Blog 11 covered Infantry Regiment 169’s (IR 169) early 1918 storm trooper training program. Much of this effort included a six week stint of intensive training at the massive Sedan Training Center. IR 169, commanded by battle-harden Major Shiller, stood at its peak wartime effectiveness. In late May 1918, the regiment, along with its parent 52nd Infantry Division (52 ID), put this training to test at it spearheaded the German destruction of four British Divisions in the great Operation Bluecher Offensive. Much of the German perspective of this action comes from the memoirs of Leutnant Otto Lais, then serving as the executive officer of IR 169’s 2nd Machine Gun Company (2 MGC).
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2 MGC
Leutnant Lais’ watch seemed frozen in time as he impatiently waited for zero hour, only two minutes away. With that moment, 4,600 German artillery pieces, packed across a six mile front, would unleash one of the most powerful surprise attacks of the Great War. For now, all Lais could do was wait and pray that the 2 MGC’s skittish horses, spooked by a nearby artillery strike, would remain quiet.
2 MGC was one of IR169’s three MG companies that consisted of two platoons, each armed with three Maxim Model 08/15 MGs. During the 1918 Aisne Offensive, Leutnant Lais commanded 2 MGC’s support train of two machine gun wagons, an ammunition wagon and reserve cart. Lais, an experienced rider, was provided his own mount. To facilitate mobility in the Aisne Offensive, 2 MGC’s forward deployed machine gunners conducted assaults with light MGs and limited ammunition. Lais’ machine gun wagon teams closely followed the assault elements with heavy gun accessories and main ammunition stocks.
Operation Bluecher
Operation Bluecher’s success depended upon a decisive German breakthrough along the Chemin des Dames ridge line – the same ground where IR169 had shed so much blood in 1917. A dash across the nearby Aisne and race to the Marne River would place German troops within striking distance of Paris and also draw off enemy forces defending against attacks in Flanders.
Throughout mid-May, Germany’s First and Seventh Armies, commanded by Crown Prince Wilhelm, discreetly massed 41 divisions and over 4500 guns to execute one of the great surprise attacks of the war. 52. ID joined the Seventh Army’s Corps von Schmettow on 23 May. The corps formed across a six mile-wide front. Each division was supported with two heavy artillery regiments, trench-mortars, engineers with bridging equipment as well as assorted signal, medical and other logistical support units. The corps’ mission was to storm over the Juvincourt sector trenches held by the British 8th Division and immediately force a crossing of the Aisne River, two miles south of the front. A critical objective was to secure a large stone bridge that spanned the Aisne at the village of Pontavert.
General Duchne, the French Sixth Army commander, was responsible for defending the Aisne sectors. The eastern portion of the Chemin des Dames was manned by four British divisions that had been badly mauled in Flanders. This quiet front and natural strength of the Chemin des Dames positions led Duchne to extend to these divisions far beyond a standard frontage. The lack of a defense-in-depth posture made the front line troops highly vulnerable to new German Feuerwalze doctrine that precisely integrated artillery fires with storm troop assault timetables. The German’s maximized the attack’s shock power by concentrating eighty pieces of ordnance over every thousand yards and relying on mathematical map surveys to silently register their guns. The attack’s execution in the early morning of 27 May reflected the best attributes of German military planning, efficiency and violence of action.
On the night of 26-27 May, IR 169 moved into the center of the 52. ID’s attack formation, with IR 111 to its left and IR 170 to the right. IR 169’s designated launch point was with the same Juvincourt trench system it defended the previous year. German intelligence correctly analyzed that the British were considering this posting as a ‘rest cure,’ with the 8th Division losing 8,513 men in the past two months and having to back-fill its ranks with barely trained recruits. Lais commented on the prevailing thoughts towards his foes: ‘The poor devils! If they could only guess what would blossom in the next 24 hours. It would come at them in torrents.’
The Assault
The infantry began their advance to the forward assembly positions at 10 pm, with the machine gun and support wagons trailing slightly behind. At twilight, German soldiers took their last drags of cigarettes and silently ate a final hot meal. All weapons and equipment that could potentially rattle were wrapped in sandbag covers. Howitzer and heavy mortar gunners removed camouflage from their guns and make them ready for the 2.00 am barrage.
A disaster occurred at 1.15 am, while some of the columns were still marching to the front. Lais heard the low rumble of two distant shots from enemy lines, followed by two more. Seconds later came the howl of the incoming rounds as four shells exploded among an entire infantry company, instantly killing 25 men, wounding many more and panicking the horses. Incredibly, no further enemy shelling followed. Lais’ recalled the ear-splitting moment of the 2.00am zero hour:
‘Lightning flashes in the horizon, the explosion of the guns shortly afterward and is music to our ears. The Sabbath of Hell has begun! 4600 German artillery pieces and mortars of all calibers lead the May Offensive. The rumble shakes the air and unsurpassed lighting illuminates the night.”
Sidney Rogerson, a 2nd West Yorkshire Regiment subaltern who served with the 8th Division staff, recorded being on the strike’s receiving end: ‘Two German gas shells burst close at hand, punctual heralds of the storm. Within a second a thousand guns roared out their iron hurricane. The night was rent with sheets of flame. The earth shuddered under the avalanche of missiles leapt skywards in dust and tumult…. It was a descent into hell.” German guns followed the initial high explosive shelling with a ten minute barrage of gas munitions, including those with special chemicals that compromised British masks. British counterbattery fire was nearly nonexistent, as exemplified with only one gun of the entire 45th Royal Artillery Brigade remaining in action 30 minutes into the barrage.
Precisely at 4.40 am, the lead storm trooper squads climbed out of their trenches for the 200 meter race to the British trenches. Trust in the Feuerwalze was absolute, as supporting artillery fire did not lift from the lead trenches until seconds before the storm troopers reached their objectives. British defenders were rendered stunned by the bombardment. IR 169’s 9th and 10th Companies were among the lead storm troop elements that quickly overran the 2nd Battalion West Yorks first and second trenchlines. A more determined struggle was fought for the third line, but the Yorks resolute defense was no match for the avalanche pouring over them. Both flanks of the 8th Division was turned before its headquarters had even received word the assault had begun.
- ID’s next objective was the Bois des Buttes, where the British the 2nd Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment (2/Devons) awaited their heroic and tragic fate.
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Next Blog: Blog 13 will detail the bitter struggle for the Bois des Buttes and assault over the Aisne River. All citations for IR 169 blogs are in the book, Imperial Germany’s Iron Regiment of the First World War (Second Edition, Bagley Publishing Company, 2017). Additional information, to include a Google Map link of IR 169’s battles, are found at www.ironregiment 169.com.
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Picture Legend:
(1) German troops swarm over the Chemin des Dames in the Bluecher Offensive.
(2) German assault launch point: This spot, a half mile south of Juvincourt, marks the forward German trenches. British lines were about 200 meters further south. The woods in the distant left show the La Ville aus Bois and the Bois des Buttes. This picture was taken in my 2019 visit to the battlefields.
