Chapter One
In Vienna, the local paper, the Weiner Zeitung, reported that ‘In the night of July 25, it was made known that the Emperor of Austria had ordered a partial mobilisation of the Army and a partial calling up of the Landsturm.’ Six days later, the Reichsanzeiger printed Imperial ordnance from Emperor Wilhelm, stating that ‘the territory of the Empire, with the exception of the Kingdom of Bavaria, is hereby declared to be in the condition of war.’ This was followed on 1 August by the order to mobilise from the Emperor: ‘I order the German Army and the Imperial Navy to be placed on a war footing…August 2, 1914, is fixed as the first day of mobilisation.’ Five days later, as a result of Germany being involved in a war that was forced upon the country, the Emperor called upon all Germans capable of bearing arms to defend the Fatherland.
While Austria and Germany prepared and mobilised, so too did the armies of France, Russia, Belgium and Britain. On 2 August, the French accused the Germans of crossing the frontier at three different points, shooting at the border personnel, stealing horses and killing a soldier. The next day, the German Ambassador in France, in his farewell letter, accused the French of violating Belgian territory and dropping bombs on Germany, giving his reason for leaving as the state of war that now existed between France and Germany. The die was cast – Europe would go to war.
As Britain entered the war, the Kaiser told the Reichstag ‘I no longer recognise parties, only Germans’.
Artist’s impression of the use of cavalry during the Marne battle.
Generaloberst von Kluck, commander of 1 Army, who allowed his troops to deviate from the Schlieffen plan, giving the Allied troops a chance to counterattack.
French positions in early 1914 being held by troops, national guards and armed civilians – franc-tireurs; these latter men would be shot if captured as they were not considered to be soldiers by the German Army.
An artist’s impression of a cavalry charge against well dug-in troops in the Vimy area.
A few days later, the German government informed the Belgian government that, although it regretted having to cross the frontier, this action was necessary because the French were already in Belgium trying to enter Germany in disguise. The French government were also warned about the use of civilians to fight the war: ‘from information received from German troops it has become known that a war of the civil population has been organised in France, contrary to international law. In numerous instances, the civil population, under the protection of civilian clothing, have treacherously fired on German soldiers’. The warning continued, stating that, as a result, anyone not in uniform who takes part in activities that are detrimental to the German forces ‘will be treated as a franc-tireur and instantly shot under martial law.’ Civilian involvement was to affect the initial attack on Arras.
On 1 August, just before 1900 hours, the time set for 16 Division to move into Luxembourg, the Kaiser countermanded the order, but by then a company of 69 Infantry Regiment, commanded by Lt. Feldmann, had already crossed the border and taken their objective; the following day Fourth Army occupied the country. Next day, the Belgian government refused the German army entry and, from that point on, considered itself to be at war with Germany. On 4 August German forces crossed the frontier, meeting little opposition.
The commanding heights of Lorettohöhe were bitterly contested because of the excellent field of view they gave of Arras. Here the French attack against well dug-in troops.
While the German armies fought their way through Belgium, the French launched their own attacks in Lorraine, the Ardennes and on the Sambre. No matter how valiantly the French and Belgians fought, the German army kept moving forward. On 24 August,‘one million Germans invaded France. For the French and British the great retreat had begun. It lasted for thirteen days, blazing summer days’ in which the German Army made a bid for a swift decisive victory. ‘They were desperate days for the Allies whose only offensive plan had not survived the opening battles of the war’, while the German troops were following the highly detailed Schlieffen plan.
Five of the seven armies ‘scythed down towards Paris on a 75-mile front. For the troops on both sides they were days of endless marching under a scorching sun.’ Even though the Allied troops were under constant pressure, their retreat was ordered and controlled, but each new action moved them closer to Paris – so close that, on 2 September, the French government left for Bordeaux.
However, a captured map showed that von Kluck’s First Army was now headed for the gap between the French Fifth and Sixth armies and not for Paris. This exposed his army’s right flank to attack; this deviation from the Schlieffen Plan when his troops were seriously over-extended, badly exhausted and exposed, both on their flanks and the rear, resulted in a general withdrawal from the Marne to the Aisne.
Cheering reservists are taken around Berlin in August; scenes like this were common across Europe at the start of the war.
A view of Arras after the bombardment of 6, 7 & 8 October, showing the damage to St. Géry Street.
Arras railway station after the October bombardment.
Although Arras was in the path of the planned invasion route, the actual invading forces passed by, miles to the east, with the closest fighting being in the Somme region to the south. With the Allied attacks failing to push the Germans back on the Aisne, attention on both sides was becoming increasingly concentrated on the open flank to the west, and, ‘by the time the battle on the Aisne was dying down, activity at the western end of the line was developing fast.’ Arras would soon be part of the battle lines.
