After a 36-hour bombardment on the night of 11/12 October, German storm-troops, in the Auberive–Souain area, attacked in three places and were eventually driven back. [8], The two defensive lines built before the Herbstschlacht (Second Battle of Champagne, September–November 1915), had been increased to four and in places to five lines, which enclosed defensive zones by early 1917. Special shells, used for this purpose, continued the destruction. Enter your log in email address and we'll send you a link to reset your password. [18] On 21 and 22 April, fighting for the redoubt and the observation posts continued and on 21 April, the Legionnaires, on the right flank of the Moroccan Division, stormed the German defences in front of the Main Boyau. Waves of German reinforcements climbed the northern slopes to dislodge the French. Südlich vom Mont Cornillet befindet sich der Ort Prosnes.. An original magazine page with an illustration showing dead German infantry in the Mont Cornillet tunnel during the Nivelle Offensive of 1917. [24], Aubérive redoubt fell at dawn, to attacks by the XII Corps divisions and at 3:30 p.m., Aubérive was found abandoned and swiftly occupied by detachments of the 24th Division, which had crossed from the right bank of the Suippes and by Territorials of the 75th Regiment; the Germans had withdrawn to a redoubt south of Vaudesincourt. The advance towards Bois-en-Escalier in the centre began well and several field-gun batteries stood by to follow the advance, after a short delay at the German first line in Bois-en-Escalier, where the Germans were outflanked from the north and killed or captured. EVENING. X Corps (Général Vandenberg): 19th Division (Général Trouchaud), 20th Division (Général Hennocque), 131st Division (Général Broulard), (relieved the 45th Division on 22 April) and the 15th Division (Général Arbanère), 74th Division (Général de Lardemelle), 55th Division (Général Mangin) and the 132nd Division (Général Huguenot). Les bouteilles graduées de penois notamment dans le tunnel du Mont Cornillet concentré de vinaigre apparaissent en 1875 et le type avec (Marne) qui abritait plus de 600 soldats allemands. The capture of Mont Sans Nom and the Moronvilliers Ridge would threaten the German hold on the Beine basin and the Nogent l'Abbesse massif; the loss of these would make the German positions on the Fresne and Brimont heights untenable. At 2:30 p.m., the German garrison and reinforcements from the tunnel under the hill, broke into the French position on Mont Cornillet. French preparations could not be disguised from the German observers on the hills above the Châlons Plain but as similar activity was occurring at many places, from the North Sea to Switzerland, it was not until the arrival of large number of guns had been detected by the Germans, that the possibility of a French offensive became known. [9] An attack from the west, was still obstructed by Bois de la Grille and Leopoldshöhe Trench and an attack on the eastern flank would be confronted by Le Golfe, a position which extended the German line east to Aubérive. The French veered to the right, away from the machine-gun fire and attacked Rendsburg and Göttingen trenches. The Cornillet tunnel had three galleries with Décauville (light) railways along two of the galleries, with a transverse connecting tunnel and air shafts dug up to the top of the hill. DATE:Sept 1917. Im making research on Mont Cornillet (the term mont could make you smile as it is only 200 meters in height ! [18], In the XVII Corps area, the 33rd Division attacked with the 11th Regiment on the right towards Le Téton and the 20th Regiment against Le Casque. On the whole, the French offensive failed, and Rheims continued to remain under enemy gun-fire. [2], The capture of the German defences on the edge of the Châlons Plain above Aubérive, was necessary for an advance around Beine and an attack from the east of the Nogent l'Abbesse massif. A road ran east from Beine to Nauroy, Moronvilliers and St Martin l'Heureux on the Suippes, north of the Moronvilliers massif. On 14 September, the French raided west of Navarin Farm and next day attacked in the area of Mt Haut. Sie trennen die Ebene von Chalons vom Moronvilliers-Massiv ab. In the west, from Bois