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Updated: May 19, 2025
In the night of July 26, 1917, no less than five attacks were made by the Germans in the vicinity of the height south and west of Moronvilliers, but all broke down under fire of the French artillery. East of Auberive, several groups of Germans led by an officer tried a surprise attack which led to close fighting and from which hardly one German soldier escaped unwounded.
On the left bank of the Meuse, in the Verdun sector, around Hill 304 and Dead Man Hill, artillery duels were continuous during the night of July 13, 1917. The loss of the strong positions on the Moronvilliers hills, the chief observation posts in the region, spurred the Germans on to make frequent and frenzied attempts to force the French out.
On July 14, 1917, the French scored a double victory when they occupied five heights among a clump of hills known as the Moronvilliers Massif to the east of Rheims. The positions won were of the first importance whereby the Germans lost their principal observatories in this region.
The French artillery and machine guns delivered such a withering fire against the attackers that they were thrown back in disorder with appalling losses. In Champagne the French continued to make progress, capturing important points in Moronvilliers Wood. British troops south of the Bapaume-Cambrai road slowly advanced on Marcoing, a place of considerable importance and an outpost to Cambrai.
Close by are all the places famous through years of fighting Souain, Navarin Farm, Tahure, the Butte de Tahure, and, to the north-west, Somme-Py, Ste. Marie-Py, and so on to Moronvilliers and Craonne.
We ran through it, past a turning to Moronvilliers on the left famous name! and within a short distance of Nogent l'Abbesse, the fort which did most to wreck Rheims Cathedral, and so down in a dreary semi-darkness into Rheims itself. Thirty-five years ago I was in Rheims for the first and only time, before this visit. It was in September, not long before the vintage.
To the west the French captured several fortified lines of trenches from the heights as far south as Beine. East of the mount General Nivelle's men forced their way up the northern slopes of Mont Haut; and northeast of this position to the approaches of the road from Mauroy and Moronvilliers.
Successful raids in the vicinity of Wieltje and Nieuport resulted in the capture of a good number of prisoners. On the Verdun front the Germans renewed their offensive without obtaining any important progress. Heavy artillery fighting continued near Moronvilliers in the Champagne and around Hill 304.
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