Rheims and the Battles for its Possession Part 2

[Ill.u.s.tration (Map)]

The disengaging of Rheims, which had begun slowly, was now rapidly accomplished. Two French offensives completely effected it in a few days--that of September 26 (_see the Michelin Guide: "Champagne and Argonne"_), under General Gouraud, and that of September 30, first by General Berthelot and then by General Guillaumat. The first of these offensives, to the east, brought about the fall of the Moronvilliers Heights, after outflanking them; the second, to the west, captured the Saint-Thierry Heights, the French troops crossing the Aisne-Marne Ca.n.a.l from Le G.o.dat to La Neuvillette. This double manoeuvre forced the Germans, whose communications were threatened, to beat a hasty retreat on October 5 along a twenty-seven mile front. An important part of the old German front of 1914, and one of the most fiercely disputed, collapsed suddenly. The formidable forts of Brimont and Nogent-l'Abbesse, which had held Rheims under their guns for four years, fell. This time the deliverance of Rheims was complete and final.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE DISENGAGING OF RHEIMS

The dotted lines show the Allied advance at the date indicated in the middle of each zone conquered. The line of departure is that of July 18 (18/7). On the evening of Oct. 6 (6/10)--the upper thick dotted line--the town was completely disengaged. The Allied advance has the appearance of a fan spreading out west of Rheims until Oct. 5 (5/10), when the Germans were forced to make a deep retreat.]

=The Destruction of Rheims=

Being unable to capture Rheims, the Germans reduced it to ruins by bombardment. For four years (September 4, 1914, to October 5, 1918) they rained explosive and incendiary sh.e.l.ls on it, almost without intermission.

On September 3, 1914, at about 11 a.m., a German aeroplane dropped bombs on the town. A few of the inhabitants left, as the enemy approached, but the majority remained. A lady-teacher, sixty years of age, Mlle.

Fouriaux (afterwards decorated with the Legion d'Honneur), who had charge of Hospital No. 101 (formerly a high-school for girls), transferred the wounded to Epernay and then returned on foot to Rheims.

On September 4, at 9.30 a.m., when the enemy advance-guards were already in the town, and a German officer was making requisitions at the Town Hall, the bombardment began again. From 9.30 to 10.15 a.m., 176 large sh.e.l.ls fell into the town, three of which tore open the great gallery of modern paintings in the Museum. Forty-nine civilians were killed and 130 wounded, several of them mortally.

The Germans, hard pressed by the French, evacuated Rheims on September 12. Two days later, at 9 a.m., they bombarded the town. Their fire was especially directed against the headquarters of General Franchet d'Esperey, near the Town Hall. On the following days, firing was resumed at the same hour. On the 17th, the first fires broke out. Many civilians were killed or wounded. The vicinity of the Cathedral, which was believed to be specially aimed at, was among the places that suffered most. To protect the Cathedral, which the Germans had fitted up on the 12th for the reception of their wounded, some seventy to eighty German wounded were accommodated on straw in the nave. The Red Cross flag was displayed on each tower, and notice given to the enemy.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GERMAN Sh.e.l.lS BURSTING IN A STREET OF RHEIMS]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE MONT DE PIeTe]

On the 18th, the bombardment began again at 8.15 a.m. In addition to the Sub-Prefecture, which was almost entirely destroyed, as were also many important factories, the Cathedral, in spite of the Red Cross flag, was struck by 8-in. sh.e.l.ls, which damaged the outside sculptures of the lower windows of the main transept, smashing the 13th and 14th century stained-gla.s.s. Splinters of stone killed a French gendarme and two wounded Germans in the lower part of the south nave.

On the 19th, the bombardment was intensified. The Town Hall, Museum, hospitals (including that of the Girls' High School), the south side of the Cathedral and the Archbishop's Palace were all hit. Towards noon, incendiary sh.e.l.ls were rained on the centre of the town.

At about 4 p.m., a sh.e.l.l fired the wooden scaffolding round the north-west tower which had been under repair since 1913. The fire spread quickly to the roof, the molten lead from which set fire to the straw in the nave.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE SAINT FReRES FACTORY IN RUINS (OCT. 1916) (_15 Rue de l'University_)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: CENTRAL WOOL CONTROL OFFICE IN SEPT., 1915]

In spite of a rescue party, who risked their lives in getting out the wounded, a dozen of the German wounded perished in the flames. The conflagration spread to the Archbishop's Palace, from which it was impossible to remove the tapestries or the pre-historic Roman and Gothic collections. The Protestant Church, the Offices of the Controller of silk and woollen cloths, and the Colbert barracks along the eastern boulevards were burnt. Everywhere new centres caught fire, and nearly thirty-five acres of buildings were destroyed. On the 20th, the bombardment continued with equal violence, then after a respite of two days began again. Of the Place Royale and the Rue Colbert nothing remained but a heap of ruins.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN AUGUST, 1917 (_Boulevard Lundy_)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: KINDERGARTEN SCHOOL IN THE BOULEVARD LUNDY]

On November 1 the number of civilians killed by sh.e.l.l fire had increased to 282.

From September 14, 1914, to the beginning of June, 1915, the town never remained more than four days without being sh.e.l.led. Up to the end of November, 1914, the sh.e.l.ls rarely went beyond the Cathedral and the theatre, falling mostly in the suburbs of Ceres and Laon. On November 22, the suburb of Paris was struck, and from that time onwards there was no security for the inhabitants in any quarter of the city.

As it would take too long to recount all the bombardments, only the most terrible ones are here mentioned. On November 26, 1914, the German guns fired all day, one sh.e.l.l alone killing twenty-three patients in the Hospital for Incurables. On the night of February 21 and on February 22, 1915, more than 1,500 sh.e.l.ls fell in the town, killing twenty civilians, setting on fire a score of houses and piercing the vaulting of the Cathedral.

