Battle of the Ardennes

The Battle of the Ardennes, fought on 21–24 August 1914, was one of the bloodiest episodes of the Battle of the Frontiers. Two French armies, sent through the forests of the Belgian province of Luxembourg (PL) to split the German centre, collided with two German armies that were stronger and better prepared. The battle included 22 August, the day on which the French army suffered the heaviest losses in its entire history.

Name and dates

The French speak of the Battle of the Ardennes (bataille des Ardennes). The Germans divided the same fighting into two battles: Longwy, fought by the Fifth Army, and Neufchâteau, fought by the Fourth Army. The British official history also gives the French names of the time: the battle of Virton and the battle of the Semois.

The dates vary. English-language literature usually dates the battle to 21–23 August, because on 23 August the French began to withdraw. French regimental histories also include the fighting of 24 August, and Gabriel Hanotaux, in a work published in 1917, extended it to 25 August. On this page we adopt the dates 21–24 August, following the British chronology of the war.

Background

The French war plan provided for an offensive along every sector of the frontier. After the first weeks of August the commander-in-chief, Joseph Joffre, already knew that the Germans were marching through Belgium and that they were strong in Lorraine. He therefore concluded that their centre, in the Ardennes and Luxembourg, must be weak. There he decided to deliver the main blow: to strike at the flank and rear of the German armies heading west and to cut the German front in two.

The task went to the Third Army of General Pierre Ruffey and the Fourth Army of General Fernand de Langle de Cary. The Fourth Army was reinforced at the expense of the Fifth Army, which handed over to it the II and XI Corps and two reserve divisions. From the right wing of the Third Army, facing Metz, a separate Army of Lorraine was formed so that Ruffey could move north with all his forces. According to the British official history the Third Army numbered about 168,000 men and the Fourth Army about 193,000, some 361,000 in all.

Reconnaissance misled the French. On 19 August the cavalry of the Fourth Army reported that the outskirts of Neufchâteau were held only by weak German detachments, and the airmen confirmed it. The next day two French cavalry divisions fought a hard action at Neufchâteau, but the staff took this as proof that the enemy was on the move, not that he was strong. On 20 August the Germans broke the French offensive in Lorraine and forced the First and Second Armies to retreat, and at Longwy the siege of the French fortress began. Joffre judged that the moment had come for an attack in the centre.

In reality two complete German armies stood opposite: the Fourth Army of Duke Albrecht of Württemberg, about 180,000 men, and the Fifth Army of Crown Prince Wilhelm, about 200,000. From 17 August both had been wheeling forward to the line Thionville–Givet. Many German units had left their billets in the villages and hidden in the forests, where they prepared positions.

The advance across the Semois

At seven in the morning of 21 August Joffre ordered the Fourth Army to attack towards Neufchâteau, side by side with the Third Army advancing on Arlon (PL). The order ended with the words: “The enemy will be attacked wherever he is met.” That day the French armies crossed the frontier and advanced between fifteen and twenty-odd kilometres into hilly, wooded country cut by marshy valleys. The Fourth Army crossed the river Semois. There were only minor skirmishes, often in fog, and the French took the German units for a weak screen. The troops were tired: some regiments of the Colonial Corps marched all day and reached their billets late at night, in pouring rain.

The black day of 22 August

On 22 August the columns collided in many places at once. In the Third Army’s sector the V Corps, at five in the morning, in fog and rain, attacked entrenched Germans near Longwy without artillery support. When the fog lifted, German artillery caught the French batteries in the open, and a counter-attack routed one of the divisions. To the north of it the IV Corps ran into Germans near Virton and was also thrown back. At Ethe (PL) its 7th Division lost more than 5,000 men. On the right wing the VI Corps of General Maurice Sarrail was pushed back a little.

