{
 "slug": "nivelle-offensive",
 "title": "Second Battle of the Aisne",
 "status": "draft",
 "era": "1900–1918",
 "date_text": "16 April – 9 May 1917",
 "start": "1917-04-16",
 "end": "1917-05-09",
 "war": "World War I",
 "cdb90_war": "WORLD WAR I",
 "place": {
  "name": "The Chemin des Dames ridge and the Aisne valley between Soissons and Reims, Aisne, France",
  "lat": 49.4,
  "lon": 3.6,
  "wikidata": "Q1694094"
 },
 "lede": "On 16 April 1917 Nivelle threw two French armies at the Chemin des Dames, promising a breakthrough in 48 hours. The Germans were waiting in depth. The French took ground at a terrible price, and the failure set off the army mutinies of 1917.",
 "result": "French defeat: part of the Chemin des Dames taken at heavy cost, but no breakthrough; the failure led to the 1917 mutinies",
 "result_cdb90": "attacker loss",
 "belligerents": [
  {
   "role": "attacker",
   "name": "France (Groupe d'armées de réserve: Fifth, Sixth and Tenth Armies, with the Russian Expeditionary Force's 1st Brigade)",
   "commanders": [
    "General Robert Nivelle (commander-in-chief)",
    "General Joseph Alfred Micheler (Groupe d'armées de réserve)",
    "General Olivier Mazel (Fifth Army)",
    "General Charles Mangin (Sixth Army)",
    "General Denis Duchêne (Tenth Army)"
   ],
   "strength": {
    "value": 850000,
    "low": 750000,
    "high": 1000000,
    "source": "s3"
   },
   "casualties": {
    "value": 134000,
    "low": 117000,
    "high": 187000,
    "source": "s10"
   }
  },
  {
   "role": "defender",
   "name": "German Empire (Army Group German Crown Prince: 7th and 1st Armies)",
   "commanders": [
    "Crown Prince Wilhelm (army group)",
    "General Max von Boehn (7th Army)",
    "General Fritz von Below (1st Army)",
    "General Erich Ludendorff (First Quartermaster-General)"
   ],
   "strength": {
    "value": 480000,
    "low": 480000,
    "high": 682650,
    "source": "s1"
   },
   "casualties": {
    "value": 163000,
    "low": null,
    "high": null,
    "source": "s13"
   }
  }
 ],
 "sections": {
  "background": "By the end of 1916 Verdun and the Somme had cost France enormously without breaking the Western Front. In December Robert Nivelle replaced Joffre as commander-in-chief. He took over Joffre's plan for a joint Franco-British offensive and made it his own: a massive bombardment and a sudden, violent assault that would break the German line on the Aisne within 48 hours, at a cost his staff put at about 10,000 casualties. The British were to attack first at Arras, a week earlier, to draw German reserves north.\n\nThe ground was the Chemin des Dames, an east–west limestone ridge between the Aisne to the south and the Ailette to the north. The Germans had held its crest since September 1914 and had turned its old quarries, the creutes such as the Dragon's Cave at Hurtebise, into shelters, with tunnels to the front line and concealed machine-gun nests. The French sat on the lower slopes and in a bridgehead north of the river from Berry-au-Bac to Fort de Condé.\n\nThe plan went stale before it began. In March the Germans withdrew to the Hindenburg Line, shortening their front by some 70 km and freeing divisions, several of which went to the Aisne; Elizabeth Greenhalgh argues that this withdrawal doomed the offensive before it was launched. The attack, first planned for February, was repeatedly postponed. German raids picked up French documents about it, and Nivelle talked about it freely. By April the Germans knew what was coming. The war minister Painlevé and several army group commanders doubted the plan; Nivelle offered his resignation at a meeting on 6 April, but the government kept him and the offensive.",
