First Battle of the Aisne

The First Battle of the Aisne was a World War I battle fought between two German armies and the combined elements of the British Expeditionary Force and the French 5th and 6th Armies, from September 13 to September 15, 1914, on the Aisne River, France. The result of this military confrontation was a stalemate as both sides started to dig in after vicious and gory fighting, marking the beginning of trench warfare. Both the Allied forces and the German Army suffered approximately more than 20,000 casualties.

Summary

In early September 1914, the Anglo-French armies had initiated a counter-offensive against the German 1st and 2nd Army, commanded by Alexander von Kluck and Karl von Bülow respectively, forcing them to fall back several miles. However, the German forces suddenly halted their retreat on the north bank of the Aisne River as they turned to confront their enemies as they dug in to stop the French and British counter-offensive, setting up machine gun nests and light artillery gun positions on strategic points on the front line.

The First Battle of the Aisne River broke out on the night of September 13, 1914, when the French 5th and 6th Army, led by Louis Franchet d’Esperey and Michel Joseph Maunoury respectively, and the British Expeditionary Force, commanded by John French, attacked the German defensive positions on the north bank of the Aisne River. The French 5th Army crossed the river at Berry-au-Bac and took a steep ridge on the eastern tip of Chemin des Dames after ferocious fighting that included hand-to-hand combat using bayonets and lineman shovels.

Units of the British Expeditionary Forces also got across the Aisne on pontoons at Bourg-et-Comin and at Venizel. Protected by thick fog, the British and the French kept advancing slowly, but when the fog lifted they were cross-raked by machine gun fire and light field artillery. French 6th Army elements, that had also crossed the river, were caught in the valley without the fog cover and were mauled to pieces.