Part 8

The view below shows the façade; the officers seen in the photograph belonged to the staff of the 56th Division which took the farm. The owners had evacuated Champfleury at the beginning of September; when they returned they found in the billiard-room (which was smashed to pieces) a jeering inscription signed by a German officer, regretting that they (the owners) had not been there to take part in the cannoning performed on their table.

_To enter the farm follow a little lane on the right for about 100 yards._ Very likely it is still possible to see the various seats hidden in the trees in the garden, which were used by the look-out men.

_From Champfleury the road descends towards_ =Puisieux=. The view below shows the situation of this village, in a fold of the ground. In the background, at the summit of the plateau, is seen the farm of Nogeon, which will be visited in the course of the excursion.

On the tourist's left, and outside the limits of the photograph, is a depression beyond which, in a position similar to Champfleury (_see panorama_ D, _pp. 106-107_), appears the farm of Nongloire.

From the plateau on which stands this farm the French artillery hammered Champfleury and the Étrépilly position.

On the right, also outside the photograph, is the +farm of Poligny+, _towards which we go, turning to the right, in Puisieux, into the Rue de Poligny_. The view below was taken from the Poligny road in September, 1914. In it are seen guns, cartridges, and machine-gun belts abandoned on the battlefield, and a French drum, which latter doubtless sounded the charge when the troops of the Seventh Corps, starting from Puisieux, and supported by the 56th Division coming down from Champfleury, went to attack the farm.

The struggle was desperate, for Poligny, like Champfleury, was an advanced position of the Vincy-Étrépilly line, and the Germans defended it to the utmost. Before leaving they set it on fire.

The view below shows to what a lamentable condition this large farm was reduced by bombardment and incendiarism.

Only a part of the courtyard can be seen here, but all the buildings belonging to the farm, including the beetroot factory, are in the same state.

From Poligny the Germans fell back on their positions on the Étrépilly Plateau, which is in the background of the photograph, and the farm became a valuable point of support for the Seventh French Corps.

The German battery defending Poligny could not withdraw in its entirety, the fire of the French 75's having destroyed at least one of the field-pieces, of which a photograph is given below.

_After this visit the tourist will return to the Puisieux Road (8½ km.) following the road, he came by, and crossing the village by an S-shaped route, leave the church on the right._

On the French front Puisieux formed the connecting point between the right (group Lamaze) and the centre (Seventh Corps). It received many shells from the batteries of 77's established on the Vincy-Étrépilly line and from the heavy howitzers of the Trocy Plateau.

_Having passed the church, the tourist arrives at a little square, with several roads opening into it. He takes the one on the right_, which leads him to the plateau that dominates Puisieux on the north. On the left can be seen the distillery of Fosse-Martin; straight ahead is the Nogeon Farm with its beetroot factory.

West of +Fosse-Martin+, in a room in the Castle of Brégy, the flag of the 72nd Thuringian regiment was found, abandoned.

The French artillery, installed between Fosse-Martin and Bovillancy, maintained a terrific fight against the German batteries at Étavigny, Vincy, and Trocy. Colonel Nivelle, future generalissimo, commanded the Fifth Artillery Regiment which had just done great deeds in Alsace, and whose daring and enthusiasm shone forth anew on the plateau of Multien.

=Nogeon Farm= was one of the principal centres of battle during the days of September 6 to 9. Taken by the French after a hand-to-hand fight, it was subjected to several counter-attacks which, supported by violent bombardments, completely destroyed it. But labour soon claims its rights, and the view above shows the rebuilding in progress.

From Nogeon, and the trenches around it, the troops of the Seventh Corps gained Acy and attempted to reach Vincy. The progression towards this last position, over open ground swept by an intense cannonade, was particularly difficult. Many actions took place at night. It was during one of these, in a bayonet charge on September 7, that the soldier Guillemard, having transfixed with his bayonet the officer standard-bearer, captured a flag belonging to the 36th Magdebourg Fusiliers, decorated with the Iron Cross in 1870. Guillemard received the Military Medal from the hands of General Gallieni.

The young fellow shook with emotion during the ceremony, and the general said good-humouredly: "Now then, embrace me and imagine I'm a pretty girl."

_From Nogeon the road descends to_ =Acy-en-Multien= (14½ km.) of which the slender steeple can be seen.

_We cross the Gergogne and go through the village, following the High Street_ up to the twelfth and thirteenth century church, which is classed as an historical monument. This church came practically unscathed through the struggle which drenched the village with blood.

Acy's situation in the hollow of a valley robbed its steeple of all value as an observatory; it was therefore respected by the artillery on both sides.

