The Battle of Belleau Wood Commences. June 1, 1918.

Following the first major offensive action by the U.S. just a few days prior, a much more major battle commenced on this day in 1918, following the successful defense of Château-Thierry the prior day.  The Battle of Belleau Wood.  It would continue on until June 26, making it a much more protracted battle than Cantigny.  It would also be one that would result in lasting fame for the 2nd Division and its Marine contingent.

On May 31 the U.S. 3d Division held the German advance at Château-Thierry and the German offensive turned right to outflank it, as we have seen..  On 1 June, Château-Thierry and Vaux then fell, and German troops moved into Belleau Wood.  The 2nd Division, a composite Army and Marine Corps Division, was brought up on the Paris Metz Highway to counter the German effort.  The night of June 1 the Americans were flanked again when the Germans moved to the left and breached a French held line.  The German advance, however, was stopped by a night march and the following action by the 2nd Division, resulting in a successful parry in an all night time action.  The net result was not only the halt of the German flanking action but the U.S. ended up holding an extended line as a result.

This wouldn't be the end of the fight. . .

US 3d Division arrests the German advance at Château-Thierry, May 31, 1918.

 Patch of the 3d Division (now the 3d Infantry Division).  This patch was adopted during World War One, but for the most part, like most U.S. unit patches, wasn't really used until just after the war.

US troops were becoming fully engaged, as we'll soon see, in the desperate battle on the Western Front.

As we saw yesterday, the Germans had finally been able to take advantage of their victory in the East and had redeployed fifty divisions in the West for their renewed Spring Offensive. That action, which was designed as a feint under the assumption that the French would yield and the British would be forced to disengage to save them, was fully underway and was meeting with some real success.

On this day the US 3d Division stopped the Germans at Château-Thierry.  This is not, however, the famous battle by that name and the Germans would be quick to react.  Stopped at Château-Thierry, they turned right to flank the 3d Division and advanced toward Vaux and Belleau-Wood.

These events, I should note, are considered part of the Ainse operations and usually categorized as part of the Battle of Ainse, which they are.



The operations in in Ainse generally are discussed in the context of British and French operations, both of which had larger commitments in this defense battle than the Americans did.  I haven't treated it in this fashion however as I'm focused on the American role.

But beyond that, while every history legitimately notes that the American Army came to play a role in the defense of the German drive towards Paris, of which this battle was part, and which did at first go well for the Germans, the role that this battle played in sliding from one operation into another is often not very well noted.  The American Army, or more particularly the 3d Division, performed very well in the defense of   Château-Thierry, as noted.  That the German Army immediately reacted and made a right turn, and that this lead immediately to a subsequent and more notable battle rarely is.  To U.S. commanders on the ground, however, this was all one action at the larger level. The defense of Château-Thierry by the 3d Division lead to an immediate German reaction and a subsequent major battle in which the 2nd Division, and the 3d Division to a lesser degree, would have a very famous role.

Mrs. Hammond, American Red Cross, serving water to badly wounded British soldiers on platform of railroad station at Montmirail, France. May 31, 1918.

Lex Anteinternet: The Kaiserschlacht Carries on. May 27, 1918. Operation Blücher-Yorck. Something I'd missed

I noted the resumption of the 1918 German Spring Offensive here the other day:

Lex Anteinternet: The Kaiserschlacht Carries on. May 27, 1918. Oper...: Operation Blücher-Yorck.  The big picture again.  This time, having failed to push the British into the sea, the Germans turned thei...

What I failed to note when I posted that is that the Germans, finally benefiting from their defeat of Russia, had brought into action fifty, that's right fifty, divisions from the East.

I've been pretty critical here of German dithering in the East, and I'll still be.  Fifty divisions in May 1918 was hugely significant, but not as significant as they would have been months prior when the Spring Offensive started. By this point, German losses in the Spring Offensive had been huge.

But still, there was real reason for the Germans to hope that this time. . . .

The news from Catigny. May 29, 1918

The first major offensive action of the AEF. Cantigny

On this day in 1918 the U.S. Army began offensive operations in a major way during World War One.