  "forces": "Nivelle gave the attack to a new reserve army group under Micheler. Mazel's Fifth Army, on the right from Reims to Craonne, had 16 infantry divisions in five corps, a cavalry division, two Russian brigades and nearly 200 tanks. Mangin's Sixth Army, from Craonne west to Laffaux, had 17 divisions, among them colonial corps with battalions of tirailleurs sénégalais and zouaves, which Mangin used as shock troops; some 15,000 Africans faced the German line. Duchêne's Tenth Army, nine divisions, waited behind to exploit the breakthrough. About 2,000 guns fired a bombardment lasting two weeks.\n\nThe French tanks, the Schneider CA1 and Saint-Chamond of the Artillerie spéciale, were going into their first big attack. Slow, about 4 km/h, without turrets and with exposed fuel tanks, they were tied to the infantry in groups of four, with flags and carrier pigeons for signalling.\n\nOpposite, Boehn's 7th Army held Vauxaillon to Berry-au-Bac with 14 divisions, and Below's 1st Army the line beyond towards Reims. They fought on the new doctrine of December 1916: a thin outpost zone, the main line on reverse slopes, a deep battle zone of machine-gun posts and Eingreif divisions ready to counter-attack. The Germans also held the advantage in the air, which blinded much of the French artillery observation.",
  "course": "CDB90 records 16 April–1 May as a single engagement, 317 (AISNE II), between the French Fifth and Sixth Armies and the German 1st and 7th Armies. This page follows it to the end of the offensive on 9 May.\n\n**16 April, 06:00: the assault.** The attack went in at dawn along about 40 km between Soissons and Reims, in mist, cold and later snow. The bombardment had left many German positions barely touched. Machine guns in concrete posts cut down the first waves; on the plateau between Cerny and Craonne the French were thrown back, and the 10th Colonial Division lost about 150 officers and 5,000 men, half of them tirailleurs, in front of Hurtebise. Mangin's colonials broke on the Laffaux plateau by about 09:00. The objectives due by 09:30 were nowhere reached. Real gains came only below the ridge, near Soupir and Chivy, La Ville-aux-Bois and Loivre. On the right the Russian brigade took Courcy, and north of the Aisne the 42nd and 69th Divisions got into the German second position, some 4 km deep.\n\n**16 April: the tanks at Berry-au-Bac.** Two groupements, Bossut's attached to XXXII Corps and Chaubès's to V Corps, attacked between the Aisne and the Miette towards Juvincourt. Bossut's Schneiders passed the Choléra crossroads on the Laon–Reims road around 10:00 and crossed the German second position; some reached a third between Juvincourt and Guignicourt. But the infantry could not follow, and German observers on the Craonne heights directed artillery on to the columns; 23 tanks were destroyed before they reached the front line. Of about 128 engaged, 57 were destroyed or burnt out and dozens more broke down or bogged. Bossut was killed in his tank. The survivors withdrew at about 17:30.\n\n**17–20 April: the Sixth Army's advance.** Nivelle switched effort to the Fifth Army, which made little progress. The Sixth Army, attacking through the night, forced the Germans out of the Braye–Condé–Laffaux salient back to the Siegfriedstellung; Fort de Condé and Braye fell, the French advanced about 6 km and the Germans left guns and munitions behind. Laffaux was finally taken on 19 April. The offensive was suspended on 20 April; on 21 April the Tenth Army came into line between Craonne and Hurtebise.\n\n**22 April–1 May: limited attacks.** Mass attacks gave way to local ones. The end of CDB90's engagement falls in this lull.\n\n**4–9 May: Craonne and the Californie plateau.** At 18:00 on 4 May the 18th Infantry took Craonne by surprise and with the 34th gained the edge of the Californie plateau, but could not get down to the Ailette. On 5 May I Colonial Corps took the ruins of Laffaux Mill and Moisy Farm, and the Tenth Army attacked the Vauclerc plateau. A planned attack on Brimont was cancelled on government orders. German night counter-attacks from Vauxaillon to Craonne on 6–9 May were repulsed, and the offensive was abandoned on 9 May.",
