MANUFACTURED IN U.S.A.

Signing the Peace Treaty in the Hall of Mirrors, Palace of Versailles, on June 28, 1919. Georges Clemenceau, French Premier, is standing and inviting the German delegates to affix their signatures to the document.

The
STORY OF THE
GREAT WAR

VICTORY WITH THE ALLIES
ARMISTICE · PEACE CONGRESS
CANADA'S WAR ORGANIZATIONS
AND VAST WAR INDUSTRIES
CANADIAN BATTLES OVERSEAS

VOLUME VIII
CANADIAN EDITION

THE STORY OF CANADA IN THE GREAT WAR

EDITED AND COMPILED BY

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL JOHN A. COOPER
LATE COMMANDER OF THE 198TH BATTALION, CANADIAN BUFFS

P · F · COLLIER & SON · NEW YORK

Copyright 1920
By P. F. Collier & Son

CONTENTS

PART I.—THE WESTERN FRONT

CHAPTER

• Destruction Marks the Great Retreat—The French Capture Soissons, Fismes, and Important Positions—The British Win Great Victories Near Albert [9]
• The German Retreat Continues—The French Victorious Between the Oise and the Aisne—The British Win Miles of Territory Daily [22]
• The French Take Noyon—The British Bapaume and Péronne—The Allies Conquer on Every Front [36]
• The British Close in on Cambrai—French Occupy St. Quentin—The Germans Fire Cambrai and Retreat—The Allies' Great Victory in Flanders [49]
• The Germans Retreat on All Fronts—British Capture Valenciennes—The Armistice—The War Over [63]

PART II.—RUSSIA

• Countering the Germans in Fallen Russia [80]
• Allied Intervention in the North of Russia [88]
• The Bolsheviki Resent Allied Intervention [90]
• The Baltic Provinces [95]

PART III.—THE ITALIAN CAMPAIGN

• The Austro-Italian Front [96]

PART IV.—THE GREAT WAR'S END

• The Internal Collapse of Germany [106]
• The Liberation of the Holy Land—Mesopotamian Campaign [113]
• Collapse of Austria [123]
• The Surrender of Turkey [135]
• Austria-Hungary and Germany surrender—"The War Thus Comes to an End," President Wilson to Congress—The President Sails for France [137]

PART V.—VICTORY ON THE SEA

• Naval Exploits of the Allies—Submarines [142]
• Surrender of the German Fleet [147]

PART VI.—THE AMERICAN ARMY IN FRANCE

• American Achievements on the Western Front, by Frederick Palmer (Late Lieutenant Colonel, U. S. R.) [151]

PART VII.—THE PEACE CONFERENCE AT PARIS

• First Session of Peace Congress—Clemenceau, Permanent Chairman—President Wilson's Address—The League of Nations Covenant Completed [198]
• The Covenant and Draft of the Constitution of the League of Nations—President Wilson's Speech in Support; He Returns to America—The United States Senate Criticizes League Document [208]
• Revised Covenant of the League of Nations—The Treaty of Peace [221]

THE STORY OF CANADA IN THE GREAT WAR

• Introduction by Lieutenant Colonel John A. Cooper (Late Commander of the 198th Battalion, Canadian Buffs) [249]

PART I.—PREPARATION FOR WAR

• Canada Before the War [259]
• Building a War Machine [264]
• Departure of First Contingent [267]
• The Steady Stream of Recruits [270]
• The Conscription Act [272]
• The "Princess Pat" Regiment [285]
• Canada's Huge Forestry Corps [287]
• The Canadian Railway Corps [291]
• Other Branches of the Service [295]
• Administration of Canada's War Establishment [302]

PART II.—CANADA AT THE FRONT

• The Canadians in Flanders—Neuve Chapelle—Their Brave Part in the Second Battle of Ypres—The Princess Patricias [303]
• Battle of Festubert—The Canadians Fight for the Orchard—Valor of the Second Brigade and Fourth Battalion—Givenchy [322]
• The Second and Third Canadian Divisions—Battles of St. Eloi and Sanctuary Wood—Victory After Defeat [339]
• Vimy Ridge and Passchendaele [357]
• Holding the Vimy Sector [367]
• Holding Lens and Arras [372]
• The Amiens Battle of August, 1918 [383]
• The Attack Against the Hindenburg Line [389]
• Capture of Bourlon Wood and Cambrai [396]
• Capture of Valenciennes and Mons [406]

PART III.—CANADA AT HOME

• Shoulder to Shoulder with the Empire [423]

PART IV.—CANADIAN WAR INDUSTRIES

• Behind the Guns at Home [430]
• From Trenches to Farms [438]
• Keeping Their Home Fires Burning [443]
• Remaking Men [448]
• Service to the Troops [456]
• Succor and Solace [463]

• Chronology of the World War [469]
• Index [481]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

• Signing the Peace Treaty in the Hall of Mirrors, June 28, 1919 [Colored Frontispiece]
• Opposite Page
• Prince of Wales, General Currie, and General Watson at Denain [62]
• A Canadian Brigade Serving as Guard of Honor in the Occupation of Mons [78]
• General Sir Arthur William Currie [254]
• Lieutenant General Sir William Turner, V. C. [302]
• Major General Sir Henry Edward Burstall [366]
• Major General Sir Archibald Cameron Macdonell [366]
• Major General Louis James Lipsett [382]
• Major General Sir David Watson [382]
• Brigadier General Raymond Brutinel [414]
• Major General Sir Frederick Oscar Warren Loomis [414]
• Major General Hon. Sydney Chilton Mewburn [462]
• Major General Sir Edward Whipple Bancroft Morrison [462]

LIST OF MAPS

• Page
• The Rhine Valley, Showing Neutral Zones and Bridgeheads (Colored Map) Front Insert
• The New Map of Europe, Showing Approximate Boundaries [Colored Insert]
• The Western Front [Colored Insert]
• Advance of the Allies on the Amiens Front, August 8, 1918 [14]
• Battle Lines and Operations on the Western Front in 1918, Including German Territory Held by the Allied Armies of Occupation [61]
• The "Hindenburg Line," the Line of Farthest German Advance, and the Battle Line When the Armistice Began, November 11, 1918 [64]
• The German Territory Occupied Under the Armistice Terms [77]
• Italy's Successful Offensive, October, 1918 [101]
• The Conquest of Palestine, Syria, and Mesopotamia by the British Armies [115]
• The Surrender of the German Fleet [148]

PART I—THE WESTERN FRONT

CHAPTER I

DESTRUCTION MARKS THE GERMAN RETREAT—THE FRENCH CAPTURE SOISSONS, FISMES, AND IMPORTANT POSITIONS—THE BRITISH WIN GREAT VICTORIES NEAR ALBERT

The continued advance of the Allies in the first days of August, 1918, along the front from Soissons to Rheims was a decisive blow to the German hopes of gaining Paris; the capital was no longer threatened. The hard-pressed foe was now forced to retreat hurriedly on all sides of the Marne salient, which was rapidly being flattened out by the irresistible pressure of French and British armies.

On August 2, 1918, the forces under General Mangin took Soissons. Southwest of Rheims General Berthelot occupied Ville-en-Tardenois, marking an advance for the day of over three miles. Supported by a French contingent, British troops crossed the Crise River, which joins the Aisne at Soissons, and regained a considerable strip of territory southeast of that city. The German retreat was orderly and in no sense a rout. Their hurried retirement was marked by pillage and incendiarism and the usual devastations according to their settled program.

North of Fère-en-Tardenois French and American forces advanced simultaneously in the early morning of August 2, 1918, the French occupying Cramaille and Cramoiselle and later Saponay, where forty railroad cars and a number of locomotives fell into their hands. The advance of the Allies was made under heavy barrage; the German artillery replied at times, but it was feeble and ineffective. Their retreat was in a northward direction through the valley from Saponay and was marked by great fires behind the lines as they destroyed many ammunition dumps before retiring. At a few points there was some sharp fighting, but the Germans made no serious attempt to stem the advance of the Allies and seemed only eager to get away and avoid trouble as far as possible.

French cavalry, with American infantry supporting, operated near Dravegny about two and a half miles to the north of Coulanges. This forward movement was of importance as it brought the Allies within eight miles of Fismes to the southeast, on the railroad between Soissons and Rheims.

It was learned through prisoners that the Germans would make a stand on the line of the Vesle River, where determined resistance might be expected. It was not believed, however, that this effort would prove formidable; for the Allies had only to make a slight advance when their heavy guns would be in a position to shell Fismes and render any other place in the neighborhood untenable.

The Germans had succeeded in extricating the greater portion of their armies from the salient, but it was evident that there was confusion in their ranks and a lack of order. Their retreat was marked by clouds of smoke and many fires and explosions that denoted hurried flight.

Though the Germans were hurrying to escape, they took time to destroy practically everything that was of any value in the towns evacuated. Before leaving Fère-en-Tardenois there was not one house that had not been shelled or dynamited. When the French entered Villeneuve they found twenty-three villagers who had been virtually German prisoners for nearly two months. They all slept in a cellar for mutual protection, subsisting on a stock of flour and canned goods, and vegetables which they had raised themselves. During the day they avoided the Germans, declining to associate with them or to accept the food they offered. In this place the French found twenty-five wounded or dead Germans in the church. Several had died of starvation as result of the hurried retreat.

In another town occupied by the French they found the church was used by the Germans as a storehouse for loot. There were piles of mattresses and boxes containing copper and brass articles, also church vestments ready for shipment to Germany.

The roadways through which the Germans retreated from Fère-en-Tardenois were obstructed by wagons, dead horses and men, and piles of ammunition. Some of the wagons had been abandoned in hurried flight and in some cases drivers and horses were killed by French and American gunners.

Allied forces continued their victorious sweep northward on August 3, 1918, capturing practically the entire Aisne-Vesle front between Soissons and Rheims, which marked an advance of six miles at some points, while more than fifty villages recently held by the enemy were recovered.

The Allies' advance was on a front of thirty miles, and before the close of the day they held the southern banks of the Aisne and the Vesle from Soissons to the important town of Fismes, where American troops occupied positions on the outskirts.

East of Fismes the Allies were on a line north of Courville, Brancourt, Courcelles, and Champigny, towns in close proximity to the Vesle River, while cavalry patrols were operating along the Soissons-Rheims railroad which follows the course of the stream.

To the north British forces operating in the Albert sector were making substantial gains, forcing the Germans to retreat to the east bank of the Ancre River on a frontage of between seven and eight miles and at some places over a mile in depth. This was followed by the capture of Dernancourt by the British, while their patrols entered the outskirts of Albert.

The capture of Fismes, the great ammunition and supply depot, on August 4, 1918, was the most important victory won by the Allies on that date. The brilliant performance of the American troops on this occasion received high praise.

Northwest of Rheims the Allies had pushed forward to the village of La Neuvillette, about two miles north of the Vesle. East of Fismes at several points in the neighborhood of Champigny bodies of French troops had crossed the Vesle River, and the result of these advances was the retreat of the Germans from the southern bank.

The inability of the enemy to make a determined stand on an established line was due to the constant pounding which Foch maintained and a constant pressure that never relaxed. The big salient that had loomed so formidable a fortnight before was now almost wiped out. With British and French troops in one corner of it, Americans in the center, and British, French, and Italians in the other corner, the Germans never had an opportunity, harassed as they were on all sides, to establish themselves in positions to check the Allies' advance. So they chose the better part of valor and retreated, leaving a trail of burning villages behind them. But their flight was too hurried for them to destroy all their stores, and goods to the value of millions of dollars fell into the hands of the Allies.

