The German drive toward Paris which began May 27, 1918. The map shows their farthest advance.
The German drive toward Paris which began May 27, 1918. The map shows their farthest advance.
In this advance the Germans had the advantage of superior numbers and moreover the French troops were tired out, having fought almost continuously day and night for nearly a week. Asan added advantage the Germans were well equipped with light and heavy machine guns, which were kept going all the time.
Eastward, in the neighborhood of Rheims, where the French and British were fighting together, the Germans were unable to make any progress of importance. South of Soissons they attempted to renew their advance. In this thrust they employed a number of tanks, but met with strong resistance from the French and were driven back without gaining a foot of ground.
The Germans claimed to have captured, in the course of the offensive, 45,000 prisoners, 400 guns, and several thousand machine guns.
DAYS FOR THE ALLIES—THE GERMAN OFFENSIVE DECLINES—FRENCH GAIN IN THE RHEIMS REGION—BRITISH VICTORY AT HAMEL
The situation that confronted the Allies had become serious. It was impossible to question the importance of the German advance. In the center of their new line of attack they had won their strategic objective, the Marne, there to establish a new front, and make preparations for pressing the fight on a new north and south line between Soissons and Château-Thierry.
If the Germans were successful, they would be able to advance westward toward Paris and complete the new front by joining up with their positions around Noyon at the head of the Oise Valley.
Continuing their successful advance to the Marne, they turned their energies toward the west and made an advance of five miles along the Ourcq River to the neighborhood of Neuilly and Cheny. In the region between Hartennes and Soissons farther north the Germans were unable to make any important gains, owing to the stubborn resistance of the French forces, increased by fresh troops brought into the battle area.
The Germans, though vastly superior in numbers over the Allies, continued to swell their fighting force. The formidable nature of their effort may be gauged from the identification of the Franco-British officers of nearly fifty of their divisions, or about 675,000 men. They had also many other divisions in immediate support. Opposing this mighty host the French and British had about a fifth of this number engaged, and although the Germans succeeded in throwing the Allies back, they had not been able to make a breach in their lines.
The German drive in the main area of activity between Château-Thierry and Soissons began to weaken during June 1-2, 1918, owing to the vigor of the French counterattacks, which continued day and night.
North of the Aisne the crown prince's forces succeeded in capturing Mont de Choissy (northwest of Soissons) after strong attacks, but only held it a short time when they were driven out by French bayonets.
During the night of June 1, 1918, operating between Soissons and Château-Thierry, the Germans with strong forces and operating in a five-mile front, made a gain of three miles over the previous day's advance, occupying the towns of Longpont, Corcy, Faverolles, and Troesnes. Later all these places but Faverolles were won back by the French.
On the Marne the situation remained unchanged. The Germans were in possession of the eastern half of Château-Thierry while the French occupied the western half of the town.
Northwest of this place, in the Neuilly St. Front region, the French made some headway, driving the Germans back on Passy-en-Valois and capturing an elevation known as Hill 163.
The German push had now slowed down. They continued local attacks that failed in every instance. The French held firm north of the Aisne, the most important sector of the battle front. The problem confronting the Germans was to link up the front in Picardy with that along the Aisne, which would extend their positions at Amiens, but this they had failed to accomplish. South of the Forest of Villers-Cotterets they had made repeated efforts to extend their positions along the Marne and throw the Frenchback toward the Ourcq, but met only with defeat. It was along this stretch of the line that the American troops, as noted elsewhere, gave the French such valuable support.
In Flanders the situation of the German forces was much the same; they were held in a wedge, the sides of which they could not break through, one heel of the wedge being on high ground west of Kemmel and the other on the ridge in the rear of Béthune.
In the Aisne fighting area Germans were also held in a wedge much larger in extent, one heel of which was about Rheims, and the other west of Soissons. From this position the Germans must sooner or later endeavor to extricate themselves.
One of the most important factors in the battle, the mastery of the air, had passed to the Allies. German troops attacking or on the march were harried without respite by the Allies' pilots flying at tree-top level. Day and night centers behind the German lines were bombed on a scale hitherto undreamed of. In one day the French launched sixty-three tons of bombs at important points on the German bases.
June 6, 1918, on the Picardy front, the Americans made an advance of two and a half miles in the Château-Thierry sector. Details of the fighting here will be found in another place. Between the Ourcq and the Marne, French and American troops made an attack that resulted in the gain of two-thirds of a mile in the neighborhood of Veuilly-la-Peterie and the capture of nearly 300 prisoners.
The Franco-American forces continued to make gains with an advance in the Chezy sector northwest of the line. The Germans, it appeared, were in an exhausted condition and their resistance lacked spirit.
