Battle of La Malmaison
final French action of the 1917 campaign of the First World War
The Battle of La Malmaison (Bataille de la Malmaison) from 23 to 27 October, was the final French action of the 1917 campaign in the First World War, which had begun with the Nivelle Offensive. The French captured the village and fort of La Malmaison and took control of the Chemin des Dames ridge. The German 7th Army (General Max von Boehn) had discovered French preparations for the attack and also identified the date and time. Boehn chose to defend the front positions, rather than treat them as an advanced zone and to conduct the main defence north of the Oise–Aisne Canal. The German artillery was outnumbered three-to-one and on the front of the 14th Division, 32 German batteries were confronted by 125 French, which silenced most of the German guns before the attack. Gas from French bombardments on low-lying land near the Oise–Aisne Canal in the Ailette valley, became so dense that it was impossible to carry ammunition and supplies forward or to remove the wounded.
Battalions from specialist German counter-attack divisions (Eingreifdivisionen) had been distributed along the front line and were caught in the French bombardments, German infantry shelters having been identified by French air reconnaissance and systematically destroyed. After the four-day bombardment was extended by two more days because of bad weather, the French XIV, XXI and XI corps of the Sixth Army, attacked on a 12.1 km (7.5 mi) front with six divisions. Zero hour had been set for 5:45 a.m. but a German message, ordering the front garrisons to be ready at 5:30 a.m.
The public source identifies “Battle of La Malmaison” as final French action of the 1917 campaign of the First World War. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Battle, Malmaison and final.
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Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2890541. Authority coordinates are 49.471, 3.486. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1917.
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This entry incorporates text from “Battle of La Malmaison” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.