The Vesle River, flooded by recent rains, hampered the retreat of the German rear guards, who, unable to cross the stream, were forced to fight for their lives. Most of them were killed and the rest were made prisoners.

On August 5, 1918, the Germans attempted to make some kind of stand on the Vesle, where their heavy guns were busy shelling the Allies' lines. In spite of this resistance French patrols succeeded in crossing the river at several points between Sermoise, east of Soissons and Fismes, and between Fismes and Muizon. The Germans on the north bank were well supplied with machine guns and bomb throwers, while their aviators, using machine guns, wrought considerable destruction among the French troops. Between Muizon and Rheims, where the French were firmly established on the south bank of the river, there was hard fighting, but the Germans were unable to dislodge the French from their positions.

In the morning of August 7, 1918, Field Marshal Haig delivered a heavy blow at the armies of Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria on the southern side of the Lys salient. The British attack was launched on the front of about five miles, advancing their whole line to a depth of a thousand yards. To the south on the front east of Amiens on the Bray-Corbie road British troops recaptured positions which the Germans had occupied on the previous day.

Along the Vesle between Braisne and Fismes, where French and American troops held the highway which runs parallel with the river, the Germans made furious counterattacks, but failed to dislodge the Allies. Nor were they able to hinder more than temporarily the French and Americans from crossing the river on hastily constructed bridges which their engineers had thrown over the stream protected by a heavy barrage.

At daybreak, August 8, 1918, Field Marshal Haig attacked the German lines from near Albert south to Braches, on the Avre above Montdidier, with forces that included not only British, French, and Australian troops but also Canadians who had been brought up suddenly from the vicinity of Lens. The enemy, taken by surprise, were thrust back along almost the entire front of twenty-five miles, and this resulted in the capture by the Allies of over a hundred guns and more than 10,000 prisoners. The advance was between four and five miles, and at one point seven miles.

The British launched their attack in a mist, after only a few minutes of artillery preparation, and the Germans were overwhelmed in the first onrush. The British won their objectives with only nominal losses. Of an entire army corps only two officers and fifteen men of the ranks were reported as casualties. The heavy mist in the early morning when the Allies advanced favored their plans, for not until 8 o'clock did a German aeroplane appear over the line and by that time the Allies had already made important progress. In the advance, tanks and armored cars accomplished wonders, striking dismay in the ranks of the enemy as they plunged through the mists, spouting fire and destruction, sweeping on heedless of obstacles and of the concentrated attack of German guns. By noon the Germans were making desperate efforts to escape with their transports.

The quick and complete victory of the Allies on this day, August 8, 1918, proved that Foch's counteroffensive had turned the scale in their favor. From this time on, the Allies attacked and the Germans retreated.

Advance of the Allies on the Amiens Front, August 8, 1918.

Moreuil and the territory adjoining Villers-aux-Érables were taken by the French while the British captured the Dodo and Hamel Woods and Marcelcave after hard fighting and occupied territory to a considerable distance beyond. Four German divisions were badly cut up in course of the struggle, while the Allies' casualties were unimportant. It was only around Morlancourt that the Germans made a determined stand. Here fighting continued throughout the day, and though the enemy launched a number of counterattacks they failed to gain or recover any ground.

Along the French front after an artillery preparation of forty-five minutes the troops made a dashing advance, and by 8 o'clock in the morning had gained their first objectives. Their advance was in the direction of Demuin and Aubercourt, while at the same time the British were thrusting forward toward Cerisy-Gailly on the south side of the Somme.

After the capture of Moreuil, where the French met with stout resistance, they crossed the Avre, a difficult operation, as they were constantly under the fierce fire of enemy guns. Once across the river their difficulties increased, for they had to advance up steep slopes from the river edge in the face of heavy German fire. They had had no help from the tanks to lead the way and break down the enemy's resistance.

Somewhat later when bridges were thrown across the stream the tanks got over, but by that time the French had succeeded in winning the top of the slopes and the enemy had fallen back.

After the Germans had been forced out of the Moreuil region their resistance became steadily weaker. The French captured all the heights together with the villages of Braches and La Neuville on the eastern bank of the Avre. On the northern portion of the battle area, where the German opposition was feebler, the advance was more rapid.

While the French and British were engaged in smashing the German forces in the west, the American and the French (as described elsewhere in these pages) were keeping up an irresistible pressure along the Vesle River.

The Allied advance east of Amiens continued on August 9, 1918, with the Anglo-French forces in possession of a line running through Pierrepont, Arvillers, Rozières, and Morcourt, marking an advance since the previous night of about five miles. Beyond this newly established line Allied cavalry and tanks had succeeded in penetrating within a mile of the important Chaulnes railway junction. In this advance the Allies captured over 17,000 prisoners and 300 guns, including railway guns of the heaviest caliber. In the Lys sector of the Flanders front the British were also successful in carrying their line forward between the Bourre and the Lawe Rivers to a maximum depth of 2,000 yards and taking possession of Locon and four other villages.

It was evident everywhere in the battle areas that the Germans were retiring in great haste, for as the Allies drove forward they found on the battle ground abandoned guns, stores, and even artillery maps and military documents. Allied observers reported streams of enemy transports and men hurrying eastward in full retreat.

A joyous spirit pervaded the ranks of the Allies as they moved victoriously forward, their cavalry rounding up villages, while tanks and armored cars overran the country clearing a way for the advance of the troops, or destroying the enemy transports. The performance of one tank is especially worthy of record, since it shot up a German corps headquarters.

Running into an enemy-held town, where the German corps headquarters staff stationed there was having luncheon, the tank opened fire through the windows, killing a number of Germans and wounding others, while a few managed to make a hurried escape. Inside the German lines a group of armored cars halted a German supply column and destroyed it. At Framerville a train loaded with Germans was attacked by a group of cars and finally set on fire.

All along the line enemy snipers were active, and isolated gun billets were a source of trouble, but these were silenced one by one as the Allies swept on. The Germans tried to destroy all their ammunition dumps and stores in their hasty flight, but had not time to make a complete job of it, and consequently were forced to abandon vast quantities of military supplies, most of which the French and British found immediate use for. The towns captured from the Germans were inhospitable places for the most part.

The enemy had tried to destroy everything before the retirement, but the Allies' advance was so rapid that all the houses could not be dynamited. In and around most of the towns were found small holes covered with curved iron slabs where the German gunners had lived before they were killed or forced to run for their lives.

The result of the Allied advance had an important effect on the strategical situation, for the Germans were now in an uncomfortable salient with only one line of railway to supply them, and that was under fire of the Allied guns. The advance had also freed for the use of the Allies the main Paris-Amiens railway. Previous to the German retirement this line was under easy range of their guns and the Allies were unable to use it freely.

August 10, 1918, was a notable day for the French forces when Marshal Foch threw his First Army against the apex of the German salient southeast of Amiens. Montdidier was captured, and the salient was smashed in to an average depth of six miles on a thirteen-mile front, reaching a line extending from Andechy to the northeast of Montdidier to Elincourt, ten miles to the southeast. From Albert to the southern side of the Montdidier salient the whole Allied line was pushed eastward, reaching a maximum distance in the direction of Chaulnes, the principal railroad center of the Germans west of the Somme River.

The French launched their attack without any artillery preparation in the sector east of Montdidier between Courcelles-Epayelles and the Matz River. The Germans were on the alert, but the dash and suddenness of the French attack overcame their most determined efforts. In one hour after the French went forward their first objective, Ressons-sur-Matz, was won, and in the succeeding two hours they had captured Mortemer, Cuvilly, and Marqueglise. At some points the advance was five miles. By noon on August 10, 1918, the Germans in Montdidier found that they had been caught in the jaws of a trap. Converging French attacks from the north and south had succeeded in practically encircling the town. The French drive had also deprived the Germans from using the Montdidier-Chaulnes railway, which was the only line that supplied food and material to their fighting front at the bottom of the Montdidier pocket.

By the capture of Faverolles, which was stormed by the French in the morning of August 10, 1918, the Germans were hampered in their withdrawal of troops from Montdidier. The day closed with Von Hutier's forces in hurried retreat from the Montdidier-Noyon line.

The Allies had made their great advance with only moderate losses. The casualties, including killed, wounded, and missing, numbered less than 6,000, or not more than a fourth of the number of prisoners taken. In the course of the fighting eleven German divisions had been defeated and so badly cut up that a long time must elapse before they would be in a condition to be re-formed and ready for serious work.

North of the Ancre River the British had firmly established their positions and were pushing out patrols in the direction of Bray. In their advance south of the Somme they captured Warvillers, Vrely, Folies, Rozières, and Vauvillers. To the north of the Somme, where they were aided by the brilliant fighting of the Americans, Chipilly Spur was the scene of a determined struggle. After winning the Spur the Allies pressed on, driving the Germans before them. An interesting feature of the day's advance was the capture at Lihons of a complete German divisional headquarters and staff.

The Germans showed more than common ingenuity in devising traps to hinder the advance of the Allies. In many instances a large number of shells would be placed in pockets under the roads so arranged that the weight of a passing wagon or motor lorry would explode them. They also arranged barbed-wire entanglements so that attacking troops would explode mines, but the Allies had learned through bitter experience the gentle ways of the enemy, and took effective means to render the German traps ineffective. Poisoned food and poisoned water marked the enemy's backward trail, but the Allies had long before concerted measures to protect the troops from such Teutonic pleasantries.

The Allies continued to fight their way forward during the night of August 10, 1918, and on the following day the armies of Von Hutier and Von der Marwitz were in full retreat in the direction of Péronne, Nesle, and Ham. Important rear guards were sacrificed by the Germans to secure the safety of their main armies, and it became increasingly evident that they were running out of reserves.

The Allied line on the front from Albert south to the Oise was carried forward, especially to the south, where the French were operating by themselves. During the night Haig's troops advanced their line on the high ground between Etinehem and Dernancourt. Farther south on the other side of the Somme the Germans, having received reenforcements, delivered powerful attacks against the British positions at Lihons and succeeded in making a temporary breach in the British line. In a fierce counterattack the British drove them back with heavy losses and the line was completely restored.

The capture of the Massif of Lassigny by the French on August 12, 1918, was of first importance to the Allies, for the heights command a broad sweep of difficult country and when in German hands were a formidable obstacle to the Allied advance.

German positions at Roye were now threatened on three sides—north, west, and south—as the Allies pushed their lines forward. The British gained ground to the east of Fouquescourt, while the French captured the village of Armancourt, and Tilleloy and the Bois des Loges.

The heavy guns of the Allies continued to shell the Somme bridges in the Chaulnes region which the Germans would have to cross if they were forced to evacuate this territory. South of the Somme Haig's troops captured the village of Proyart and linked up their positions east of Mericourt with those to the east of Etinehem, which is on the northern bank.

While the Allies' advance had slowed down owing to the increasing number of reserves which the Germans threw into the battle line the enemy was gradually being thrust out of the strongest positions which he had held so long.

Since the beginning of the Allied counteroffensive which began on July 18, 1918, they had captured over 70,000 prisoners, about 1,000 guns and over 10,000 machine guns.

On August 12-18, 1918, French forces under General Humbert resumed the offensive between the Matz and Oise Rivers and a drive forward was made into the German lines. East and north of Gury good progress was recorded, increasing the menace to Lassigny two miles to the northeast. The French also advanced two kilometers north of Cambronne, and eastward in the valley of the Oise, owing to continued pressure, the Germans were forced out of their trenches to the west of Bailly.

