Riffaud Léopold (né à Chenon) - Mort pour la france le 14 juin 1917
Léopold Riffaud a soldier in the 52nd Regiment of Artilery then the 85th Regiment of Heavy Artillery of Africa, enlisted at Angoulême, in the department of the Charente in 1896.
He was taking part in the offensive
‘Nivelle’, April to June 1917 during the battle ‘Chemin des Dames’.
Léopold, lost his life as a result of gas attack during
fighting on the 14th June 1917 bois ‘des Geais’ (woods named
after the Jay bird ) at Cormiche, in
the Department 51, the Marne. His death
was registered in Chenon on the 16th September 1917. In common with all those who died in the Great War, his memory, to this day, is kept alive by his family
at each occasion of national remembrance in the village of Chenon.
The tragedy
that was the battle of ‘Les Chemin des Dames’ was the idea of and directed by
General Nivelle during the spring of 1917.
The battle was known under these different names, l’Offensive Nivelle,
le Chemins des Dames, or the second battle of L’Aisne according to contemporary
reports. The armies of France suffered a bitter defeat. At the time Nivelle –
and to his ultimate distress - thought the advance would strike towards Laon
(fifteen kilometers away as the crow flies) breaching the German lines before
the end of the day. The armies of Germany and France had fought over the
plateau for several months.
The toll of
the offensive is difficult to establish.
The French losses were often under reported and limited to the losses
during the period 16 – 19 April. Now, the fighting carried on up to the end of
June ( the taking of Craonne on the 4th May and the seizure of the Dragon’s
cave on the 25th June. In those days it suited to look at the losses
for each separate month - April, May and June. At the time the secretive
committees gathered the deputies (members of parliament) together and the Deputy Favre estimated the
losses on the French side as close to 200,000 men at the end two months of the
offensive. As to the German losses they were still too difficult to evaluate.
It was
after this slaughter that mutinies occurred in the French camp, these were
particularly frequent after the 16th April. These were mostly concentrated on the sector
‘Chemins des Dames’ and the front at Champagne.
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