  "aftermath": "Nivelle's breakthrough never came. In ten days the French lost something like 120,000 to 140,000 men, the highest rate since 1914, for gains of a few kilometres; some divisions lost over 60 per cent, and the medical services, planned for far fewer, were overwhelmed. Yet the French had taken most of the Chemin des Dames plateau, the Craonne heights and nearly 30,000 prisoners, and German losses were heavy too.\n\nThe cost broke the army's patience. Refusals began in late April and early May, the 2nd Division refusing to attack on 3 May, and spread through some 50 divisions by June, mostly among troops at rest ordered back into the assault. Leonard Smith's study of the 5th Division, the most mutinous in the army that year, reads the mutinies as soldiers negotiating the terms of their service rather than refusing the war. Nivelle was replaced by Pétain in mid-May and sent to North Africa; Mangin and Mazel were removed. Pétain combined some 3,400 courts-martial sentences and between 40 and 62 executions with more leave, better food and rest, and limited offensives such as La Malmaison in October.\n\nIn France the battle became a byword for futile slaughter. The 'Chanson de Craonne', sung by mutineers and long banned, was performed at an official ceremony only in 2017, and a march 'without helmet or weapon' has been held at Craonne every 16 April since 2007.",
  "wargaming": "This is a battle where the attacker's plan is the problem, and that makes it a good teaching game. At army level, on a hex map from Soissons to Reims with corps or divisions, the French player must try to do in two days what history could not, against a German player who knows the plan and whose reserves sit behind the ridge. Victory points for limited objectives (Laffaux, Craonne, Juvincourt) let the French player choose Pétain's method over Nivelle's, and a running casualty count can trigger mutiny rules for divisions pushed too hard.\n\nAt brigade or divisional scale the best single actions are the colonials against Hurtebise and the Dragon's Cave, where creutes let German infantry emerge behind the attackers, and the tank attack at Berry-au-Bac: flat ground, a gun-line overlooking it from the Craonne heights, slow tanks with exposed fuel and infantry that must keep up. Weather matters: mist, snow and grounded observers should limit French artillery.\n\nThe what-ifs: no leak of the plan; Nivelle stopping after the first day, as he had half-promised Painlevé; the Brimont attack going ahead; or the Tenth Army committed on 17 April behind the Sixth Army's advance rather than the Fifth's."
 },
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   "caption": "The Aisne front in 1917: the Fifth and Tenth Army sectors from Craonne to Reims.",
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   "caption": "French gains on the Aisne, April–May 1917.",
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  {
   "file": "File:Craonne and the eastern Chemin des Dames, 1917.jpg",
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   "caption": "Craonne and the eastern end of the Chemin des Dames, 1917.",
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  {
   "file": "File:Assaut-chemin-des-dames.jpg",
   "kind": "photo",
   "caption": "French infantry attacking on the Chemin des Dames, 1917.",
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   "credit": "Liberty's Victorious Conflict: A Photographic History of the World War. Reproduced in: http://www.firstworldwar.com/photos/battlegrounds3.htm",
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  },
  {
   "file": "File:The Nivelle Offensive, April-may 1917 Q69623.jpg",
   "kind": "photo",
   "caption": "A Saint-Chamond tank, 'Teddy', at Condé-sur-Aisne, 3 May 1917.",
   "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/The_Nivelle_Offensive%2C_April-may_1917_Q69623.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original",
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  },
  {
   "file": "File:Tir de barrage à Craonne en 1917.jpg",
   "kind": "photo",
   "caption": "A barrage falling on Craonne, from Le Miroir, July 1917.",
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  {
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 "sources": [
  {
   "id": "s1",
   "title": "Nivelle offensive (Wikipedia)",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nivelle_offensive",
   "kind": "web"
  },
  {
   "id": "s2",
   "title": "Second Battle of the Aisne (Wikipedia)",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_the_Aisne",
   "kind": "web"
  },
  {
   "id": "s3",
   "title": "Bataille du Chemin des Dames (Wikipédia, French)",
   "url": "https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bataille_du_Chemin_des_Dames",