The Allied artillery had now fall control of the converging roads in and out of Noyon, near the southern end of the line, notably that running northward to Ham. Under these conditions any attempt of the enemy to carry out a retrograde movement was greatly hampered.

August 13-14, 1918, the Germans began the evacuation of a five-mile front north of Albert, extending from Beaumont-Hamel northward through the villages of Serre and Puisieux-au-Mont to Bucquoy. On the French front the town of Ribécourt, six miles from Noyon and on the road to that city, was wrested from the Germans as the result of a further thrust between the Matz and Oise Rivers.

General Humbert's advance had made the French position on the southern part of the Thiescourt plateau secure. The Germans now occupied Plemont, which they captured early in the June fighting, and reoccupied their old trenches, which were still organized with wire entanglements. Here as elsewhere the Germans had the advantage that they were falling back on their supplies while the French were forced to bring theirs up through a very difficult country. General Humbert and his men had been fighting now continuously for four days, a great part of the time in gas-drenched sectors and against strongly held positions which the Germans had deemed impregnable. The French now held possession of two important crests, Claude Farm and Ecouvillon, and were within a hundred yards of Le Monolithe, another high plateau commanding a wide sweep of territory to the north and east.

All the German positions between the western outskirts of Bray and Etineham were captured by the Australians, giving the British control of the river banks southwest of Bray. The Australians after a hard and brilliant fight drove the enemy from the Cateau Wood.

On the southern end of the Picardy battle line General Humbert's army continued to press the advance toward Noyon. The desperate defense maintained by the Germans on the Chaulnes-Roye road for a time delayed French storming operations which were impending. General Rawlinson's army, which held the line to the north of the French positions, was subjected to fierce German attacks on the whole front. The enemy seemed determined to maintain his hold on the Chaulnes heights regardless of the cost. The French advance was made against a line that was thinly held, but which bristled with machine guns so numerous that there was one to every two men, it was reported. Moreover, the battle area traversed by the French troops was deluged with mustard gas, so that there were days in which they were forced to wear their masks even when snatching a few hours of repose. Yet the French continued to win dominating positions and forced the Germans back in spite of all attempts to hinder their progress.

On August 15, 1918, Australian troops under Marshal Haig made a drive against the German defenses on the center of the Somme battle front between Chaulnes and Roye and captured the villages of Parvillers and Demery. Progress was also made south of the Somme, southeast of Proyart, and to the northwest of Chaulnes. North of Albert, in the sector where the Germans were forced to evacuate their positions which projected into the British line between Beaumont-Hamel and Bucquoy, Haig's troops continued to push forward. On General Humbert's front east of Montdidier his tireless fighters conquered two strongly fortified farms to the northwest of Ribécourt.

Albert was still strongly held by the Germans, and British patrols entering the town were fired upon from the cathedral. The steady advance of the Allies, however, so seriously menaced the German positions in and around the town that it was only a question of time when they would be forced to retire from every point of defense.

On August 16, 1918, British and French troops, operating together, made a drive against the strongly held German positions between Chaulnes and Roye. Advancing on an eight-mile front from a point west of Fransart to the neighborhood of Laucourt, they made substantial progress and reduced a number of important German strongholds. Forward movements were also made by the British in the Ancre sector in which the Germans were forced to withdraw their first-line positions, and Haig's men pushed ahead on the three-mile front between Beaucourt on the Ancre and Puisieux-au-Mont.

The capture of Ecouvillon, which made easy the capture of Ribécourt, by General Humbert's indefatigable troops, was followed by the occupation of Monolithe Farm. This gave the Third French Army a strong position from which to threaten the German line of retreat along the road to Noyon. Hardly less important was the capture by the French of "Z" Wood and Demery Wood, two heavily timbered tracts where the Germans had been holding out for days with grim determination, because of the great value of these strong positions. They commanded a wide stretch of ground, and the Allied positions for some miles on either side of the two woods were considerably strengthened by their capture. They were indeed the last of the more important positions on the new front held by the enemy. The Germans made an ineffectual attempt to recover Demery, but were driven back in disorder with heavy losses.

The Allies' plans had now made such favorable progress that a German retreat on a large scale was anticipated. The appointment of General Von Boehm to the command of the German army group in the center of the present battle front strengthened this belief. For this officer was known as a "retreat specialist" who had won a deserved reputation in the art of concealing the movements of great masses of troops. It was he who had concentrated a great army and in absolute secrecy in the forests of the Laon region where he launched the surprise attack over the Chemin-des-Dames. To Von Boehm also belonged the credit of extricating the battered armies of the Crown Prince from the Aisne-Marne salient after Foch's mighty blow of July 18, 1918. Von Boehm's appearance on the Somme-Oise front was almost proof that a great German retirement was soon to begin.

CHAPTER II

THE GERMAN RETREAT CONTINUES—THE FRENCH VICTORIOUS BETWEEN THE OISE AND THE AISNE—THE BRITISH WIN MILES OF TERRITORY DAILY

With almost monotonous regularity the daily record was now of continued Allied advancements and enemy defeats. The Germans at times offered stout resistance and launched desperate counterattacks, but they were unable to delay more than temporarily the mighty forward sweep of the Allies, while their losses in men and material reached enormous figures.

The French forces continued to fight with a dash and ardor that carried everything before them. Day and night with few chances for repose they fought on over the most difficult ground that was constantly flooded with poisonous gases.

On April 16-17, 1918, Foch's men carried out a successful attack northwest of Soissons in the Autrèches region, and operating on a three-mile front smashed through enemy positions to the depth of a mile. They won in this advance the important plateau to the north of the village of Autrèches, which gave them command of the country extending northward, south of the Oise River. Further local actions at other points on the front greatly strengthened the grip of the Allies on the approaches to Roye to the west, north, and south. The Germans in that region maintained an incessant artillery fire, but the only effect it had was to delay for a time the Allies' advance. The French were now within a mile of Roye on two sides. British troops under Marshal Haig meanwhile were not idle. Good progress was made on the 17th to the north of Proyart, just south of the Somme. Farther to the south, troops operating north of Lihons, which lies about two miles to the west of Chaulnes, pushed their line forward to the depth of a mile. More progress was also made in the Amiens-Roye road region and to the north of the Ancre River.

West of Armentières British troops drove the Germans back on a front of four miles between Bailleul and Vieux Berquin in the Lys sector. They also captured the village of Outersteene, a mile east of Merris and took 400 prisoners. The German positions around Roye continued to be threatened by the British pressure, and on August 18, 1918, Marshal Haig's men pushed their line forward to the north of that place between Chilly and Fransart.

To the south of the Avre River the French, as they fought their way forward, captured over 400 Germans, overcoming some important enemy strongholds.

From the positions captured by the French north of the Aisne River the Allies could now dominate the German batteries of big guns at Chavigny and Juvigny, north of Soissons. These batteries were formidable, commanding not only the city of Soissons, but a wide region around. The Allies were now able to exert such pressure on the Germans here that they must soon be forced to retire and the city of Soissons would be relieved of the danger of bombardment.

Allied operations on two widely separated fronts—the British on the north of the Lys salient, and the French between the Aisne and the Oise—had increased the difficulties of the Germans in these areas.

Lassigny was seriously threatened by the capture of Fresmières (on the Roye highroad two and a half miles to the north) by the advance of Foch's troops to the western outskirts of the town, and the occupation of the Thiescourt Wood.

On the night of August 18, 1918, the French launched an attack on a front of about fifteen miles east of Ribécourt and across the Oise to Fontenoy, six miles west of Soissons. The fighting, vigorously pushed on the following day, resulted in notable gains for the Allied arms. The capture of the village of Rimprez, on the west bank of the Oise on the Noyon-Compiègne road, was followed by an advance of two miles northward to the southern edge of Dressincourt. Equally important gains were made at other points in the line of attack. The plateau west of Nampcel and Morsain and several other villages were carried by storm. In the course of the fighting the French captured over 2,000 prisoners, including several battalion commanders.

In the Lys salient the British continued the irresistible drive forward. Marshal Haig's advance was on a front of nearly six miles. His line was carried up to the town of Merville and to the north-and-south road through the town from Les Purebecques on the north to Paradis to the south.

The victories of the French troops between the Oise and the Aisne gave them possession of the Oise Valley as far as Mont Renaud. General Mangin, who carried out these successful operations, was now in a position to force the enemy to resort to desperate measures to escape a serious defeat. His artillery now commanded all roads of importance, and the only exit available for the Germans from the region of Noyon and Lassigny was a narrow-gauge line running north to Ham by way of Guiscard and the highroad running in the same direction. Von Hutier had either to check Mangin's advance, or choose this narrow outlet for extricating his troops and material. Rather than face this alternative, the Germans were offering a desperate resistance in an endeavor to hold on to their present lines, hoping against hope that something might occur that would enable them to shake off the Allies' strangle hold.

General Debeney's advance on Lassigny and Roye had slackened up owing to the stout opposition offered by the enemy, but he continued to make steady progress.

In the early morning of August 20, 1918, General Mangin began an operation between the Aisne and the Oise southeast of Noyon and northwest of Soissons that achieved a splendid success. Striking on a fifteen-and-a-half-mile front he smashed into the German line to an average depth of two and a half miles, capturing seven towns and over 8,000 prisoners.

By these operations General Mangin wrested from the Germans at Cuts and Mont de Choissy all the heights remaining south of the Oise in that region. The French batteries now commanded a wide sweep of territory and most of the important roads. General Mangin's right, firmly established on the heights around Fontenoy, now began to drive the enemy from the elevated ground south of the Oise, leaving them no option but to cross the river, or retreat toward the east. The Germans fought desperately to hold their ground, relying principally on their vast number of machine guns. During the night, in anticipation of General Mangin's attacks, they had received reenforcements brought up from the Soissons front in motor lorries to help meet the shock of the French troops. They fought with dogged determination, but from the start their position was hopeless. Their artillery fire was of the feeblest and they had practically no help from airplanes.

Continuing their attacks in the region northwest of Soissons, General Mangin's troops captured Lassigny. The advance, made over a front of fifteen miles, smashed the German lines at some points to the depth of five miles. To the southeast of Lassigny, by winning a foothold in Plemont, the French menaced the Germans' grip on the valley of Divette. Across the Oise and farther east, Mangin's men had reached the river from the south between Sempigny and Pontoise. In the conquered territory, won in less than twenty-four hours, the Germans were driven from twenty villages.

While the French were driving the Germans before them and winning wide stretches of territory, the Third British Army under General Sir Julian Byng was adding to the glory of British arms. Under cover of a heavy fog, General Byng attacked on a ten-mile front from the Ancre River to the neighborhood of Moyenville, driving back the enemy along the whole line and gaining at some points ground to the depth of two miles. General von Below's Seventeenth Army, which the British fought against, was badly cut up; their losses in guns and men were so heavy as to suggest that the German morale was crumbling, and that their fighting power was rapidly disintegrating.

It was just at daybreak that the British big guns began the overture that preceded the attack. The fog was so dense that the men in the tanks could not see more than a hundred feet ahead, but it was favorable to the assaulting formations as it served to shield their movements from the enemy observers. The German guns replied only feebly, showing that they were short of heavy cannon, a fact that had been noted before in recent fighting in this region. Their chief dependence on this occasion was in machine guns, with which they seemed to be exceedingly supplied. Situated in isolated posts, these did effective work, and there was sharp fighting at various points. The German garrison occupying the shell-shattered ruins of what had been the village of Courcelles, near the center of the battle front, made a stubborn resistance, and for a time the advance of the British infantry was held up at this point. With the arrival on the scene of a drove of tanks, German resistance broke down. The machine-gun nests were quickly smashed, and the gunners killed or made prisoners; and wherever there was resistance the tanks quickly crushed out all desire of the enemy to continue the fight.

