Portrait of a soldier of the 334th RI

Corporal ARCHAMBAUD Claude Antoine of the 334th Infantery Regiment of Mâcon.

Photo taken on the slopes of hill 425 (Steinbach) or on the slopes of Hartmannswillerkopf (southern slopes ?).

At the Moyret Sub-sector (5th Battalion): the 1st line forms an arc of the Sermet-Moyret trench. The 17th Cie is located in Sermet and the 19th and 20th Cies in Moret.

To the right of Moyret (on the southern slopes of the HK) there is the Duvernet Sub-sector which follows the southern slopes then makes a right angle parallel to the Faux-Sihl ravine.

The 21st Company is located between the summit and the slopes facing the "electrical trench" (where there is an electrified network), to its right is the 24th Company.

2 Companies of the 57th RIT establish themselves at the 90° angle behind. The 22nd and 23rd Companies skirt the ravine.

Beyond the daily and incessant simmering, I will return to the difficult days of October 15 and 16, 1915.

Soldier THOMAS Jean-Louis of the 17th wrote in his notebook on October 14: "perfect calm all day; barely a few shells and a few large ones. It's not joking but this calm worries me." And for good reason: a few minutes before 5 a.m. on October 15, an alert occurred.

Footsteps are heard through broken branches.

Suddenly a red flare rises then suddenly jets of flaming liquids crisscross the air across the entire front line. A rain of grenades and large firecrackers accompanied everything.

The German infantry appeared along the entire line and found themselves in front of the French parapets.

Camp Renié's PC received the news: "under cover of the thick fog, and covering his attack with numerous jets of flaming liquids, the enemy rushed on our trenches".

The reserve sections and companies, startled by the noise of the attack, arm themselves and rush to the support points and succeed in containing, with difficulty, the growing flow of German soldiers.

The men on guard, faced with such a sudden irruption, fled as best they could to cross the French lines. To tell you the suddenness of the thing; a soldier on guard had his rifle taken from his hands by a German whom he did not see arriving in the fog.

On the 17th the attack failed in particular thanks to a barrage of bags on the ground while men emptied their cartridge belts to keep the Germans at bay.

But the Germans surge on the trenches of the 20th and 19th (by the GAUTHIER section despite 2 attacks repelled at the battlements by the COGNY section which suffers heavy losses) which give in and take the 17th from behind which finds itself surrounded.

The BENARD, COUTURE, and TROUILH sections at the rocky peak find themselves dazzled by the glow and a burning smell of tar. The TROUILH and COUTURE trenches are on fire. While fleeing the flames, the Germans threw themselves into the trenches shouting “surrender!”

In the BENARD section; the rifle magazines are all empty, most are out of action including Warrant Officer BENARD, the few fit join the other sections.

In the 2nd trenches TROUILH's men held out for half an hour but the German flow continued to grow.

In the 17th after an attempt to force the Germans; the Germans find themselves pushed back.

For example; the quote which will earn a palm for Corporal LAVENTURIER Louis of the 17th: "very good soldier who demonstrated in difficult circumstances with great firmness and valor. On October 15, 1915, although very seriously injured, continued to encourage his men until the end of the fight. Corporal LAVENTURIER saw a grenade explode in his face which blew out his right eye.

The 17th would find itself for a day in its most critical situation yet: its front was absolutely lined with German troops at all points. She sends a section to try to regain contact with the 19th but the gap is already too great.

Grenades rained down on all points of the compass but the 17th was determined to hold out under both fires. On the French side we believe the 17th captured and a ruse attempted by the Germans to lengthen the artillery fire by having kept French "prisoners" by giving the request. At the end of the day of October 16, the 17th will only have 40 able-bodied men left.

The 17th received orders to hold out until 1 p.m. when a counterattack was planned. Soldier THOMAS explains: "an hour passed, and the promised counterattack did not come... We therefore had to save ourselves by our own means. But what means? Grenades and cartridges would soon run out, we did not have of food and no means of communicating with the French. The whole day passed like this, defending ourselves with grenades and waiting [...] The irritation, anxiety and discouragement were beginning to take hold of us."

A new line was organized and communications between battalions were re-established but the French had barely established themselves in the 3rd trench and saw the Germans emerge from the second.

The men who had just retreated to the front and counterattacked upon the arrival of the reserves (from the 334th RI and the 57th RIT) while the Germans jumped from the 2nd trenches to attack the 3rd. This counterattack made it possible to stem the situation on this point.

The reserves including the 18th Company were delayed by the fog hindering orientation but also the German artillery which was firing on the Siberloch.

The 5th Battalion was attacked by the cover of 6flammenwerfer and the intense torpedoing of shells of all calibers. But what was happening at the 6th Battalion?

After a short but violent bombardment, the Germans who had passed through the 20th Company tried to outflank the 21st Company. The 21st retreated, leaving a piece of trench because the enemy had the height. The MARIOTTE section established a solid barricade which resisted all attacks even after the death of Second Lieutenant MARIOTTE.

