Part 7

Clouds of black, green and yellow smoke rose from the hill-top as from a volcano, obscuring the sky to a height of 2,500 feet, according to the reports of aviators. As a British war correspondent put it: "The sky was like a dome of invisible rails on which fast trains ran madly". On May 4th and 5th, a fresh German division attempted to occupy the position, believing it and its defenders to have been annihilated. On the 4th, they gained a footing on the North slopes of Hill 304, from which they were dislodged during the night by the 68th, who then had to withdraw. On the 5th the same German division attacked the Camard Wood and Hill 287 on the left. In this wood, entirely levelled by an eleven-hour bombardment, the 66th Line Regiment first held up, then charged the assailants at the point of the bayonet. At Hill 287 a battalion of the 32nd Line Regiment likewise brilliantly repulsed two attacks. On May 7th, after a tremendous shelling, the enemy attacked Hill 304 simultaneously from three sides with troops from five different divisions. It was their greatest effort against this position. Thanks to two French regiments of picked troops (125th and 114th), one company of which charged, to the strains of _La Marseillaise_, the Germans were thrown into disorder and driven back to the N. slopes. During the rest of the month the enemy counter-attacked but without success.

On June 29th and 30th, the enemy endeavoured to outflank Hill 304 East and West, by means of liquid fire.

During December, fresh efforts came to nothing.

During 1917, the Germans continued stubbornly with their attacks on Hill 304.

On June 28th and 29th, a powerful attack carried Hill 304 and an advance was made between the hill and the south-east corner of Avocourt wood, in a slight hollow, known as =Col de Pommerieux=. This hollow was, however, reconquered on July 17th by the French 51st and 87th Infantry Regiments, supported by two battalions of the 97th Infantry Division (335th and 346th Regiments) and one battalion of the 73rd Infantry Division. After a remarkable artillery preparation, the French infantrymen, in half-an-hour, reached the fortified crest, and regained a kilometre of ground. The 87th Line Regiment, went 300 yards beyond their allotted objective and captured an observation post, in front of the crest, which they promptly christened "Le créneau de Gretchen". The attack caught the enemy off their guard at the very moment a relief was being carried out, and 520 prisoners belonging to three different divisions were taken.

On August 24th, Hill 304 was wrested from the Germans by the 272nd and 128th Infantry Regiments of the 5th Brigade (Nérel). This brigade which attacked in front of Hill 304, on the Pommerieux plateau and at Camard wood, captured prisoners belonging to five German divisions. On the same evening, after capturing Hill 304 this brigade stormed several redoubts and carried the first line to the Forges stream, i.e. more than two kilometres from the starting point.

From Hill 304, return to =the Esnes Calvary= _and from there take the road on the right to_ =Avocourt.=

=Avocourt, Avocourt and Malancourt Woods.=

One of the finest feats of arms in the battle of Verdun was performed at Avocourt.

On March 20th, 1916, the Germans who had never been able to take the village, attacked the wood with a fresh division, the 11th Bavarian Division. The attack succeeded, with the help of liquid fire. A French counter-attack on the 29th by the 210th Infantry Regiment, and a battalion of the 157th, recaptured the wood and the redoubt known as the "Réduit d'Avocourt". The attacking troops which had not been revictualled for four days, had finished their reserve rations twelve hours previously. So fatigued were they that they slept standing despite the bombardment. To rouse them, their chiefs, at 3 a.m. next morning, ordered the buglers and drummers to play. As the day was breaking the music suddenly stopped, a shell having buried all save one drummer. Furious at this, the men, with the drummer at their head, rushed forward, and by 8 a.m. the wood had been entirely reconquered.

_From Avocourt, return to Esnes. Again take the Chattancourt road but about 1,500 metres from Esnes, take the road on the right to_ =Montzéville,= _G. C. 18, as far as_ =Dombasle-en-Argonne,= _where take R. N. 3 to_ =Verdun.=

Dombasle was one of the points where the Sainte-Menehould-Verdun railway was bombarded.