Engaged in this advance were tanks of various types, and all found their work cut out for them. The big tanks smashed in the enemy defenses, dipped in and out of shell holes and performed all the heavy work, while the small whippet tanks and armored cars dashed around at high speed attacking gun nests from the rear and clearing the way for the advance of the infantry. Despite the vigorous resistance offered by the Germans at some points, the British losses in casualties were comparatively small, and some formations met with none at all. The village of Beaucourt was won with only three casualties.

When the fog lifted about noon, and the sun shone out, the Germans attempted several counterattacks, but were unable to force the British to relinquish a foot of the territory they had gained.

In the morning of August 22, 1918, the British delivered a new attack on a six-mile front between Albert and Bray on the Somme, which was entirely successful, all objectives being won and an advance made of two miles. The important town of Albert was captured and 1,400 prisoners and a large number of cannon. North of the Ancre the battle raged throughout the day, and the Germans were forced to fall back all along the line. Isolated counterattacks were attempted, but they crumbled beneath the hammer blows of the British armies. There was hard fighting along the Arras-Albert railway embankment for the valuable positions that overlook the flat country around. To the south from Achiet-le-Grand to the Ancre the opposing armies swept back and forth in attacks and counterattacks again and again renewed. At Achiet-le-Grand and Miraumont, where the Germans launched their most ambitious counterattacks, they employed fresh troops that had been rushed forward from other sectors to relieve Von Below's hard-pressed Seventeenth Army.

During August 21-22, 1918, the French Third and Fourth Armies under General Mangin continued to press their advance night and day along the front from Lassigny to the north of Soissons. At some points an advance of seven miles was made, and there was evidence that the Germans were so badly mauled that their retreat amounted practically to a rout.

The French push toward the roads leading to Chauny menaced the enemy's line of retirement and explained his hurried retreat. By the capture of Bouguignon, St. Paul-aux-Bois, and Quincy the French had won command of the valley of the Ailette from the region of Coucy-le-Château to the Oise. General Humbert's troops also made notable gains and wrested important positions from the enemy. By the occupation of the height of Plemont and the capture of Thiescourt the French now held all the hills known as the Thiescourt Massif, thus giving them the strongest points overlooking the region around.

It was evident in different parts of the fighting area that the Germans were in a confused and even panic-stricken state of mind. The French advance guard was so close to them when they crossed the Oise that they had not time to destroy the bridges over the river. Allied observers noted streams of enemy transports in wild confusion back of the fighting front, and all discipline and order seemed to have been lost. Upon the Ailette front the sudden attack of the French caused the hasty retreat of a division of German reserves which had been brought forward to launch a counterattack. Falling back, this division precipitated a panic in the ranks of another division which had intended to support the first division's attack, and the result was a confused and disorderly retreat.

Marshal Foch's plan to give the enemy no rest day or night, and to follow up each blow by another, a plan which had resulted in great victories for the Allies and constant demoralization of the forces of the enemy, continued to be the order of the day. The British, operating on a thirty-mile front, unceasingly hammered Crown Prince Rupprecht's armies, striking suddenly at different points, and always advancing in spite of the most determined opposition. The Third and Fourth British Armies under Generals Byng and Rawlinson made important gains on August 22-23, 1918. It was a day of disaster for the Germans, whose desperate attempts to check the British advance resulted only in frightful losses of men and accomplished nothing. Prince Rupprecht sacrificed his troops recklessly in an effort to stave off the inevitable. The British guns swept the Germans from the field, or crushed them as they tried to force their way forward. One entire German battalion was annihilated during the fighting. General Byng made an advance of two miles to the neighborhood of Grandcourt, east of the Ancre. Gomiecourt and four other villages were carried by storm. To the north the British captured Achiet-le-Grand, which is on the Arras-Albert railroad, and for the possession of which Germans and British had been fighting for some days past.

Field Marshal Haig's armies continued to deal the German forces staggering blows as they drove forward. Bray, on the northern bank of the Somme, was captured on August 23, 1918. Thiepval, a strong position on high ground and which dominated miles of territory, was occupied by British forces after a hard struggle and against the concentrated fire of countless machine guns. Miraumont, in the center of the battle front and to which the Germans clung with desperate energy, was now surrounded on all sides and its fall was only a question of a few hours. The British were now driving ahead in the direction of Bapaume, and on the 23d occupied a small town on the outskirts. Croisilles, north of Mory, some miles east of the Arras-Bapaume road, was also won, marking the extreme point of the British advance for the day in the northern battle zone.

North of the river Scarpe the fighting was intense. The British, despite stiff opposition, penetrated the old German line and made important gains when they attacked Givenchy. The Germans fought bravely, contesting every yard of ground, but it was a losing battle, and the field was littered thickly with their dead. They had brought up new divisions that were thrown into the fight, but the reenforcements were unable to check, except temporarily, the Allies' continuous push forward.

On the French front General Mangin's troops had crossed the Oise and reached the outskirts of the village of Morlincourt, a mile and a quarter from the railway station of Noyon. The fall of that place within a short time was inevitable.

The French advance on the Soissons end of the battle front proceeded more slowly, but the forward movement was not arrested. Their operations in this region threatened the turning of both the Chemin-des-Dames and the German positions on the Vesle. On August 23, 1918, General Mangin's troops had won the greater part of the Juvigny Plateau, which brought them to the edge of the battle field of 1917. To the north lay the Ailette Valley. Eight miles eastward was Laffaux Mill and the beginning of the Chemin-des-Dames, familiar landmarks and the scene of intense fighting in the previous year.

On the battle front north of the Somme the British armies continued to advance in the face of heavy resistance from the Germans, who had been strongly reenforced in the course of the past twenty-four hours (August 24-25, 1918). Haig's troops had captured a dozen villages and carried their new front within a thousand yards of the old Hindenburg Line. From Albert to Bapaume, the whole length of the highroad was now in British hands. East of Bray Australian troops carried important heights in possession of the enemy. North of Bapaume the villages of Sapignies and Behagnies, which formed part of the defenses of the town, were taken by British troops. The Germans, as they retired, left great quantities of stores, equipment and military supplies on the field. They destroyed what they could, but a vast amount fell to the victors.

Since August 21, 1918, the British had captured over 17,000 prisoners and a great number of cannon and machine guns.

The British advance owed much of its success to the wonderful service performed by the motor cars, which did scout work far in advance of the infantry. They continued throughout the fighting to harass the enemy and strike confusion in his ranks, falling upon transport columns and inflicting terrible damage. They attacked retreating bodies of Germans and mowed them down with machine guns, and were everywhere active factors in the demoralization of the enemy. The tanks cooperating with the armored cars were no less effective. Breaking the way for the advancing troops they rolled into the towns and cleaned out the strong points under floods of fire. The Germans never lost their fear of the tanks and it was not unusual during the British advance for large bodies to surrender as soon as one of the grim-looking monsters lumbered into view.

An interesting incident in connection with the capture of Thiepval Ridge is related, when a British detachment was saved by an aeroplane. This detachment, pressing forward too fast, found itself out of touch with the main body and was suddenly surrounded by Germans. An observer in the air noted their predicament and dropped a message "Stick it out." He then notified the British command and troops were rushed to the rescue, and the Germans were driven off.

German prisoners captured when Miraumont fell said that they had been three days without food. All seemed happy that they were out of the war, especially the Alsatians who had been placed in German regiments.

"If any of us are caught deserting," said an Alsatian prisoner, "his family is punished, and even his female relatives are sent to dig in the front-line and other trenches."

In the course of this British drive forty-two German divisions had suffered heavy losses; 40,000 soldiers and several hundred officers in prisoners alone.

On August 25, 1918, the troops of the Third French Army, fighting in water up to their waists in the marshes along the Avre, captured two of the strongest defenses of Roye. The first attack was made on the village of Fresnoy, two and a half miles to the north of Roye, where the Germans had restored their old fortifications of 1914-17, and had filled the neighborhood with machine-gun nests. After a brief artillery preparation the French stormed the concrete blockhouses and killed the gunners serving their pieces. Fresnoy was a notable stronghold and one of the centers of German resistance around Roye from which they had launched their counterattacks in attempts to check the advance. The Germans had orders to hold the place at any cost, but the French attacking from the north and south simultaneously bore down all resistance. Four hundred prisoners, including sixteen officers, were captured in the town. Another strong outpost of Roye, the village of St. Mard in the marshes of the Avre, was won by General Debeney's men in the afternoon after a violent struggle. The Germans had surrounded their concrete blockhouses with water let in from the Avre and through the floods in the face of intense machine-gun fire the French had to force their way to capture the position.

Roye was now invested from the north, west and south, and the German hold on the place was slowly weakened. North of Soissons, on the far right of the French line, the Germans renewed their efforts against the line from Pont-St. Mard to Juvigny. They were thrown back everywhere, the French making new gains and occupying Domaine Wood.

On the same day, while the French were making progress against heavy odds, British troops were in battle on a thirty-mile front, from the river Scarpe at a point east of Arras to Lihons south of the Somme, crossing the Hindenburg line on the northern sector of their attack. Canadians captured the villages of Wancourt and Monchy-le-Preux which formed part of the famous German defense, and they continued to make progress in an easterly direction. Scottish troops, driving forward on the north bank of the Scarpe, reached the outskirts of Roeux, north of Monchy-le-Preux.

General Debeney's First Army, after crushing the Germans in their battle positions around Roye, captured the town and continued pursuing the enemy who were retreating on a line from Hallu to the region south of Roye. The French advance was made on a twelve-mile front, and territory was gained to a depth of two and a half miles, the Germans being forced back on both sides of the Avre River.

By encircling tactics the French smashed the numerous machine-gun nests that were the backbone of the defense. One after another heavily fortified positions were turned and the Germans were forced to surrender the first and then the second line of defenses of 1914, to which they had retreated after being driven out of Montdidier.

The second German line was broken in the morning of August 26, 1918, when the French infantry, after repulsing a counterattack at St. Mard, encircled Roye and drove the enemy back some miles east of the town.

The British continued their attacks eastward along the southern bank of the Scarpe, occupying a considerable portion of the Hindenburg line and Chérisy, Vis-en-Artois, and the Bois du Sart, an advance of nearly four miles. In the night Canadians and Scottish troops carried Roeux and Fontaine-les-Croisilles, and the slopes around. North of the Scarpe, Gavrelle was occupied, and farther south between Croisilles and Bapaume New Zealanders and English, crushing heavy attacks by German reenforcements, continued to make good progress.

Bapaume was now farther threatened by this extension of the British attack to the north. The Germans had been forced back to the north of the city and their counterattacks on the south had utterly broken down. The capture of Montauban by the British marked an advance of two miles in twenty-four hours. Bazentin-le-Grand, southwest of Bapaume, was also occupied by Marshal Haig's men. This place lies a little to the west of the highroad from Bapaume to the Somme and its capture made the German hold in the region increasingly difficult. Bapaume was now being gradually surrounded by the Allies, and its fall was only a question of time.

