Floods on the Aisne which impeded the French offensive around Soissons, depicted a month later in the Illustrated London News.



January 11, Soissons—Despite the general stalemate in the West, the French were not content to remain on the defensive. In part, this was due to the larger strategic picture; Germany was beginning to move troops to the East, where they judged they would have greater success against the Russians. Hoping to prevent this and relieve pressure on their increasingly-isolated ally, in late December Joffre ordered an offensive, to mainly occur in Champagne. Mostly, this quickly became an exercise in positional warfare—fighting smartly over limited tactical objectives, rather than mass offensives across a wide front. Attacks were not limited to Champagne, but occurred to a lesser extent along the rest of the French front. One such attack took place on the Aisne near Soissons, where Maunoury’s Sixth Army successfully secured two hills two miles north of the city after an artillery bombardment on January 8.

Over the next several days, the Germans attempted to retake the hills, but with no success at first. They began to bring up additional artillery and reinforcements, and then received some help from Mother Nature on January 11th. The weather over the last several weeks had been dreary and rainy all along the Western Front; we have seen the trouble that caused for the British in Flanders. Here, the rain caused the Aisne to flood, sweeping away all but one of the makeshift bridges built across the Aisne in September around Soissons (the Germans having destroyed the prewar bridges during their retreat). This made it difficult to get supplies and reinforcements to the French troops on the newly captured hills, which had to be evacuated (over the one remaining bridge) over the next few days.

Sources include: Randal Grey, Chronicle of the First World War (Volume I).