The Battle of the Hills () also known as the Battle of the Hills of Champagne and the Third Battle of Champagne, was a battle of the First World War that was fought from April–May 1917. The French Fourth Army offensive against the German 4th Army was to support the (GAN, Northern Army Group) along the Chemin des Dames, in the Second Battle of the Aisne. General Anthoine, commander of the Fourth Army planned a supporting attack but this was rejected by Nivelle and Anthoine planned a frontal attack by two corps on an front, to break through the German defences on the first day and commence exploitation the following day. The battle took place east of Reims, between Prunay and Aubérive, in the province of Champagne, along the Moronvilliers Hills.
On the left of XII Corps to the east of the Suippes river, the 24th Division established a flank guard by attacking through Bois des Abattis towards Germains and Baden-Baden trenches. On the left flank of the division, Aubérive on the east bank of the river was rapidly captured. On the west bank of the Suippes, the 75th Territorial Regiment (Moroccan Division) made progress round the main part of Aubérive. The Moroccan Division was repulsed on its extreme right but the (March Regiment of the Foreign Legion) gained a foothold at Le Golfe. North-east of Mont Haut, the advance reached a depth of and next day the advance was pressed further. To the west, the French 34th Division took Mont Cornillet and Mont Blond and the 16th Division was repulsed at Bois de la Grille.
The French spent 18 April consolidating and the 45th Division pushed up to the southern edge of Mont Haut. The "Monts" were held against a German counter-attack on 19 April, between Nauroy and Moronvilliers, by the 5th Division and 6th Division, which had been trained as (specialist counter-attack divisions), supported by the 23rd Division plus one regiment. Next day, the French 33rd Division captured Le Téton and the capture of Aubérive was completed by the 24th Division and the Territorial battalions. On 20 April, French troops got onto the summit of Le Casque and on 22 April, the eastern and lower summit of Mont Haut was secured by the 45th Division.
The Fourth Army took and Counter-attacks by the German 4th Army on 27 May had temporary success, before the French recaptured ground around Mont Haut; lack of troops had forced the Germans into piecemeal attacks, instead of a simultaneous attack all along the front. The French attacked again from and despite German counter-attacks on 19 and 23 April, advanced slightly on the Heights of Moronvilliers. After a lull, the French attacked again on 30 April and ended the offensive on 20 May. The number of German prisoners taken by the end of the battle had been increased to and
Background
Strategic developments The Moronvilliers massif was a group of hills, densely wooded before 1914, to the west of the Suippes river. The village of Moronvilliers lay in a dip below the north crest of the main ridge. There is an outlying peak known as Mont Sans Nom, high, with a hollow then a ridge to the north-west, the highest part of which is the western summit of Mont Haut at . West of the ridge, which in 1917 was between the left flank of the French Fourth Army and the Fifth Army, was an area of low ground about wide, between the Moronvilliers massif and the Nogent l'Abbesse massif east of Reims, in which lay the village of Beine. A road ran east from Beine to Nauroy, Moronvilliers and St Martin l'Heureux on the Suippes, north of the Moronvilliers massif. The eastern slope declines close to the bank of the Suippes, between St Martin-l'Heureux and Aubérive and the southern slope declines south of the road from Reims to St Hilaire le Grand, St Ménéhould and Verdun as it descends into the Plain of Châlons. The highest point of Mont Haut is nearly as high as Vigie de Berru (, the highest hill overlooking Reims from the east. The capture of Mont Sans Nom and the Moronvilliers Ridge would threaten the German hold on the Beine basin and the Nogent l'Abbesse massif; the loss of these would make the German positions on the Fresne and Brimont heights untenable. The loss of Fort Brimont would make the German positions on the low ground south of the Aisne, from Berméricourt north-west to the mouth of the Suippes, vulnerable to another attack.
The capture of the German defences on the edge of the Châlons Plain above Aubérive, was necessary for an advance around Beine and an attack from the east of the Nogent l'Abbesse massif. Success would allow the Fourth Army to advance towards the Suippes, between St Martin l'Heureux and Warmeriville to the north-west, outflank the Nogent l'Abbesse hills from the north. The railway from Bazancourt to Warmeriville, Somme-Py and Apremont, the main German supply line south of the Aisne, would be cut. New railways had been built by the Germans but cutting the line would make it difficult for the Germans to supply the forces east of the Suippes and west of the upper Aisne. Should Mont Cornillet, Mont Blond, Mont Haut, Mont Perthois, Le Casque, Le Téton and Mont Sans Nom be captured, the German defences from the Suippes to the Argonne would be outflanked from the west. The German positions on the hills overlooked the Plain of Châlons, giving an uninterrupted view of French movements between Reims and the Argonne. A successful French offensive would deprive the Germans of observation and block the route to the Plain of Châlons.