During August 27-28, 1918, the French continued to drive the Germans before them on the whole front from Chaulnes to the Oise. In less than twenty-four hours General Humbert's troops made an advance of eight miles through a difficult country of woods, hills, and ravines west of Noyon. Mont Renaud, a famous stronghold commanding the Oise Valley, was carried by storm. Pushing on to the gates of Noyon the French surrounded the last bastion, Poqueri-Court Hill.

The capture of Chaulnes further precipitated the German retreat north of the Avre River. The French engaged in close pursuit of the foe, whom they continued to harass with mustard-gas shells the Germans left behind, and which were being fired from German guns by French gunners. In the course of the night General Debeney's troops advanced four and a half miles, and by morning were on the outskirts of Nesle, close on the heels of the retreating foe.

After the fall of Chaulnes, Gomiecourt to the north and Sept Fours and a score of other villages were captured.

The territory abandoned by the Germans in the retreat presented scenes of desolation and ruin unsurpassed since the war began. The names of towns had no longer any significance but as geographical designations. As places of habitation they had ceased to exist, and even their sites were difficult to recognize. The cemeteries were blown up and ruined and the contents of the graves scattered. At Roye and other towns the Germans had carefully filled the ruins with mustard gas which for a time prevented the Allies from occupying these places.

Croisilles, the strong German position to the north of Bapaume, which had long held out against British attacks, was captured by a flanking movement by Haig's men on August 27, 1918. Further gains were made at all points on the battle line between Bapaume and the river Scarpe. North of the Arras-Cambrai road the Canadians captured the villages of Boiry and Pelves. On the north bank of the Somme British troops occupied Curly and Hardecourt, and drove forward in the direction of Maurepas. South of the river, Australians in an advance of between four and five miles were on their way to the crossings of the Somme at Péronne and Brie, encountering hard resistance from the Germans as they pushed on.

A large German force was brought up to attack the British positions east of Monchy. According to the statements of prisoners, some of the German companies at the last moment refused to fight, and the others were forced to go ahead without them. For tactical reasons the British withdrew a few hundred yards and then organized an attack that drove the Germans from the field, and they were seen no more that day. According to an eyewitness the ground in this region was in parts literally carpeted with bodies in field gray.

The total captures of the Allies on the western front since July 18, 1918, were now over 120,000 prisoners and over 2,000 guns. The British captured between August 21, 1918, and August 26, 1918, more than 21,000 prisoners of all ranks, and their own losses in killed, wounded, and missing during this period was only slightly in excess of this number. Since August 8, 1918, the British captures exceeded 47,000 officers and men, and over 600 guns.

It was evidently the purpose of the Germans at this stage to retire to a shorter line on the western front where they could obtain better defensive positions against the Allies' blows, and so economize their forces. The rapid advance of the British on both sides of the Scarpe, which threatened to flank the entire Hindenburg position, was a serious obstacle in the way of the Germans carrying out their plan.

CHAPTER III

THE FRENCH TAKE NOYON—THE BRITISH BAPAUME AND PÉRONNE—THE ALLIES CONQUER ON EVERY FRONT

Noyon, the important German stronghold at the peak of the Oise Canal du Nord salient, was captured by General Humbert's troops after heavy fighting on August 29, 1918. Continuing to drive forward, French forces obtained a grip on the southern slopes of Mont St. Simeon to the east, the strongest German position remaining in that sector. About the same time another French army under General Mangin had forced a crossing of the Oise at Morlincourt and captured Landrimont. North of Noyon a third French army under General Debeney took Quesnoy Wood, which narrowed the pocket from the western side and brought the French within shelling distance of the main road leading out of it in the direction of Ham.

The attempt of the Germans to stem the French pursuit by fighting rear-guard actions with machine-gun sections was only locally successful. On favorable ground it succeeded in delaying the advance, but the fast drive of the French advance guard forced the enemy to risk an engagement with strong forces, or hasten his retreat. The Germans chose the latter alternative and fled along the road leading to St. Quentin, La Fère, and the Hindenburg line.

The continued pressure of Humbert's army from the west, and Mangin's troops which crossed the Oise from the south and took Morlincourt while another French contingent was entering Noyon, further added to the difficulties of the enemy, and threatened General von Hutier's army with disaster.

Bapaume, which for several days had been surrounded by British forces, was occupied on August 29, 1918, and the Germans were in full retreat, trying to get away behind their rear guards before they were caught and annihilated. North of the Scarpe River, beyond Arras, and across the old Somme battle fields by Ginchy, Guillemont, and Morval, British troops were pushing on, and in the Australian fighting zone by Feuillières and Belloy above the Somme the enemy was fleeing in wild haste, leaving vast stores of guns and ammunition behind. The German rear guards maintained at times a fierce resistance to gain time for an orderly retreat and delay the capture of Péronne until the enormous stores there could be removed. From Bapaume and Bullecourt to the north of the Arras-Cambrai road the German army was swiftly disappearing from all the country west of the Somme and from the battle fields beyond Delville Wood. The same British soldiers now driving forward on the heels of the retreating foe were in March falling back over the same ground when the Germans had overwhelming numbers in their favor.

The French armies during August 29-30, 1918, continued to make important strategic gains. Among the most notable was the occupation of Mont St. Simeon, a height which protected the German flank, a great natural rampart on which the enemy relied for protection during his retreat before the attacks of Generals Debeney and Rawlinson.

East, and northeast of Bapaume, the British forces continued to go forward and gain ground. At Bullecourt on the Hindenburg Line and at Hendecourt to the east of the line the advance was held up by the strong German counterattacks. These places, which had been captured by the British on August 29, 1918, became untenable under the enemy assaults and Marshal Haig's troops were forced to withdraw to the west of them.

At other points good progress was made, the British capturing several villages on the Arras-Bapaume front while they advanced their line both on the Arras-Cambrai and the Bapaume-Cambrai roads. Farther to the south the British to the north of the Somme went forward in the direction of Péronne, taking Combles and Cléry. By these operations they had completely freed the country south and west of the Somme of the Germans. The last of the enemy were driven behind the river in the morning of August 30, 1918.

On the last day of the month Australian troops in a valorous charge stormed Mont St. Quentin and Feuilleucourt to the north of Péronne, capturing 1,500 Germans by the operation. The seizure of an important height near St. Quentin village gave the British a commanding position to threaten Péronne, and it was inevitable that the fall of that place could not be long delayed.

While the Australians were closely engaged near Péronne a contingent of English troops on the left captured Marrières Wood and high ground farther north of the Péronne-Bapaume road. At various points between Kemmel and Béthune the Germans were in retreat, and the British gained considerable ground. Bailleul was now in British hands, and their patrols had gained a foothold on Mont de Lille. Advances were also made to the east of La Couture and Vieille Chapelle, and on the Scherpenberg from southwest of Ypres the British crossed old enemy trenches without meeting any opposition.

Péronne, the German stronghold on the great bend of the Somme River, was captured in a brilliant attack made by the Australians on September 1, 1918. It was inevitable after the occupation of Mont St. Quentin on the day before by these same valorous troops that the town must soon be abandoned by the Germans, but it was owing to the quick action of the Australians that they were forced out so soon. Owing to the admirable work performed by English engineers at the river crossings the Australians were able to move their guns forward over the Somme and fire at close range on the enemy. Cooperating with the Australians, London troops captured Bouchavesnes, four miles to the north of Péronne, and Rancourt, both villages on the road to Bapaume. Over 2,000 prisoners were taken in these operations. Farther to the north the Germans fled before the British approach, evacuating several villages to the south of Bapaume.

To the northeast of this place, astride the Hindenburg line, the enemy offered strong opposition, but the British crushed every attack and won the much-fought-over ruins of Bullecourt and Hendecourt.

In the Lys salient it was much the same story, the Germans continuing to retreat and the British to pursue. In the course of twenty-four hours' fighting Haig's troops gained about two miles on a front of twenty miles. The British had now reached the outskirts of Lens, where large fires were seen burning, an indication of further German retirement.

The British had every reason to feel proud of their achievements in August, 1918, for in addition to the large territory won from the enemy they captured in that month 57,318 prisoners, 657 guns, more than 5,790 machine guns, and over 1,000 trench mortars, besides a vast quantity of stores and war material of every description.

North and south of the Aillette River, General Mangin's troops made further advances, on the first day of the month capturing Crécy-au-Mont on the southern bank, and gaining a firm hold west of Coucy-le-Château. A few miles to the south the French stormed the town of Leury and took more than 1,000 prisoners. Two miles northeast of Nesle, Rouy-le-Petit was occupied, and other French forces crossed the Somme Canal at Epénancourt seven miles south of Péronne.

One of the most notable achievements of the British advance was carrying the famous Queant-Drocourt "switch line" on September 1-2, 1918. This strongly fortified stretch of trenches was won by English, Scottish, and Canadian troops on a front of about six miles. The Germans considered this one of their strongest positions and made desperate efforts to hold it, but were unable to hold back the impetuous drive of the British forces, which were in high spirits over their almost continuous victories. The fighting became fast and furious, and the Germans rushed forward reenforcements, but it was a losing game for them from the first and their losses were appalling. The British captured thousands of prisoners; the roads to the rear of the fighting front were jammed with them. In parts of the battle field bodies in field-gray lay in piles.

The Canadians, whose attack was made astride the road from Arras to Cambrai, captured the villages of Dury, Cagnicourt, and Villers-les-Cagnicourt, the last place being four miles beyond the point from which the attack was launched.

The left wing of the attacking forces, composed of English troops, drove a wedge in the German defenses northeast of Eterpigny, while the right composed of English and Scottish troops driving forward in the direction of Quéant captured a string of strongly fortified positions including the village of Noreuil. Southward to a point beyond Péronne the tide of battle swept, the British capturing towns and villages and always advancing. On the Lys front it was the same story, the Germans in retreat, the British in close pursuit. They took Neuve Eglise, a place not forgotten in former fights, and pushed their line forward to the east of Estaires.

American troops after the capture of Voormezeele in Flanders advanced from that village and linked up with the British in close pursuit of the German rear guards. The French, pushing forward north of Soissons, noted great fires in the direction of Vauxaillon, indicating that the enemy was burning his supplies previous to retirement. They had now completed the conquest of the Soissons Plateau and the Germans were forced to retire to the Chemin-des-Dames, which was already threatened by the French advance toward Vauxaillon.

Field Marshal Haig's troops continued their victorious advance on September 3, 1918, gaining Baralle, eight miles from Cambrai, crossing the Drocourt-Queant line and forcing the Germans to retire in haste to the Canal du Nord. They carried by storm Quéant, and thirteen other villages were taken on a twenty-mile front, which attained a maximum depth of six miles. In the course of these operations the British took over 10,000 prisoners. Their outposts had now been pushed forward to the outskirts of Lens.

On the following day the eastward sweep of British troops north of Péronne continued. On a front of about fifteen miles northward from Moislains they forced a crossing of the Canal du Nord and made substantial progress eastward.

Meanwhile north of the Vesle on a front of nearly twenty miles the German armies were in full retreat before the advance of Franco-American armies.

Simultaneously the French were making important gains northeast of Noyon, and were driving the Germans before them in the territory between the Canal du Nord and the Oise.

French armies continued to drive the Germans before them in southern Picardy, cooperating with the Americans in the territory between the Vesle and Aisne Rivers. At some points the French advanced their line seven miles and captured on the way some thirty villages. They crossed the Somme Canal and pressed forward in the direction of Ham with its roads leading to St. Quentin and La Fère. By the capture of Coucy-le-Château to the south and neighboring towns they threatened the German defenses of the Chemin-des-Dames. North of the Vesle, where the Americans were taking part in the advance, the Allied line was pushed to the southern bank of the Aisne on a front of more than eight miles.