After glancing around the interior of the old church, with its squat pillars, shown in the above view, _we go on along the High Street_, passing the town-hall.

Opposite is a photograph of the town-hall safe, which was blown up by the Germans during their occupation of the place.

_A little further on is the cemetery_, in front of which is a big military grave.

Acy's churchyard was much too small to hold all the heroes who fell on the territory belonging to that parish.

In front of the cemetery, on the other side of the road, stands the castle where the Germans quartered themselves.

The view opposite gives but a slight idea of the state in which it was found by its owners.

The park was placed in a state of defence and the Germans made a tenacious resistance there.

_The tourist will now take the road in front of the cemetery which skirts the castle railings. Then turning to the left he will follow the zig-zag road which climbs the Étavigny Plateau._

The above panorama was taken from the last turn of the climbing path and gives a good view of the valley in which Acy is built.

Here we can follow the course of the battle: the French held the Nogeon Plateau, the Germans the valley and the heights where the tourist stands. Troops belonging to the Seventh Corps descended on Acy from Nogeon and came up in front of the village, others slipped along the Gergogne and made a flank attack.

After furious fighting in the streets, in the castle grounds and in the little woods on the hillsides, the Germans were flung back from Acy to the heights of Étavigny. They returned to the charge, and in their turn drove the French back to the Nogeon Plateau.

The village thus changed hands several times, and this terrible beating backwards and forwards caused great losses on both sides.

_Continuing his road to Étavigny_, the tourist will go over the position that the Germans established on the plateau.

The infantry and the machine-guns were entrenched along the road itself; the light and heavy artillery were in the hollow on the right. They showered shells on the French positions at Nogeon, and in return received the fire of the batteries placed, as before mentioned, between Fosse-Martin and Bouillancy.

Arriving at =Étavigny= (18 km.) our attention is at once drawn to the church, which suffered terribly.

The part played in the battle by the church of Étavigny was very different from the passive one assigned to the church of Acy. Its dominating position afforded priceless views of the French lines to the observer installed in its steeple. It was therefore by shells from the 75's that the church was damaged (_see pp. 100 and 101_).

Étavigny was taken and retaken in the course of the Battle of the Ourcq. The struggle was hard, the Germans making a desperate resistance, as a serious French advance in this locality would have meant the outflanking of their whole line. They succeeded in forcing the troops of the Seventh Corps off the plateau.

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_Taking the road to the right, beside the church, and continuing about 200 yards we come to the_ cemetery, which is in a state of upheaval from the bombardment. The photograph below was taken through one of the gaps.

The windmill pump, on the left of the view, was riddled with bullets.

_From Étavigny the tourist can either return to Acy by the same road, or follow the itinerary that we now give, which forms a loop around the northern part of the battlefield. In the first case, the distance to Acy is 3½ km., in the second 14 km._

_Starting again from the church along the road which crosses the village, continue straight on towards +Boullare+. Here keep turning to the left and take the road to Betz._ In the hollow on the left were placed the German batteries which joined in action with those of Étavigny.

_The road descends into a rather picturesque valley. Through it runs a small river, the Grivelle, which we must cross, then go through Antilly, turning to the right on entering, and to the left at the fork in the road just after leaving the village._

_We arrive at =Betz= (26 km.). Turn to the left near the church._

Betz did not suffer much from the guns, but some of its houses were burnt by the Germans, notably the Hôtel du Cheval Blanc (_see p. 102_), which can still be recognised by its signboard.

The castle was occupied by a German headquarters-staff, who left it in a deplorable state.

During the pursuit the French officers had to abandon the idea of lodging there: one of them records in his notebook: "The German officers have left disgusting traces of their passage; we see slices of melon, bearing the marks of their teeth, in the wash-hand-basins, and enormous heaps of empty and broken wine bottles."

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_The tourist will cross Betz by the main street, which is seen in the above illustration, and at the further end of the village he will go straight on under the railway, leaving the road to +Nanteuil-le-Haudouin+ on the right._

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This last-named town has not been included in the itinerary, although it played an important part in the ultimate manœuvre attempted by Von Kluck--that of outflanking the French left wing. The paved road which leads to it is bad, and the other roads by which one could rejoin the planned route are extremely rough. Below we give a view of a corner of this battlefield. It gives some idea of the great plain which extends from Betz to Nanteuil, where the 7th and 61st French Divisions resisted with desperate energy the furious attacks of the Fourth German Corps. The dead horses seen in the photograph belonged to a French battery. The 75's, fully exposed, supported the foot-soldiers in their efforts until they came almost into actual contact with the enemy.