_Going through_ =Blercourt,= _there are two level crossings to pass: after the second, the_ ="Sacred Way"= _branches off on the right to Bar-le-Duc, via Souilly._

The fate of Verdun, even of France, depended on this road. Disintegrated by frost and thaw, and subjected to the wild rush of transport which in the space of five days raised the fighting strength of the Verdun army from 150,000 to 800,000, this road visibly sank. When General Pétain took command of the battle on February 25th, his first care was to ensure that this road was firm and sound. All along the road 16,000 men divided into gangs were engaged upon the task of repairing it. Quarries were opened in the vicinity, and without interrupting the convoys of lorries which ran at regular intervals, thousands of roadmen threw tons of stones on the road. The road stood up to the strain and carried all necessary supplies up to the vast battle.

_Re-enter_ =Verdun= _by the_ =Porte de France.=

_3rd. Itinerary:_

THE TRANCHÉE DE CALONNE

THE RIDGE OF ÉPARGES, THE WOËVRE

_Leave_ =Verdun= _by the Pont Beaurepaire, Rue de l'Hôtel-de-Ville, Rue St-Sauveur, Rue St-Victor, the Porte Nationale and R. N. 3 (See plan of Verdun, exit III)._

_Follow R. N. 3 for two and a half kilometres and then take R. N. 64, on the right, which follows the Meuse valley, towards Houdainville and Dieue-sur-Meuse. At the latter village, turn left along I. C. 5 to Sommedieue. This very picturesque road climbs through Amblonville forest towards the_ =Tranchée de Calonne,= _I. C. 3 which should be taken on the right._

=The Tranchée de Calonne.=

It is almost straight, crossing the entire Amblonville forest. It was formerly the haunt of poachers and hunters only.

But now the Tranchée de Calonne evokes more tragic memories. From the word "Tranchée" it might be supposed that it was a relic of the Great War. It is not so, however, since for more than a century this name had been given to the road which M. de Calonne, Minister of Finance under Louis XVI, had had laid out on the ridge of hills to approach his château, built at the foot of the Heights of the Meuse. This château was destroyed during the Revolution.

The story goes that M. de Calonne hoped one day to receive the king in his residence, and wishing to welcome him in a worthy manner, had planted rose trees all along the road. Anyway, during the war wild roses could be seen blooming along this forest road which became indeed a "trench" in the military sense of the word.

The front cut the "tranchée de Calonne" a little to the south-west of Saint-Rémy. On both sides it was bombarded and kept busy with never-ending attacks and counter-attacks.

In March 1915, the French brought into position there naval 140 guns intended for firing at a 12,000 metre range over Éparges, right behind the enemy lines. It was with difficulty that the sailors installed their heavy guns in this clay soil.

This effective bombardment irritated the Germans, who on the 24th, launched a mass attack which reached the third support line.

The naval officers who were isolated in their post with their telephone wires cut and no contact with the infantry, rapidly organised their defence and swept the ground with the fire of their only heavy guns and a few 75s, dragged up by hand, which fired with their sights at zero.

The Germans, however, continued to advance, and on the 25th they were no more than one kilometre from the guns, the only protection for the sailors now being broken down trenches and the remains of barbed wire entanglements. On the 26th, while the sailors were preparing to make a firm stand against the enemy's attack, two French battalions of chasseurs, called in to reinforce, crawled through the undergrowth and gradually got up to the position from which they counter-attacked. On the 27th, the firing died down, but the Germans reorganised and again attacked on May 5th. The first rush gave them some advantages, which were quickly wrested from them by the arrival in the field of the Moroccan brigade and six battalions of chasseurs who recaptured, in a few hours, all the ground lost on April 24th.

The Tranchée de Calonne enters the forest, every part of which was used by both sides during the war for engineers' and artillery parks, aid posts, shelters, small-gauge railways and gun emplacements of which trace can still be found.

_On the left the bifurcation of Mont-sous-les-Cotes is passed._

Soon the forest clears and then only blackened tree stumps are seen, cut by shot and shell, as the old lines are crossed.

_Pass the road junction, to the left of the Éparges road, a road which is broken up and impassable. Continue along the Tranchée de Calonne which crosses, at 1,500 metres, the hill of Senoux near which were the enemy first line trenches. Turn left along I. C. 13 in the direction of Saint-Rémy. After 2-1/2 kilometres the road descends as far as the stream of Longeau or Éparges._

All along this road, on the left side, the Germans had built into the hill concrete dug outs, pillboxes, underground galleries and headquarters posts and there are also some German tombs.

