Memorial to Louis Astoul along the Chemin-des-Dames of the 70th Senegalese Regiment who was killed April 16, 1917, the first day of the Second Battle of the Aisne, the Battle of Chemin-des-Dames. © 2014 by John M. Shea
Text:1914–1918A la mémoirede notre fils bien aiméle S-LieutenantLouis Astouldu 70eme SénégalaisTombé glorieusementdans ces paragesà l'âge de 24 ansau cours de l'assautdu 16 Avril 1917et de ses camaradesIn memoryof our beloved sonSecond LieutenantLouis Astoulof the 70th SenegaleseFallen gloriouslyin this areaat the age of 24 yearsduring the assaultof April 16, 1917and of his comrades
"Our morale was excellent as we crossed the parapet. Nothing could stop us: [in our minds] we'd already reached Caronne, California Plateau, the Ailette, which we would cross with thick ropes to make sure no one drowned. What a disappointment! What slaughter! From the start of the first phase — the plan had six of them — the machine-guns stopped us dead. Within ten or fifteen minutes the company had been cut to pieces; among the dead, many veterans of Verdun and the Somme."
Corporal Jean Portes of the French 1st Infantry describing his company's destruction in the opening minutes of the Nivelle Offensive, April 16, 1917. The battles of Verdun and the Somme, the two great Western Front battles of 1916, the first the French defense against the German assault on Verdun, the second the Anglo-French offensive on the Somme River. The Nivelle Offensive began with a British offensive at Arras, begun on April 9. The Second Battle of the Aisne was the French component. Despite the stalling of the British at Arras, the morale of French soldiers was reported to be high, but it was dashed by the failure of their attack in its first minutes and hours.
They Shall Not Pass: The French Army on the Western Front 1914-1918 by Ian Sumner, page 149, copyright © Ian Sumner 2012, publisher: Pen and Sword, publication date: 2012
1917-04-16, 1917, April, Nivelle Offensive, Second Battle of the Aisne
