Final French action of the 1917 campaign of the First World War
The Battle of La Malmaison () from 23 to 27 October, was the final French action of the 1917 campaign in the First World War, which had begun with the Nivelle Offensive. The French captured the village and fort of La Malmaison and took control of the Chemin des Dames ridge. The German 7th Army (General Max von Boehn) had discovered French preparations for the attack and also identified the date and time. Boehn chose to defend the front positions, rather than treat them as an advanced zone and to conduct the main defence north of the Oise–Aisne Canal. The German artillery was outnumbered three-to-one and on the front of the 14th Division, 32 German batteries were confronted by 125 French, which silenced most of the German guns before the attack. Gas from French bombardments on low-lying land near the Oise–Aisne Canal in the Ailette valley, became so dense that it was impossible to carry ammunition and supplies forward or to remove the wounded.
Battalions from specialist German counter-attack divisions () had been distributed along the front line and were caught in the French bombardments, German infantry shelters having been identified by French air reconnaissance and systematically destroyed. After the four-day bombardment was extended by two more days because of bad weather, the French XIV, XXI and XI corps of the Sixth Army, attacked on a front with six divisions. Zero hour had been set for 5:45 a.m. but a German message, ordering the front garrisons to be ready at 5:30 a.m. was intercepted and the French start time was moved forward to 5:15 a.m.
The French infantry advanced behind an elaborate creeping barrage but the earlier zero hour meant that the attack began in the dark. Rain began to fall at 6:00 a.m. and the 63 attached Schneider CA1 and Saint-Chamond tanks were impeded by mud and 27 bogged behind the French front line. Fifteen tanks were immobilised crossing no man's land or in the German front line but the 21 remaining tanks and the infantry reached the German second position according to plan. The 38th Division captured and XXI Corps took Allemant and Vaudesson. From 24 to 25 October, XXI and XIV corps advanced rapidly; the I Cavalry Corps was brought forward into the XIV Corps area, ready to exploit a German collapse. The German 7th Army conducted the (Bunzelwitz Manoeuvre), a retirement from the Chemin-des-Dames to the north bank of the Ailette on the night of 1/2 November.
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Background.
Strategic developments.
Nivelle Offensive.
General Robert Nivelle replaced Joseph Joffre as French Commander-in-Chief in December 1916, after the costly fighting at Verdun and the Somme. Nivelle claimed that a massive barrage on German lines could bring French victory in 48 hours and avoid the costly battles of attrition, (nibbling) fought in 1916. The French offensive began on 16 April 1917, after support from the France Prime Minister, despite the doubts of other politicians, Pétain, Micheler, other senior army commanders and the British. The Nivelle offensive involved c. 1.2 million French and British troops and 7,000 artillery pieces on fronts between Reims and Roye, after preliminary offensives at Arras and St. Quentin. The principal effort was an attack on the German positions along the Chemin des Dames ridge, in the Second Battle of the Aisne to "rupture" the German defences in 48 hours, bring about a battle of manoeuvre and defeat decisively the German armies in France.
From February–March 1917, the German armies in the Noyon and Bapaume salients retired to a new line of fortifications, the (Hindenburg Line) across the base of the salients, from Neuville Vitasse near Arras, through St. Quentin and Laon to the Aisne east of Soissons, ending at Cerny en Laonnois on the Chemin-des-Dames ridge, although the withdrawal to the last part of the line did not take place. The new fortifications were intended to be precautionary, () built to be used as rallying-positions (similar to ones built on the Russian front) to shorten the Western Front, economise on troops and create reserves. The had the potential to release the greatest number of troops and construction began on 27 September 1916.
The French Third Army began the offensive against German observation points at St. Quentin from 1 to 13 April, which took some of the German defences in front of the . On 9 April, the British Third Army began the Battle of Arras from Croisilles to Ecurie, against Observation Ridge, north of the Arras–Cambrai road and towards Feuchy and the German second and third lines. The British attack either side of the Scarpe river penetrated , the furthest advance achieved since the beginning of trench warfare. Most of the objectives were reached by the evening of 10 April, except for the line between Wancourt and Feuchy around Neuville-Vitasse. The First Army attacked from Ecurie north of the Scarpe to Vimy Ridge, which fell at about 1:00 p.m., in a advance. By 16 May, the British had captured 254 German guns but had not broken through.
Second Battle of the Aisne.
In the Second Battle of the Aisne (16 April – 9 May), the French failed to achieve their strategic objective of a breakthrough and a return to a war of movement but captured tactically important ground and inflicted many casualties on the German defenders. The Germans were forced to retire from the area between Braye-en-Laonnois, Condé-sur-Aisne and Laffaux to the Hindenburg Line from Laffaux Mill, along the Chemin-des-Dames to Courtecon. The German armies in France were still short of reserves, despite the retirements to the Hindenburg Line in March and suffered 163,000 casualties during the Nivelle Offensive. Because of the shortage of troops, the front-holding divisions had to change places with the Eingreif divisions, rather than be withdrawn to recuperate. In a lull from 9 May to 20 August, more German divisions were depleted than at Verdun the previous year. Of the German divisions engaged on the ridge, none spent more than twelve days in the line and only the 46th Reserve Division returned for another period in the line; the French took 8,552 prisoners.
Tactical developments.
Battle of the Observatories, May–October.