[Ill.u.s.tration: RUE GAMBETTA _The Cathedral is seen at the end of the street._]

On March 8, terrifying fires broke out again. On April 29 and July 20 more than 500 sh.e.l.ls, many of them incendiary, were counted. In April, 1916, more than 1,200 projectiles struck the different quarters of the town in one day. On August 13, whilst the town was being bombarded, seven German aeroplanes dropped incendiary bombs, which burnt the Hotel Dieu Hospital. On October 25, the Germans fired more than 600 sh.e.l.ls into Rheims and more than 1,000 on the 27th.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE BOMBARDMENT OF THE CATHEDRAL QUARTER _Part of the striking-points of the sh.e.l.ls which fell around the Cathedral, as noted by the architect of the latter (M. Sainsaulieu). The sh.e.l.ls which struck the Cathedral were far too numerous to allow all of them to be shown on the above plan._]

On April 1, 1917, more than 2,800 sh.e.l.ls fell in the town, and on the 4th, 2,121. According to the Official Communique, on the night of the 5th and on Good Friday, the number of sh.e.l.ls was 7,500. Easter-Day was likewise terrible. On April 15, 19 and 24 the town received large numbers of 8-in., 12-in. and 15-in. sh.e.l.ls. On May 3 the Town Hall and 108 houses were burnt. On the 4th the fires spread to fifteen neighbouring streets.

From April 8 to the 15th the enemy rained incendiary sh.e.l.ls on the town without respite, and completed their work of destruction, in the course of the afternoon of the 21st, by burning the centre of the town. Hardly anybody was left in the latter, except the firemen, who, despite their prodigious activity and valour, were unable to cope with the flames.

Whole streets, often the finest, were burnt down, more than 700 houses being destroyed.

When, on October 5, the Germans retreated, the havoc caused by this continual bombardment was incalculable. Of the town's 14,000 houses, only about sixty were immediately habitable when the people came back.

In addition to the material losses, there were, unfortunately, numerous irreparable artistic and archaeological losses.

=Life in Bombarded Rheims=

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE DESTRUCTIONS, PHOTOGRAPHED FROM AN AEROPLANE (_Cliche Ill.u.s.tration_) ND.--The Cathedral.

PR.--Place Royale.

D.--Hotel de la Douane.

SG.--Societe Generale Bank.

P.--General Post Office.

J.--Palais de Justice.

T.--Theatre.

M.--Museum.

GH.--Grand Hotel.

LO.--Hotel du Lion d'Or.

PA.--Archi-episcopal Palace.

A.--The Cardinal's House.

EP.--Professional School for Young Ladies.

SP.--Sub-Prefecture.

PG.--Place G.o.dinot.

L.-Lycee.

C.--Colbert Barracks.

Although there were short respites, it may be said that for four years Rheims led the life of a besieged town, under the fire of the German guns and howitzers. The enemy increased the calibre of their sh.e.l.ls and varied their modes of bombardment, sometimes firing for a few hours, sometimes all day long at the rate of one sh.e.l.l every three minutes, or again at night. Sometimes 3-in. sh.e.l.ls would be used, at others "Jack Johnsons" of 8-in., 12-in. and 15-in. calibre; sometimes all four at the same time. Both explosive and incendiary sh.e.l.ls were used, while aeroplane bombs, darts and asphyxiating gas were resorted to occasionally. Public holidays were the occasion of the fiercest bombardments, in the hope of increasing the number of victims. For instance, the sh.e.l.ling was particularly murderous on All Saints' Day of 1914, when the eastern and southern cemeteries (generally crowded on this day) were especially aimed at. Easter Monday of 1916 and Good Friday of 1917 were similarly favoured.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE FIRST AND SECOND STORIES OF A HOUSE IN THE RUE D'ANJOU, AFTER THE BURSTING OF AN 8-IN. Sh.e.l.l]

After each check--at Verdun, in Champagne, on the Somme or wherever it might be--the Germans revenged themselves on Rheims. In this way the Cathedral was fired by incendiary sh.e.l.ls after the defeat on the Marne in 1914. The awful fires of February 22 and March 8, 1915, were the German reply to their set-backs in Champagne and Argonne. The Hotel Dieu hospital was burnt down in August, 1916, the day after the Franco-British attack on the Somme. The Town Hall was reduced to ashes on May 3, 1917, after the French offensive on the Champagne hills. For the same reason the bombardments reached their maximum of intensity in April and May, 1918, _i.e._ after the enemy had lost all hope of crushing the Allies and taking Paris.

At the beginning of the siege the population took refuge in the south-western districts, which were not as yet bombarded, but on and after November 22, 1914, when the German sh.e.l.ls reached the suburb of Paris, a large number of the inhabitants left the town.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE EFFECT OF AN 8-IN. Sh.e.l.l IN THE PREMISES OF "LA MUTUALITe," IN THE RUE DES ELUS (SEPT. 8, 1915)]

In February, 1915, the exodus began again, but at the end of May in that year there were still some 26,000 people in the town. In February, 1917, after twenty-eight months of bombardment, there remained 17,100 people, or 100,000 fewer than in 1914. At the beginning of April in that year, the mayor and later the sub-prefect, requested all those who were not prevented by their duties to leave the town.

This invitation not having the desired effect, the military authorities, in view of the increased intensity of the bombardment and the imminence of the French offensive, announced that they could not guarantee food supplies for the town, and decided that the civil population must leave not later than April 10. The evacuation was effected by carts and motor-vehicles to Epernay, where trains awaited the people.

A part of the inhabitants returned to Rheims after the French offensive of April-May, but for a few months only, as, in February, 1918, the coming German offensive compelled the civil population again to leave the town.