Kanak riflemen in the Aisne: the Pacific Mixed Battalion

The Bataillon Mixte du Pacifique (Pacific Mixed Battalion – BMP) was formed of Kanak, Caledonian and Tahitian soldiers. From August to October 1917, these men shored up their position in the Ailette sector. In June 1918, they fought in the Battle of Matz. Attached to the 418th Infantry Regiment, this unit took part in the bloody attack on the Pasly plateau, near Soissons. On 25 October, the BMP distinguished itself during the capture of Vesles, Caumont and Le Petit Caumont farm. In the space of a few hours, 32 Kanaks, ten Tahitians and five Caledonians were killed. Today, the national cemeteries of Flavigny-le-Petit, Soupir, Ambleny and Cerny-en-Laonnois contain the remains of these soldiers, like Alosio Waangou, a native of Saint-Gabriel-Pouébo, New Caledonia, who was killed on 29 September 1918 on Hill 193 and is buried in grave no 3113.

The Chemin des Dames, a key sector on the First World War front

From the very first weeks, the Chemin des Dames plateau was fought over by the belligerents, who knew that, by occupying this strategic position, they could observe the plains of Reims and Soissons. After the Allied push across the Marne, the enemy retreated to the plateau, which was progressively fortified. In autumn 1914, violent fighting broke out in the sector of Vailly-sur-Aisne, Crouy and on Hill 132.

On the eve of spring 1917, the French planned to launch a massive offensive in this sector that had hitherto been spared. But the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line forced General Nivelle to rethink the focus of the operation. On the morning of 16 April, after an intense bombardment which proved to be of limited impact, the first waves went over. After climbing the slopes of the plateau, they came up against barbed wire, much of it intact, and were mown down by machine-gun fire. At a cost of major sacrifices, the French reached the plateau’s ridge. On the 17th, despite difficult weather conditions, they persevered in their efforts. Yet a lack of success saw Nivelle’s authority crumble. From 16 to 30 April, 147 000 men were put hors de combat, 40 000 of them dead.

On the verge of collapse, French morale wavered. With the failure of the offensive, mutinies broke out in the ranks of some units, who refused to go to the front. When protests became more widespread in May 1917, the military authorities reacted. Many arrests were made. Those held to be the ringleaders were tried and sentenced by military tribunals. Over 500 death sentences were passed, then commuted by the political authorities. Even so, nearly 30 were carried out. Meanwhile, a more effective system of rotation and leave was introduced.

During the summer, fresh attacks with more limited objectives were launched against strategic positions on the plateau, namely at Craonne and Laffaux. With autumn came the Battle of Malmaison. In the spring of 1918, the Chemin des Dames was once again fiercely contested. On 27 May 1918, the Germans surged forward, shaking up the French positions. They quickly occupied the Chemin des Dames. The front was broken. But on 18 July, the movement was halted. The Allies counter-attacked, pushing back the enemy. During the weeks that followed, the fighting raged. On 10 October, one month before the armistice, the Germans abandoned the plateau for good to French and Italian troops.
 

Today, this national cemetery is home to 1,077 soldiers including 598 French soldiers, 120 of whom lie in an ossuary. One French soldier from WWII also lies in the cemetery.

This national cemetery also includes a German section with 478 soldiers who died in 1918 during the Ludendorff fourth offensive, which started on the Chemin des Dames on 27 May and led them to Château-Thierry in June 1918.

A mausoleum chapel was built in memory of the artillery and infantry officers who died in 1917 and 1918.

Nearby is the only Danish cemetery from the First World War. It includes 79 graves of soldiers from the province of Schleswig, which was annexed by the German empire in 1866 and returned to Denmark in 1920 following a plebiscite. These soldiers were enlisted in the German army against their wishes. At the request of their families, their remains were removed from the German cemeteries and brought to Braine in 1934.

The village of Braine was awarded the Croix de Guerre (War Cross) on 21 October 1920.

The Vailly-sur-Aisne National Military Cemetery is the final resting place for soldiers who gave their lives for France during the Chemin des Dames offensive in April 1917. Established at the same time as the battles, it was enlarged in 1924 and 1935 to include bodies of soldiers exhumed from nearby interim cemeteries (Allemant, Jouy, Laffaux, Nanteuil-la-Fosse, Sancy and du Bois-Morin). The cemetery contains the individual and collective tombs of 1,576 soldiers, including 1,559 French combatants from World War I and 17 from World War II.  It adjoins a British military cemetery where 676 soldiers, who primarily fell in September 1914, are buried.

