French briefly enter Noyon

A British chronology of the war records under 21 September 1914 the recapture by the French of Noyon, a town on the Oise that the Germans had occupied at the end of August. According to some French studies French units did indeed enter the town that day. It was not, however, a lasting recapture of Noyon. The French could not hold on there, and the town remained in German hands for the next two and a half years.

Outflanking the German wing

After the Battle of the Marne the Germans dug in on the Aisne, and frontal attacks on their positions achieved nothing. Both sides therefore began to shift troops west and north, trying to get round the enemy’s open flank. This series of manoeuvres went down in history as the Race to the Sea. Noyon, lying just north of the Oise, stood at the very start of this route.

From as early as 17 September the left wing of the French Sixth Army had been advancing along the Oise towards Noyon and had run into the right wing of the German First Army. Several days of heavy fighting brought no breakthrough. Meanwhile, on the French left, the new Second Army of General Noël de Castelnau was assembling, and on 20 September it began an advance towards Noyon and Péronne.

Entry and withdrawal

On 21 September Castelnau’s troops entered Noyon, and XIII Corps occupied Ribécourt, a few kilometres south of the town. The success proved short-lived. The Germans quickly brought more corps to the threatened flank, and the French did not hold the town. Nor did they take Lassigny, where the Germans had hastily dug a strong line of trenches covering their flank. In the following days the weight of the fighting moved further north, to the area of Roye.

The details of this episode are poorly documented. Some sources do not mention the French entry into Noyon at all, stating only that the town remained in German hands the whole time and that the fighting took place on its approaches. What is certain is that the front settled a few kilometres from the town.

Under occupation

Noyon became one of the points of the German front line pushed furthest towards Paris. The Germans left it only on 18 March 1917, when they withdrew to the previously prepared positions of the Siegfried Line (known to the Allies as the Hindenburg Line), devastating the ground they abandoned on the way. In March 1918, during the great Spring Offensive, they occupied the town again. The French finally liberated it at the end of August 1918, its cathedral and houses badly damaged.