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R 169: Blog 14, 26 March 2020: Spearheading the May 1918 Aisne Offensive (Part III)
Blog 14 Introduction and Background:
Blogs 12 -13 covered Infantry Regiment 169’s actions in the 27 May 1918 assault that overran four British Divisions in the troops in the Operation Bluecher Offensive. Much of the German account in this blog comes from the memoirs of Leutnant Otto Lais, then serving as the executive officer of IR 169’s 2nd Machine Gun Company (2 MGC). In the opening moments of the attack, the regiment employed storm troop tactics to swarm from its Juvincourt trenches and pierce three British trenchlines. IR 169 then took part of the infamous struggle in the Bois des Buttes, a fight that largely annihilated the heroic 2nd Battalion of the Devon’s Regiment. Reaching the Aisne River, IR 169 troops made hasty foot bridges to force a combat assault cross the river and its corresponding canal. By late morning, the German Army was in full control of multiple river crossing.
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Resumption of Maneuver Warfare
The crossing of the Aisne was a seminal moment in the history of IR 169’s wartime experience. For the first time since mid September 1914, the regiment emerged from the trenches to resume maneuver-based warfare. The soldiers’ morale soared as they attacked a greatly weakened foe on a front with no enemy trenches, entanglements of barbed wire obstacles or clouds of poisonous gases immediately before them. The next objective was to race to the Marne River, 20 miles to the south, before the shattered Allied forces could regroup.
Just south of the Aisne, the ominously silent Gernicourt Woods now stood before IR 169’s path. A large concentration of special chemical munitions, designed to defeat allied masks, was targeted there. Most German units bypassed the woods to open fields on either end. One squad, wearing well-inspected gas masks, scouted into the woods to find the crews of an entire British artillery battery lying dead or dying in horrible agony. Lais reflected: ‘The Gernicourt Woods was a great cemetery. Gas is a cruel weapon and does not distinguish commands or victims. We were the victors in this murderous location because we had better gas masks.’
The next line of British resistance stood at the small village of Bouffignereux, one mile beyond the Gernicourt Woods. At 10.30am, the 1st Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment, came up from reserve to establish a line in front of the village. A retreating British artillery battery took cover in a forest east of the village where it paused along a path in the midst of a copse of alder bushes. A flight of four German planes spotted the battery and directed a perfectly delivered artillery salvo upon it. The barrage exploded in the midst of battery, sending the surviving men, horses, caissons dashing into an advancing IR 169 infantry company. German small arms fire shot down the battery commander and other section leaders, leaving the surviving artillerymen to be taken prisoner. Lais partook in the spoils and came away with a fine English battery horse. At 5.30pm, IR 169 troops attacked the 1/Wilshire positions and stormed into Bouffignereux. Lais arrived on the scene to observe still-warm British corpses being dragged from the streets to provide free passage for the wagons. That evening, his section parked alongside a heavy artillery battery that deployed in the church courtyard.
Elsewhere in IR 169’s advance, infantry companies reached the high ground near Bouvancourt, two miles further south. Leutnant Spies led a patrol that captured a functioning British tank, which he triumphantly rode back to German lines. One of his men furiously waved a white shirt astride the tank as a caution against friendly fire. That evening, IR 169 troops feasted on English rations and coffee, a luxury they had not enjoyed since taking British prisoners in the 1916 Somme Campaign.
Advance to the Marne
German operations on 28 May was again orchestrated in accordance with the Feuerwalze. The artillery preparatory fires began at 6.50am followed by the ground attack scheduled 16 minutes later. Lais crested the high ground by Bouvancourt to admire the dramatic image of II/IR 169 formations attacking towards Prouilly. British 8th Division officer Rogerson had a different optic, complaining: ‘It was a sight given to gunners only in dreams, but not a gun was available’. The British defended Prouilly by placing machine guns in the church bell tower and hardening houses into strong points. Facing a lively fire, the Germans pressed the attack into the village and took it along with 30 prisoners and several artillery caissons.
IR 169’s parent unit, the 52nd Infantry Division’s (52. ID) next target was the large British supply depot at Jonchery, a village on the southern bank of the Vesle River. The ever-resourceful Leutnant Spies led a patrol that forced a river crossing to enable IR 169’s attack on Jonchery from its rear. The subsequent British retreat left behind an enormous mass of supplies for the Germans to plunder. This was the heart of the Champagne region, and Lais marveled at the resplendent wine and champagne cellars before them. Cattle, swine, and poultry were in abundance, and the ravenous German soldiers lost little time in pulling out bayonets to slaughter their next meal. Lais took over grilling duties as he provided his men a feast in the home of a somewhat hospitable, elderly Swiss farming couple.
Outside the village, serious trouble was mounting as a nagging gap began to emerge on the 52. ID’s left flank, as the adjoining German division was held back. By default, 52.ID became the left extreme of the entire offensive, a vulnerability that would worsen in the coming days. The immediate threat came from large caliber artillery shells, fired from the mighty French fortress city of Reims, eight miles east, which rained into Jonchery. Enormous explosions set buildings ablaze as German soldiers looted in the shadows of the flames. The Germans braved the incoming fire to fill up enormous British supply wagons to capacity with war material, victuals and more than a few luxury items, including large quantities of sugar, flour, cases of white wine, butter milk, corned beef, sides of bacon, thousands of cigarettes and bars of chocolate and even writing stationary. The shelling wounded a few men and killed several horses. Lais recorded how the MG company supply personnel horded over the booty “like a dragon guards a gold treasure.” Some of these supplies, such as lard, lasted the company all the way through mid-October 1918.
Later that night, Lais led his support troop out of Jonchery seeking to follow II/169’s path southward. In the confusion and darkness, a pair of German sentries mistakenly directed Lais onto a path that led to a hidden French artillery battery. Lais was only able to identify the enemy guns seconds before they opened fire at close range. Although the shells were aimed a few millimeters too high to strike their targets, the stampeding of horses resulted in Feldwebel Nitz, 2MGC’s senior NCO, being crushed to death. Lais was fortunate to survive the disaster with only an injured leg and managed to pull the remainder of his badly shaking troop to safety.
Additional information: Citations are found in Imperial Germany’s Iron Regiment of the First World War (Badgley Publishing 2017). A Google map and other information on the book are provided in www.ironregiment169.com.
Pictures (taken in June, 2019)
(1) Gernicourt Woods, southern border. British troops posted in these woods were subjected to an extremely deadly chemical attack.
(2) Bouffignereux Village. Captured by IR 169 troops the afternoon of 27 May 1918. The church in the background is the site of where Lt Lais and the 2MGC support wagons were co-located with an artillery battery.