The Army and the Marine Corps had already been in action.  Units had deployed in quiet sectors of the French line, and earlier the British line (which was not quiet by this time), to gain experience in combat. And U.S. troops had already deployed to assist the British and the Portuguese to hold back the Germans deployed in Operation Georgette.

May 28, 1918 aerial view of the Canigny sector.

On this day, however, the 1st Division committed to an outright offensive action at Catigny.  Starting at 06:45 U.S. troops of the 28th Regiment, 1st Division, advanced to take and reduce a German salient that had developed the prior day with the resumption of the German spring offensive. The mission was accomplished and the unit withstood German counterattacks, although it ultimately took slightly more casualties than the Germans.

While a minor battle, it was significant in that it convinced the other Allies that American troops were battle worthy.

The Kaiserschlacht Carries on. May 27, 1918. Operation Blücher-Yorck.

Operation Blücher-Yorck.

 The big picture again.  This time, having failed to push the British into the sea, the Germans turned their attention to the region where British forces and French forces met, with a diversionary drive on Paris.  This "third German drive" was as successful in terms of gaining ground as the first German drive was, and it threatened Paris even as a diversion.

On May 27, 1918, after two full months since the spring offensive first began, the Germans launched Operation  Blücher-Yorck against the French near the River Aisne.  It became a straight drive towards Paris designed to split the French and British forces from each other and cause the British to divert forces to save the French capitol.  The offensive used the same set of assumptions that the Germans had about their enemies earlier in the spring, namely that the British were the real threat.  The attack, therefore, was a large scale diversion.  While designed to put pressure on the French, in reality the main blow fell against British units that had been in the line in this relatively more quiet sector.  French failures to design a realistic defense lead to initial German success.

The Germans did in fact break through at the gap between French and British forces and their drive towards Paris was remarkably successful.  The Germans in fact continued to advance up until March 6.  During this phase of the Spring Offensive American troops began to be deployed against the Germans in strength and in fact the US 1st Division launched its own offensive on May 28 at Cantigny.  This signaled the beginning of the large-scale use of American troops in the war.  Losses on each side were again roughly equal, with the Allies loosing 137,000 men and the Germans 160,000.

Of course, at this point the Germans didn't really have the men to loose.  But given the commitment they had made and the state of the war, they no longer really had an option. . . other than trying to come to the table.

The bombing of the Canadian Military Hospitals at Etaples. May 19, 1918.

Funeral of Nursing Sister Margeret Lowe of Manitoba, who was killed in the German air raid on Etaples on this day in 1918. 

On this day, in 1918, German aircraft struck the Canadian Military Hospitals at Etaples.

In the process, sixty six Canadians were killed, including three nursing sisters.

Most of the casualties were subsequently buried in a mass grave.

The Death of Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen

Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen, veteran German fighter pilot with at least 80 victories to his credit, was shot down and killed on this day in 1918, thereby becoming one of the hundreds of thousands of German servicemen to die in the 1918 German Spring Offensive.

Von Richthofen is arguably the most famous German military figure of the Great War for a variety of reasons all of which are tied to the romantic myths attached to the war in the air, which in reality was an exceedingly grim affair.  Suffering in later years from the effects of a head injury sustained in an earlier crash, Von Richthofen was arguably no longer really himself.  In recent years the impact of head injuries on mental outlook has become a well developed field of medicine but it was not at the time.

To some extent it's surprising that Von Richthofen's memory has sustained itself in such a romantic fashion as he was truly a representative of a dying age, most particularly in his own country. A representative of the aristocratic class, Germany was already beginning to be torn apart by the forces of modernity that burst forth post war and ultimately deliver the country to the Nazis and the world to a second world war.  But then many of the German officer class were likewise representatives of that world, even into World War Two.

There's always been some dispute on who shot down the Red Baron.  It came in aerial combat, but that's about the only thing that can be definitely said.

