1917 : THE MASSACRE OF THE SENEGALESE AT THE CHEMIN DES DAMES

In the morning of 16th April 1917, more than 15,000 Senegalese Infantrymen launched an assault on the ridges above the Chemin des Dames.  Paralysed by the biting cold, they were mown down by the German machine guns which should have been destroyed during the days of shelling that had preceded the attack.  In one day – 16th April – more than 1,400 ‘Senegalese’ died in the conquest of the Mont des Singes, to save the farms of Moisy and Hurtebise and on the hillsides of Ailles… 

Those men we call the ‘Senegalese Infantrymen’ who fought in the 14-18 war were in fact from all of the countries that were former French occidental colonies, i.e. Senegal, The Ivory Coast, Benin, Guinea, Mali, Burkina-Faso, Niger and Mauritania.  Most of these territories had been under French colonial rule for less than 30 years.  The conquest of Dahomey (now Benin) goes back to 1892-1893 for example.  With a few rare exceptions, these men from the African continent who came to defend the Republic of France had no civil rights and most could hardly speak any French.

 1917 was the year which saw a massive influx of Senegalese Infantrymen.  The enormous losses since 1914 made the intervention of the colonials from Occidental French Africa indispensable.  More than 50,000 were recruited in 1915-1916, often unceremoniously, and at a price of thousands of deaths and hundreds of villages raised to the ground, in particular in what is now known as Burkina Faso.  This provoked what historian Marc Michel has called the ‘greatest colonial revolution in French Black Africa”.

General Nivelle replaced Joffre in December 1916 as leader of the offensive which he considered decisive. He accepted, in a signed note, the idea of ‘not being gentle with Black blood so that White blood can be saved…’.  General Nivelle hoped, in the Chemin des Dames, to vindicate his idea about a ‘Black Army’ – the title of the book he had published in 1910.  Mangin therefore placed ‘his’ Senegalese on the two flanks of his troops and instructed them to attack around Vauxaillon-Laffaux and Paissy-Hurtebise.

20 battalions, about 15,000 men, were assembled on the front line.  They had spent the winter months in the camps in the temperate Midi.  But it was a real winter that they confronted upon their arrival in Aisne!  At least 1,100 of them had to be evacuated before 16th April, victims of the bad weather, suffering from pneumonia or chilblains.

During the first two days of the attack, on 16th and 17th April, the battalions of ‘Senegalese’ Infantrymen lost three quarters of their number.  Neither were the white officers and corporals  spared.  What was left of the units had to regroup for the 18th April.  At the Chemin des Dames General Mangin gained the reputation of  ‘butcher’ and ‘Black burner’ which led to his command of the VIth Army being revoked by Nivelle on 29th April.

But, right from the beginning of May 1917, the Blacks were back in the Chemin des Dames where they continued to fight throughout the summer and until the Malmaison offensive at the end of October.