Chapter 5

AMERICAN SOLDIERS IN GERMAN VILLAGE OF BRÛLÉ WOOD

The German trenches were only fifty yards from the French lines at this point. For months, bombs, grenades and rockets made an inferno of the place. The proximity of the respective lines required the utmost precautions, constantwatching and listening, with finger on the trigger of the rifle, absolute silence, no sleep and no smoking (smoking might give an objective to the bombers). The nervous tension was so great that the average stay of a battalion was only eight days.

Brûlé Wood was the scene of the sublime rallying call “Debout les Morts” (Stand up, ye Dead!)—see below.

While early in April, 1915, important attacks were taking place in Ailly Wood, the 95th Infantry Regiment was ordered to create a diversion in Brûlé Wood. On April 5, 6 and 8 bloody fights took place for the possession of a trench. On the morning of the 8th the captured trench was consolidated, and the attacking troops relieved and sent in reserve to the second line.

GERMAN BLOCKHOUSE AT TÊTE-À-VACHE

Suddenly a strong German counter-attack was launched. The new occupants were thrown into confusion and, seized with panic, retreated throughthe trenches, whenAdjutant Jacques Péricard, who had taken part in the action the day before but was now in reserve, called for volunteers from his company to face the enemy. The trench was retaken after a prolonged and terrible struggle, in the course of which Péricard, feeling his men wavering and seeing only dead and wounded around, cried “Debouts les Morts.”

FRENCH FIRST LINES AT TÊTE-À-VACHE

Continue up the road.Near the crest on the left, in a quarry, areseveral concrete defence works which communicate with one another.

GERMAN POST OF COMMANDMENT ON THE ROAD TO ST. MIHIEL, AT THE FOOT OF HILL 362.

The crossing of Strategic I.C. 3 is next reached. Here leave the car and take the road to the left towardsMarbotte.400 yards further onthe Germanfirst line trenches, built entirely in concrete with numerous shelters and blockhouses,are reached.This is the crest of the“Tête-à-Vache” position, which for so long formed a salient in the French lines. All the soldiers knew it because, when passing through the trenches on a level with this salient, it was necessary to stoop to avoid being seen by an observer at his loop-hole. Woe to the curious or the careless who risked walking upright past this point! The ever-ready automatic spoke at once.

GERMAN BLOCKHOUSE ON THE ROAD TO ST. MIHIEL,about 300 yds. from Hill 362.

A 100 yards beyond are theFrench first line trenches (equipments and soldiers’ graves). All the ground here is torn up, and the woods are completely destroyed.

Return to G.C.D. 1 bis, and follow it in the direction of St. Mihiel. All along the road arenumerous military works of all kinds,especially across Ailly Wood.

MILITARY KITCHEN IN AILLY WOOD, 1915

Ailly Wood covers the brow of the hill, the southern slopes of which descend steeply towards a ravine.

GERMAN TRENCH UNDER THE APREMONT-ST. MIHIEL ROAD

Here the attacks took place which, between April 5 and 13, 1915, gave the French definite mastery of the position. The Germans held one corner of the wood and the outskirts at the foot of the slopes. The French trenches followed the ravine, mounted half-way up the unwooded part of the hill,and ran alongside the wood. The entrenchment, known as the “Le Fortin,” was in the corner. In the wood the German trenches rose in three tiers, linked together by narrow trenches. At certain points the Germans had constructed “chevaux-de-frise,” twelve yards deep by two yards high.

The bombardment began on the morning of the 5th. The 75’s opened breaches in the defences, and the observers, who were only 130 yards from the enemy line, gave accurate directions to the gunners. In their turn, 6-in. shells crushed the machine-gun emplacements, and at mid-day the explosion of five mine-fields annihilated the garrison and threw the enemy into a panic. A bayonet-attack was launched at once, without the firing of a single shot.

IN AILLY WOODGerman Post of Commandment at the side of the road, 4 km. from St. Mihiel.

IN AILLY WOOD

German Post of Commandment at the side of the road, 4 km. from St. Mihiel.

Two companies attacked on the western side of the wood, two others on the southern side.

The attack on the west was successful and, going beyond the third German line, reached the northern fringe of the wood. The machine-gunners, who followed the advance, at once took up their positions.