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  },
  {
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  },
  {
   "id": "s5",
   "title": "Le Chemin des Dames (Ministère des Armées, Chemins de mémoire)",
   "url": "https://www.defense.gouv.fr/chemins-memoire/actualites/chemin-dames",
   "kind": "web"
  },
  {
   "id": "s6",
   "title": "L'étrange année 1917 (Ministère des Armées, Chemins de mémoire)",
   "url": "https://www.defense.gouv.fr/chemins-memoire/histoire-memoires/ressources-historiques/premiere-guerre-mondiale/combattre-combats/fronts-16",
   "kind": "web"
  },
  {
   "id": "s7",
   "title": "Nivelle's failure (WarHistory.org, 2019, updated 2024)",
   "url": "https://warhistory.org/fr/article/nivelles-failure?amp=0",
   "kind": "web"
  },
  {
   "id": "s8",
   "title": "Louis Hardiman, 'Defense in Depth at the Nivelle Offensive' (History of War / History Answers, 2024)",
   "url": "https://www.historyanswers.co.uk/history-of-war/defense-in-depth-at-the-nivelle-offensive/",
   "kind": "article"
  },
  {
   "id": "s9",
   "title": "William Astore, review of Elizabeth Greenhalgh, The French Army and the First World War (Michigan War Studies Review, 2016)",
   "url": "https://michiganwarstudiesreview.com/2016-073.htm",
   "kind": "article"
  },
  {
   "id": "s10",
   "title": "Robert A. Doughty, Pyrrhic Victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2005)",
   "url": null,
   "kind": "book"
  },
  {
   "id": "s11",
   "title": "Elizabeth Greenhalgh, The French Army and the First World War (Cambridge University Press, 2014)",
   "url": null,
   "kind": "book"
  },
  {
   "id": "s12",
   "title": "Leonard V. Smith, Between Mutiny and Obedience: The Case of the French Fifth Infantry Division during World War I (Princeton University Press, 1994); publisher's description",
   "url": "https://press.princeton.edu/node/16189",
   "kind": "book"
  },
  {
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  },
  {
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   "url": "https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Bossut",
   "kind": "web"
  }
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   "file": "File:Destruction on the Western Front, 1914-1918 Q70814.jpg",
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   "caption": "Destruction on the Western Front, 1914-1918 Ruined village of Craonne, 7 May 1917. same photograph on imagesdefense.gouv.fr",
   "year": 1917,
   "licence": "Public domain",
   "artist": "French official photographer (Cordier, Opérateur G )",
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   "file": "File:Attaque sur le plateau de Craonne en 1917.jpg",
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   "caption": "Three views of a French attack on Craonne in 1917, in the village sector Corbeny. The text below, subject to censorship and propaganda speaks of French victory. Photographs published by the French weekly Le Miroir June 10, 1917",
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   "file": "File:French attack on the German lines at Chemin-des-Dames, which had been destroyed by six days of barrage, on October 23, 1917.png",
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   "licence": "Public domain",
   "artist": "Ernst Zimmer",
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   "file": "File:Le 9e régiment de zouaves monte à l'attaque du Chemin des Dames 17 avril 1917.jpg",
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   "caption": "Le Régiment monte à l'attaque du Chemin des Dames 17 avril 1917",
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   "file": "File:Le Pays de France, No 137, scan09, page7.jpg",
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   "caption": "Le Pays de France No 137. 31 Mai 1917",
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   "file": "File:Le chemin des Dames - médaille - Pierre Roche - btv1b10315629n (1 of 2).jpg",
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   "caption": "Appartient à l’ensemble documentaire : GG14189GC Appartient à l’ensemble documentaire : GG14181 Appartient à l’ensemble documentaire : GCGen1 Langue : français Éditeur : [Pierre Roche] (Paris)",
   "year": 1917,
