Today is an important day in the history of France .
104 years ago to the day.
On April 16, 1917 at 6am, the poilus leave their trenches and embark on the battle of the Chemin des Dames.
In spite of the 5 million shells fired at the German lines, they were almost intact, the few minutes that followed the massacre began, the poilus threw themselves against barbed wire and a wall of machine guns, the French were mowed down by a deluge of fire and steel, with the bad weather, the French troops got bogged down in the muddy slopes, the ground slipped away from under their feet.
The Tiralleurs Sénégalais were also massacred, as well as not being adapted to the cold, many of them were caught by the frost.
The first assault waves were literally blown to pieces in less than an hour.
This battle was also marked by the first engagement of the first French tanks, 130 tanks were almost all destroyed or mired in mud.
The French waves continued to throw themselves into the hell that was the battle of the Chemin des Dames.
From 16 to 25 April 1917, 30,000 men died and 100,000 were wounded in just 10 days.
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