While the Captain wanted to establish liaison with the 5th battalion, he found himself forced to postpone this task because the Germans attacked the 24th Company west of Rehfelsen at 6:30 a.m. after 1 hour 30 minutes of torpedoing. The Germans wanted to cut the salient with a flank attack, the success of which would take the troops further up in the rear: but the 24th Company did not give up an inch of ground.

Isolated sections of the 5th Battalion found themselves in the ranks of the 6th Battalion and were forced to withdraw or risk being outflanked.

Decided not to cede S/s-Ltn VEYNE and GAUTHIER with Adjutant COMBES; organize themselves with 80 men to block the lines and contain the German pressure on a sector even if this means increasing it.

Locating the machine gun (at Comacle Rock) which was sweeping the sector, Corporal-bugler LOTTE stands "crawly" on the shelter of Company Commander MORETEAUX and sounds the charge.

In an instant, with the support of 1,500 grenades, the bayonet charge dislodged the German machine gunners but above all; the rapid attack broke the German attack and the 6th Battalion regained its lost ground.

A reinforcement arrives: 4 sections of the 15th BCP are deployed. 2 sections come to support the effort of the 24th Company which has still not given ground but whose situation is becoming critical. The 21st Company uses fighters to re-establish connections (on its right with the 24th and on its left with the BELHUMEUR battalion: the 5th).

The situation is recovering on these points even if it remains critical.

Lieutenant AMIC brings his company of fighters as reinforcements and, around 10 a.m., leaves with the 18th Company to counterattack. But the fog is so obstructive that the artillery cannot support the attack. The counterattack so hoped for by the 17th cannot be launched.

The situation freezes until the next day.

The next day, October 16, the counterattack was organized. The companies of hunters line up to attack the summit (between Pierre's trench and P.C. Moyret).

The morning, which was extremely calm, quickly broke apart under the detonations of all the artillery in the sector which shelled the positions opposite the fighters with destructive effects.

Soldier THOMAS writes: "Suddenly, around 10 o'clock, two or three French cannon shots ring out: hope, happiness! It's the artillery preparation that begins."

At 11 a.m. the firing lengthens and the French artillery comes to stir up this lunar soil with its 65, 75, 155 and 220 mm.

The hunters rushed into the pothole sector and swept away rock 956.4 in one go and saved the 17th Company which joined them to continue the irresistible advance.

Here is what soldier THOMAS writes: "Finally, after three hours of preparation, the fire of our artillery slows down and lengthens, while the enemy artillery makes desperate efforts, seeing the game lost. This is the beginning of the infantry attack. It is 1 o'clock in the evening. We listen closely: we hear the crackle of the shooting, the sharp and jerky fire of the machine guns, the noise of the grenades and firecrackers. [...] ] The shooting seems to be getting closer. Are they the French or the Germans? We go out, we listen, we look. Suddenly a sound of footsteps is heard in the trench. What is it? We hold our rifles in plays, the captain takes his revolver. But no: I see a French bayonet, then a soldier. Bravo! They are the hunters of the 15th. We are delivered. Long live the hunters! [...] So the hunters on foot have past the German lines, so the Germans are buried. [...] We go out, we join them, we re-establish the connection between the sections and the companies." A blockhouse resisted for an hour, the hunters and the 17th were forced to charge it with bayonets. An hour after the fighting stopped, the situation was restored on the summit.

For the south of the summit, the 21st Company is in charge. She who excels in the use of trench artillery: the 21st will of course use it as its main asset.

With the only preparation being that of the 21st crapouillot for this sector, the 21st took over almost all of the trenches and took around 20 prisoners including an officer.

On October 17 and 18, the 6th Battalion carried out other attacks which even allowed the Germans to take ground.

In short, these days left trenches lying with corpses from both camps mixed together. The trenches were transformed into an open-air morgue.

In all, the 334th RI will have lost to the 5th Battalion: 8 officers - 33 killed - 135 wounded - 90 missing and to the 6th Battalion: 5 officers - 23 killed - 57 wounded - 43 missing and the CHR: 1 killed - 2 wounded, or 397 losses in two days.

"Not counting the numerous individual quotes that the report published, and which only the modesty of the proposals prevented from being more striking (see the 24th where such a captain, always on the go, only obtained the star of the Brigade, while that the Army awards its palm to the hunter sheltered by its P.C.), it gives the regiment a more tangible mark of its satisfaction. On the 17th, the 5th Battalion had barely emptied of Boches its last trenches which it received, at summit of Vieil-Armand, the visit of General SERRET. Immediately, on the ground recaptured from the enemy, on this chaotic battlefield strewn with corpses, the Division General presented Commander BELHUMEUR and Second Lieutenant PLISSON with the Cross of war with palm, to Lieutenant BERTHET the War Cross with silver star. This ceremony borrowed from the circumstance and the place a simple grandeur which touched the assistants, those of the survivors who had been able to distract the trench: more a tear, these eyes remained clear in the face of so many horrors. And nothing was more moving than the tenderness of these brave people, fiercely tense for two days in the resolution to hold out and who we felt proud of themselves, proud to be rewarded on the chest of their leaders. "

GUYOT Paul.

France

infanterie

between the 1915-06-01 and the 1915-12-12,world war one

A.-V. Benjamin