Von Richthofen was pursuing the plane of Canadian fledgling pilot Wilfred "Wop" May, who himself had just fired upon the plane of Wolfram von Richthofen, a cousin of of Manfred's.   Brown dropped in on Von Richthofen to aid May. But Von Richthofen also took ground fire at the time and later forensic work, and some speculation, has lead many to believe that it was likely ground fire that killed Von Richthofen, who suffered a single fatal wound.  In that case, the shot could have come from either Australian or British troops.

British funeral for Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen.  Scenes like this were not uncommon during the Great War for airmen, oddly.  Both the British and the Germans did this.  In this ceremony we see officers of the RAF salute their former enemy and bear his coffin while an honor guard of Australian infantrymen stand in armed salute.  A person has to wonder what the Australian soldiers, notoriously salty in their views, thought of this.  The clergyman is undoubtedly an Anglican Priest of the Church of England, which itself is a bit of an oddity as Von Richthofen was undoubtedly a Lutheran.

His death at a young age has preserved the romantic image he bore during the war in a James Dean like way.  Wolfram, whom he acted to save, went on serve in the Luftwaffe again and rose to the rank of Field Marshall in Hitler's air force, dying of a brain tumor shortly after World War Two.  He was 49 years of old, but appeared much older at the time.  Roy Brown returned to Canada and tried, but failed, to enter politics.  He became a farmer but died in 1944 at age 50.  Wop May died at age 56 while on vacation in the United States.  He had a varied post war career, but much of it was as a flight instructor.  Cedric Popkin, an Australian machinegunner whom some believe fired the fatal bullet went on home to a career as a carpenter, living the longest to age 77.

The Kaiserschlacht Continues. April 9, 1918. Operation Georgette

Operation Georgette

 

 Looking at the map again, now we are looking at the Second German Drive, listed here as the Lys Offensive.  Much further to the north than the first drive on the Somme, the twenty day operation in Flanders was a German drive to the sea.  It presented a desperate situation for the British and it destroyed the Portuguese Army on the Western Front.

By April 5 the Germans were aware that Operation Michael had failed, or at least would be a failure if it wasn't resumed in some other fashion.  That became Operation Georgette.  On April 9, Operation Michael was joined by Operation Georgette, somewhat of a resumption of Michael but aimed at a new location in the British sector where the front was manned by the Portuguese.

Georgette pitted the Germans, at first, against the Portuguese as they were being replaced by troops of the BEF.  Fighting was hard and desperate. The Portuguese forces were destroyed.  Field Marshall Haig issued his famous "backs to the wall" order, stating "With our backs to the wall and believing in the justice of our cause, each one of us must fight on to the end."

Here too, logistics defeated the Germans. They advanced, but not as expected, and their renewed offensive came to a halt on April 29.  The offensive had cost the Allies about 82,000 men, and the Germans about the same number.

Here too, the Germans could not stop or the entire effort resulting in over 300,000 casualties and the destruction of many elite units was all for naught.  After a brief lull, the Germans turned their attention to the French.

German artillery commenced a barrage on the evening of this day, Sunday, April 7, 1918. . .

near the towns of Armentières and Festubert that would carry through until April 9.

German 21cm Morser being moved into position, March 1918.

Something must have been up. . . .

Lex Anteinternet: The Kaiserschlacht Stalls. Operation Michael Ends

It wouldn't be obvious, if you read the newspapers for this day, April 6, 1918, but Operation Michael was over.  Called off yesterday after the failure of a final big German push near Ancre.

Lex Anteinternet: The Kaiserschlacht Commences. March 21, 1918. Ope...:

The initial German advance had been significant, but equally significant is that the  Germans had failed to take any of their objectives and by April 5 they were halted.

The German plan had failed to achieve any of its objections and had suffered absolutely massive casualties.

But the German high command wasn't prepared to give up on the Kaiserschlacht.  Perhaps, really, it couldn't. . .

The Tell of the Tape: Riflemen on the Western Front

On this day, in 1918, the Allies had 1,340,000 combat troops on the Western Front.  The Germans, 1,569,000, a considerable German advantage.