The Allies' reconquest of dominant points had greatly improved the tactical situation. German efforts in the Marne Valley were fading out now that they were confronted by the Allies' forces in numbers proportionate to their own.
An important attack was launched by the Germans early in the morning of June 9, 1918, on a front of more than twenty miles; between Montdidier and Noyon. They gained ground in thecenter to a depth of two and a half miles and to a less degree on the wings of the attack. The southern limit of the German thrust was the villages of Ressons-sur-Matz and Mareuil. The French kept them from crossing the covering zone, and on the French right toward Noyon they were similarly held.
It was the opinion of experienced military observers that the war had witnessed no more severe fighting than in this sector, which resulted indeed in a German advance, but at what a cost! When the German infantry began coming over in dense masses they encountered a withering fire of machine guns and artillery that mowed them down in groups and cut great gaps in the moving wall. But as fast as the ranks melted away fresh waves of men swept forward and filled the empty spaces, and the massacre, for such it should be called, continued. Only the iron discipline of German military rule could have forced soldiers to face such tornadoes of fire.
It was evident that the prowess of the American soldier had stimulated the German command to take the most desperate chances, in the hope of forcing a decision before the Allies were further reenforced by the troops of the great republic. There could be no other explanation for the Germans' reckless waste of man power, the frenzied attempts to crush a foe by sheer weight of numbers.
Early in the morning of June 11, 1918, the French evacuated the Dreslincourt-Ribecourt angle, and fell back on the Matz. This region, with its numerous valleys and wooded hills, offered facilities for the tactics of "infiltration." Once it was turned by way of the Matz, the defenders, with the Oise behind them, could not continue to hold firm without risking great losses of men and material.
During the night of June 10, 1918, an enemy offensive, employing large numbers of fresh troops, attacked the French forces farther west, and flung them back along the Estrées Road as far as the Arende Valley. The French, however, had brought up reserves and in a dashing counterattack the enemy ranks were broken, an operation which brought them back to their former positions south of Belloy and Marqueglise.
By the prodigal waste of men (and it must be acknowledged that there was method in some of the madness) the Germans had obtained these results. By forcing their way down the Matz Valley at a prodigious cost the German columns had reached forward from Rassons to Marqueglise, Vandelicourt, and Elincourt, thus turning the wooded plateau of Thiescourt to the southwest.
These operations left the French cornered on the narrow range of hills before Ribecourt on the Oise, with another salient on the other side of the river, consisting of the woods of Ourscamp and Carlepont, which occupied low ground.
A strong effort was made on the German right to widen the front of the offensive movement. They had advanced from Mortemer and Cuvilly beyond Belloy and the hamlet of St. Maur. The columns of General von Hutier were now within a few miles of Estrées St. Denis and Compiègne, respectively, road and railway junctions of some importance.
During the night of June 10, 1918, Australian troops carried out a highly successful movement which advanced the British lines on the battle front north of the river Somme between Sailly-Laurette and Morlancourt.
The Australians drove forward along the high ground which runs east and west below Morlancourt. They attacked on a front of over a mile and a half, advancing the line south of the village about half a mile and capturing 233 prisoners, 21 machine guns and considerable war material.
Southeast of Montdidier, on June 11, 1918, the Germans were about to strike a hard blow with four divisions, when the French forestalled them by a sudden attack. The battle continued throughout the night and morning hours of the following day, the Allies advancing their line to the east of Mery, a point of considerable importance, as it commands the valley and surroundings. Toward the center the Germans struck a succession of hard blows at the line, but it held fast, although some enemy detachments succeeded in penetrating the Matz Valley through the woods. The French fought yard by yard as the Germans tried by overwhelming numbers to drive them back. The result of the fighting in this region, which lasted for two days and a night, wasa small gain of ground for the Germans, but this was won at such a heavy price that the French considered they had won a victory.
Fighting continued on the Montdidier-Noyon battle ground on the following day, the French pushing forward around Belloy and St. Maur and gathering in prisoners, some cannon, and machine guns. In the center Foch's troops were holding fast, but on the right the Germans, after repeated efforts, gained a foothold on the southern bank of the Matz River, and occupied the village of Melicocq and the heights near by. East of the Oise along the line of Bailly, Tracy-le-Val and Nampoel the French troops withdrew under the protection of covering detachments without the enemy being aware of the movement. In the region east of Veuilly, where the French were fighting at the left of the United States marines and infantry, considerable ground was gained. Montcourt was occupied, and the southern portion of Bussières.
