Germans retake Soissons

On 29 May 1918, the third day of the great German offensive on the Aisne, Soissons, an old cathedral town on the river Aisne, fell into German hands. The Germans had been here once before, at the beginning of September 1914, but after their defeat on the Marne they had had to withdraw. Since then the front had run a few kilometres north of the town, and Soissons, shelled by German artillery for almost four years, was one of the best-known front-line towns of France. In January 1915 the heights just above it were fought over in the Battle of Soissons, and in 1917, after the German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line and the fighting for the Chemin des Dames, the front moved further from the town, although Soissons was still within range of German guns.

On 27 May the Germans took the Chemin des Dames ridge and crossed the Aisne east of the town. The western wing of the attack, however, advanced more slowly than the centre. According to the British official history, which summarises the German monograph on the battle, at about 7.30 p.m. on 28 May the leading units of the German 5th Division crossed the river just east of Soissons, by a weir and a damaged railway bridge. Four battalions cleared the town and secured both permanent road bridges. Then came a telephoned order from corps headquarters to evacuate the town, because the French were said to be assembling large forces to the south and south-west of it. The soldiers withdrew to the north bank, leaving only one battalion at the railway bridge and guards at the road bridges. The German monograph admits that the real reason was the fear that the soldiers would fall upon the stocks of food and alcohol gathered in the town and get out of control. That same day some German soldiers got drunk in captured Fismes.

On 29 May the Germans entered Soissons again, this time for good. The crossing went slowly, because the French had managed to blow up the bridges at Venizel, east of the town, and some units had to be sent by a roundabout route. The shattered French divisions of XI Corps could not stop the enemy and fell back to the heights south and west of the town. According to the German monograph there were excesses and looting in Soissons that day. The town was burning. South-west of the town, however, on the so-called Paris line, the German advance was stopped by fresh French divisions, among them the Moroccan Division, brought up by lorry, with a regiment of the Foreign Legion. Erich Ludendorff later regretted that his troops had not exploited the favourable situation at Soissons in time.

For the Germans the town was of great importance, because only two railway lines led into the rapidly growing salient between the Aisne and the Marne: through Reims, which remained in French hands, and through Soissons. French artillery, however, kept the latter under fire from the nearby heights. The capture of Soissons became one of the most celebrated successes of the offensive and was a painful blow to the French. The second occupation lasted longer than the first, but not much more than two months: on 2 August 1918, after the counter-offensive on the Marne, French troops returned to the ruined town. After the war Soissons was recognised as one of the martyred towns, and its Gothic cathedral needed many years of rebuilding.