The attack on the south, after the first rush forward, was forced to withdraw slightly before an enfilading fire. At three o’clock in the afternoon the German artillery thundered; at four o’clock a counter-attack was launchedbut failed; and at 5.30 the Germans tried to retake the lost ground by a terrific bombardment. In an hour and a half, on a front of 360 yards, twenty thousand shells of all sizes (4-in., 5.5-in., 6-in. and 8-in.) cut the French lines of communication, but failed to force a retreat. The attack was resumed next day, but in the evening, after fierce hand-to-hand fighting, the French still held the three lines of German trenches. On the 7th and 8th they repulsed eight counter-attacks, which left the shell-leveled ground in their hands.

IN AILLY WOOD SECTORGerman Defence Works in quarry by roadside, 3 km. from St. Mihiel.

IN AILLY WOOD SECTOR

German Defence Works in quarry by roadside, 3 km. from St. Mihiel.

On the 10th, after an artillery preparation lasting all day, a fresh attack was launched at seven o’clock in the evening. The whole of the wood was quickly occupied and immediately consolidated, in view of counter-attack. Five machine-guns, five trench-mortars, thousands of grenades and large quantities of equipment and stores, were left in the hands of the French.

From that time scarcely a month passed without some communiqué stating that the Germans had bombarded or counter-attacked Ailly Wood.

St. Mihiel is entered via the Faubourg de Nancy, in which are theburnt ruins of the Sénarmont Barracks.

Follow the Rue Porte-à-Nancy, then the Rue Grande, as far as the Rue de l’Eglise, into which turn to the left to reach the Church of St. Etienne.

On September 24, 1914, St. Mihiel was taken by the Germans, who held it until September 12, 1918.

Up to the latter date only one attempt was made to retake the town—the attack of November 17-20, 1914, during which a French unit succeeded in occupying the suburb of Chauvoncourt, but was forced to retire as the Germans had mined this section.

The Franco-American offensive of September, 1918, finally cleared St. Mihiel.

PANORAMIC SKETCH OF THE ST. MIHIEL REGION, SHOWING THE FRONT LINE UNTIL SEPT. 12, 1918

General Pershing, in the disposition of his forces, generously arranged that a French regiment, the 25th Colonial, should have the honour of being the first to enter St. Mihiel. The Prime Minister’s son, Captain Michel Clémenceau, was among those who marched into the town.

On the whole the town had suffered little. The bridges had been blown up, trenches cut up the streets, and a German narrow-gauge railway ran through the town. The monument of 1870, “Aux Morts pour la Patrie,” was damaged. As everywhere else, all copper had been removed, the machinery had disappeared or had been broken, while the optical-glass factory and the copper foundry had ceased to exist.

On Friday, September 13, General Pershing, accompanied by General Pétain and Mr. Baker, American Secretary of State for War, visited St. Mihiel. The next day President Poincaré, in his turn, paid homage to the valiant city.

Little by little, when the first excitement was over, the inhabitants told the story of the occupation; of the war levies imposed by the Germans, as in every town which they had occupied; first a million francs in 1914, when the commandeering without payment or vouchers; the fines (20 francs for omitting to salute an officer); children forced to work in the trenches; people sent to prison, and even to the convict prison on the slightest pretext; an abbé deported as a hostage because he had said in a sermon, “After the thorns will come the roses;” a whole family placed in solitary confinement for forty days because they were suspected of having telephoned to the French, etc., not to mention the systematic looting and removal of objects of art, pictures and silver.

ST. MIHIEL DELIVEREDGroup of children in French Officers’ Car on Sept. 13, 1918.

ST. MIHIEL DELIVERED

Group of children in French Officers’ Car on Sept. 13, 1918.

On Tuesday, the 10th, the Germans, knowing the attack was imminent, made their final preparations for departure. On the 11th they ordered the inhabitants, on pain of death, to remain indoors until noon on the following day.

During the night of the 11th they blew up the bridges and removed their guns. On the morning of the 12th the French entered the town.

Several days later the American Headquarters which, until then, had been at Souilly, on the road from Verdun to Bar-le-Duc, moved into St. Mihiel.

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