page_title: Battle of the Hills
section_title: German 3rd Army counter-attacks
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of the Hills / Aftermath / Subsequent operations / German 3rd Army counter-attacks
caption_attribution_description: English: Battle of the Hills 1917
context_page_description: The Battle of the Hills also known as the Battle of the Hills of Champagne and the Third Battle of Champagne, was a battle of the First World War that was fought from April–May 1917. The French Fourth Army offensive against the German 4th Army was to support the Groupe d'armées du Nord along the Chemin des Dames, in the Second Battle of the Aisne. General Anthoine, commander of the Fourth Army planned a supporting attack but this was rejected by Nivelle and Anthoine planned a frontal attack by two corps on an 11 km front, to break through the German defences on the first day and commence exploitation the following day. The battle took place east of Reims, between Prunay and Aubérive, in the province of Champagne, along the Moronvilliers Hills.
  On the left of XII Corps to the east of the Suippes, the 24th Division established a flank guard by attacking through Bois des Abattis towards Germains and Baden-Baden trenches. On the left flank of the division, Aubérive east of the river was rapidly captured. On the west bank of the Suippes, the 75th Territorial Regiment made progress round the main part of Aubérive.
context_section_description: After the defeats of 20 May, the Germans counter-attacked the next day and were repulsed. On 23 May, an assault on Mont Haut was stopped by artillery-fire and on 25 May, the French took more ground on both sides of Mont Cornillet and took 120 prisoners. At dawn on 2 May, German attacks began at Le Téton and the French positions further east and gained temporary footholds in the French positions, before counter-attacks forced the German infantry back. In the afternoon, a German attack on the summit of Le Casque and more attacks at dusk on Le Casque and Le Téton failed, as did an attempt at dawn on 28 May; a raid against the French on Mont Blond and a fresh attack on Mont Blond on 30 May, also failed. After a gas bombardment on Mont Blond and the French lines north-west of Aubérive, German infantry attacked again at 2:00 a.m. on 31 May, at Mont Haut, Le Casque and Le Téton. The German attacks continued all day and were eventually defeated in hand-to-hand fighting; some advanced posts north-east of Mont Haut were captured, until French counter-attacks managed to push the Germans back. By 3 June, Army Group German Crown Prince had recovered hardly any ground lost from 16 April to 20 May on the Aisne front and on the Moronvilliers Heights. German counter-attacks had mostly been costly failures and from 16 April to2 June, the Franco-British had taken c. 52,000 prisoners, 440 heavy and field guns, many trench mortars and more than 1,000 machine-guns.
caption: Operations at Mont Cornilllet and Mont Blond, 21 June 1917
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "GIMP 2.8.6", "Image DateTime": "2013:11:23 01:25:22", "Image ExifOffset": "2218", "Image Padding": "[]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "96", "Thumbnail YResolution": "96", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "4472", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7179", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0210", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "B3909F3CA2A64047AD9CFCDB758724C8", "EXIF Padding": "[]"}