On June 13, 1918, the Germans gathered strong forces, between 30,000 and 40,000 men, and attacked the line from Courcelles to Mery. As a result, they were heavily punished and after eight hours of costly efforts were forced back, their ranks shattered and in an exhausted condition. The fifth day of the fighting marked a definite check of enemy operations. The Allies were well content since the Germans had paid such an enormous cost for the ground they had gained. The five-days' battle west of the Oise had ended for the Germans in a costly reverse after they had made an advance varying from two to six miles.
The German thrust south of Ypres and where it was stopped.
The German thrust south of Ypres and where it was stopped.
This last offensive showed that the Germans had not been able to maintain the driving power that characterized their first onrush. In their drive on Amiens, which lasted for ten days, the Allies lost a tract of territory forty miles deep, and their casualties were heavy. The German attack in the north was of about the same duration, but their gains were much less. After the conquest of the Chemin-des-Dames the crown prince's forces had pushed on to the Marne, twenty-five miles distant, but here they had been unable to carry out any successful operations. In studying the situation the Germans' gain in territory was not of first importance. They had failed to attain their object, which was todivide the French and British army and then destroy one of them, and their attempt in a series of converging operations to crush both Allies was also a failure.
Where Foch definitely stopped the German offensive, June 14, 1918.
Where Foch definitely stopped the German offensive, June 14, 1918.
The German offensive for the time being was now definitely checked, and no important operations were undertaken. Trench raids and bombardments were of daily and nightly occurrence, but along the fighting front it was "a quiet period" in a military sense.
During the night of June 14-15, 1918, British and Scottish troops by a swift stroke attacked German outpost lines on a front of about two miles and won a long strip of ground, with 200 prisoners and about 25 machine guns. The scene of this interesting operation was before Hinges, and the Allies had a special grudge against the Germans occupying the posts in this neighborhood, for some of them belonged to the Eighteenth German Division of infamous memory; the first German division to enter Belgium at the beginning of the war, and active participants in the reign of terror at Louvain and Termonde. This division had been fighting ever since they were shooting civilians in Belgium, and there were probably few left of Von Kluck's original forces, for they had been marked out for special attention by the British and French.
This neat operation carried out by the British in the Lys sector was duplicated by the French on the following day when they attacked north and northwest of Hautebraye, between the Oise and the Aisne, and improved their positions there. The Germans counterattacked with fury, but were thrown back on their own lines. The French took 375 prisoners and 25 machine guns.
On June 18, 1918, the comparative quiet which had reigned for some days on the French front was broken. At 9 o'clock in the evening the First German Army under the command of General Fritz von Below made a frontal attack upon the salient of which the devastated city of Rheims formed the head. It was estimated that the Germans had 40,000 troops engaged in the assault along the front extending from Vrigny Plateau to Sillery.
The orders were to carry the city at all costs, a counterblow to compensate the Germans for their failure to capture Compiègne.
The counterbattery work of the French gunners dislocated all their plans and their losses were enormous. At every point the Germans were thrown back. So admirably was the French artillery served that the Germans gained nothing even in the first onrush, though hundreds of their cannon were busy and high explosives and gas shells were showered on the French lines.
The front of the new German attack was the semicircle they had drawn about Rheims in the recent offensive on the Aisne front. The Rheims region comprised the left flank of the German attack. The French had given ground on both sides of the city, but still held Rheims itself and the protecting forts near by. As the Germans hemmed in the city on three sides, it was only a question of time when they would attempt to drive out the defenders. The attack we have described was on a front from Viny, west of the city, to La Pompelle, and approximately fourteen miles.
In the Seicheprey region, and northwest of Montdidier, in front of Cantigny, and in the neighborhood of Belleau Wood, the American troops, as noted elsewhere, were fighting with valor and distinction.
For some days following trench and air raids constituted the principal activities on the French front. The Germans "lay low," but it was well known that they were preparing for a new offensive, as they were cunningly maneuvering into position their reserves for an attack. There were no sure indications where the blow would fall.
The Allies meanwhile were busy "nibbling" at the enemy lines whenever a chance offered, gaining ground and taking prisoners in minor operations that amounted to little when judged separately, but were of importance in the aggregate.
The Germans received a surprise and a shaking up, on June 28, 1918, when some British battalions attacked them opposite the Forest of Nieppe, to the west of Merville. The British advanced on a front of about three miles. Opposing them were two divisions of Saxons and Prussians, the 32d Saxon and the 44th German. They were making ready for breakfast when theBritish bombardment opened upon them, preceding the advance of British infantry.
