies had around 250,000 casualties contains over 670 Commonwealth burials and of... Of sixteen ), with disastrous results a follow up offensive after First! From September 13 to September 28 it was a follow up offensive after the First World War were last! 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