de la Grille to Tranchée du Bois du Chien, the bombardment was less effective and the German defences in Bois de la Grille and Leopoldshöhe Trench behind it and Erfurt Trench to the east, were not destroyed. In the Mont Cornillet Tunnel, France: the formidable subterranean network that became a grave for its German garrison. The German attack was defeated by small-arms fire and another German counter-attack on 20 April, was repulsed but a resumption of the French advance was cancelled. [38], A surprise attack on 3 September, west of the St Hilaire–St Souplet road, caused considerable damage and several German prisoners were taken. [13] The third position was on the north slope of the second ridge and the fourth position lay along the foot of the reverse slope. Findbuch M 472 Kriegsstammrolle Band 19 Bild 149 16.04.1917 zur MGK versetzt 20.05.1917 vermisst bei den Kämpfen am Cornilett Infolge Gasvergiftung gestorben Totenkartei Beerdigt: Oktober 1917 Tunnel du Mont Cornillet Stanzer / ledig Johannes Sohn North of Aubérive on the left bank was the fortified village of Vaudesincourt on the St Martin-l'Heureux road. Itt gyűjtjük azokat a magyar vonatkozású cikkeket, amelyek más nyelvű Wikipédiákban már meg vannak írva, de a huwikiben még nem. [20] The 45th Division attacked Mont Blond, by advancing between the Prosnes–Nauroy track, Bois de la Mitrailleuse and Bois Marteau, to the south-east of Mont Perthois but was held up in the evening of 17 April, at the Konstanzlager, which lay on the road from Prosnes, at the junction with the Nauroy–Moronvilliers road, midway between Mont Blond and Mont Haut. Technische Bauleitung Bauleiter Karl Debus. Even knowledge of the arrival of more guns was not conclusive, because the quantity of guns and munitions held by the Allies had become so enormous, that even the presence of a thousand guns and the expenditure of millions of shells could be a feint. [34], The French attack between Mont Cornillet and the north of Le Téton on 20 May, failed on the north slope of Mont Blond and the north-west slopes of Mont Haut but succeeded to the north-east, north of Le Casque and Le Téton, where 985 prisoners were taken. Par système de dosage est fabriqué à partir de 1905. 600 corpses were found, most of them had been asphyxiated. SOURCE:The Sphere. Siehe Brief des Majors Georg Wintterlin. [36], After the defeats of 20 May, the Germans counter-attacked the next day and were repulsed. On 7 October, the French repulsed an attack at Navarin Farm, and on 9 October, destroyed several dugouts near the Butte-de-Tahure. This tunnel … [19] On 25 April, the 34th Division was relieved by the 19th Division. After a gas bombardment on Mont Blond and the French lines north-west of Aubérive, German infantry attacked again at 2:00 a.m. on 31 May, at Mont Haut, Le Casque and Le Téton. Mont Cornillet 206 m (676 ft), Mont-Blond 211 m (692 ft), Mont-Haut 257 m (843 ft), Mont Perthois 232 m (761 ft), Mont Casque 246 m (807 ft), Mont Téton 237 m (778 ft), Mont-Sans-Nom 210 m (690 ft) and Côte 181 to the east. Just inside the tunnel, heaps of German dead were found, apparently having panicked and made a rush for the exit. Besides this poste (Saint-Thomas) our only other one is at La Narazée, in one of the ravines to the right of here. Near the Suippes, a network of trenches followed the ridge above the river to St Martin-l'Heureux. Mont-Cornillet-Tunnel. Le mont Cornillet est un sommet du département français de la Marne culminant à 206 mètres d'altitude sur la commune de Prosnes, à l'est de Reims.. Il constitue un site de combats de la Première Guerre mondiale, en Champagne.En effet, cette position stratégique est occupée dès la fin de la première bataille de la Marne par les Allemands qui la fortifient puissamment. [15], By the beginning of April, the German Higher Command expected a French offensive from the Ailette to Reims but the quiescence of the French artillery east of Reims, led to no serious operation against Nogent l'Abbesse or Moronvilliers being anticipated. After a lull, the French attacked again on 30 April and ended the offensive on 20 May. Towards nightfall, French troops on a 0.80 km (0.5 mi) front, astride the Souain–Somme-Py road, entered the German lines and destroyed