* * * * *

_After passing under the railway the road rises to the plateau_ and soon brings us near a commemorative monument, on the right (_view on following page_).

_Thence it passes through the Woods of Montrolles_, where the 61st Division particularly distinguished itself on the evening of September 8. Worn out with fatigue, its reserve supplies exhausted two days before, it yet, by a supreme effort, succeeded in driving back the Germans.

_Having passed through the Woods of Montrolles, we soon come to a fork. Here take the road on the left._

To the right are the Heights of Bouillancy, where the French artillery was placed; on the left the Plateau of Étavigny on which were the German batteries.

A hollow, where runs a river, separates the two positions, between which the artillery duel was intense, preparing and accompanying infantry assaults which succeeded one another from September 6 to 9, with alternate advances and retirements.

_The road then returns to Acy, skirting the wall of the Castle park. We again pass the church and, on leaving the village, cross the Gergogne. Immediately after the bridge turn to the left towards_ =Vincy= (35½ km.). The photograph below shows that this village also suffered from incendiarism and bombardment.

_After passing through Vincy, bear to the left in order to pass in front of the Manœuvre distillery, leaving the hamlet of that name on the left. =Étrépilly= (41 km.) will be reached by the middle road of the crossways, which are about 1 km. further on past the distillery_.

This Vincy-Étrépilly line formed part of the defensive front established by the Germans west of the Ourcq, marked out further north by the localities of Betz, Étavigny, and Acy, which have just been visited, and more to the south, by the position seen on panorama B (_pp. 90-91_). The Germans had made trenches and machine-gun shelters over the whole plateau, which stretches on the right of the road towards the farms of Poligny and Champfleury. On the right slope of the road one can still see the dug-outs where the snipers sheltered themselves.

The position was attacked from September 6 to 9 by the 63rd Division of the Seventh Corps and the 56th of the Lamaze Group which carried the advance positions constituted by the farms of Nogeon, Poligny, and Champfleury. They were stopped, however, on the line itself until the general withdrawal of the German troops.

_To reach the spot where the view below was taken, follow the track which branches off the road from Vincy to Étrépilly, between the memorial and the burnt hangar. This is the road we see across the middle of the panorama._ The tourist finds himself at the southern extremity of the Vincy-Étrépilly position, on the site of a German battery which was severely treated by the French 75's.

In the background is seen the Trocy Plateau, separated from the road by a hollow, in which flows a tributary of the Thérouanne. On the Trocy Plateau, where this itinerary will in due course lead the reader, the Germans had established their powerful artillery, composed of heavy and light batteries, which swept the whole battlefield from Nogeon Farm to Barcy, taking in Puisieux and Marcilly. Beyond the valley of the Thérouanne, south of Étrépilly, stretches the position of which the details appear in panorama B (_pp. 90-91_). The view extends to the wooded Heights of Penchard, which are outlined against the horizon.

On the brow of the hill where stands the observer, fierce battles were fought at the time of the attacks on Étrépilly. The 350th Infantry did once, on the morning of the 7th, make their way into the village, following the valley of the Thérouanne, but violent counter-attacks forced them back. They returned to the charge at night and climbed from the river's edge to the plateau. They were greeted by the fire of a machine-gun section upon which two companies flung themselves with fixed bayonets. Two field-pieces were taken. The French troops maintained their position until ten o'clock in the evening, but finally, as the German reinforcements poured in, were obliged to descend the slope and cross back to the right bank of the Thérouanne.

_Returning to the Étrépilly_ road we pass in front of the memorial raised by the engineers in front of the cemetery, at the place where the battles of Étrépilly reached their climax. A military grave has been made behind the memorial.

The Germans had entrenched themselves in the cemetery, where they succeeded in checking the night attack of the Zouaves on September 7. The Second Regiment, coming from Barcy, reached the village and carried it at the point of the bayonet.

Without stopping, the Zouaves began to climb the height at the foot of which Étavigny is built.

Their rush carried them as far as the cemetery, and here, met by a terrific fire from the machine-guns, they tried to keep the position, but German reinforcements having come up, they were forced to abandon the plateau, evacuate the village, and return to their trenches at Barcy. Lieutenant-Colonel Dubujadoux, commanding the regiment, was killed; three-fourths of the officers and half the effective force fell in the course of this heroic charge.

In front of the memorial the twisted metal framework of a burnt shed is to be seen. According to certain accounts, the Germans, before evacuating the position on September 9, used this shed to burn the bodies of those of their soldiers who fell in the battles of Étrépilly. Some of the inhabitants say that to these were added the badly wounded, whose hurts were such that they could not be removed.