This doesn't, of course, take into account the Austrians, now teetering on the brink of exhaustion, and heavily committed in Italy.  Nonetheless, the Central Powers had a definite advantage, even if it was one that they had failed to make even greater. They could have greatly bolstered earlier, and on this day, if they were less committed in the East, irrespective of the war in the East being over.  And while the United States still have only a few divisions in France their numbers were increasing every day.

By mid June, Americans arriving in France would boost Allied numbers to the point where it intersected with German combat losses for a German Army that was heavily drained by the German Spring Offensive.  And the Germans would decline every month thereafter.  The Allies would peak out in September and then decline themselves, but still retain a huge advantage over a much depleted Germany.

The Spring Offensive followed by the 100 Days Offensive.

Lex Anteinternet: The Kaiserschlacht Commences. Operation Michael. The First Battle of Villers-Bretonneux and the Battle of Moreuil Wood

Lex Anteinternet: The Kaiserschlacht Commences. Operation Michael

 The First Battle of Villers-Bretonneux and the Battle of Moreuil Wood

On March 30 the Germans none the less tried again, launching an assault south of the new Somme salient towards Amiens resulting in two significant battles, one of which is very well recalled today.  The Germans gained some ground but it was slight, and German troops lost discipline when they hit Allied supply depots.

The resumed German offensive opened up near the town of Le Hamel but was turned back, although the Germans took ground near the Hangard Wood.  This resulted in a five day pause in the German effort in this location until they resumed their attack towards the town of Villers-Bretonneux.  The French fell back upon the German resumed attack but British and Australian troops generally held well but were ultimately forced to retire due to a two stage retreat by the 14th (Light) Division. which ultimately fell back some 3500 yards to a new position.  Australian troops restored the line and counterattacked, pushing the Germans back out of the town.  This was followed up by flanking advances by British cavalry and Australian infantry which consolidated the line for the time being.

This phase of the German offensive also saw the remarkable Canadian cavalry charge in the Battle of Moreuil Wood in which the Canadian Cavalry Brigade conducted a mounted assault near the village of Moreuil, taking the wood against the prediction of failure of a nearby French unit, receiving assistance from the RFC in the assault.  The Germans retook the wood the following day, March 31, but the Canadians then took it back. The Germans ultimately retook the wood, showing the intense nature of the fighting, but the overall offensive was called off shortly after that.

 The charge at Moreuil Wood.

Operation Michael had gained a lot of ground, but it had ground to a halt.  By April 5 the Germans were exhausted and an effort to resume the offensive against the British failed.  Moreover, German casualties had been massive, and many of those casualties came from their very best units.

What was that big gun?

It was a railroad gun.

And a really big one at that.

Or rather, they were really big ones.  There were several.

Details on the giant long range guns are surprisingly sketchy.  They, or it, or whatever, never fell into Allied hands and the Germans took what was left of the guns, whatever that was (and it was likely most of it, or them), back into Germany as they retreated towards the end of the war.  What they couldn't take, they destroyed.

The guns were apparently 211mm guns, a little over 8in.  That would remain a large gun today, but not so large as to not be deployable then or now as field artillery. The M110 Self  Propelled Howitzer, for example, featured an 8" gun.

 

 M110 Self Propelled howitzer

The Paris guns weren't howitzers, however.  They were rifles.  Extremely large rifles with very long barrels.  And over time, likely due to barrel wear, they were bored out to 236mm, 9in.

 They were transported by rail, and indeed they featured a rail turntable as part of their emplacement.  

And they were weapons of terror.

Say what you like about the Germans prior to World War Two, but at the end of the day, the fact of the matter is that the German military seems to have been uniquely prone to acts of terrorism as early as the Franco Prussian War.  And during World War One they undertook several strategies and weapons that were frankly terroristic, of which the giant railway guns were merely one example.  Their only purpose was to silently shell Paris at extreme long range, some 75 miles, and with accuracy that was no better than to simply hit the city, which the guns did at least twenty-one times on March 21, the first day they were used.  They kept up that rate of fire for a considerable time thereafter until the end of the Kaiserschlacht in August and the ultimate reversal of German fortunes mandated their dismantling and removal.  They were never captured by the Allies.  It's telling that while the Versailles Treaty required them to be turned over to the Allies, the Germans did not do it.

