during a German attack south of the Aisne, the secret plans of the French assault were captured but Nivelle did not alter his course. Nivelle Offensive After three postponements, the Nivelle Offensive began on 16 April 1917. It started a week after British forces had attacked near Arras. Nivelle made several declarations which improved the morale of the French troops involved: "L'heure venue! Confiance! Courage! Vive la France!". Edmonds claimed Nivelle said "The German Army will run away; they only want to be off". Due to the fact that the preliminary bombardment against the Germans was markedly less effective than expected, and the lack of a sufficient number of French howitzers, the desired French breakthrough was not achieved on the first day of the battle. Crown Prince Wilhelm, in his memoirs, tells of the wonderment of the German troops at these futile but heroic attacks: "The commander of a machine-gun company... described to me the overwhelming view of the battleground, on which France's best regiments were being destroyed in continually renewed, hopeless attacks". (Griffiths, p. 39) In the first day of the attack, 16 April, there had been 120,000 casualties; [probable inconsistency with "96,125 casualties by 25 April"]. Nivelle had said there would be about 10,000. Nivelle had promised the Government that the attack would either be a success or be stopped. But obviously he did not have the same interpretation of 'success' as them; he ordered the attacks to continue. On the 19th, Minister Paul Painlevé came to see him to get the offensive stopped; but Nivelle was convinced that the attacks must continue. Gradually the whole thing had developed into the Somme-like action that all had feared. (Griffiths, p. 39) By 20 April, the French took 20,000 prisoners and 147 guns, which was considered to be "impressive results by the standards of previous years." However, a decisive breakthrough on the Aisne had not been achieved. The French had suffered 96,125 casualties by 25 April, the offensive had led to a shell shortage in France, the French medical services broke down, and the delay of transporting French wounded from the front-line was demoralising. By the end of its first week, the attack was stalled, and Nivelle was losing control. Micheler convinced Nivelle to reduce the scope of the offensive, with the goal now only to secure all of the Chemin des Dames and push the Germans back from Reims.