In the Fourth Army’s sector the heaviest blow fell on the Colonial Corps at Rossignol (PL). Its 3rd Colonial Division under General Léon Raffenel was to march to Neufchâteau that day along a single road, over the bridge on the Semois at Mesnil-Breuvanne and through the forest north of Rossignol. At half past six in the morning the advance guard crossed the bridge unhindered. In the forest it ran into German infantry that was itself marching on Rossignol and had taken good positions. Bayonet charges in the dense forest achieved nothing. German artillery brought the bridge at Breuvanne under fire, and German units that had taken Tintigny (PL) came out on the division’s right flank. From the late morning the bridge was impassable, and most of the 3rd Colonial Brigade was left on the south bank of the river. The part of the division that had crossed to the north fought all day around the burning village, waiting for help that never came. The commander of the Colonial Corps received permission to use the 2nd Colonial Division only at about five in the afternoon. The gunners spiked 32 guns. Raffenel was killed trying to break through to the Semois; the commander of the 3rd Brigade, General Charles Rondony, was wounded and also killed; and the commander of the 1st Brigade, General Montignault, was taken prisoner.

On the corps’ left wing the 5th Colonial Brigade reached Neufchâteau (PL) but was thrown back. To the left of the Colonial Corps the XII Corps made progress, while the 33rd Division of the XVII Corps lost most of its artillery at Bertrix (PL). Only on the northern wing of the Fourth Army were the corps not seriously engaged. The French infantry in red trousers, charging with the bayonet, was highly visible and fell under machine-gun and artillery fire. The Germans, who had taken up their positions first, had superiority of fire.

Retreat

Joffre ordered the attack to be resumed as early as possible on 23 August, since his whole plan depended on the success of the Third and Fourth Armies. Ruffey replied that his divisions first had to reorganise. In the afternoon the Germans forestalled him and pushed the V Corps back several kilometres, and the rest of the army had to fall back level with it. The 5th Colonial Brigade left Neufchâteau before dawn. By evening the remnants of both armies, except the northern wing of the Fourth Army, had fallen back to their starting positions. Langle de Cary ordered a retreat on 24 August to the line of the rivers Chiers and Meuse.

On 24 August Joffre ordered the Fourth Army to withdraw behind the Meuse. The Third Army still tried to counter-attack with its right wing on 24 and 25 August, but the retreat of its left wing forced it to fall back towards the Meuse and Verdun. The British official history observed that the defeat would have been even greater but for the premature attempt to envelop the French made by Crown Prince Wilhelm.

Casualties

The exact losses of the battle cannot be given, because the armies counted them over longer periods rather than for individual actions. On 22 August, along the whole front of the Battle of the Frontiers, in the Ardennes, on the Sambre and in Lorraine, some 27,000 French soldiers were killed according to frequently quoted estimates, and at least 25,000 according to other figures. No other day in France’s history brought its army such losses. At Rossignol the 3rd Colonial Division lost more than 10,000 men and ceased to exist as a fighting unit. More than 5,000 soldiers were taken prisoner there, many of them wounded, along with about a hundred officers and three colonels. Raffenel and Rondony were the first French generals to be killed in this war. The Germans also suffered heavy losses in the Ardennes, but far smaller ones.

Civilians also became victims of the fighting. German soldiers shot the inhabitants of one village after another on the charge that partisans had fired at them. More than a hundred inhabitants of Rossignol were taken to Arlon and shot there. According to the historian Jean-Michel Steg, there were more than 30 such massacres in the region on 22 and 23 August.

Significance

The defeat in the Ardennes, together with the defeats at Charleroi and Mons, wrecked the French war plan. The attempt to strike the German centre before the German right wing could attack the Allied left had failed. The German armies could continue their march on France, and the whole Allied left wing began the Great Retreat. The Germans also seized important iron-ore deposits in the French border region.

The battle exposed the weaknesses of pre-war French doctrine, which relied on attack at all costs, as well as poor reconnaissance and weak co-operation between infantry and artillery. Joffre, however, blamed the commanders and the troops rather than his plan. At the end of August he removed Ruffey, and Sarrail took command of the Third Army. Only a few days later both armies went into further fighting on the Meuse. After the experience of 1914 the French army began to change its tactics and uniforms, and in 1915 soldiers were issued less conspicuous horizon-blue uniforms.