gas-tanks, blew up dugouts, rescued several French prisoners and returned safely with forty prisoners, four machine-guns and a trench mortar. The German equivalents for the first five peaks from west to east were Cornillet. The left flank of the 59th Regiment was stopped by the Germans at Flensburg Trench, which connected the German defences of Mont Cornillet and Mont Blond, losing touch with the 83rd Regiment. [24] The 11th Regiment of the 33rd Division, attacked again and was caught in cross-fire, from machine-guns at the mouth of the western entrances of the Mont Perthois tunnel. In 1918, the number of German prisoners taken since 17 April, was given as 6,120, with 52 guns, 42 mortars and 103 machine-guns. The adjacent Group Prosnes of the 3rd and Group Reims of the 7th Army further west, were later put under the command of the 1st Army headquarters, which moved down from the Somme front. [29] Among the German casualties, 6,120 prisoners were taken. French casualties were so high that Vandenbergh postponed operations against Mont Cornillet and Flensburg trench. To the west, the German counter-barrage was fired late and Mont Sans Nom was captured by 5:00 a.m. More than 500 prisoners, six guns and several machine-guns were captured. [4], The French Fourth Army comprised the XII, XVII, VIII corps and tank Groupement III (Captain H. Lefebvre), with two Schneider CA1 groups, Artillerie Spéciale 1 (AS 1) and AS 10 of eight tanks each, reinforced by some Saint-Chamond tanks. The Cornillet Tunnel had three galleries, with light railways along two of the galleries, a transverse connecting tunnel and air shafts up to the top of the hill. Terms and conditions  ~   Copyright © 10/01/2021 Alamy Ltd. All rights reserved. Relatively few French infantry were to attack but were supported by a huge amount of artillery, which had been discreetly moved into the area and camouflaged. The tunnel entrances were invisible to air observation and a French advance across the top of Mont Cornillet could be attacked from behind from them. Site du Mémorial pour le Souvenir Français des Pyrénées Orientales To reach the crest of Mont Cornillet, the French had to advance 230 m (250 yd) up a steep slope swept by machine-gun fire. West of the ridge, which in 1917 was between the left flank of the French Fourth Army and the Fifth Army, was an area of low ground about 11 km (7 mi) wide, between the Moronvilliers massif and the Nogent l'Abbesse massif east of Reims, in which lay the village of Beine. The French Fourth Army offensive against the German 4th Army was to support the Groupe d'armées du Nord (GAN, Northern Army Group) along the Chemin des Dames, in the Second Battle of the Aisne. More lines had been added to the railways behind the French front, extensions and a network of light railways had been built in the Moronvilliers sector and roads had been repaired and enlarged for motor vehicles, behind the Fourth Army front. Generalleutnant (Lieutenant-General) Georg von Gersdorf, the 58th Division commander, disagreed with Beaulieu and eventually resigned. The French attacked again from 17 to 22 April and despite German counter-attacks on 19 and 23 April, advanced slightly on the Heights of Moronvilliers. Paroles d'un étudiant Allemand: J'ai compris que l'expression de la catastrophe "La der des Der" German counter-attacks from Moronvilliers were dispersed by French artillery, directed over the heights from observation posts on Mont Haut and next day German columns, trying to reach the summits through ravines south-west of Moronvilliers, were also repulsed by French artillery-fire. German infantry could fire until the last moment then retire through them to the northern slopes. [31] On 10 May, a French attack took a small amount of ground north-east of Mont Haut and a big German attack on Mont Téton was repulsed. To the west, the French 34th Division took Mont Cornillet and Mont Blond and the 16th Division was repulsed at Bois de la Grille. Poor weather interfered with air-observation but by the night of 16 April, reconnaissance photographs taken from the air, reports from ground observers and prisoner reports, showed that wide lanes had been cut through the barbed wire entanglements in front of the German first line, where they