Germans take Laon, La Fère and Roye

An old British chronology of the war records under 30 August 1914 the capture by the Germans of three towns in Picardy: Laon, La Fère and Roye. All of them lay in the path of the German right wing, which after the Battles of the Frontiers was pressing south towards Paris. The French and British were retreating without trying to defend them.

Three towns, different dates

The date given in the chronology is approximate. In the last days of August columns of General Alexander von Kluck’s German First Army, marching south through the Somme department, passed through the area of Roye. La Fère, a small fortress at the confluence of the Serre and the Oise, was in German hands by 31 August at the latest, when the French Fifth Army, after the Battle of Guise, withdrew south and blew up the bridges over the Oise. German uhlans reached Laon, the capital of the Aisne department, set on a high hill, on 1 September, and the main units entered the town without a fight the next day.

A long occupation

After the Battle of the Marne the Germans fell back northwards, but all three towns remained in their hands. Laon lay behind the front on the Aisne and was occupied for more than four years. The French recovered it only in October 1918. Roye lay just behind the front line until March 1917, when the Germans withdrew to the Siegfried Line (known to the Allies as the Hindenburg Line). In March 1918, during the great spring offensive, the Germans took it again, finally losing it in August of the same year. La Fère also remained in German hands, and after the German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line in 1917 it found itself right on the front line.