Battle of La Malmaison

Battle of La Malmaison
Part of the Nivelle Offensive on the Western Front in the First World War
La Malmaison and the Laffaux Salient, October 1917
Date 23–27 October 1917 Location France 49°28′17″N 03°29′10″E / 49.47139°N 3.48611°E / 49.47139; 3.48611Coordinates: 49°28′17″N 03°29′10″E / 49.47139°N 3.48611°E / 49.47139; 3.48611 Result French victory
Belligerents
France	Germany
Commanders and leaders
Paul Maistre	Max von Boehn
Strength
Sixth Army	7th Army
Casualties and losses
12,000–14,000	18,000–50,000

The Battle of La Malmaison (Bataille de la Malmaison) from 23–27 October was the final French action of the 1917 campaign of the First World War, which had begun with the Nivelle Offensive. The French captured the village and fort of La Malmaison and took control of the Chemin des Dames ridge. The German 7th Army had discovered French preparations for the attack and also identified the date and time. General Max von Boehn chose to defend the front positions, rather than treat them as an advanced zone and conduct the main defence north of the Canal de l'Oise à l'Aisne. The German artillery was outnumbered three-to-one and on the front of the 14th Division, 32 German batteries were confronted by 125 French, which silenced most of the German guns before the attack. Gas from French bombardments on low-lying land near the canal in the Ailette valley became so dense that the carriage of ammunition and supplies to the German front positions and removal of the wounded was made impossible.

Battalions from German Eingreif divisions had been distributed along the front line and were caught in the French bombardments, in which the German infantry shelters had been identified by French air reconnaissance and systematically destroyed. After the four-day bombardment was extended by two more days due to bad weather, which had slowed the destruction of targets behind the German front, the French XIV, XXI and XI corps of the Sixth Army, attacked on a 7.5-mile (12.1 km) front with six divisions. Zero hour had been set for 5:45 a.m. but a German message, ordering the front garrisons to be ready at 5:30 a.m. was intercepted and the French start time was moved forward to 5:15 a.m.

The French infantry advanced behind an elaborate creeping barrage but the earlier zero hour meant that the attack began in the dark. Rain began to fall at 6:00 a.m. and the 63 attached Schneider CA1 and Saint-Chamond tanks, were impeded by mud and 27 bogged behind the French front line. Fifteen tanks were immobilised crossing no man's land or in the German front line but the French infantry and the 21 tanks which remained operational, reached the German second position according to plan. The 38th Division captured Fort de Malmaison and XXI Corps took Allemant and Vaudesson. From 24–25 October, XXI and XIV corps advanced rapidly and the I Cavalry Corps was brought forward into the XIV Corps area, ready to exploit a German collapse. The 7th Army conducted the Bunzelwitz Bewegung (Bunzelwitz Manoeuvre), a retirement from the Chemin-des-Dames to the north bank of the Ailette, on the night of 1/2 November.

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