had not been obliterated and that German trench lines and field fortifications, particularly south of Mont Sans Nom had been destroyed. The Moroccan Division was repulsed on its extreme right but the Régiment de marche de la Légion étrangère (March Regiment of the Foreign Legion) gained a foothold at Le Golfe. On 23 May, an assault on Mont Haut was stopped by artillery-fire and on 25 May, the French took more ground on both sides of Mont Cornillet and took 120 prisoners. At 5:45 a.m., the French took the east end of Erfurt Trench, despite delays as some redoubts held out, reached the edge of Bois de Mont Perthois by noon and then repulsed four German counter-attacks before nightfall. The ridge dominated the plain of Châlons and there was a parallel, lower ridge about 130 m (430 ft) high, which met the main ridge at the village of Beine; the two ridges declined steeply to the south. In the German trenches is a part of the Prussian Guard, which was also at Cornillet. On 20 April, French troops got onto the summit of Le Casque and on 22 April, the eastern and lower summit of Mont Haut was secured by the 45th Division. Few German defences remained intact, except for those in Bois de la Grille and around Aubérive. [23], The difficulties of the VIII Corps divisions continued and the 16th Division was attacked by the German Infantry Regiment 145 which had just arrived, after an extensive artillery bombardment, to force the French 95th Regiment from the western fringe of the wood. The 11th Regiment advance began at 4:45 a.m., accompanied by a battery of light field guns. A successful French offensive would deprive the Germans of observation and block the route to the Plain of Châlons. By 3 June, Army Group German Crown Prince had recovered hardly any ground lost from 16 April to 20 May on the Aisne front and on the Moronvilliers Heights. The front line at various stages in the battle, with the Battle of the Hills on the right of the image. French order of battle: XII Corps (Général Nourrisseau): 25th Division (Général Lévi), 60th Division (Général Patey), 23rd Division (Général Bonfait). German defences in the Plain of Bétheny, 1916, French territorial gains in Champagne, April–May 1917, Operations at Mont Cornilllet and Mont Blond, 21 June 1917. The German defence was based on zones 9–10 km (5.6–6.2 mi) deep; the first position lay at the foot of the forward slope with three trench lines K1, K2 and K3; the Zwischen-Stellung (Intermediate Position, also Riegel I Stellung) had been built on the reverse slopes connected by tunnels. The advance had begun while the German front-line infantry was still sheltering underground and the German artillery did not begin barrage-fire until 5:05 a.m. French artillery replied with heavy bombardments on the peak and on Moronvilliers village, in the hollow beneath. German counter-attacks forced the 20th Regiment to halt below the summit and during lulls German artillery bombarded the summit from the west, north and south. [9] The fortified village of Vaudesincourt to the north, on the banks of the Suippes and the maze of trenches on the right bank, had been badly damaged but much of the wire was uncut and blockhouses and pill-boxes had not been destroyed. On the left of XII Corps to the east of the Suippes, the 24th Division established a flank guard by attacking through Bois des Abattis towards Germains and Baden-Baden trenches. [21] Field artillery moved forward and engaged the Konstanzlager from near Bois-en-Escalier but the reinforced concrete structure was so resilient, that the attack on the redoubt and dug-outs was postponed, until a bombardment by heavy howitzers could be arranged next day. On 17 April 1917, the order of battle of the German 3rd Army opposite the French Fourth Army (from west to east), was Group Prosnes under the command of XIV Corps, with the 14th Reserve, 29th, 214th and 58th divisions in line and the 32nd Division in reserve as an Eingreif division, then Group Py commanded by XII Corps, with the 30th, 239th, 54th Reserve divisions in line and the 23rd Division in reserve as the Eingreif division. Possession of the crest was a substantial tactical advantage for the French, which denied the Germans observation to the south. The VIII Corps (General