_On reaching the valley, near the stream, there are cross-roads, the road on right leading to_ =Saint-Rémy,= _the ruins of which can be seen. Continue straight on to_ =Combres,= _along an uphill road. Beyond the crest, at a sharp turn to the right, opposite a large blockhouse, get out of the car and proceed left along the path to the Éparges crest, which at first runs along the south slope of the spur in the old German positions. Notice on the right the entrances to many huge mine galleries which, under the crest, communicate with the openings on the north slope. The path rises to the eastern edge of the spur, point X (on plan), whence there is a wide view over the Woëvre. Return along the trenches on the crest. On the north slopes were the French lines containing a series of huge mine craters organised into defensive positions. At the highest point marked by a sign post, an excellent general view of the position is obtained._

=Éparges Spur.=

Éparges spur, 1,400 metres in length and 346 in height, dominates the Woëvre plain. Its sides are steep and slippery, springs break out of the soil and small streams drain down its slopes. It is in very truth, as it has been called, "a mountain of mud". It is a magnificent observation post which dominates the surrounding country. "He who holds Éparges, has all the roads under fire".

The Germans gained possession of Éparges on September 21st 1914 and quickly organised several lines of trenches between the summit and the valleys; at certain points five ranges of fire could be brought to bear on a point, and the whole crest was transformed into a strong redoubt, flanked east and west with two bastions.

The French occupied, to the North, the brow of Montgirmont and Éparges village, about 600 metres from the German trenches.

It was at the West part of the Spur (point C) that, at the end of October, the French commenced their attack, step by step, to the sap, at the same time penetrating into the woods which cover the flanks of the ravine.

In February there started a series of almost daily attacks and counter-attacks, only finishing at the beginning of April. On February 17th, thanks to a mine explosion, the French got a footing in the enemy first line; attacks and counter-attacks lasted five days during which Colonel Bacquel was mortally wounded at the head of his troops. The French held all the west bastion and they started to advance towards the east bastion. From March 13th to 21st, they returned to the attack and occupied the enemy front line.

On March 27th a battalion of chasseurs made a fresh push, bringing them nearer the summit. On April 5th, started the last big attack which the 12th Division was to carry on day and night until the 9th. The rain and muddy ground seemed for the moment to hold them back and render their efforts in vain.

In the evening, part of the crest was occupied but the use of aerial torpedoes which blotted out whole ranks of men, and a massed counter-attack, launched on the morning of the following day at 4.30 a.m., robbed them of the gains of the first advance. During the evening of the 6th and all the night of the 6-7th, in spite of a continuous downpour, the trenches were recaptured step by step, with 100 prisoners including several officers.

On the 8th the summit and the west ridge were firmly occupied and at midnight, after fifteen hours of furious and uninterrupted fighting practically the whole ridge was in French hands.

On the night of the 8-9th, it took fourteen hours to get fresh troops into position in squalls of rain and a blinding wind. The attack was resumed at 3 p.m. on the 9th, the ground being hollowed out into deep pits into which men sometimes disappeared altogether. Finally the French held the west bastion (point C), the fortified curtain and stood their ground in front of the east part (point X).

At the end of 1915 and in 1916 the struggle was rather less bitter but still deadly enough: the story of a mine exploded by the Germans, as told by a young Lieutenant of the 74th Infantry Regiment, brings out vividly the tragic side.

"On the evening before, I had relieved, between the point "X" and the point "C", a section of the 129th. My night had been spent in visiting my posts and establishing contact. At daybreak I returned to my hole, a mine listening gallery running down crosswise for about 15 metres. Everything was quiet and it appeared that the enemy had done no work for two days on their mine chamber. Were we going to be blown up? No one dreamt it would be so.

"About 4 p.m. we distinguished quite plainly the detonations of several petards. "Good, the Boches are working, we are alright for to-day!"

"At that very moment we heard a formidable rumbling, our dug-out rocked and came to earth again as though a Hercules had lifted it several metres high and then let it fall again with a bump. We were turned topsy-turvy one on top of the other in the darkness.

"Cries were heard, some one was wounded. We lighted a candle and extricated the man who fortunately had nothing the matter. "Come on, boys, at them with bombs".

"To get out--the exit was blocked three metres high at least. Moreover a stream of water had been let in at the higher end of the sap.