Tactical developments On the right flank, the XII Corps contributed the 24th Division to the attack and the XVII Corps (General J. B. Dumas) west of the Suippes, had three divisions and some additional troops. On the left of the Fourth Army, the VIII Corps (General Hely d'Oissel) had two divisions and one regiment. Relatively few French infantry were to attack but were supported by a huge amount of artillery, which had been discreetly moved into the area and camouflaged. More lines had been added to the railways behind the French front, extensions and a network of light railways had been built in the Moronvilliers sector and roads had been repaired and enlarged for motor vehicles, behind the Fourth Army front. French preparations could not be disguised from the German observers on the hills above the Châlons Plain but as similar activity was occurring at many places, from the North Sea to Switzerland, it was not until the arrival of large number of guns had been detected by the Germans, that the possibility of a French offensive became known. Even knowledge of the arrival of more guns was not conclusive, because the quantity of guns and munitions held by the Allies had become so enormous, that even the presence of a thousand guns and the expenditure of millions of shells could be a feint.
Prelude
French preparations
The French Fourth Army comprised the XII Corps, XVII, VIII Corps and tank (Captain H. Lefebvre), with two Schneider CA1 groups, 1 (AS 1) and AS 10 of eight tanks each, reinforced by some Saint-Chamond tanks. The on the Fourth Army front had 22 (squadrons) of aircraft and eleven balloon companies, the artillery had The Fourth Army held an front, just north of the Reims, St Hilaire le Grand, St Ménéhould to Verdun road, between Massiges and , about below the peak of Mont Haut. To reach the summit, the French infantry would have to advance about up a series of steep rises.
The French bombardment opened on 10 April, against the German first, second and third lines on the south side of the ridge. The German defences on the northern slope, were bombarded under the direction of French artillery-observation aircraft observers. Villages, woods, roads, railway lines, cantonments, bivouacs, artillery batteries and ammunition dumps were "deluged" by shellfire, with few pauses until dawn on 17 April. Poor weather interfered with air-observation but by the night of 16 April, reconnaissance photographs taken from the air, reports from ground observers and prisoner reports, showed that wide lanes had been cut through the barbed wire entanglements in front of the German first line, where they had not been obliterated and that German trench lines and field fortifications, particularly south of Mont Sans Nom had been destroyed. Few German defences remained intact, except for those in Bois de la Grille and around Aubérive.
The second line, half-way up the slopes of the Moronvilliers hills, was destroyed from south of Mont Perthois to the Suippes, barbed-wire in the woods to the north-east of Mont Sans Nom was partially cut, making an attack on the German position on the ridges above the Suippes practicable. In the west, from Bois de la Grille to Tranchée du Bois du Chien, the bombardment was less effective and the German defences in Bois de la Grille and Trench behind it and Erfurt Trench to the east, were not destroyed. South of Mont Haut, the and the row of dugouts up the south slope of Mont Perthois, had not been seriously damaged. Most of the German defences on the southern slopes of Mont Cornillet, Mont Blond, Mont Haut and Mont Perthois had been badly damaged but many intermediate strong points, machine-gun nests remained.
Most of the German observation posts on Mont Cornillet, Mont Haut and Le Téton, had been destroyed but many dugouts and buried telephone lines had remained intact, as did the German defences on the north slopes of the Mont Cornillet–Le Téton ridge and the tunnels under Mont Cornillet and Mont Perthois, which were still unknown to the French. German infantry encampments, below the ridge on the north slope had been damaged and the roads from Nauroy, Mont Haut and Moronvilliers, to St Masmes, Pont Faverger, Betheniville and the Suippes valley north-west of St Hilaire-le-Petit, were blocked in places by shell craters. An attack from the west, was still obstructed by Bois de la Grille and Trench and an attack on the eastern flank would be confronted by Le Golfe, a position which extended the German line east to Aubérive. The fortified village of Vaudesincourt to the north, on the banks of the Suippes and the maze of trenches on the right bank, had been badly damaged but much of the wire was uncut and blockhouses and pill-boxes had not been destroyed.
French plan The Fourth Army plan was to capture Bois de la Grille, Leopoldshöhe Trench and all of the south face of the Moronvilliers hills, push the Germans back from Le Golfe and encircle Aubérive from the flanks. Vaudesincourt was then to be captured and the right flank was to link with the centre, which was to take Côte 181 and Mont Sans Nom. If Le Téton had not been captured, the troops in the French centre, were to drive the Germans from Bois de Côte 144 and attack the hill from the east. East of the Suippes, on the right flank of the XVII Corps, four and a half battalions were to attack Aubérive and the trenches beyond, up to those at the western fringe of Bois des Abatis. West of the Suippes to the south of Aubérive, the Moroccan Division, a regiment of the Foreign Legion and the 185th Territorial Brigade were to take Aubérive, the German blockhouses at Vaudesincourt, Le Golfe and Mont Sans Nom. On the right flank of the XVII Corps, one division was to capture Le Casque, its wood and Le Téton; on the left flank the divisional objectives were the summits of Mont Haut, Mont Perthois and the trenches linking Mont Haut to Le Casque. The VIII Corps (General Hely d'Oissel), was to capture Mont Cornillot and Mont Blond, Flensburg Trench and the next one behind, which connected the defences of the summits, Mont Blond, Mont Cornillot, Bois de la Grille and Trench.
German preparations