On September 5-6, 1918, the French, with the Americans cooperating, continued to press on at the heels of the retreating Germans. From the posts of the Americans on the Aisne to the breaches in the Hindenburg line north of Cambrai, on a front of more than ninety miles, the Allies pushed the advance. The drive southeast from the Somme resulted in the capture of the important juncture point of Ham and Chauny. North of the Aisne they occupied all the old trenches along the front and threatened the German hold on the Chemin-des-Dames.

The British armies, linking up with the French advancing on Ham, and into the territory to the south, continued their forward movement eastward from the Somme. From this river, south of Péronne, the troops of Field Marshal Haig had penetrated German positions about seven miles on a twelve-mile front and occupied six important villages.

Vast supplies of coal and road-building material were captured during this advance, which offered conclusive proof that the Germans had planned to hold all winter the line from which they had been driven.

Sporadic attempts were made by the enemy to hold up the British drive, but their troops developed no staying power and their attacks generally broke down after the failure of the first fierce onslaught. Haig's warriors had now entered the old defense system which they had held before the beginning of the great German offensive in March, 1918.

The French continued to make good progress in their advance along the banks of the St. Quentin Canal north of the Somme, capturing Hamel and three other villages to the west of it. South of the Somme they encountered heavy resistance. The village of Avesnes which they had won was retaken by the Germans, but after a hard struggle it remained in French hands.

Progress was also made on both sides of the Oise, the French advancing within two miles of La Fère to the northern edge of the forest of St. Gobain, which forms the western defense of the Laon region. The Massif of St. Gobain formed the pivot of the German system, whose importance was only comparable to that of Cambrai for British operations.

One great factor which aided materially in the advance of the Allies was the great increase in their engines of offense, whether in armored cars, tanks, Stokes guns, or great cannon, that could smash whole blocks of defense at one shot. The French were now supplied with howitzers of twenty-one inch caliber whose shell, over six feet long, could wreck a dozen batteries in a protected ravine, or wipe out an entire regiment hidden in an apparently impenetrable cave.

So far the first part of Marshal Foch's program had been accomplished. The Germans had been driven back along the whole line from Arras to Rheims, and had practically lost all ground won in their four great drives which began on March 21, 1918, and ended on July 18, 1918, when Foch dealt a smashing blow on their flank between the Marne and the Aisne.

During September 9-10, 1918, in spite of heavy rainstorms which halted Haig's men to provide shelters on recovered ground, the British advanced their line nearer Cambrai, fighting off strong German attacks in that region. Meanwhile the French gained three and a half miles, and occupied positions near St. Quentin on three sides. This new dash brought them nearer the flanking of La Fère on the north and south.

September 12, 1918, was a memorable day in the history of the American Army in France when under command of General Pershing they launched an attack from all sides of the St. Mihiel salient that resulted in the capture of the town of that name and over 13,000 prisoners. The American army was now operating under its own command instead of fighting as part of a British or French army. All day and far into the night the fight was continuous on the British front, when the heights of Avrincourt were stormed and positions won that overlooked the German defenses for many miles. Further progress was made in the Havrincourt region during September 13-14, 1918, where to the southeast of Cambrai the British established posts east and north of the village of Havrincourt. General Pétain meanwhile had launched an attack on an eleven-mile front on both sides of the Ailette River between the Aisne and the Vesle, advancing his line to a distance of two miles at the farthest point and capturing over 1,000 prisoners. This French drive was of special importance, for it threatened to turn the flank of the German defensive positions on the Chemin-des-Dames, and weakened the enemy's hold on Laon. South of the Ailette the French won the famous Mont des Singes, and the villages of Allemant and Sanoy.

In the morning of September 14, 1918, General Mangin's troops struck a new blow at the German salient north of Soissons. The French advance was so rapid that at one point a German colonel and his entire staff were captured. The taking of Laffaux Mill, a point of vital importance to the enemy, meant the gain of a valuable portion of the Hindenburg line. The Germans made a desperate effort to maintain their hold on this position, but in spite of their employment of strong reserves they were unable to delay more than a short time the French advance. On General Mangin's right, the Mennejean Farm was the scene of the most stubborn fighting during the day. The Germans had transformed every shell crater into miniature forts and machine-gun nests which had to be overcome one by one by grenade fighting of the fiercest description. But the Germans failed everywhere to check the French, who by noon had carried the entire position and bagged over 2,500 prisoners.

After the capture of Havrincourt and neighboring towns by the British, followed by counterattacks which were everywhere repulsed, there was no important infantry action attempted and the Germans settled down to shelling the line.

British and French troops in coordinated operations on a twenty-two-mile front advanced their lines on the outlying defenses of St. Quentin on September 18, 1918. The British attack was made by English, Irish, Scottish, and Australian troops on a sixteen-mile front to the northwest of the city and resulted in the capture of over 6,000 prisoners and the occupation of ten villages and outer defenses of the Hindenburg line in wide sectors. The push was made in the midst of a pouring rain and the Germans offered strong resistance, but the British, elated with victory, drove forward and crushed all opposition.

While the British were driving ahead, the French on their immediate right attacked and advanced their lines a mile and a quarter on a six-mile front, reaching the western outskirts of Francilly-Silency, three miles west of St. Quentin, and the southern edge of Contescourt, four miles southwest of that city, marking their nearest approaches to the German base. During the night of September 18, 1918, the British continued to drive forward into the Hindenburg outposts northwest of St. Quentin, capturing the village of Lempire and Gauche Wood. In the course of two days' fighting in this region the British captured 10,000 prisoners and over sixty guns.

Late in the day of September 18, 1918, the Germans counterattacked on a wide front west of Cambrai between Gouzeaucourt and the Arras-Cambrai road. Starting off with a bombardment of great intensity they launched an infantry attack northward from Trescault, but were repulsed at all points with heavy losses. North of Mœuvres, the Sixth German Division, under cover of a heavy barrage, and while forty German batteries were at work, made a determined attack on the British positions. Though their lines were torn and formations shattered by the British field batteries and the steady machine-gun and rifle fire, they still pressed forward, climbing over the bodies of their dead. At a tragic cost of life a few of the advanced British positions were penetrated, but before the end of the day after a stubborn struggle they were expelled and the British reoccupied the positions.

The fighting here had been costly for the British as well as for the foe. The Germans displayed complete disregard for life and demonstrated a spirit of initiative that was quite unusual. German machine gunners established themselves in some derelict British tanks which they transformed into forts, sweeping the area around with machine-gun bullets that wrought considerable destruction. Groups of German machine gunners in other parts of the field, and aided by some infantry, established themselves in wrecked villages, in woods, and earth-works, and in old trench systems, where the British line of advance passed just beyond them. Other British troops following the first waves suffered considerably from the attacks of these independent fighters. It was necessary to mop up each isolated post before the advance could be continued.

The French meanwhile had been pushing their lines closer to St. Quentin from the south and the southwest. During the night of September 18-19, 1918, they fought their way into Contescourt, which lies four miles to the southwest of St. Quentin, and in the morning occupied Castres, about half a mile to the northeast. Farther east and south they advanced to the outskirts of Benay, a town six miles south of the city.

The strongly fortified village of Mœuvres, seven miles west of Cambrai, which had been the scene of intense fighting for some days, was captured by the British in the morning of September 20, 1918. The Germans fought stubbornly to hold the village, which with its covering positions consisted of a solid mass of trenches and dugouts covering a square mile of ground. It was the junction of the main and support Hindenburg line and the most formidable obstacle that the British encountered anywhere in that defensive system.

The occupation by the British of a series of redoubts around the Malassise Farm brought their line nearer to the St. Quentin Canal at Vendhuile. Only three fortified villages now remained in German hands on the battle front between Villers-Guislain and the defenses of St. Quentin. With the capture of Ronssoy by English County troops, Lempire, a village one mile to the north, was completely cleared of the enemy. The Germans were now clinging to strong positions in ravines, quarries, and ditches between Lempire and Villers-Guislain, but they had suffered so severely in recent counterattacks that they attempted no more.

In the course of operations on September 21 and 22, 1918, advances were made by English troops east of Epihy, and the Australians near Hargicourt made new inroads into the outer defenses of the Hindenburg line northwest of St. Quentin. The most extensive gain was made north of the Scarpe River, where the Germans were thrown back on a two-mile front.

South of Villers-Guislain, and to the right of this sector, the Germans launched a powerful counterattack which was crushed by the British, who flung the enemy back and took advantage of the opportunity to carry forward their line.

On the French front in spite of increased enemy resistance substantial gains were made daily. By the capture of the woods north of Lys-Fontaine the Germans were forced to evacuate Vendhuile to escape being cornered there with their backs to the river Oise. General Debeney's troops now held all the west bank of the Oise for more than half the distance from La Fère to Moy. The French had now reached the heavy, marshy country south of the valley of the Oise, which offered great difficulties to any troops that might attempt a crossing north of La Fère.

Debeney's men continued to advance all day September 22, 1918, toward the La Fère road south of St. Quentin, and as they approached nearer the Hindenburg line around that place the Germans made determined efforts to keep them from it. North of the Somme they were hurriedly organizing a defensive system on a line of heights running parallel to the Hindenburg positions from east of Holnon to Hill 23, and thence through Hill 138 east of Savy Wood to Dallon Height on the road from Ham to St. Quentin.

South of the Somme the French advanced into a defense line parallel to the Hindenburg positions, by winning a height northeast of Castres, the line of ridges connecting Urvillers and Cerizy and the spur that dominates Mayot from the west.

British and French troops on September 24, 1918, attacking on adjacent fronts totaling about seven miles, made advances that tightened their grip on St. Quentin from the northwest, west, and southwest.

By the capture of Pontruet, Marshal Haig's troops had now advanced within three-quarters of a mile of important defenses of the Hindenburg line at the bend of St. Quentin Canal. On the right wing of the British, the French took Francilly-Silency, Dallon, and other villages which, with the British occupation of the high ground west of Fayot, gave the Allies a line of positions lying in a five-mile arc of a circle with a radius of less than three miles from the center at St. Quentin.

General Gouraud's troops attacking the German positions in the Champagne on September 26, 1918, won their first objectives within a few hours, and took Serven which had been in the hands of the enemy since 1914. Gouraud's troops also occupied the high ground positions of the Butte de Mesnil and the Navarin Farm. The abandonment by the Germans of strong positions which they had held for a long time, and had made as impregnable as human ingenuity could devise, demonstrated that they were in a panicky and nervous state of mind.

The Third and Fourth British Armies under General Sir Henry Horne and Sir Julian Byng made an attack before daybreak on September 27, 1918, on a wide front toward Cambrai, and were successful in carrying all their objectives. The principal attack was on a front of fourteen miles, and resulted in the winning of German positions of great strength. On the north of the main attack the British captured Beaucamp, and drove the enemy from the ridge toward Marcoing. Arleux-en-Gohelle on the extreme left was occupied, and in operations north and south of the Sensee and Scarpe Rivers the towns of Sauchy-Lestrées and Sauchy-Cauchy were captured.

The troops of General Haldane on the right center carried out a successful operation, breaking through the German defenses east of Havrincourt, capturing Flesquières and a long spur running eastward from that village toward Marcoing. In the direction of Fontaine Notre Dame the British in this region had pushed forward to within three miles of Cambrai. In the course of these operations over 6,000 prisoners were captured. The Germans had engaged on this battle front nine divisions, or about 122,000 men.