From autumn 1917 onwards, the village of Crécy-au-Mont was occupied by the Germans, who only left in March 1918. It was taken back from the French in May 1918, to finally be liberated on 30 August 1918. Close to the village, the Germans set up a firing platform for one of the six big SKL/45 naval cannons, wrongly thought to be Big Bertha. This long-range artillery equipment was capable of bombing Compiègne.

The fighting at Crouy, 1914-15

From the very first weeks of the conflict until the end of the war in 1918, the limestone plateau of Chemin des Dames, which dominates the Aisne valley to the south and the Ailette valley to the north, was bitterly disputed. This natural observation point was a strategic position dominating both the Reims and Soissons plains. On 12 September 1914, pursuing the enemy after its defeat on the Marne, the Allies crossed the Aisne. By mid-October, General Maunoury’s 6th Army held the Soissons sector. On 30 October, the Germans occupied Vailly-sur-Aisne, which lay at the heart of the fighting. By November, the plateau was in the hands of the enemy, who progressively transformed it into a veritable fortress.

To relieve enemy pressure on Soissons and secure a position on the road to Laon, on 25 December 1914, amid the floodwater of the Aisne, the French attacked in the Crouy sector. On 1 January 1915, they bombarded the enemy positions. On the 8th, after a series of mine blasts, the attack was launched. Despite taking the first enemy lines on the plateau, the men of General Berthelot’s 55th Division were unable to capitalise on their success, because of the speed of their adversary’s reaction. On 12 January came a violent counter-attack, which drove the French back across to the south bank of the Aisne. Fierce fighting ensued on the slopes of Hill 132. Mine engineer Albert Tastu, an officer of the 289th Infantry Regiment, lost his life in the fighting. Surrounded with his men in the Grotte des Zouaves, Tastu resisted valiantly, but was killed by enemy fire. Paris seemed under threat once again. On 13 January, the French retreated further south and the front became entrenched on the outskirts of Soissons. Exhausted and poorly supplied due to the flooding of the Aisne, the French suffered major losses. In just six days, 12 000 men, including 1 800 of the 60th Infantry Regiment alone, were put hors de combat. This defeat shook public opinion and became known as “the Crouy affair”, as described by soldier and writer Henry Barbusse in his book Le Feu (English title: Under Fire), which won the 1916 Prix Goncourt. Barbusse had enlisted as a volunteer with the 231st Infantry Regiment and took part in the episode.  The press was censored and a number of generals, including Berthelot, were punished.

The Chemin des Dames offensive, April 1917

Despite the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line in March 1917, General Nivelle maintained his attack on the Chemin des Dames in April. To carry the offensive, he deployed 49 Infantry Divisions and five Colonial Infantry Divisions, supported by 5 310 guns and, for the first time, 128 tanks. Altogether, more than a million men took part in the operation.

On 2 April, the artillery pounded the German positions, partly destroying them. Thus, on the morning of 16 April, the first waves came up against barbed wire and were mown down by machine-gun fire. The French nevertheless managed to get a foothold on the ridge. Despite the losses and difficult weather conditions, the attacks continued the next day. Nivelle’s authority crumbled. From 16 to 30 April, 147 000 men were put hors de combat, 40 000 of them dead. Each division lost on average 2 600 men on the Chemin des Dames.

On the verge of collapse, the French held on. During the summer of 1917, a series of operations and counter-attacks were launched for control over the Chemin des Dames’ key positions, from Craonne to Laffaux.

The infantrymen on both sides bore the most extreme hardships. In October 1917, the Battle of Malmaison took place, whose objective was to capture the old fort of La Malmaison, to the west of the Chemin des Dames. Having taken the plateau on 23 October, the Germans retreated to the north of the Ailette valley.

In October 1920, the ruins of Crouy, which had been the scene of bitter fighting in 1915 and suffered the hardships of occupation, received an army citation.

Among the 76 civilian victims is Estelle Allain, née Berhamelle, aged 49, who died on 24 June 1915 in Soissons (grave n°15). She lived in an apartment in Soissons, rue Sainte-Eugénie, and her building was bombed by the Germans in June 1915. She did not have time to hide in the cellar, which had become a shelter, and was seriously wounded. She died as a result of her injuries, and was recognised as having died for her country.

In 1954, the bodies of 561 French soldiers who died for France during the Second World War were also brought here.