250 Parisians were killed by the giant guns and another 620 were wounded.  On this day, Good Friday, 1918, a projectile from one of the giant guns went through the roof of St-Gervais-et-St-Protais Church, killing 91 and wounding 68.

The aftermath of the March 29, terror shelling.

There is no excuse for their use.  There wasn't then, and there still isn't.

Super artillery, into which these guns class these fit, went on to see some use during World War Two by the Germans again, but the advent of aircraft meant that they had become too vulnerable for much use, although they never saw all that much use to start with.  The Germans would deploy some super artillery in the East during World War Two, but the manpower required was so vast that the use of the guns has been calculated to be a net detriment to the German war effort during World War Two.  They didn't achieve much during World Ware One either, as the Parisians grew blase about the big guns which, as destructive as they were, were unlikely to actually get any one person in a city of millions.  In modern times super long range artillery has not seen use although it has been studied with at least Baathist Iraq having taken an interest in them, and having studied a gun that would have been capable of hitting Israel while being fired from Iraq.

Seems if a nation uses these its cause is dishonorable by definition.

Lex Anteinternet: The Kaiserschlacht Commences. Operation Michael, The Battle of Rosieres and the Battle of Arrars

Lex Anteinternet: The Kaiserschlacht Commences. Operation Michael

The Battle of Rosieres and the Battle of Arrars

On the 26th and 27th the British fought the Battle of Rosieres in which the British committed tanks. Nonetheless the Allies continued to lose ground and lost the town of Albert during the night.  Throughout the retreat phase that went  through the 27th Tommies occasionally panicked and took up defense positions at the report of German cavalry being just over the horizon.  Still, while they retreated continually they did not disintegrate and both the British and the French remained in action throughout.  On the 28th a German assault only a handful of miles, showing that the Germans were slowing.  A primary factor was that the German cavalry that was needed to exploit the breakthroughs in the Allied lines that continually occurred simply didn't exit.

There wasn't any. The Germans were now, in terms of fighting at the front, an infantry force only.  They'd lose the war as a result.  The could exploit gaps in the British lines no quicker than a man could advance, and with each days advance the German troops became more and more fatigued until, at last, they simply refused to move, even under threat of death.

March 26, 1918. Bad news. Hopeful News. And, what? Me worry?

Significant positions were falling.

Romania was giving up.

The Germans were across the Somme. . .and sending reinforcements to their own advancing men.

But the Germans were slowing down, some, and new lines were reported to be forming. . . maybe.  March was telling us now to worry. . . heh, heh.

But in Casper, the economy was doing great!

I wonder what was causing that big increase in the demand for petroleum anyway?

General Pershing places the four combat ready US Divisions in France under French command.

You will constantly hear, and now without good reason, that General John Pershing was very reluctant to place US troops under European Command.  Indeed, he was reluctant to do so.

Indeed, Pershing basically disagreed with European strategy in general and wasn't at all impressed by the argument that French and British forces were trained and combat experienced.  He felt that their experience was one of failure.  He didn't agree with concepts of trench warfare.  He was a cavalryman and like the later cavalry generals of World War Two, such as Patton, an understudy of his, he totally disagreed with concepts of static warfare.

Pershing hoped to deploy large, square, American divisions backed by cavalry regiments in mobile warfare and was largely prepared to ignore Allied pleas to commit U.S. troops to European command. But he was also savvy to the battlefield situation. The U.S. had been rotating men from the four divisions then in France to the front to get them exposed to combat.  On this day he committed the four U.S. divisions to French command, in light of the massive German spring offensive.  As the offensive was primarily directed at the British at this point, the French would not immediately call upon them.

March 25, 1918. The slowing of Operation Michael and the appearance of a famous name in the papers

The papers were correct that Operation Michael was slowing down.  Estimates of losses were overestimated, however.

And a name that was to be famous, Douglas MacArthur, appeared on the front page.

March 24, 1918. The British holding, and the Paris gun.