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Final British Resistance:

IR169 continued its advance to the Marne on the morning of 29 May. Groups of stalwart British survivors of the 27 May debacle formed into small detachments and continued to fight a series of delaying actions. One such element, composite company-sized unit from the remnants of the 151st Brigade, 50th Northubrian Division, emerged from the Romigny Heights and into the Aougny Valley.

The British advance was detected in time for the Germans to set up a hasty, but deadly ambush. The British formation suggested that its commanders had little appreciation for just how close their enemy was. Lais wrote how the British troops, observed at one mile to the south, emerged from the Romigny Heights and into the Aougny Valley as in “rows upon rows of khaki” and with the officers leading prominently from the front, perched high on horses – “a lovely attack.”

IR 169 deployed rifle companies in a steep escarpment north of the small hamlet of Berthenay. Two heavy machine guns augmented the infantry’s light machine guns. Further back, a platoon of four additional machine guns mounted long range sights. The British infantry were only supported by a weak, ineffectual artillery barrage that did little to disturb the defenders. As they came within 650 meters, German machine guns first opened fire, targeting the officers. The infantry and light machine guns joined in with a concentrated fire. Most of the British troops were cut down where they stood, and the few survivors scattered for the woods to the south. Lais recalled that it all happened with lightning speed. While the Germans had suffered hardly any losses, many British dead laid in thick rows on the sloping field of attack. Not long after, the Germans could hear the distant rumbling of lorries as other British troops moved off in retreat.

By the end of May 29, most of the last British forces moved off the battlefield. 8th Division staff officer, Lt. Rogerson summarized the losses of his division:

‘The 8th Division was wiped out in the strict sense of the word. While it is always unsafe to generalize, it is extremely doubtful whether any other British division on the Western Front, certainly after early 1915, suffered such obliteration. Not an infantry C.O. or adjutant survived. Two out of the three Brigade Commanders were casualties, the third won the V.C. Among the infantry rank and file, the casualties mounted in almost every battalion to over 600. The total ration strength of the division during the time that the transport [off the battlefield] was about 1500 out of 12,000!’

The 52nd Division was now only five miles north of the Marne. Before them, the French were establishing a strong defense of the bridge spanning the river south of the Verneuil Village. In a hard-fought night battle, the French were driven back as the 52nd Division’s IR’s 170 and 111 took Passy-Grigny and IR 169 troops, reinforced by the brigade’s reserve company stormed Pareuil. The Germans massed heavy field artillery, 21 cm mortars and 14 cm howitzers, in the village of Villers-Agron-Aiguizy to support the next series of assaults. The French also brought up large artillery reserves and pounded the Germans from both flanks. The most lethal threat came from the French batteries shooting directly down from steep vineyards on the Marne’s southern bank to either side of the village of Troissy. The bridge was also defended by a series of machine gun nests.

Dawn of May 30 brought the Germans a long awaited view, panoramic view of the Marne Valley. German artillery opened the day with shelling that shattered the exposed enemy batteries on the south bank vineyards and slammed the defenders at the bridgeheads. Fires set by incendiary rounds blanketed the valley with plums of black smoke. A few bold German squads advanced on the bridge, but were cut down by the machine gun fire. This brief repulse aside, the ever-encroaching German infantry and artillery strikes were sufficient to convince the French that the bridge was in peril of capture. With a mighty blast that lifted portions of the bridge ‘as high as a church steeple’, French engineers blew it into the Marne.

With the capture of the Verneuil Bridge no longer an option, IR 169’s mission changed from that of a river assault to connect with the 52nd ID’s long separated left flank division. IR 169’s 2nd and 3rd Battalions moved out of entrenchments before Verneuil by way of Pareuil, 1.5 miles to the northeast.

Corps von Schmettow was now facing much bigger problems then the lost bridge. What should have been the left flanking division lagged far behind, leaving the 52. ID’s eastern flank terribly exposed. Great numbers of fresh French troops massed a few miles to east as their aircraft swarmed overhead and pounded German rear areas. German artillery stocks were nearly exhausted leaving their guns silent to counter enemy barrages.

In their advance, IR 169 elements suffered through a terrible march. Long-range artillery and masses of French planes pounded the German columns. Lais’ MG-wagons could barely pass through the rubble on the streets of Passy. A short distance ahead, between the villages of Passy and Aiguizy, the IR 169 Regimental Staff met with catastrophe. An artillery barrage scored a direct hit on the command group. Although its commander, Major Schiller, was left miraculously unhurt, virtually the entire rest of the staff group were killed or wounded. The dead included Adjutant Leutnant Seufert, Oberleutnant Kaiper and Leutnant Giehne. Most of the other enlisted orderlies and messages were also either killed or wounded, as were many of their horses. In an instant, IR 169’s highly effective command and control infrastructure was wiped out.

Soon after, the 52nd Division’s Brigade Commander, along with his staff, passed the 2nd MG Company train in Passy. The commander took notice of Leutnant Lais’ fine horse, recently captured from a British artillery battery. He then commanded Lais to assume the most pressing task of the decimated IR 169 staff. Lais, by himself, was to ride to the east to find and establish contact with the separated left wing division.

Lais prided himself as a fine horseman. Although his new British mount was a powerful war horse, it was also skittish and was reacting badly to the constant incoming artillery. Lais exchanged it with another saddle horse, described as long-legged, skinny but devoted and reliable. It was a perilous ride as shells chased him throughout the route. Rounds screamed past his steel helmet, striking in the trees and road around him and sending shards of wood and shattered rocks through the air. Rather than finding friendly troops, Lais soon came under fire from a section of French machine guns hidden in a woodland to the north. He could continue no further and turned back. Lais heartily cursed the absence of any brigade staff officers, as he was left alone for this hopeless mission.

Lais’ memoirs foreshadowed the next events as ‘a death storm for IR 169.’

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