The surprise of the Germans was complete, for the British were upon them before they could do much. Some of the British troops found a trench that had been dug between two organized shell holes, where they captured forty of the enemy and a number of machine guns. These they proceeded to turn on German positions ahead and in a short time it was all over, the British winning their objective with only light casualties. Everything had passed smoothly for the British; what their soldiers called "a romp." And the results were worth while. They had captured a strip of territory three miles wide and nearly a mile deep, and taken over 350 prisoners and 22 machine guns.
At the same hour the British launched this attack the Australians carried out a minor operation west of Merris which resulted in the capture of German outposts and a considerable number of prisoners and guns.
In the night of June 29, 1918, the French carried out a brilliant coup south of the Forest of Villers-Cotterets. Driving forward along a front of 1.8 miles, they advanced their line 800 yards, capturing a height of considerable strategic importance between Molloy and Passy-en-Valois. Nearly 1,200 Germans were taken and a number of machine guns.
On the same night the British made a drive at the German lines north of Albert, and forced them out of a strong position which they held on the tip of a crest overlooking the valley of the Ancre. The British assault was entirely successful. The important position was won and all the highest ground in the vicinity.
That the American troops in France were becoming well seasoned fighters was shown on July 1, 1918, when they captured the village of Vaux, and the Bois de la Roche west of Château-Thierry. Details of this interesting operation will be found in another place.
After a day of quiet on the rest of the front, French forces operating in the neighborhood of Autrèches, northwest of Soissons, made a drive at the German lines, and gained nearly halfa mile of territory. A second attack delivered later in the same region between Autrèches and Moulin-sous-Toutevent gave them more ground. In these drives the French captured more than 1,000 prisoners.
The Australian troops, who had always shown a fondness for giving the Germans surprise parties, carried out another on July 4, 1918, when advancing on a four-mile front they gained territory a mile and a half deep, including the village of Hamel and the trench system beyond it south of the Somme. In this dashing advance over 1,500 Germans were captured.
The Australians went over the top about 3 o'clock in the morning. The British artillery in this region was very strong and quite smothered the Germans' guns, which were late in getting under way.
The Germans had four divisions on this front holding the ground south of Vaux-sur-Somme, garrisoning the village of Hamel and Vaire Wood and the trench system on the other side of Hamel.
The advance of the Australians was facilitated by a squadron of tanks which led the way. Heavy smoke screens hid the moving forts from the German antitank guns. Behind these lumbering monsters came the infantry in open lines, following closely the barrage as it moved slowly forward ahead of them.
The first stages of the Australian advance were made through semidarkness, but by the time they had reached the German lines light from a pale sky was sifting through the fog and there was fair visibility.
Three or four British tanks came to grief, but their casualties were small, since by this time the Australians were masters of the situation as the Germans were tumbling out of their trenches and dugouts and surrendering in batches.
Over the battle field the British aviators were flying back and forth, dipping down now and again to drop bombs on the German positions. The village of Hamel next received their attention and though mostly in ruins, the flyers, using their bombs freely, started many fires in the place, and the German garrison must have had an uncomfortable time of it.
After the British guns had further crushed resistance, Hamel was rushed by the Australians and taken with the loss of only a few men. In Vaire and Hamel Woods, where many German machine guns were stationed and which were strongly held by considerable forces, the Australians made record time in "mopping them up." In less than two hours after they went over the top they had completed the job, eliminating a salient in the British line and gaining much valuable territory.
The German guns in this region did not get really into action until the fight was over, when they began to shell the new Allied positions. In the evening they launched three counterattacks on the wings and center of the Australian lines, but were not pressed with spirit and failed.
In honor of American Independence Day the little French villages close to the firing line displayed the tricolor and American flags. Some of the latter were of home manufacture and lacking in essential details, but they symbolized the friendly feeling of the French toward the great republic.
In proportion as the Germans ceased to press the offensive the French increased their raids on the German lines, capturing positions and points of observation which, apart from their present importance, were valuable assets for the future.
The German command claimed to have taken 15,000 prisoners when the offensive of June 9, 1918, was arrested. Since that date the French and their American comrades had captured about 10,000 Germans in raids and minor operations and had regained quite as much territory as the hordes of General von Hutier had overrun. In the week closing July 6, 1918, the French alone had taken over 4,000 prisoners. All the irregularities in the French line across the Oise to the Marne at Château-Thierry had moreover been straightened out and the defenses strengthened and powerfully organized against future attacks.
On July 6, 1918, the Australians who had carried out such a brilliant attack on the German lines south of the Somme on the Fourth of July began another push in the same sector.