From May there were many local actions on the Chemin-des-Dames ridge. On 23 May, a German assault on the Vauclerc Plateau was defeated and on 24 May, a second attack was driven back in confusion. During the night, the French took the wood south-east of Chevreux and almost annihilated two German battalions. On 25 May, three German columns attacked a salient north-west of Bray-en-Laonnois and gained a footing in the French first trench, before being forced out by a counter-attack. On 26 May, German attacks on salients east and west of Cerny were repulsed and from 26 to 27 May, German attacks between Vauxaillon and Laffaux Mill were defeated. Two attacks on 28 May at Hurtebise, were stopped by French artillery and on the night of 31 May/1 June, German attacks west of Cerny also failed. On the morning of 1 June, after an extensive bombardment, German troops took some trenches north of Laffaux Mill and were then pushed out by a counter-attack in the afternoon.
On 2 June, a bigger German attack began, after an intensive bombardment of the French front, from the north of Laffaux to the east of Berry-au-Bac. On the night of 2/3 June, two German divisions made five attacks on the east, west and central parts of the Californie Plateau and the west end of the Vauclerc Plateau. The Germans attacked in waves, sometimes advancing shoulder-to-shoulder, supported by flame-thrower detachments. Some ground was gained on the Vauclerc Plateau, until French counter-attacks recovered the ground. Despite the French holding improvised defences and the huge volume of German artillery-fire used to prepare attacks, the German methodical counter-attacks () met with little success and at Chevreux north-east of Craonne, the French advanced further into the Laon Plain.
On the night of 26/27 August, German artillery conducted a preliminary bombardment for an attack early on 27 August, west of the Soissons–Laon road, from Moisy Farm to the south-east of Vauxaillon and Laffaux. East of the road, the French defences on either side of Cerny and on both sides of the Hurtebise Monument, were attacked; near Laffaux the Germans recovered some ground. By 30 August, the strength of each company of the German battalion holding the captured ground had been reduced to 40–50 men. A fresh battalion which relieved it after dark was bombarded by the French artillery throughout the night of the 30/31 August and during the rest of 31 August. At 7:00 p.m., two battalions of French infantry and a battalion of Chasseurs advanced behind a creeping barrage and a shrapnel bombardment, with double barrages along each flank. A squadron of aeroplanes machine-gunned the German infantry and the crews of trench mortars and batteries beyond the crest. In fifteen minutes, the French attack recaptured the ground, except on the right flank, where the crew of a machine-gun post resisted until the morning.
Three German counter-attacks in the night were costly failures and about 200 prisoners were captured by the French, along with seven machine-guns; on the night of 1/2 September, two more German counter-attacks failed. On 31 August, a French party north-east of Craonne, wrecked of German trench south-east of Corbeny and returned with twelve prisoners. On the same day, a German raid to the south-east of Vauxaillon was repulsed, as was one in the Cerny region during the night of 1/2 September. Four attacks on the Hurtebise Spur were made on 3 September, by three waves of German infantry which failed to penetrate the French covering barrage. Simultaneous attempts were made to advance on the Ailles Plateau to the west of the spur and to the east, on the evening of 4 September and morning of 5 September. Attacks were made on the Casemates and on the Californie Plateau above Craonne, which were repulsed by French artillery and machine-gun barrages.
For most of September, artillery duels and raids by both sides took place from Vauxaillon to Craonne. Long-range guns bombarded villages and châteaux far behind the front line, directed by observers in lines of observation balloons, which were protected by aircraft and many anti-aircraft guns. From 20 to 21 September, a German attack south of the Arbre de Cerny and at the neck joining the Casemates to the Californie Plateau failed and on the night of 12/13 October, Thuringian stormtroops attacked between the western edge of the Hurtebise Finger and the French positions in the plain east of Craonne. North of Vauclerc Mill, the Germans captured the French first line but were pushed back by a counter-attack; German detachments probing between the Hurtebise Spur and the south of La Royère were also repulsed. On 17 October, the French preliminary bombardment for the offensive at La Malmaison began and the next day the German communiqué read
 ;templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" / ;North-east of Soissons the lively fighting activity, which has lasted for days past, developed to an artillery battle, which, since early yesterday, has continued with only short intervals from the Ailette region as far as Braye. The batteries of the neighbouring sectors also took part in the duel.
and during 18 October, French detachments patrolled between Vauxaillon and Braye-en-Laonnois, destroyed several strong points and returned with 100 prisoners from four German divisions. Until the beginning of the battle, the artillery of both sides fired constantly, with much trench-mortar fire by the French, which a German report of 20 October, reported had transformed the foremost fighting zone between Vauxaillon and Braye into a crater field. Since the Chemin-des-Dames ridge was honeycombed with large limestone caves and quarries, adequate artillery preparation was indispensable.
Fortifications.
Fort de la Malmaison lay on the Chemin-des-Dames ridge and had been built as part of an entrenched camp north of the Aisne, in the Séré de Rivières system, designed by General Raymond Adolphe Séré de Rivières and built from the 1870s. The fort was in the northern angle between the Chemin-des-Dames and the Soissons–Laon road. The fortress casemates were tested with high explosives in 1887 and found to be insufficiently robust. Steel reinforced concrete had been added but in 1913, the fort was sold to a Laon contractor, to demolish and use the materials to build new barracks in town. A long tunnel, the Montparnasse Quarry lay on the northern