As they came up for the fifth
assault, a wild cheer of admiration broke out along the French line.
But the rifles spoke steadily, none the less for that. After the
fifth assault, barely a hundred men were left, nearly all wounded.
They reversed rifles, a sign of surrender, and in all honor they
were received by General Foch, who conducted them to the hospital
in the rear. They lived up to the full the most heroic traditions
of the old Prussian corps and they saved that whole German force
from destruction. Still, with the annihilation of the Death's Head
Hussars and the remainder of the Prussian Guards Corps on the same
day, the forces under General Foch felt that in part Rheims had
been avenged.
The other section of this second phase of the Aisne consisted of
the trench warfare, which solidified from September 19 to October 6,
1914, under conditions of extreme difficulty and more than extreme
discomfort. It was practically the establishment of a trench campaign
that lasted all winter, and revived the centuries-old fortress
warfare, applying it under modern conditions to field fortifications.
The French during that winter on the Aisne never quite succeeded
in rivaling the mechanical precision of the German movements; the
Germans, on the other hand, never showed themselves to possess
the emotional fervor of the French with the bayonet.
In many places German and Allies' trenches almost touched each
other.
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