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Updated: May 13, 2025
In the first dash a few Germans succeeded in approaching the British front trenches, but they were killed or driven out and the attack collapsed at all points. In the night of the 15th the sorely tried French forces continued to bear the brunt of German fury around Craonne and Mont Carnillet. Raids they made in the region of Hill 304, on the heights of the Meuse, broke down with heavy losses.
The Germans lost 369, the French and Belgians 201, and the British 147. On May 2, 1917, the French in the Champagne began to push their way slowly through the great forest south of Beine, which covers considerable territory from south of Mont Carnillet to La Pompelle Fort, the most easterly fortification of Rheims.
The British continued these dashing exploits on the following day on both sides of Neuve Chapelle, east of Armentières, and north of Ypres. In each operation the German defenses were smashed and a considerable number of prisoners were taken. In the Champagne the French had to defend themselves against persistent German assaults made to regain lost positions at Mont Blond and Mont Carnillet.
Carnillet to Vaudesincourt support positions seven miles in extent also were captured. During this push 2,500 German prisoners were taken. The French advance on both sides of Rheims now left that city in a salient that would prove a great source of danger to the Germans.
On the following day the French in a brilliant movement made on a 600-yard front advanced their line 600 yards nearer to Mont Carnillet. It was in this region that a unit consisting of only sixty-two French Grenadiers and portable machine guns occupied a position that the Germans coveted.
East of Rheims the French were successful in minor operations in which they captured a good number of prisoners. Artillery duels were almost continuous on the following day north and south of the Ailette River, in the Champagne, and in the region of the heights of Carnillet and Blond.
In the face of such deadly opposition the British still continued to press onward, forcing the Germans to pay a fearful price for Hindenburg's strategic plans. On the last day of the month French troops in the Champagne made a new attack on both sides of Mont Carnillet, a commanding peak southeast of Mauroy.
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