The Soissons offensive was a German offensive operation launched against the undermanned French forces defending Soissons on the Western Front of World War I.
Approximately 40,000 Imperial German Army soldiers assembled at Laon in preparation for a major offensive, responding to Allied probing attacks in Flanders and a near-breakthrough at Rethel. The Germans entered the town of Soissons and established their headquarters at the city hall, while the French Army soldiers entrenched themselves to the south. While the French were outnumbered, they enjoyed superiority in artillery, as well as the defensive advantage.
The Germans attacked the French in waves, sending conscripts, regulars, and elite infantry into the same meatgrinder. French machine-gun emplacements and rifle fire slaughtered the advancing Germans, who lacked cover as they advanced on the French entrenchments. The French general Michel-Joseph Maunoury attempted to exploit the Germans' heavy losses by calling in reinforcements from his quiet left flank and attempting to capture the German right-flank trenches. Although the French artillery carried out suppressive fire and lethal barrages against the German defenders, the alert Germans massacred the advancing French on the left, and Maunoury quickly called in reinforcements to fill their gaps in the trenches. The French continued to withstand German human wave attacks for several hours, and the Germans, having greatly depleted their reserves, decided to call for a ceasefire. Maunoury, confident that he could press home the advantage, declined, and he proceeded to order his entire army to leave their trenches and launch human wave attacks of their own. Rather than retreating, the Germans held their ground at their strategic positions and butchered the advancing Frenchmen, negating any gains they were initially able to achieve. The French were forced to retreat after losing half of their number, just as the Germans had done (although the Germans had lost over 20,000 men rather than under 5,000). A follow-up German offensive on Soissons from Noyon was also unsuccessful, marking the defeat of the Germans' plans to take Soissons.
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