The end of the fighting on the Aisne brought about the final campaign of movement on the Western Front at the beginning of the war. Each side tried to outflank the other to the north: from the Aisne to the Somme through the Douai Plain and beyond. And as both sides raced towards the north, the various units involved leap-frogged past each other, taxing their lines of communication to the utmost in their efforts to move large bodies of troops to the north faster than the enemy could – but each manoeuvre ended in deadlock and trench lines.
The first German troops to enter Arras were a cavalry unit. After a three-day occupation, which included some looting and the requisitioning of goods and money, they were evicted by French light cavalry on 9 September. However, both sides were fighting in the Somme area and little further fighting took place. As the French forces were not available in sufficient numbers, the German Army was able to dig-in, in some cases only four kilometres away, and beleaguer the city. The period that followed and lasted for over thirty months was known as the ‘Martyrdom of Arras’.
‘While Falkenhayn’s attention was being pulled away from his right to his centre and left, Joffre’s purpose remained fixed. On the 25th itself he shifted XI Corps from the 9th Army to Amiens: by 1 October, using roads as well as rail, two more corps, plus three infantry and two cavalry divisions, had set off for Amiens, Arras, Lens, and Lille. Castelnau’s army now embraced eight corps and extended along a 100-kilometre front. Its task was no longer to outflank but to hold, while a detachment under Maud’huy was drawn to the untenanted north-east, to Vimy and the Scarpe valley’, while the southern sector was held by territorials.
On 26 September, after heavy fighting, the French took up positions along a line from Lassigny to Bray and ‘the German Cavalry Corps moved further north to clear the front for the II Bavarian Corps’ on the right of I Bavarian Corps. The next day the Cavalry Corps under von der Marwitz ‘continued its way northwards, driving away d’Amande’s French Territorials…and clearing the front for the XIV Reserve Corps’ that moved on Albert. The offensive continued to make progress, but the French cavalry held von der Marwitz’s troops just as the French Tenth Army was starting to detrain around Arras.
Arras Town Hall after the bombardment of October 6.
Arras cathedral after the bombardment.
General Maud’huy, commander of the French Tenth Army at Arras, faced a strong German force, but was only given the four divisions of the French Cavalry Corps to the southeast of Arras and two reserve divisions at Arras and Lens. The plan was to begin an offensive from Arras-Lens southeast, against what was assumed to be a weak flank held only by cavalry. However, behind the cavalry, three corps had arrived ready to begin their own offensive. Now the French Tenth Army, scattered over a wide front, were in danger of being enveloped.
‘Falkenhayn too continued to manoeuvre on his right wing. But although he pushed all his disposable forces towards Rupprecht, and on 28 September directed the 6th Army to attack Arras, he did not forsake the possibility of a breakthrough in the centre’. Rupprecht hoped to hold Maud’huy ‘frontally at Arras and, wheeling north round the city, to envelop the French left wing. To do this, on 3 October he reinforced the reserve corps operating north of Arras, and sent IV Cavalry Corps from Valenciennes, north of Lens, towards Lille’.
The Arras offensive was part of a three-pronged attack with the newly reinforced cavalry sweeping across Flanders to the coast. Antwerp was captured before it could be reinforced, and there was a strong offensive near Arras. The latter attack was launched on 1 October on the front Arras-Douai, by the Guards, IV & I Bavarian Reserve Corps, against Territorial troops of the French Tenth Army who were still preparing for their own offensive against the German positions.
On the morning of 2 October, General von Arnim’s IV Corps was approaching the French lines from the direction of Cambrai and had a clear line of attack into Arras, except for troops commanded by the French General Barbot. These were dug into the small plateau of Feuchy to the northwest of Arras and were virtually isolated after other French attacks near Monchy failed, and the newly arrived French X Corps had run into the new German lines.
The next two days brought further success as the French were pushed out of Lens and fell back to the southern outskirts of Arras. Village by village, the Bavarians beat back the French troops.
Any advance was met with stiff resistance. 9 Cavalry Division fighting around Billy Montigny and Froquières, on 3 October, reported ‘hours of bitter street fighting…in the struggle to drive the Morroccan (sic) troops and armed miners from their defences in houses and numerous mine-shafts.’ The story was the same the next day in all of the coal mining districts to the northeast of Arras when the Cavalry Corps attacked as ordered. However, the terrain was not suitable for mounted warfare and the men fought a dismounted action against Moroccan troops and armed miners: ‘step by step, the Jaegers and Cavalry troopers fought their way with carbines for possession of the locality, against an enemy defending from houses and pits; lacking bayonets, no headway could be made against massive factory walls without employment of heavier ammunition.’ Once again, the spectre of the franc-tireur had risen.