"Without loss of time we got down to work. To reach the piled up debris a man had to crawl in the midst of the stream, flat on his stomach, and only one could work at a time.

"An hour passed, then two, centuries it seemed. The water rose, the air became less and less pure.

"I spare you the agony of a man who perceived that his end was near, who saw it coming and knew that he could not escape it.

"It was now three hours since the mine went up. The water had reached our feet. The candles had gone out, we could breathe only with the greatest difficulty, and everything seemed to be going round.

"All of a sudden a cry was heard: "Lieutenant, here is the daylight." A man had succeeded in making a hole through the mud with the barrel of his rifle.

"At last! Everyone felt restored to life. Already we could breathe again. Our candles would burn.

"After another half-hour we got out of this hell and it was time too.

"Where were we? In the enemy's lines or our own? What had happened during these four hours? What had become of my posts?

"I pointed out to my men the direction of our lines and I tried to regain my bearings. But the aspect of the ground had completely altered. For half-an-hour I probed the darkness. I could make nothing of it, when, suddenly, I seemed to see two shadows. I made myself known, but the two men moved off and fired a star-shell in my direction. It was a German star-shell.

"I made my way to the rear and reached the Battalion Command Post at Bois Joli. I had been posted "missing".

"No one had news of my section. I went back to the line and found a corporal and two men who were in the line at the time of the explosion. For four hours they had prevented the enemy patrols from investigating the ground and occupying it. They were the sole survivors."

_Return to the car by the same path._

_Continue straight along and rejoin, at Combres, G. C. D. 10 that leads to Fresnes or making a half-turn, go down to the cross-roads of Saint-Rémy, turn to the right towards_ =Éparges,= _cross the village, and keep on towards_ =Trésauvaux= _passing between the crest of Montgirmont and Hures Hill, on the left (photo above), and so reach Fresnes-en-Woëvre._

_At Fresnes turn left, on leaving the village, towards Manheulles and follow R. N. 3 straight on to Verdun._

_4th Itinerary:_

THE ARGONNE

MONTFAUCON.--ROMAGNE

_This itinerary is a continuation of the circuit of the left bank of the Meuse. It joins it at the village of Esnes (see plan above, on the right)._

_Tourists who do not wish to prolong their itinerary by the loop Montfaucon-Romagne can make straight for Vauquois, then, in Argonne, by the G. C. 28, the road from Esnes to Varennes via Avocourt and Vauquois._

_Tourists starting from Sainte-Menehould can reach Varennes by R. N. 3 from Islettes and Clermont-en-Argonne road: from Clermont, climb the Aire valley as far as Varennes, then Vauquois by G. C. 2a and R. N. 46._

_This itinerary joins up with that from Champagne via Vienne-la-Ville and Ville-sur-Tourbe._

_Starting from Esnes by G. C. 18, the road climbs to Hill 304, then falls to Forges stream and Malancourt, beyond which were our first lines from 1914 to 1916._

_The road then climbs towards the peak of Montfaucon, one of the most famous German observation posts along the whole front. This peak embraced a horizon extending from the plains of Champagne to the Heights of the Meuse._

From Hill 304 the tourist traverses the battle area of the 79th American Division when the latter attacked the formidable heights of Montfaucon on September 26th 1918.

To the 313th American Regiment fell the honour of making a direct attack on Montfaucon while the other regiments of the division had to outflank the peak right and left. Reaching the bottom of the slopes the 313th attacked with two tanks at nightfall. They were overwhelmed with a deluge of fire and forced to withdraw to the northern edges of Montfaucon wood.

On the following morning they returned to the attack, supported by tanks and a barrage of machine guns. At 11 a.m. the 313th entered the village and at 1 p.m. units of the 27th Division effected contact with the victors.

_A large number of bodies have since been taken to the United States, but 15,000 graves still remain in this cemetery._

_From Montfaucon follow I. C. 4 to Cierges and Romagne. In Romagne, near the church keep right along the Cunel road and cross the bridge. About 250 metres beyond the village, the vast American cemetery of Romagne on the slopes of a hill comes into view. Return to the church, then follow the Charpentry-Varennes road, G. C. 2a._

_Pass through Eclisfontaine and then Charpentry. Beyond this village the road descends the valley of Aire. Two kilometres beyond the village, turn left along R. N. 46 to Varennes._