The British were now in a good position to capture Cambrai. Even at this stage of the struggle the Germans could not use the town, for the roads, railway, and junction were all under the fire of the British guns.

French troops on the battle line east of Rheims continued their advance on September 27, 1918. In the two days' fighting on this front they took over 10,000 prisoners, enormous quantities of war material, and had moved their line ahead at some points a distance of five miles.

On the first day of the battle Gouraud's men recaptured all the positions abandoned July 15, 1918, and then stormed the Hindenburg line on a length of nineteen miles. They were now on the front of the second Hindenburg line along the Py River, marking the successful termination of the first phase of the attack which the French continued to press with irresistible valor despite the frantic efforts of the enemy to check their advance.

CHAPTER IV

THE BRITISH CLOSE IN ON CAMBRAI—FRENCH OCCUPY ST. QUENTIN—THE GERMANS FIRE CAMBRAI AND RETIRE—THE ALLIES' GREAT VICTORY IN FLANDERS

The Allies continued to strike on every front on September 27-28, 1918. Between the sea and St. Quentin, Champagne, and Verdun the whole German military machine was tottering and nearing the breaking point.

Belgian and British troops attacking on a front of about ten miles between Dixmude to a point north of Ypres made an advance of three and a half miles, the Belgians alone capturing over 4,000 prisoners. The occupied territory included the first and the second line of the German defenses.

Field Marshal Haig's troops operating in the Cambrai region continued their advance on the town whose fall was imminent. With the capture of Sailly the British were now within two miles of Cambrai, and still forging forward. To the northwest a number of villages including Epinoy and Oisy-le-Verger were occupied and to the north of the Sensee Canal the village of Arleux.

During the night of September 27, 1918, the Germans made a desperate counterattack southwest of Marcoing, and near Beaucamp, but they were thrown back with heavy losses and the British pressed on two miles beyond Beaucamp Ridge, where they occupied high ground known as the Highland and Welsh Ridges.

Between the Ailette and the Aisne General Mangin's troops continued their irresistible advance, penetrating the ravine between Jouy and Aizy and capturing these villages. The principal victory of the day was the winning of Fort Malmaison, one of the strongholds southeast of Laon. Here the Germans had prepared a deadly trap for the French troops, but owing to the precautions taken the explosion did no damage.

In the Champagne General Gouraud's forces continued to operate with the accuracy of a finely adjusted piece of mechanism. At Somme-Py, where the German defensive works were of the most elaborate description and included a system of trenches and underground works to an extent of five miles, after hot fighting in the streets with grenade and bayonet the French took the entire system and advanced their line to the north of the town.

There was no harder struggle on any Allied front at this time than the French were engaged in north of Grateuil and Fontaine-en-Dormois. The Germans in this region displayed intense energy in the defense of the valleys, bringing up reserves and employing countless machine guns in their determination to stem the tide of the French advance which was constantly hurling them backward. Again and again the Germans counterattacked, only to be crushed by Gouraud's troops, who immediately proceeded to press onward. The German infantry fought well at times, but there was something lacking; they displayed nervousness and had no staying powers. And their gunners too showed that their nerves were shaken, wasting ammunition without reason and laying down barrages where they could serve no possible purpose.

September 29, 1918, was a big day for the British and American troops when Field Marshal Haig launched a new offensive movement on the thirty-mile front from St. Quentin to the Sensee River. The Americans attacking the Hindenburg line on a front of nearly three miles captured Bellicourt and Nauroy.

On the extreme British right the Twentieth Corps struck across the Scheldt Canal from Bellenglise northward. The Forty-sixth Midland Division, equipped with mats, life belts, rafts, and bridging material, stormed the main Hindenburg defenses running along the eastern bank of the canal. In spite of the depth of the water, and the width of the canal, and the strong German defenses, consisting of numerous tunnels and concrete works, this division captured the entire enemy position opposed to them. After this master stroke the division with great bravery drove ahead up the slopes beyond the canal, capturing many prisoners on the way. Bellenglise, Lehaucourt, and Magny-la-Fosse were now in British hands.

In the center of the attack English troops captured Villers-Guislain while New Zealand troops broke up a hostile attack, and pressing on took La Vacquerie and high ground in the neighborhood.

Meanwhile the Sixty-ninth Division, having forced the crossing of the Scheldt at several points, continued to advance. After stiff fighting in the western outskirts of Masnières and Les Rues Vertes they took both of these villages and carried the defensive system covering Rumilly, driving on to the western outskirts of the village. North of the Bapaume-Cambrai road Canadian troops gained possession of the defense system known as the Marcoing-Masnières line as far north as Sailly.

On the French front as the result of General Mangin's advance on this date the entire Malmaison Plateau and the western end of the Chemin-des-Dames were won. For weeks the Germans had been fighting to hold the approaches to the massif of St. Gobain and Laon which they were now forced to abandon. For four years this group of heights formed the central pillar of the German line in France. Marshal Foch's strategy forced the enemy, as on the Marne, to withdraw his center before the Allied attack to the north and the east and compelled him to move back on the wings. This retreat was one of the first direct results of the French, American, and British offensive of the past three days.

On the last day of September, 1918, the British continued to drive forward into the outskirts of Cambrai, capturing the suburbs on three sides of the city. Toward St. Quentin the villages of Thorigny and Le Tronquoy to the north and east of that town were won. In the course of the fighting north of St. Quentin the British captured over 4,000 prisoners and forty guns.

In Flanders the Belgian and British advance was pushed to an average depth of five and a maximum depth of eight miles. The British had won the famous Messines Ridge and Cheluwe, while the Belgians had advanced beyond Dixmude and taken Roulers.

Fighting of the fiercest description continued throughout October 1, 1918, all along the Cambrai-St. Quentin front, the British winning positions on the greater part of the line. The Germans, anticipating the speedy capture of Cambrai, had fired the city at different points. The British, continuing to close in, stormed in the night Proville to the west and Tilloy on the north. Farther south toward St. Quentin they captured the villages of Vendhuile and Lavergies. To the north of Cambrai they made notable progress in spite of the presence in the enemy fighting line of fresh German reserves thrown in between the city and the Sensee River.

During the month of September, 1918, the British had captured on the western front 66,000 prisoners and 700 guns. In four days' fighting up to October 1, 1918, General Haig's troops had engaged and defeated thirty-six German divisions, or approximately 432,000 men.

French troops entered St. Quentin in the afternoon of October 1, 1918. Heavy fighting continued along the whole Franco-American front from St. Quentin to the Meuse. The British on the north and the French on the south drew an arc around St. Quentin well to the rear of the city. Toward the Aisne the French had pushed on beyond Revillon. In the center the Germans continued to cling stubbornly to the wooded height of St. Thierry, where they had established a line of positions stretching from Cormicy to the Vesle, flanking Rheims on the northwest and enabling them to maintain their hold on a semicircle of strong points around Rheims.

Cambrai having been mined by the Germans, the occupation of the city was delayed by the British, but their patrols penetrated the burning city. Canadian troops held the suburbs of Neuville St. Remy on the north and Crèvecœur and Rumilly on the south.

The rapid advance of the Allies in Belgium on the north and the British thrust past Cambrai on the south forced the Germans to begin a retreat on a wide front on both sides of the La Bassée Canal.

In the night of October 1-2, 1918, General Berthelot's forces on the French front completed their conquest of the St. Thierry Massif, the important height west of Rheims, occupying Pouillon and the fort of St. Thierry.

These great gains enabled the French to dominate the plain from the east and threaten all the German positions along the Aisne-Marne Canal from Bethany to the north, including the fort of Brimont, where the guns were posted that wrought most of the destruction to Rheims. General Gouraud and Berthelot by their advances threatened to make of the Rheims salient another pocket from which the Germans would have great difficulty in extricating themselves.

In the Champagne desperate efforts were made by the enemy to hold back Gouraud's forces on the line of Monthers-Orfeuil-Liry. Steep cliffs and deep ravines furnished the Germans with excellent positions for defense, but the French crushed every counterattack and drove ahead. South of Orfeuil and Liry General Gouraud broke through heavy wire defenses, and won a powerful position by assault.

East of Liry in the wooded valley of the Aisne there was hard fighting which ended in the occupation of the most important positions by General Gouraud's men. Farther east where the Germans had flooded the region of Challerange the French displayed the same intrepidity as at other points on the battle front, gaining ground and occupying the railroad at Autry.

On October 3, 1918, Field Marshal Haig's forces shattered vital German defenses between St. Quentin and Cambrai. Attacking with infantry and tanks on the eight-mile front from Sequehart to the Scheldt Canal the British broke through the strong Beaurevoir-Fonsomme line west and southwest of Beaurevoir.

On the left of the attack English and Irish troops forced the passage of the Scheldt Canal at Gouy and Le Catelet and captured both villages. At the farthest point of this advance the British penetrated German positions to a depth of about five miles. Over 5,000 prisoners were taken by the British during the drive.

In Flanders the Germans were in retreat on the twenty-mile front between Armentières and Lens, which the British now occupied. Between these strongholds the British had advanced their line three miles eastward through Avion, Vendin, Wieres, and Herlies.

St. Quentin was completely cleared of German troops by October 2, 1918. Not one of its original 56,000 inhabitants remained. All were carried away by the Germans. As it was believed the enemy had mined the town with time fuses the French did not occupy the town, but remained outside waiting for developments.

From St. Quentin to the Argonne the French armies continued to gain ground all along the line. They were closing the only avenue of escape for the Germans on the west side of the Argonne Forest, and clearing the region north and west of Rheims.

General Gouraud on the eastern side of the line by the occupation of the important railway town of Challerange now controlled the western exit from the Grand Pré Gap through the forest. Southeast of Orfeuil the French held a wooded area, their guns dominating the only railway which was available to the Germans north of that position. The French also enlarged their gains north of Somme-Py in the Champagne, capturing Mont Blanc with the Americans and the Medeah Farm.

Around Rheims the Germans had been forced back so far that the city must soon be freed from the menace of bombardment. Cormicy, northwest of the city, was captured by the French and Loivre to the north, while the Aisne Canal was reached between Concevreux and La Neuvillette.

Debeney's indomitable troops north and east of St. Quentin continued to drive forward. He broke the Hindenburg line from Le Tronquoy to Lesdins and gained a hold on the railway east of St. Quentin. Progress was also made at Neuville St. Armand and Itancourt. Continuing their pressure on the Germans seeking to repair the gap torn in the Hindenburg defenses northeast of St. Quentin, British troops on October 4-5, 1918, pushed on toward Fresnoy-le-Grand in the face of determined and powerful enemy counterattacks.

The Germans continued to retreat on the Lens-Armentières front. The British lines were advanced over two miles to Erquinghem and Wavrin west and southwest of Lille.

In the Champagne the entire enemy front was crumbling before the hammer blows of the French army under Berthelot and the Franco-American legions under Gouraud. North of Rheims the capture of Fort Brimont and strong mountain positions to the east gave the French enormous advantage over the enemy, of which they were not slow to avail themselves. The entire massif of Moronvilliers was conquered; by the afternoon of October 5, 1918, the French had reached Bethenville, three miles to the north. In the course of the advance the Germans were forced to evacuate many positions which they had held since 1914.

Threatened by the British thrust toward Lille the enemy began the evacuation of the city. Farther south, in the crucial area north of St. Quentin, British forces again broke through the Hindenburg system of defenses. They crossed the Scheldt Canal on the eight-mile front between Crèvecœur and Le Catelet and won a section of the famous line on the plateau of La Terrière in this sector, the Germans hurriedly retiring from the high ground east of the canal.