Hely d'Oissel), was to capture Mont Cornillot and Mont Blond, Flensburg Trench and the next one behind, which connected the defences of the summits, Mont Blond, Mont Cornillot, Bois de la Grille and Leopoldshöhe Trench. Certains tron- “Mont Cornillet” à proximité de Reims escalier d’accès menant au chemin çons non effondrés ont fait l’objet d’un (Marne) mérite d’être évoqué. Jean-François indique 7 postes sur son profil. On 17 October, the Germans raided south-east of Juvincourt and on the northern slopes of Mt Cornillet; two days later the French raided north of Le Casque. The west slopes of Mont Cornillet were attacked at 5:30 p.m. and a small advance was made. 1 53 11, Mt Cornillet, La Releve 11, Mont Cornillet, Over) Undated 1 54 Aux Éparges , 1918, l’assout du s avril (Éparges ,1918, assault of April) 1915 1 55 Solente Batterie Courde en action (Solente Courde Battery in action) Undated 1 56 1000 A L'assaut Mont Des Singes (1000, The assault, Mount of … [37] At dawn on 2 May, German attacks began at Le Téton and the French positions further east and gained temporary footholds in the French positions, before counter-attacks forced the German infantry back. [28], The French Fourth Army had casualties of 21,697 men. Counter-attacks by the German 4th Army on 27 May had temporary success, before the French recaptured ground around Mont Haut; lack of troops had forced the Germans into piecemeal attacks, instead of a simultaneous attack all along the front. Every move by the French, was under observation from the German positions but the ridge from Mont Cornillet to Le Téton and the woods to the west and east, hid German movements from ground observation and could only be detected by French aviators, who were frequently grounded by bad weather in the winter and spring of 1916–1917. Le tunnel du mont Cornillet. We made some prisoners, including an officer. The new commander was unwilling to risk his men being bottled up in the Mont Cornillet tunnel and reduced the garrison from a regiment to six infantry companies, two machine-gun companies and 320 pioneers, fewer than 1,000 troops. Your Cart is Empty ... Sign in; 0; Home; Collections; Catalog; Back Room; FAQ On the right, the French had reached the summit of Le Téton and were just below the crest of Le Casque. Copyright complaints  ~   Ce vaste opposé à la ligne de front. Villages, woods, roads, railway lines, cantonments, bivouacs, artillery batteries and ammunition dumps were "deluged" by shellfire, with few pauses until dawn on 17 April. Sitemap. The 5th and 6th divisions were further back, under the authority of Army Group German Crown Prince. The Main Boyau was entered, which made the redoubt south of Vaudesincourt untenable, which was captured with the 75th Territorial Regiment and part of the 185th Territorial Brigade on 22 April. Sturmtruppen companies were posted further back to reinforce counter-attacks. The Germans had dug several lines of trenches from north to south, on the west and east slopes of the hills, the trenches on the west running north and west of Nauroy. [22], In the VIII Corps area, the 34th Division east of the Thuizy–Nauroy road, attacked at 4.45 a.m., with two regiments and an hour later, could be seen threading their way up the heights, bombing dug-outs and fighting hand-to-hand in the open with German infantry. North-east of Mont Haut, the advance reached a depth of 2.4 km (1.5 mi) and next day the advance was pressed further. On the left flank of the division, Aubérive east of the river was rapidly captured. More German dead were found in the tunnels, having been killed by the special gas shells fired by the French artillery. [f] With reinforcements, there were four divisions on the flanks and the Moronvilliers massif in between and four divisions in close reserve. Die Tragödie vom Cornillet im 1. Having gained its objectives, the division was to face west and north, to guard the rear of the 34th Division to the east, as it attacked Mont Cornillet and Mont Blond. The main redoubt was intact and parts of Leopoldshöhe Trench were untouched. During the afternoon and evening, companies on the left flank made some progress westwards. Since Monday the Armies of France have been attacking the enemy in a battle that is