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   "artist": "Roche, Pierre (1855-1922). Médailleur",
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   "file": "File:Le chemin des Dames - médaille - Pierre Roche - btv1b10315629n (2 of 2).jpg",
   "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3d/Le_chemin_des_Dames_-_m%C3%A9daille_-_Pierre_Roche_-_btv1b10315629n_%282_of_2%29.jpg/500px-Le_chemin_des_Dames_-_m%C3%A9daille_-_Pierre_Roche_-_btv1b10315629n_%282_of_2%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail",
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   "caption": "Appartient à l’ensemble documentaire : GG14189GC Appartient à l’ensemble documentaire : GG14181 Appartient à l’ensemble documentaire : GCGen1 Langue : français Éditeur : [Pierre Roche] (Paris)",
   "year": 1917,
   "licence": "Public domain",
   "artist": "Roche, Pierre (1855-1922). Médailleur",
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   "file": "File:Prisonniers allemands et blessés du 9e Zouaves lors de l'offensive de l'Aisne, 16 avril 1917.jpg",
   "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7b/Prisonniers_allemands_et_bless%C3%A9s_du_9e_Zouaves_lors_de_l%27offensive_de_l%27Aisne%2C_16_avril_1917.jpg/500px-Prisonniers_allemands_et_bless%C3%A9s_du_9e_Zouaves_lors_de_l%27offensive_de_l%27Aisne%2C_16_avril_1917.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail",
   "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Prisonniers_allemands_et_bless%C3%A9s_du_9e_Zouaves_lors_de_l%27offensive_de_l%27Aisne,_16_avril_1917.jpg",
   "caption": "Les prisonniers boches accompagnent nos blessés vers l'arrière Offensive de l'Aisne — 16 avril 1917",
   "year": 1917,
   "licence": "Public domain",
   "artist": "Unknown author Unknown author",
   "collection": null
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   "file": "File:Prisonniers allemands et blessés du 9e zouaves à Vendresse au début de l'offensive de l'Aisne.jpg",
   "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1c/Prisonniers_allemands_et_bless%C3%A9s_du_9e_zouaves_%C3%A0_Vendresse_au_d%C3%A9but_de_l%27offensive_de_l%27Aisne.jpg/500px-Prisonniers_allemands_et_bless%C3%A9s_du_9e_zouaves_%C3%A0_Vendresse_au_d%C3%A9but_de_l%27offensive_de_l%27Aisne.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail",
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   "caption": "Les premiers prisonniers boches transportent nos blessés vers l'arrière Offensive de l'Aisne. — 16 avril 1917 — Secteur de Vendresse",
   "year": 1917,
   "licence": "Public domain",
   "artist": "Unknown author Unknown author",
   "collection": null
  },
  {
   "file": "File:Soldats allemands tués et poilus du 9e zouaves au ravin du Paradis le 17 avril 1917.jpg",
   "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f2/Soldats_allemands_tu%C3%A9s_et_poilus_du_9e_zouaves_au_ravin_du_Paradis_le_17_avril_1917.jpg/500px-Soldats_allemands_tu%C3%A9s_et_poilus_du_9e_zouaves_au_ravin_du_Paradis_le_17_avril_1917.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail",
   "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Soldats_allemands_tu%C3%A9s_et_poilus_du_9e_zouaves_au_ravin_du_Paradis_le_17_avril_1917.jpg",
   "caption": "Après l'attaque. » Cadavres boches restés sur le terrain Offensive de l'Aisne — Ravin du Paradis — 17 avril 1917",
   "year": 1917,
   "licence": "Public domain",
   "artist": "Unknown author Unknown author",
   "collection": null
  },
  {
   "file": "File:Western Front 1917.jpg",
   "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d0/Western_Front_1917.jpg/500px-Western_Front_1917.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail",
   "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Western_Front_1917.jpg",
   "caption": "Map of the Western Front , 1917 . The red line marks the front as of 5 April 1917. The Siegfriedstellung or Hindenburg Line, only ran from Arras to Laffaux (shown in insert) on the river Aisne - essentially the portion to the east of the dotted red line marking the 25 February front",
   "year": 1917,
   "licence": "Public domain",
   "artist": "United States Military Academy’s Department of History [1]",
   "collection": null
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 ],