The front of Arras Town Hall shortly after the three-day bombardment.
However, by the evening of 4 October, Arras was threatened with encirclement. The situation was desperate: General Maud’huy started to issue orders to abandon Arras, but Foch, his commander, had been tasked with stopping the retreat. Resistance stiffened, holding the German troops. Admiral von Müller, naval liaison officer at Army HQ in Charleville, recorded in his diary on 5 October that, when the Kaiser returned from the front, he was under the impression that a great victory had been won against the extreme left flank at Arras, but, as more news came in, he realised that this was not the case.
On 6 October, while I Bavarian Reserve Corps made progress on Vimy Ridge, to the south the advance of the Guard and IV Corps was checked. Near Liévin, just north of the victorious Bavarians, the day started quietly near pit 16. ‘Few Frenchmen appeared in front, as the enemy utilised every possible cover for their movements, in a clever and careful manner. Now and then the French artillery sent its iron greeting into the towering structures of the pit.’ Shortly after lunch the war re-commenced as in ‘all directions lines of skirmishers plunged forward, working their way along in rapid intervals; and simultaneously, a terrible cannonade assailed the pit…such as we had never experienced before. To crackling shrapnel and the explosion of high-power shells were added the din and uproar of shattered iron and glass and the falling of masonry. There were many killed and wounded in our midst…but the wide-reaching attack succeeded in gaining several trenches.’
As the French troops pulled back, they destroyed bridges that might be useful to their enemy. Here cavalry pose on the remains of a railway bridge near Arras.
In the short time the two enemies fought each other in the streets of Arras, no quarter was given.
A positional change allowed the defenders to take the French assailants in the flank and, in total disregard of the heavy losses, the first waves swept on, but ‘then the counter-thrust followed, which resulted in a flight with coat-tails flying.’ Firing upon the French with the shortest fuse setting possible till the ammunition gave out, and using every able-bodied man available to carry shells, the French advance was checked and held.
This near approach to the city resulted in the inhabitants being evacuated during an artillery barrage that lasted for three days. In the evening of 3 October an announcement was made that all men between eighteen and forty-eight had to leave Arras. Shortly afterwards women and children packed their essential belongings and left.
On 6 October, after receiving reinforcements, the French occupied the whole town after atrocious street fighting. During the day artillery bombarded the city and by 9 October over 1000 shells had hit the town. The central quarter of the city received the greatest attention; many of the city’s finest buildings were destroyed. Afterwards, the bombardments slackened but nevertheless each day the city was shelled; it contained barracks and an important railway centre.
Hope now ‘rested on the three Cavalry Corps, I, II and IV under von der Marwitz, outflanking the French line’ and forcing them to withdraw. However, ‘the attack gained no positive conclusion’ and, by the evening of 6 October, both I and II Cavalry Corps had retired behind the Lorette Heights which they held, with difficulty, the next day, against vigorous French attacks. By the evening of 6 October ‘the front had become stabilised near the line Thiepval-Gommecourt-Blaireville-eastern outskirts of Arras-Bailleul-Vimy-Souchez, on which the belligerents were to face each other’ for many months.
However, the arrival the next day of the XIV Corps allowed the cavalry to pull out for an attack further north. After three further days of heavy fighting, the French retook Carency.
In Arras, the French prepared for the next attack while the Germans waited for their heavy artillery. On the afternoon of 20 October the storm broke: 21 and 28cm shells crashed into the city and by the following day the town centre was in ruins. Two days later, General Barbot’s troops halted the attack on the eastern suburb of St. Laurent and then counterattacked, successfully halting the advance.
Positional warfare now took over from a war of movement. Both sides dug in. The French held the lower ground around Arras, constantly overlooked by the German positions on the ridges that surround the city. Infantry attacks continued on a greater or lesser scale with the artillery continually shelling Arras and the front lines. It was a busy part of the front where the wounded kept coming, as evidenced by a Swede touring the battle area: ‘we took the great road to Arras, which we kept to as long as we possibly could without exposing ourselves to shellfire…at Boiry, almost levelled to the ground by fire and shell, we once more got on to the right track. Here the Red Cross flag was hanging from many houses, and we saw the wounded being carried into the hospitals. A column of light field howitzers rolled away towards Arras’. At the same time, life continued for those who had stayed behind. ‘In a field some soldiers were placidly digging potatoes, and, near by, old men, women and children were gathering the sugar-beet.’