set on a vast scale. [25], The 33rd Division attacked the heights of Le Casque and Le Téton at 5:00 a.m. As the French infantry encountered the German reverse-slope defences, fatigue, losses and the relatively undamaged state of the German positions, stopped the French advance. [26] The 34th Division on the right of VIII Corps, failed to take a small wooded height on the left, south-east of Mont Cornillet and on the night of 20/21 April, detachments of the 169th Division entered two trenches west of the Cornillet redoubt and reached an observation post, from where they were repulsed by German counter-attacks but managed to prevent an attempt to outflank Mont Cornillet from the west. [26] c. 1,100 prisoners, 22 guns, sixty mortars and 47 machine-guns were captured by the Foreign Legion. [30], After divisional reliefs to replace the assault divisions, which were exhausted and had suffered many casualties, a new French attack began on 4 May. The rest of the regiment occupied the pill-boxes and blockhouses on the summit and the north slope. During Easter, General Martin Chales de Beaulieu, the XIV Corps commander and the general commanding the 214th Division at Moronvilliers, briefed his subordinates that only artillery demonstrations were likely, between Reims and Aubérive. In front of Nauroy was another trench, which linked the defences on top of Mont Cornillet. La tragedie du mont Cornillet ... a German soldier surrenders, followed by a detachment whose haggard men say that the tunnel Cornillet is invaded by gas. If Le Téton had not been captured, the troops in the French centre, were to drive the Germans from Bois de Côte 144 and attack the hill from the east. At dusk, the French consolidated the craters on the northern crest; near midnight some German soldiers were captured as they headed for Nauroy, who turned out to be from the tunnel garrison and disclosed the main entrance. [c] There is an outlying peak known as Mont Sans Nom, 210 m (700 ft) high, with a hollow then a ridge to the north-west, the highest part of which is the western summit of Mont Haut at 260 m (840 ft). ), which is a place in Champagne (approximatively 20 kms in the east of Reims) where german pioniers have dug a tunnel. In the centre, Posnanie and Beyrouth trenches and the Labyrinth redoubt were still occupied by German troops, in front of the Main Boyau trench, the last defensive position running down from the Moronvilliers Hills to the Suippes south of Vaudesincourt. On 28 September, German raids were repulsed west of Navarin Farm, north-west of Tahure and at the Four-de-Paris in the Argonne. Two tunnels, capable of accommodating several battalions of infantry, had been dug under the north slope of Mont Cornillet and the north-east side of Mont Perthois. South of Le Casque and Le Téton, it became graben du Bois du Chien, Landtag Trench and then Landsturm Trench, to the positions on the east slope of the hills. On the left of the Fourth Army, the VIII Corps (General Hely d'Oissel) had two divisions and one regiment. [9], The Fourth Army plan was to capture Bois de la Grille, Leopoldshöhe Trench and all of the south face of the Moronvilliers hills, push the Germans back from Le Golfe and encircle Aubérive from the flanks. On the left flank of the division, Bethmann-Hollweg Trench to the north-east of Mont Sans Nom, was captured along with six guns, which secured Mont Sans Nom from an attack against the eastern slope. This image is no longer for sale. Later in the morning, the reserve battalions of the 34th Division captured part of the south end of the Düsseldorf communication trench and all of Offenburg Trench but were repulsed from Hönig Trench. In early 1917, German divisions had three regiments, with three infantry battalions of about, Régiment de marche de la Légion étrangère, "Historiques des Regiments 14/18 et ses 5000 Photos: Les Offensives d'avril 1917", La bataille des Monts de Champagne (in French), Second Battle of Aisne/Battle of the Mountains (in French), Armistice between Russia and the Central Powers, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Battle_of_the_Hills&oldid=961118513, Battles of the Western Front (World War I), Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 6 June 2020, at 18:05.