 "photos_kind": "photographs",
 "newspapers": {
  "slug": "nivelle-offensive",
  "query": "Aisne",
  "from": "1917-04-16",
  "to": "1917-05-23",
  "total": 1339,
  "rights": "Library of Congress, Chronicling America: newspapers published before 1931, in the public domain. Text machine-read from the scanned page.",
  "pages": [
   {
    "date": "1917-04-17",
    "paper": "Grand Forks herald (Grand Forks, N.D.)",
    "place": "Grand Forks, North Dakota",
    "url": "https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85042414/1917-04-17/ed-1/?sp=1",
    "snippet": "... Oise and Conde, on the [[tag]]Aisne[[/tag]]. The artillery light,. which was continued today leveled the positions and pro duced wide, deep-craters,-rendering an obstinate defense no' longer pos sible.\" Try to Weaken Knemy. \"The lighting no longer js:.against a line, but over quite a deep and Irregu lar fortified sone. The battle swayed backward and forward-^araynd Our foramoot jraeitlon^ our object feelds, -i- -9k- iV *5KT? S et»? r..\" IN LAST 24 HOURS' FIGHTING ARE 100,000 if the war material is lost, to spare the lives of our forces and to Inflict heavy sanguinary losses and thus de cisively weaken the enemy. This was achieved.\" Berlin announces the battle which opened on the [[tag]]Aisne[[/tag]] as \"one ..."
   },
   {
    "date": "1917-04-18",
    "paper": "The Birmingham age-herald (Birmingham, Ala.)",
    "place": "Birmingham, Alabama",
    "url": "https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85038485/1917-04-18/ed-1/?sp=1",
    "snippet": "... is in progress on the [[tag]]Aisne[[/tag]]. “Since April 6 preparatory fire by the artillery a yd mine throwers had con tinued uninterruptedly. By this fire, which was unprecedented in duration, l volume and intensity, the French endeav ored to render our positions ripe for as sault, put our batteries out of action and exhaust our troops. “Early yesterday morning the French on a front 50 kilometres wide launched, with the object of breaking through, a deep column attack from Soupir on the [[tag]]Aisne[[/tag]] to Betheny, north of Rheims, with the huge weight of strong infantry forces fed by reserves which had been brought up in the rear. “During the afternoon the French threw fresh masses ..."
   },
   {
    "date": "1917-04-19",
    "paper": "The Lakeland evening telegram (Lakeland, Fla.)",
    "place": "Lakeland, Florida",
    "url": "https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn95047222/1917-04-19/ed-1/?sp=1",
    "snippet": "... advance. Both north of the [[tag]]Aisne[[/tag]] rirer and la Champagne the French are advancing. The last stronghold of the Germans on the [[tag]]Aisne[[/tag]] was taken last night with the rapture of Vailly Bridgehead, and tbelr waver ing line continue to be pushed rap Idly northward. From Chavonne on the [[tag]]Aisne[[/tag]] the French have driven them more than three miles north ward and French successes In Cham pagne are equally striking. They have driven a wedge more than three miles deep into the German lines between Rhelms and Aiibrlv9 and last night's attack netted them several important heights near Ho ronvllllers where two more German batteries were captured. The French official statement is notably confident in ..."
   },
   {
    "date": "1917-04-20",
    "paper": "The Prescott daily news (Prescott, Ark.)",
    "place": "Prescott, Arkansas",
    "url": "https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn90050307/1917-04-20/ed-1/?sp=1",
    "snippet": "... Nhree Villages North of the [[tag]]Aisne[[/tag]] Are Occupied. Paris, April 19.—Steady gains by the French are reported in the offi cial communication issued by the war office tonight in the continuation of the drive against the southern end of the Hindenburg line. The most im portant advance was made to the northwest of Auberive, where the French carried a strong system o* Herman trenches over an extent of i about a mile and a quarter, i The text of the communication reads: “Between the Somme and the Oise quite violent artillery actions were in progress. “North of the [[tag]]Aisne[[/tag]] the enemy, under our energetic pressure, con tinued to withdraw in the direction of ithe Chemin ..."