French victories in the Champagne continued with clockwork regularity every day, and it might be said with truth every few hours of the day. German resistance was broken on a front of about twenty-eight miles in the Rheims salient, where as the result of pressure east and west the enemy was compelled to surrender his strongest positions.

The French continued in pursuit through the night of October 5-6, 1918, the whole front along the river Suippe. Other French troops having crossed the Aisne Canal had advanced to the outskirts of Aiguilcourt and pressing on north of Rheims captured a number of villages to the northeast of the city, reaching the Suippe River at Pont Faverger, which was conquered and occupied.

In the fighting on the British front on October 6, 1918, the village of Fresnoy, ten miles west of Douai, was won. Between Cambrai and St. Quentin after the capture of Abencheul-au-Bois the British established themselves in strong positions on the high ground toward Lesdain. Montbregain and Beaurevoir, villages to the northeast of St. Quentin which had changed hands several times in the recent fighting, were won by the British at a late hour in the day.

During the night Marshal Haig's troops established a post at the crossing of the Scheldt Canal, five miles northwest of Cambrai, and advanced their lines south on the west and southwest. By the advance north of Wez Maquart the British were now within about five miles west of the city.

At times during the British pursuit the enemy's rear guards attempted to make a stand, but in every instance they were annihilated. The Germans seemed to have become panic-stricken, for, while they could maintain a stubborn defense, there was no method in their fighting; it was the desperate struggle of men who know they are playing a losing game.

The continued French pressure in the Champagne yielded daily results. On October 7, 1918, Berry-au-Bac at the junction of the river Aisne and the Aisne Canal on the left wing of the offensive was captured. On the rest of the Champagne front the French held their gains, and pushed on to the north and east of the Arnes River.

Early in the morning of October 8, 1918, British and American troops with the French cooperating on the right launched an attack on a twenty-mile front from Cambrai southward, shattering the remains of the Hindenburg system to a large extent, and advancing along the whole fighting line a distance of three miles.

The British artillery fire, which began to shell the enemy through the night and in the morning, was of the most unprecedented violence, the guns being massed wheel to wheel. Such a destructive fire was poured into the enemy lines that when the attack was made the Germans were generally too panic-stricken to fight with either courage or method.

Americans on the British front were concerned at this time in the brilliant operations northeast of St. Quentin.

South of the American fighting line the French, starting from Rouvroy, captured the hills to the eastward and the villages of Essigny and Fontaine. South of Cambrai, where the Germans counterattacked heavily with reserves, they made temporary gains of ground from which they were afterward driven out. Large numbers of German gunners who attempted to check the Allied onslaught were killed.

On the following day the Allies struck again on a front of more than thirty miles from north of Cambrai to the south of St. Quentin and completed the breaking through of the entire Hindenburg defensive system from Arras to St. Quentin. The German retreat now became almost a rout, involving thirty divisions.

At 4 o'clock in the morning with only the light of the stars and flares to guide them Canadian and English troops pressing forward from the north and south joined up in the chief square of Cambrai. The Germans were in retreat behind their rear guards, and the whole city was in Allied hands, but the enemy had mined it, and there were constant explosions that reduced many fine buildings to ruins. It was a great day for the Allies, and especially for the British, for in exactly two months they had fought their way back to their old front lines and were now far into the country beyond, which they had never penetrated before. Cambrai, a prize, was won, and the Germans, defeated and broken, were scuttling away with all the speed they could muster.

During October 8-9, 1918, the battle in Champagne continued with increasing violence from the Aisne in the region of Vaux-le-Mouron, which the French captured, to the Suippe River at Bazancourt, which was also won. North of St. Etienne on the Arnes River the Germans made powerful attacks on the positions won by General Gouraud's men, but were unable to regain a foot of ground, while their casualties were enormous. The determined fighting here and on the Suippe River by the Germans was evidently for the purpose of gaining time for a wide retreat. For the persistence and vigor of the Allied pressure had evidently disarranged all their plans, as up to this time they had been unable to prepare a stable position to which their shattered formations could retire in security.

In the Cambrai-St. Quentin sector the Anglo-American forces continued to advance during October 9-10, 1918, the greatest progress being made east and southeast of Cambrai, where Marshal Haig had pushed his lines to the banks of the Selle River, capturing the important German base of Le Cateau. This marked an advance of about ten miles east and fifteen miles southeast of Cambrai in the face of determined resistance by the enemy's rear guards. During this forward sweep many French civilians were found in the captured villages, 2,500 being liberated in Caudry alone.

Farther to the north several villages southeast of Lens were occupied. The French, on the south of the British and Americans, continued to carry out dashing attacks and wrested from the enemy a number of villages northeast of St. Quentin. North of the Aisne they gained possession of the Croix-sans-Tête plateau. In Champagne Liry was occupied.

The Germans began on October 10-11, 1918, the withdrawal from their strong positions north of the Sensee River before the far-reaching advance of the British south of that stream. North of the Scarpe the British pressed on in the direction of Douai, which the Germans were preparing to abandon. From every front came the same story of German retirement, though here and there they continued to hold on to a strong position to hinder the advance of the Allies and secure the safety of their fleeing forces. On the whole front from the Soissons-Laon road to Grand Pré north of the Argonne Forest their hosts were on the backward move. In Champagne, where General Gouraud's army captured Machault after a four-mile advance, they were retreating toward Vouziers, and under pressure of the converging attack west and south of the Chemin-des-Dames were gradually forced off of that famous height, relinquishing some of their strongest positions. In the Laon area the Germans were facing the utmost difficulties, where the Hunding line between the rivers Serre and Sissonne had been turned by the French.

In the night of October 11, 1918, French advance guards occupied Vouziers, which the Germans had burned and looted before retiring. The highroad running west from Vouziers to Pauvres was now entirely in French hands, and German resistance seemed weakening through this sector. West of Pauvres the French held the slopes above the marshy wooded valley of the Retourne.

On the left, General Berthelot's army captured the dominating height of Cæsar's Camp and advanced beyond Mauchamp Farm to the north. Still more important progress was made in the loop of the Aisne River, where French cavalry aided by armored cars took Asfeld-La-Ville, thus creating a new salient between them and the advance to the westward which occupied the greater part of the Chemin-des-Dames.

General Mangin's troops meanwhile were encountering strong opposition as they forced their way forward into the wooded heights that constituted the outer bastion of the St. Gobain Forest. This operation, taken in conjunction with the advance of Generals Debeney and Gouraud on the flanks, rendered the position of the German forces holding the Laon salient increasingly dangerous.

On October 12, 1918, General Mangin seized the greater part of the St. Gobain Massif. La Fère, the outpost to the north on the Oise, was also won. Laon, the last of the great natural obstacles forming the keystone of the German defenses in France, yielded without a fight.

The British had now invested Douai, and the fall of that place was only a question of hours.

All these important achievements were less spectacular than the great battle in Flanders which began on October 14, 1918, and was fought by the combined Belgian, French, and British troops under the command of King Albert. The whole Allied line advanced on an irregular front of about twenty-five miles from the region of Courtemarck to that of Courtrai, penetrating enemy positions six and seven miles.

The British Second Army under General Sir Herbert Plumer captured the villages of Gulleghem and Heule and advanced as far as the outskirts of Courtrai, having taken nearly 4,000 prisoners and fifty guns. The Belgians and French bagged over 7,000 and eighty guns.

In French Flanders the British carried their lines forward in the neighborhood of Haubourdin about three miles west of Lille, and farther south crossed the Haute Deule Canal and took a number of villages northeast of Lens.

So fast were the Germans retreating that the British, French, and Belgian infantry in the center of the battle front had lost sight of them. The victory was especially memorable because it was a triumph for the gallant little Belgian army, which with the assistance of French and British had driven the despoilers of their country from a large territory which the Germans had occupied since the first days of the war. Moreover, they had gained in this battle such strong positions that the Germans must soon be forced to abandon the entire coast of Belgium.

The sweeping advance of the Allied infantry, preceded by French cavalry which performed wonderful work in carrying out charges, left Lille and the mining and manufacturing districts of Tourcoing, Roubaix, and Tournai in a salient that was growing deeper every hour and which the Germans could not possibly hold for long. In the region of Thourout the Allies encountered intense opposition. The struggle was here from house to house and street to street, and the casualties were heavy on both sides. The Germans had posted machine guns in the windows of the dwellings and in the cellars, firing streams of bullets into the advancing Belgians, but were unable to force them back. The troops of King Albert fought with a fierce determination to wreak revenge on the despoilers of their country, and nothing could withstand the cold fury of their onslaught. To the northeast of Courtrai they stormed and captured Bavichove and on the north Andoye and Cachten.

Battle lines and operations on the Western Front in 1918, including German territory held by the Allied armies of occupation.

The capture by the British of Linselles along the Lys placed the Germans in the salient in a highly precarious position as the Allies pressed forward, and it was inevitable that they must soon retire to save themselves.

Outside Courtrai the infantry made an advance of about three miles. Here they were forced to crush stubborn enemy attacks, the Germans having received orders to hold on to the last. Very few of their machine gunners who tried to hold up the Allied advance managed to escape.

From the Thielt positions, where the French cavalry, owing to the hardness of the ground and roads, were able to operate freely and consequently worry the Germans, the Holland border was less than twenty miles. It was through this gap that the Germans throughout the whole Belgian coast system must retire if they were to save themselves, provided that the Allies continued to advance. Every yard of ground gained by the Allies in this area lessened the Germans' chances of escape by narrowing the gap through which they must go.

The Allied offensive in Flanders did not spend itself for nearly three days, the German retreat becoming more and more disorderly so that at some points it was a veritable rout. The entire Belgian front from the south was in constant movement. From Ostend and that section of the Belgian coast the Germans fled precipitately. British naval forces and Belgian aviators entered Ostend on October 17, 1918, where they were received with cheers and tears of joy by the inhabitants.

The Allied infantry made rapid progress on October 17-18, 1918, while the Germans were hurrying eastward through the passage between Bruges and the Holland border. There was only one good road that they could take and consequently this was crowded with transports and by troops in flight continually harassed by the Belgian guns. The whole of the German army under General von Arnim, comprising seventeen divisions, was in retreat from the north to the region of Lille. King Albert of Belgium and Queen Elizabeth entered Ostend in the afternoon of October 17, 1918.

The Prince of Wales with General Currie and General Watson, on a street in Denain, France, shortly after its capture by the Canadian troops. Denain is near the border of Belgium and the Belgian town of Valenciennes, which was taken on November 4, 1918.

CHAPTER V

THE GERMANS RETREAT ON ALL FRONTS—BRITISH CAPTURE VALENCIENNES—THE ARMISTICE—THE WAR OVER

The Allies continued to be masters of the situation on the Flanders front. October 17-18, 1918, Zeebrugge, the only submarine base on the coast remaining to the Germans after they were driven out of Ostend, and Blankenberghe, a port four miles to the southwest, were occupied. The French gained possession of Thielt and advanced a mile east of the town. Southeast of Douai the British occupied a number of villages. Roubaix and Tourcoing were entered in the afternoon of October 18, 1918. Southeast of Cambrai, on the Bohain-Le Cateau front, where Anglo-American forces were operating, over 4,000 prisoners were taken in the space of twenty-four hours. From the Oise River eastward to the Argonne Forest French troops made important advances and gained fifteen villages, many of which had been heavily fortified by the enemy.