Second Battle of the Aisne

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This article is about the 1917 battle. For the 1914 battle see First Battle of the Aisne, and for the 1918 battle see Third Battle of the Aisne.

Part of World War I

The Western Front in 1917

Date	16 April – 9 May 1917
Location	Aisne River near Paris, France
Result	Operation failed, German tactical victory

Combatants

France

German Empire

Commanders

Robert Nivelle
Charles Mangin
François Anthoine
Mazel

von Boehm
Fritz von Below

Strength

1.2 million, 7,000 guns

Just over 1 million.

Casualties

Over 187,000

About 168,000

The Second Battle of the Aisne, in 1917 was the main action of the French Nivelle Offensive during World War I. It ended in disaster for both the French army and its commander Robert Nivelle, destroying his career and sparking widespread mutiny in the army. Nivelle instigated the plan in December 1916 after he replaced Joseph Joffre as Commander-in-Chief of the French army.

1 Background
2 Battle
3 Aftermath
4 References

[edit] Background

When he took over from Joffre, Nivelle argued that a massive onslaught against the German lines would bring French victory in 48 hours. He genuinely believed the Germans were too bloodied from the quagmires of Verdun and the Somme to offer an effective, sustained defence, especially if it were preceded by a large-scale diversionary attack by the British.

The French War Minister, Hubert Lyautey, and Chief of Staff General Henri-Philippe Pétain, along with British Commander-in-Chief, Sir Douglas Haig, were all strongly opposed to this plan. However the French Prime Minister, Aristide Briand, supported Nivelle and the war minister resigned in protest.

The Nivelle Offensive was to be a vast operation, involving around 1.2 million troops and 7,000 guns on a broad front between Royle and Reims. Its primary focus was a massive assault on the German positions along the Aisne river.

The plan, which had been in development since December 1916, was plagued by delays and information leaks. By the time the offensive began in April 1917, its details were well-known to the Germans, who had ample time to take appropriate defensive measures.

[edit] Battle

On 16 April 1917, after a week of diversionary attacks by the British at Arras, nineteen divisions of the French 5th and 6th armies, led by Mazel and Charles Mangin, attacked the German line along an 80 km stretch from Soissons to Reims. Situated on the high ground on the banks of the Aisne River, the German 7th army (under von Boehm) had little difficulty holding their positions. On the first day of combat alone, the French suffered over 40,000 casualties and lost 76 Char Schneider tanks, which made their debut in this battle. Nivelle's creeping barrage was poorly executed and thus failed to cover the advance.

German trenches on the Aisne.

On the second day, the French 4th army, led by François Anthoine, launched an attack east of Reims towards Moronvilliers. Fritz von Below's German 1st army easily repelled this assault.

Nivelle, refusing to believe his strategy had failed, continued to order full-scale attacks until 20 April 1917. Some small gains were made by Mangin to the west of Soissons and although the assault was scaled back over the next few weeks, by 5 May 1917, a 4 km stretch of the Chemin des Dames Ridge had been captured. Incongruously, these smaller, scaled-back attacks proved more successful than the earlier, larger ones.

[edit] Aftermath

The operation achieved very little in the way of territorial gain and was nowhere near the 48 hour break-through envisaged.

On 3 May the French 2nd Division refused to follow its orders to attack, and this mutiny soon spread throughout the army (see this link ). Following a final, ineffective four-day assault, the Nivelle Offensive was abandoned in disarray on 9 May 1917.

Although the Germans lost around 168,000, the French suffered over 187,000 casualties. The politicians and public were stunned by the chain of events in this tragedy of errors and, a week later, on 16 May Nivelle was finally sacked and moved to North Africa. He was replaced by the considerably more cautious Pétain, who made no attempts to commit his forces to large scale offensives. Henceforth the main burden of allied offensive efforts on the Western Front, would fall upon British Empire forces and the soon-to-arrive American Expeditionary Force.