From the heights of Lorettohöhe, Arras was an easy target for heavy artillery.
The authorities provided the troops with daily news sheets that were pinned on street hoardings to provide war news from all the fronts. As each daily edition was pinned up, troops eagerly read news about the situation in Russia, in the Argonne or closer to home on the Arras front. The Bapaumer Zeitung of 27 October provides a typical day’s news. ‘The fighting on the Yser-Ypres Canal front is exceedingly violent. In the north we have succeeded in crossing the canal with a strong force. East of Ypres and south-west of Lille our troops have advanced slowly after severe fighting. Ostend was yesterday bombarded by the English ships. In the Argonne our troops have likewise made progress. Several machine guns have been captured. We have taken a number of prisoners and two French aeroplanes have been brought down. West of Augustovo the Russians have renewed their attacks which have all been repulsed. At Ivangorad 1800 Russians have been taken prisoner. South-east of Przemysl the Austrians have scored several successes. Nearer to home east and north-east of Arras the enemy has received reinforcements. Nevertheless our troops have succeeded in making progress at several points. About five hundred British, including a Colonel and twenty-eight other officers, have been taken prisoner.’
Andreas Knopf, a typical early war soldier, posing ready for the front with full equipment, economy felt helmet and the floral decoration often given to departing soldiers.
A souvenir postcard for the troops to send home sending greetings from Roubaix, Lille and Arras; the first two towns were captured in 1914 as was Arras, but only for a matter of hours.
Johann Grill, 25 year-old reservist of 1 Reserve Infantry Regiment who was killed in action near Arras on 4 October 1914.
Unteroffizier Franz Stempfl of 1 Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment was killed in action near Arras on 6 October 1914.
A view of Arras in late 1914 taken from the nearby hills.
After the fight, medics give a heavily wounded soldier a drink of wine to ease the pain.
As the war situation was still fluid during the early months of the war, troops bivouacked on the march wherever was convenient.
Relationships between enemies were not always strained, especially among the young who quickly adapted to the change and many learned the language.
Air observation provided clues to the intention of the enemy. Here a soldier guards a camouflaged wagon.
Three French soldiers in a reserve trench somewhere on the Arras front.
Châteaux that were not damaged in the fighting were either turned into officers’ quarters or field hospitals; this one became a hospital.
Aerial view of the French and German positions southeast of Arras at Tilloy near St. Laurent Blagny.
A divisional column parked up in a village behind the lines before unloading its supplies.
A posed view of the front line, probably taken in a reserve position; exposure like this, in a front line trench, was extremely dangerous as both sides used snipers from the beginning.
Troops were buried were they fell, either singly or in mass graves – a mass grave in Thélus, to the east of Arras, taken in 1914.
As the younger troops moved on to new positions, older troops followed to set up garrisons.
To press his troops on to ever greater efforts, the Kaiser often visited the front areas. Here, on 4 October, he is seen leaving the headquarters of IV Corps commanded by General Sixt von Armin.
A postcard from the Bavarian War Ministry informing the parents of Infantry reservist Flügel of his death.
A view of no man’s land after a French attack from the trees on the right – dead are strewn across the ground. Many of these would lie there for months or later be buried in shallow graves.
As the trench lines developed, soldiers settled into a more fixed way of life. Here cobblers mend warweary boots at the battalion headquarters.
All sites considered of some value had to be guarded, no matter what the weather or how isolated.
Well behind the lines barracks were set up where troops could rest and train for further service in the trenches.
After the battle had moved on, each village had to be cleared of the rubble caused by the fighting. The work would be done by civilians where available, but often by low grade garrison troops, as in this picture.
To accommodate the large number of troops, large buildings had to be taken over as barracks, in this case the School of Arts, Industry and Commerce.
Angres, at the foot of the Lorettohöhe, after the fighting had moved on.
Josef Unhoch, a professional hunter from Unterammergau, Landwehrmann was killed in the fighting near St. Laurent on 22 October 1914.
A view of Vimy after the fighting was over; from a distance nothing had changed from before the war.
A photo of Vimy showing some of the damage caused by shelling, taken by J Ripper of the battalion staff of 1 Bavarian Reserve Foot Artillery Regiment.
The bombardment of Arras seen from Lorettohöhe.
Heavy fighting on the Arras front produced heavy casualties needing care in temporary hospitals – here in a Lyceum in Doaui, well behind the lines.
Heinrich Winkelhofer, thirty, a blacksmith’s son, was killed in action on 21 December near Arras while serving with 1 Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment.
A postcard sold to raise funds summed up ‘The Big War 1914’ in two pictures, the inundations of the Yser by the Belgians and the bombardment of Arras.