September 1915 – 315e Regiment d'Infanterie

Jules Pre 315e RI and his movements with the 115e RI to be discovered when we get to his early 1915 letters

Before starting his campaign with the 315^eme Jules was called up to the 115e RI serving with them from August to until his transfer and promotion to Sergent when being transferred to the 315 in October 1915.

October 1915

Total Casualties: 46

Chefs de Corps du 315e
Régiment d’infanterie
LIEUTENANT-COLONEL DEVAUX

315eme RI Pre arrival:

“ Le 29, arrivée du dépôt d’un renfort de 100 hommes affectés aux 4e et 5e bat”

« le 02, arrivée d’un renfort de 50 hommes et 1 officier venant du dépôt du 117e RI. »

29^th September, 100 men arrive as replacements to cover some of the losses from the 25th September.

2nd October, Another 50 men arrive form the 117^th Regiment, after the 25th September attacks.

Photos from Daniel Durand of the post bombardment landscape on the 25th September

The steady stream of replacements arriving at the 315e is necessary due to the combat loses from the 25^th September – 7 October of 28 officers and 1437 soldiers (see figures below); These heavy losses, led to the arrival of Sgt Jules Andre Destrigneville (Jules) as a replacement;

Therefore the background to Jules arrival like many during the war was to replace a fallen soldier in this case a Sergent.

The exact date of his arrival with the 315e is a mystery, as the regimental diary (JMO) indicates no new arrivals on the 1^st October, but his service record states he starts with the 315e on the 1st October.

Therefore we can assume his actual arrival with the 315^eme RI may have been on either 29^th September or the 2^nd October, but as @croonaert on twitter has highlighted as an NCO he may have also arrived as an individual rather than with a large group of reinforcements (hopefully the letters from 1915 will give us the answer)

315^eme regiment d’infantrie (RI) – 4e Battilion – 16e compagnie

Rank: Sergent (Sergeant)

Above chart shows the different Rank badges in the French Army

Above pictures are members of Jules 16e compagnie from early 1915 from the Daniel Durand (fellow 315e soldier) photos

Above photo has no location, name or date. My working assumption having three other group photos is that this is from early on during his time with the 315e.
Why? One individual with the red ring around his head is in another photo, but with la Croix de Guerre (Jules has the blue ring and also no Croix de Guerre). We will also see from later letters in March 1916 of a “dark” group photo – see 1916

1^st October: Etat-Major

chef de corps: colonel DEVAUX
capitaine adjoint, fait fonction de major: lieutenant ALLAIN
Médecin chef de service: médecin major de 1ère classe CARRIVE
Officier chargé des détails: lieutenant (R) THOMAS
Officier d’approvisionnement: lieutenant (R) ROTTREAU
porte drapeau: sous-lieutenant MENANT
commandant de la compagnie de mitrailleuses: lieutenant GOULON
chef de section de mitrailleuses: sous-lieutenant DUPONT

16ème compagnie:

CdU: SLT VERRET

CdS: SLT AUBRY

October

1^st October

We join the action with the 315e RI on the 1st October, where after spending most of September on the left hand side of the Suippes river the 4e Bataillon and the 16e compagnie move to the Rive Droite of La Suippe.

Aubérive is a small village in NE France in the Marne, with the river Suippe passing through. Pre war Aubérive was a classic sleepy French village in rural France.

Tragically for the town and its in habitants, Auberive became part of the German frontline and was held by the Germans for 2 years before the 1918 offensives. The village itself during the war destroyed and was declared a “village detruit” at the end of the war the village was award the Croix de Guerre in 1920.

Auberive church in July 1915 (note the German troops in front)

But back on the 1st October 1916 the frontline sat to the south the village.