We believe, as a matter of fact, that a large pyre of corpses was set alight here by the Germans, who generally burn their dead when they cannot carry them away. But the hangar was destroyed by the French artillery which fired repeatedly on that side of the plateau at the battery of 77's installed there, at the cemetery, and at the German trenches.

In the cemetery lie the heroes who were killed in attempting to regain it.

_From the cemetery the road descends towards Étrépilly._

_Turn to the right at the foot of the slope into Étrépilly and on leaving the village take the road on the left; cross the river, turn again to the left and follow the track which climbs the plateau. After a few hundred yards the right slope disappears._ It was at this point that panorama D was taken, showing, from the German side, the same battlefield seen from the French side in panorama B (_pp. 90-91_).

The road on which the tourist now stands goes on to the heights of Varreddes. Bordered with trenches and machine guns, it constituted the principal line of the German defence south of Étrépilly, the advance lines resting thus: the first on Penchard--Monthyon--Heights of Cuisy; the second on Chambry--Barcy--Marcilly. In this theatre of operations fought, south of the Marcilly-en-Étrépilly road, the 55th (Reserve) Division, the 45th Division and the Moroccan Brigade; at Marcilly and on the plateau north of Étrépilly, which is outlined on the extreme right of the panorama and crowned by the Champfleury Farm the 56th (Reserve) Division.

Leaving the trenches hastily dug on the Chambry--Barcy--factory of Marcilly line, the troops of the Lamaze group, before getting up to the German trenches, had to cross two kilometres of uncovered ground, under terrible fire. It was in one of these attacks, starting from Barcy, that Major d'Urbal (brother of the general) fell at the head of his Zouaves as, waving his cane, he drew them along. He was brought back to the French lines, thanks to the devotion of one of the few officers who survived the attack, helped by two Chasseurs d'Afrique. Because of his great height the commander's body could not be carried back, and they were obliged to place it on a horse. The group returned thus to Barcy under a hailstorm of bullets, where a shell-hole in the cemetery served for a grave.

In the counter-attacks, the Germans as they left their trenches also suffered serious losses, as one can judge from the preceding photograph, which was taken in front of the position.

_The tourist will return to Étrépilly by the road he came, leaving the church (the roof of which was hit by several shells) on the right, and taking the Trocy Road on the left._

=ÉTRÉPILLY TO MEAUX= (19 km.)

via +Trocy+, +Gué-à-Tresmes+, +Varreddes+.

_The beautiful shady road that leads from, Étrépilly to Trocy first crosses a hollow, then winds up the hillside to the plateau on which =Trocy= is built (3 km.). On arriving, turn to the left and so enter the heart of the village._

Trocy did not actually suffer from the German attacks, but it was bombarded by the French artillery. In front of the horse-pond, on the left of the little church, stands a farm (_view opposite_) which in 1917 still showed traces of the "75" shell which damaged its roof. Other houses were completely destroyed.

The Germans had concentrated their chief artillery forces on the Trocy Plateau. Heavy and light batteries were in position north and south of the village, the greater part being north, between Manœuvre, Plessy-Placy, and Trocy.

The intense cannonade poured from this dominating platform very much hampered the progress of the French centre.

The position was evacuated by the Germans on the 9th, not without serious losses of light artillery, as shown by the photograph below and that at the top of the following page.

The limber (_shown below_), abandoned at the side of the road, is an infantry limber which contained rifle and machine-gun cartridges.

The French artillery which swept the plateau hit it in the course of the retreat.

_Rounding the horse-pond, we take the road which runs under the monumental gateway, a view of which is given above._

This gate is one of the chief remains of the fortifications which guarded Trocy in the Middle Ages.

It will be seen that the strategic importance of the position has at all times been appreciated at its full value.

_Having passed through the gate, we take, 100 yards further on to the left, the road that dips into a hollow, on the opposite slope of which stands out the fine farm of Beauvoir._

_We reach this farm by a zig-zag ascent which comes out on the Route Nationale (N. 36). We then turn to the right and go down towards =Gué-à-Tresmes=._

This little place played the part, in relation to the extreme German left, that Trocy played in the centre. It was a heavy artillery position supporting the advanced line of defence.

At the entrance to the village, on the left side of the road, is a large residence surrounded by a park. It was occupied by the Germans and converted into a field hospital. In order to make room rapidly, the furniture was flung outside. It was thus that the billiard-table was found in the park. A soldier who was evidently a lover of fresh air used it as a shelter. On the opposite photograph can be seen a fish-kettle which did duty as a basin: frequent washing being indispensable during those hot September days.