THE "CHEMIN DES DAMES"

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 2, 27 September 1917, Page 7

THE "CHEMIN DES DAMES"

MOTHER VIEW OF THE GREAT AISNE

STRUGGLE

MILITARY VALUE OF THE POSITION }(By Colonel A. M. Murray. C.8., in the ; "Daily News.') ■ '■'Surprise, is often expressed at the persistent- way in which the Germans have j been attacking the French ever since ,ihey established themselves on the Chemin d&3 Dames last April, but if we look .at'our own General Staff map, No. 2364 ; (scale i-100,000), or any -of those admirable little sketch maps which have appeared from time to time in the.''Daily J News," we shall find that there is method lin Field-Marshal Hindenburg/s. apparent (madness, and that, hideous-though the 'sacrifice of, life lias been, > he good jreasc is-fonfi-'je efforts which he has made ■to push' the'Frehoh off tho Chemin, and ! tlrive them, back into the Aisne Valley. IjThe Laon position is one of historic interest. ; Situated in the angle between ithe Oiss and Aisne, and of great tactical it .performs a double strategical Vole, which i-Hindenbuj'g fully appreciated [when -he made it the left pivot of his iuow famous line of defence. Standing lout in bold relief as a natural bastion, ithe Laon massif, with its attendant tac'tical outposts, not only bars the way to |the advance of the Allies into the Sambre fvalley up the Oise River, but covers the {railway and road approaches to the !fTrouee de Chimay ; , through which NaJipoleon went to Belgium in 1815, and (down which the sth French Army recreated in 1914 after its defeat at Char•leroi. If 1 this position, goes out of Ger'jnan hands, as sooner or later it will do, '■the whole of the Hindenburg lino will Wo with it;'and this is why the old jField-Marshal. is so desperately rervous about the Trench menace to bis left 'strategical flank. On April 16 lv .the French broke right into the Hmdeniburg line at this point, and captured the iChemin des Dames, winch is the first tone of defence of the Laon position. The 'brilliant victory won by our Allies on 'those two days was due to the Furprise 'attack which they launched on the Geronans before they were .perfectly prepared 'tfor resistance. Following a week after ithe British snecess in capturing the tVimy Kidge, on'the northern flank a the •■iHindenburg line, the loss of- the Chemin Ides Dames was a serious tactical reverse *f sufficient consequence to justify the. "tremendous efforts which* - the German jcommander Tias':since made to recover its i-possession.

' "A. Formidable Position. f The Chemin des Dames is a ridge way, W hog's back/varying in width from taerhap3 as much as a thousand to a \conple.of hundred yards at its naiTC-w----.■est parts, and extending for something "like 18 miles from the lteims-Laon load 'on the right to the Soissons-Laon railway ion the left. On both sides 'of this_ndge, ,'and particularly on the northern side, the / slopes are precipitous, and at .places 'thickly wooded, rendering it iinfantry to creep under cover of the. ; forest close up to the crest of ■without coming' under hostile arhllory ire North of this ridge-way is the valley'of the'Ailette River, which, rising iin the Corbeny Forost, Hows nearly par.'allel to the Chemin des Dames .till, bend'ing away to the north-west, 'li-empties • -its waters' into the Oise between-two and ttoee miles' belo\ the' now ruined vtown of Chauny. This formidable 7 osteon, against which our Expeditionary \ Force was pulled up in September, 1911, is"flanked- on.the right .by the •Craonne Plateau,' and; on the -'.eft; by wnat is Scnowh as the Vauxaillon Plateau, which stretches for two miles or more due north and south "from tho Mont des Singes to iLaffanx Mill, and which overlooks the Soissons-Laon railway as it follows its winding course Tbund the Mont des .-inges -into the Ailette Valley. ■' ' Ihe key to this 18-mile ridge' way is 'the Craonne Piataau, 200 metres above sea level, which is broken into two gpur3 betweeu Craonne.village'and Har'tebise Farm, the eastern spur !>emg inown as the California and the western spur as the Casemates Plateau. Both these bloodstained spurs, jut out■ north•wards towards the Vauclerc Forest, whioh they directly overlook,-, and. which separates them from the Ailette Valley. The military value of the Craonne. Plateau consists in . its • commanding situation, *hich dominates the Reims-Eaon road, land forms a high observation post,-Lav-ing a wide range of survey oyer ■ the Jwhole of thfr.surrounding country. It was on the Craonne Plateau- in March, 1814, that BJucher placed Wert-On-slow's Corps of the Prussian . Army to jceep an eyo on Napoleon's movements, and it was from the Craonne Plateau that Biucher himself watched the corps of Ney and Victor defiling over the Aisne bridge wheh Napoleon had seized at Berry-an-Bae. Becoming thus aware of Napoleon's ■movement against. his left .flank, Biucher' withdrew his army be- . hind the Ailette River, >and fell back on Laon. '.We know what followed. leon attacked, and ' defeated Worouzow • at Craonne. but, failing to- get through to Laon, fell back on tho Aisne. History is repeating itself. The French lave seized Craonne, and w.ant to seize

Laon. For thn moment German resistance is too strong; but let us .hops thai, with the help of our American Allies Ueneral Petain will succeed in 3018, if not before, in doing what liis great protagonist failed (o do in 1814.

No 'Passage This Way. Hardly a day has passed since April 17 when the Germans have not attacked the Chemiu 'dw Dnmes at one point or another: They have repeatedly tried to Weak through the centre between Filimi and Cerny, and on tho left theV havemade bold bids for tho Vauxaillon plateau; -while during the past ten days they have- concentrated efforts against the two-mile front between Craonno Village and Hurtebise Farm. Division after division has been thrown into tho fighting line on this narrow front, but so far tho victory has remained with the French. On July 1!) picked troops fiom the Sfii Division and Guards, Corps succeeded in getting a precarious footing on tho'extreme e'dge of the crest line 'between the California and Casemates plateaus, I>ut this is all tho Germans have to show for the heavy sacrifices which they have made. The German infantry hare little difficulty in orawliug up to the extremity of the crest, but directly they show tteir faces over it they come into the French artillery barrage, and whether by night or by day it is humanly impossible for any in any formation to pass through this awful ourtaiii of shrapnel without prohibitive losses. _ The nost th« Germans can hope to do: is convert the plateau into No Man's Land by destroying the French trenches with heavy gun fire, but so far they have not succeeded in doing this, or in establishing in aitillery preponderance which would alone make it po.»sible to accomplish etch a purpose. What is now going on is a repetition of the Verdun tactics of last year; and unless past experience goes for nothing the end will be the same. On ne passera pas.