« le 01, vers 19h, relève du 6e bat. par les 4e bat. (rive droite de la SUIPPE, 3cies en 1ère ligne, 1 cie en réserve) et 5e bat. (rive gauche de la SUIPPE, 3 cies en 1ère ligne, 1 cie en réserve). Le 6e bat. va au repos: 2 cies au bois des RESERVOIRS, 1 cie au bois A, 1 cie au bois de la CHAPELLE »

Jules battalion the 4e (Bat) move into in front lines, with three others compagnie and 1 in reserves line (2nd Lines). The 4e Bat stayed in position until 7^th October

« 4e bat. sous-secteur de la rive droite de la SUIPPE (2 cies en 1ère ligne, 1 en réserve en L2, 1 au bois de la CHAPELLE) »

« Du 07 au 10, Arrivée d’un renfort venant du dépot: 5 officiers, 317 hommes. Relève du 4e bat. par le 5e bat., le 4e bat. se rend à MOURMELON en cantonnement d’alerte »

7th October

First tour ends with the 315e RI on the 7th and out of the trenches. The 4e Bat now go into a rest period until the 11^th October at Mourmelon

The positions for the 315e from 1st October. Pictures from the period and location from the Daniel Durand collection.

The above map is from the Ernest Bonhomme website who arrived on the 29^thSeptember as a replacement with the 4^th Bat, 13^thCompagnie, (potentially with Jules), but was injured during shelling on the 1^st October and tragically died of this wounds on the 2^nd October

11^th October

Picture of Mourmelon from August 1915 from Daniel Durand

Rest period at Mourmelon ends at 19h and the 4e Bat are back into the Frontlines on the right bank of the Suippes river relieving the 5e Bat, whilst the 5e Bat take their place at Mourmelon. 4e Bat stay there until 23th October.

« Le 11, relève vers 19h dans le sous-secteur de gauche du 5e bat. par le 4e bat. »

23th October

Jules 4e Bat are relieved by the 6e Bat and are sent back to Mourlon for rest until the 29th October.

« Le 23, vers 19h relève dans le sous-secteur de la rive gauche du 4e bat. par le 6e Bat.; le 4e bat. va cantonner à MOURMELON. Situation inchangée jusqu’au 29. »

Picture of the German front line at Auberive post September 25th attack:
sourceWIKIMEDIA COMMONS, auteur: Herveroller, libre de partage

Family photo of Jules in a support trench in the Auberive sector in October 1915

The above photo location and date were a mystery until recently, when I came across the same picture in the Daniel Durand photo album (link below)

26.000 photos de poilus/Régiments de réserve et créés en 14/18/Régiments d’infanterie du 300e au 373e/315e RI/Albums/DURAND Daniel/12-2-5a Tranchees de soutien (chtimiste.com)

Location?

Daniel Durand pictures have dates and locations, therefore the pictures in the collection are in chronological order and the pictures before and after are from the Auberive sector. In addition the photos before and after are in a section of the book called “Auberive reserve trenches”.

When?

October 1915 as by the end of the month the 315e moved to another sector and Jules only arrived on the 1st October. Therefore look at Jules two tours to the frontline, the photo was taken between 1st – 7th October or 11th -23th October 1915.

26^th October: Etat-Major

chef de corps: colonel DEVAUX (no change)
capitaine adjoint, fait fonction de major: lieutenant ALLAIN (no change)
Médecin chef de service: médecin major de 1ère classe CARRIVE (no change)
Officier chargé des détails: lieutenant (R) THOMAS (no change)
Officier d’approvisionnement: lieutenant (R) ROTTREAU (no change)
porte drapeau: sous-lieutenant MENANT (no change)
Commandant de la compagnie de mitrailleuses: capitaine FERRAN (NEW)
Commandant de la compagnie de mitrailleuses: lieutenant GOULON (no change)
chef de section de mitrailleuses: sous-lieutenant DUPONT (no change)

16ème compagnie:

CdU: SLT VERRET(no change)

CdS: SLT AUBRY(no change)

November 1916

Total Casualties: 17

Summary of November : Final destination Champagne, Ville-sur-Tourbe, the ground is very different from Auberive and in places was marsh like and therefore support mounts rather than trenches were built.