   },
   {
    "date": "1917-04-21",
    "paper": "Hopkinsville Kentuckian (Hopkinsville, Ky.)",
    "place": "Hopkinsville, Kentucky",
    "url": "https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn86069395/1917-04-21/ed-1/?sp=1",
    "snippet": "\"North of the [[tag]]Aisne[[/tag]], the enemy, under our energetic pressure, continj ued to withdraw in the direction, ci the Chemin des Dames. Our troops in the course of the day, occupied the villages of Aisy, Jouy and LafTauxancJ kept in close contact with the enemy Fort De Conde (northwest of Conde-Sur-[[tag]]Aisne[[/tag]]) also fell into our power-. \"In the region of Hurtebisc, after a. spirited engagement, we occupied at point of support north of that farm,, taking five hundred prisoners and two cannons of 105 milimeters. \"West of Bermericourt we made an important advance, and captured, about fifty prisoners. GERMAN ATTACKS REPULSED \"In Champagne tho artillery acitor. was continued furiously against the Massif of ..."
   },
   {
    "date": "1917-04-25",
    "paper": "The watchman and southron (Sumter, S.C.)",
    "place": "Sumter, South Carolina",
    "url": "https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn93067846/1917-04-25/ed-1/?sp=1",
    "snippet": "... Great Offensive of Allies on [[tag]]Aisne[[/tag]] River?Strikers and Troops Engage In Bloody Conflict at Magdeburg?Strikers Make Revolutionary Demands That Threaten Overthrow of Mili? tary Regime. _L_ New York, April 21.?Interest, in the great offensive on the [[tag]]Aisne[[/tag]] fiver today gives way to the startling news coming from the interior of Germany. Veiled though the situation is in the mists of a rigid censorship, and ob? scured by the shackled condition of the German press, sufficient has leak? ed through to indicate that the Ger? man empire is facing a great econom? ic and political crisis. Tho latest information is that 10, 000 striking munition workers have engaged In bloody rioting at the great Prussian fortress ..."
   },
   {
    "date": "1917-05-04",
    "paper": "The Mellette County pioneer (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.)",
    "place": "White River, South Dakota",
    "url": "https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn96090217/1917-05-04/ed-1/?sp=4",
    "snippet": "... velle’s Troops North of the [[tag]]Aisne[[/tag]], in Champagne and the Argonne Forest, Paris Reports. Paris, April 23. —Hard fighting con tinues between the French and the Germans all along the southern front in France. The French war office, in its latest communication, records fur ther progress for the forces of General Nivelle north of the [[tag]]Aisne[[/tag]], in Cham pagne und in the Argonne forest. More than 10,000 Germans have been made prisoner and guns in excess of 100 have been captured by the French since the offensive began last Monday. “To the north of the [[tag]]Aisne[[/tag]] our troops, harassing the enemy, have con tinued to progress toward the Cheiniu lies Dames. We have occupied the ..."
   },
   {
    "date": "1917-05-21",
    "paper": "The Bridgeport evening farmer (Bridgeport, Conn.)",
    "place": "Bridgeport, Connecticut",
    "url": "https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84022472/1917-05-21/ed-1/?sp=13",
    "snippet": "... towns and villages of the [[tag]]Aisne[[/tag]] and Chmpagne. There can be no form of charity half as useful at this time. \"The most ruthless and revolrlns- thing that a visitor to the evacuatPri area perceives is the total' destruc-1 tion of all threes, fruit-bearing and ornamental. Nearly every tree in the [[tag]]Aisne[[/tag]] department has V been felled, and for what purpose? There can be but one: to cripple the restoration of Northern France to usefulness. Men and money can rebuild the- homes and factories in a year or two, but to restore the orchards and other useful trees will call for a half cen tury. What the Germans did to tree life in Northern France ..."
   }
  ]
 }
}