1st November

The 315eme leave at 03h00 ….in the direction of St Etienne au Temple via Vadenay > St Hilare au Temple arriving at 07h30

2^nd November

The 315e march towards Moivre (24km march in the rain). They start on the 1^st at 23h and arrive the next day at 07h00

11^th November

8h00 into trucks direction Chaudefontaine arriving at 11h00 and bivouaquer at Charmeresse.

16th & 17th November

They move into their new sector and into Front lines at Ville-sur-Tourbe

« Subdivision CALVAIRE: 4e bat. avec 2 Cie 1/2 dans la tranchée de soutien détachant chacune 1 section dans la tranchée de résistance et en postes avancés. 3 sections de mitrailleuses dont 2 de la CM2 de brigade et 1 cie 1/2 dans la tranchée de réserve. PC du chef de bataillon: tranchée “DELIBEROS»

Ville-sur-Tourbe

A small village in the Marne region of France. Again like Auberive it was partially destroyed, due to its unfortunate location on the frontline. The village itself was one of multiple focus points for the “seconde bataille de Champagne”. The Second Champagne offensive gained limited success, with around 2/3km gained. The battle ended on the 3rd October but a battle of attrition continued until the 6th November, which result in around 145,000 casualties to the allies from the 25th September to 6th November.

Pictures of Auberive from Daniel Durand below:

Trench map of the Tourbe sector in late 1915 with the Calvaire section and hightlighted *DELIBEROS* section where Poste de Command was located.

21st November

“le 21, vers 22h le régiment est relevé par le 103e RI et va cantonner à ST MENEHOULD (EM, CHR, CM1, 5e et 6e bat.) et CHAUDEFONTAINE (6e bat.)”

The RI is relieved by the 103e RI and the 5e and 6e Bat go to St Menehould and Chaudefontaine, but it is unclear where the 4e go (hopefully letters will shed light on this mystery)

25th November 18 new men arrive within the 315 RI

27^th November

After 6 days of rest back into the trenches to relieve the 103e RI. 4e Bat back to Calvaire sector and the 6e to Pruneau subdivision (Pruneau Trench pictured below) and the 5e to Montremoy

Image of a mounds built to increase high, due to the high water level

Despite the work from the soldiers of the 315e RI, trenches flooded easily

December 1915

Total Casualties: 8

3rd December

After 7 days frontline tour, the 103e RI relieve the 315e with the 4e Bat going again back to Neuville (pictured below), 5e Bat going to St Menehould and 6e going to Chaudefontaine for rest periods.

« le 03, relève par le 103e RI vers 23h. Le 315 va cantonner à ST MENEHOULD (EM, CHR, CM et 5e bat.) , CHAUDEFONTAINE (6e bat.) et LA NEUVELLE (4e bat.) »

9th December

« Le 09, vers 22h, le régiment relève le 103e sur CALVAIRE (4e bat.), PRUNEAU (5e bat.) et RESERVE (6e bat.) »

After 6 days rest back to the frontlines again and the same sectors for all bats, until the 15th December.

Frontline photos from the Tourbe Sector from Daniel Durand

15th December

« 15, relève du 103e RI et cantonnement à ST MENEHOULD, CHAUDEFONTAINE et LA NEUVELLE dans le même dispositif que le 03 décembre »

315 RI is relieved by the 103e RI and go again to Neuville for another rest period.

21st December

“le 21, relève du 103e vers 22h sur CALVAIRE (4e bat.), PRUNEAU (6e bat.) et RESERVE (5e bat.)”

Back to the frontlines again this time to spend Christmas, 4e going to Calvaire and 6e to Pruneau (pictured above) and the 5e to Reserve.

27th December

“Le 27, relève vers 23h par le 103e RI et cantonnement sur ST MENEHOULD et LA NEUVELLE. Arrivée d’un renfort venant de la 5e région de 7 sous-officiers et 151 hommes“

REST again at Neuville for the 4e Bat until the new year

End of 1915