The Germans had been so badly battered in the previous encounter that they had not attempted to retaliate, but had establishedsome advanced posts in no-man's-land which the Australians thought it wise to wipe out. It was known that an epidemic of Spanish influenza was raging among the German troops in this sector, which accounted in a measure for the very poor showing they made. That their morale was shaken may be illustrated by the following incident: After one of the German outposts was under rifle and grenade fire for some time a British soldier went out to see the effect of the damage done. Almost immediately a German officer and twelve men came tumbling out of a dugout and surrendered to him, and the proud Tommy led back his baker's dozen of captives to the British lines.
The Australians in this push on the 6th advanced their line by about 400 yards over a front of about a mile beyond Hamel, which rounded out the gains made in this sector on July 4, 1918.
The Germans continued inactive as far as military operations were concerned, but back of their lines vast preparations were under way, as noted by the Allies' observers, and it was evident that a new offensive would not long be delayed.
Meanwhile the French continued to make gains daily. On July 8, 1918, southwest of Soissons, General Pétain's men broke the German line on a two-mile front in the outskirts of Retz Forest, in the region of Longpont. In this push the French gained three-fourths of a mile, occupying Chavigny Farm and the ridges and heights to the north and south of the farm. In this operation the French captured nearly 400 Germans, of whom four were officers.
A new stroke against the enemy was delivered by the French on the following day when they attacked west of Antheuil between Montdidier and the River Oise on a front of two and a half miles, piercing it to a depth of more than a mile at some points, and making prisoners of 450 men, including fourteen officers. Later the Germans attempted to counterattack in this sector, but it was pressed with vigor and they were thrown back on their own lines.
The line-up at the great German offensive, March-June, 1918.
The line-up at the great German offensive, March-June, 1918.
Up in Flanders there was violent shelling of the British roads around the Scherpenberg, which was the outer bastion of the Allies' defense. Farther to the south the Australians had advancedtheir line beyond the German outpost positions near Morris on a 1,200-yard front.
Near the Aisne the French infantry broke the Germans' defenses at several points north of Chavigny Farm. They took possession of the quarries on the east, pushed forward to the outskirts of Longpont, and penetrated the northern section of Corcy. This town was captured on the following day (July 11, 1918), together with the railway station and the château to the south of the place, an important observation point.
The Germans were evidently too much occupied with preparations for a new offensive to trouble themselves with minor operations, as for several days they had only attempted a few feeble attacks that failed in every instance.
In the course of July 12, 1918, the French delivered two hard blows against the German lines that are deserving of record. The most important was struck in Picardy when General Pétain's troops, advancing on a three-mile front north of Mailly-Raineval, broke into the German front to the depth of a mile and a quarter. The village of Castel on the Avre River and important positions south of the village were occupied by the victors, who captured over 500 prisoners of all ranks.
The second blow was delivered in the area southwest of Soissons, where the French had been "nibbling away" for some days with satisfactory results. Here they captured the village of Longpont, a continuation of their advance north of Chavigny Farm and east of Faverolles.
On July 14, 1918, the national fête day of the French Republic, the British and American troops joined heartily in the celebration, and little flags of the Allies fluttered among the ruins and on every building all along the fighting front.
It was a dull day, with gray skies and mist and rain, but the weather could not dampen the enthusiasm of the participants in the fête. It is possible that the weather, however, had something to do with the movements of the Germans, who had probably intended to launch their offensive on the French national holiday, but for the storm. So the attack they had been preparing against the Allies was made early in the morning of the following day.
THE NEW GERMAN DRIVE AROUND RHEIMS—THE NEW BATTLE OF THE MARNE—THE ALLIES LAUNCH A GREAT OFFENSIVE MOVEMENT
It was shortly after midnight on June 15, 1918, while in some parts of the fighting front British, French, and Americans were still fêting the national holiday, that the German guns from the Marne near Château-Thierry heralded the new offensive. Soon along a front of sixty miles, extending to the Argonne, the German artillery was thundering. Men who had seen fighting since the war began describe the artillery preparation for the drive as beyond anything the Germans had attempted up to that time on the French front. Not only were the Allies' lines front and back shelled, but behind the lines to a distance of twenty and thirty miles.
About daybreak the German infantry attacked. East and west of Rheims a large number of tanks assisted the advance. The French had already anticipated the drive and were fully prepared. On the whole front east of Rheims they held up the German hordes for five hours. It was only in the neighborhood of the Souain Road and Prunay that the Germans made any notable advance. Here on a narrow front they succeeded in penetrating for about one and a half miles.
The most important achievement in the morning of the first day was the crossing of the Marne of 15,000 German troops, and an advance of a mile beyond on a ten-mile front.
East of Rheims, and east and west of Château-Thierry, American troops received the full force of the German blows in those sectors. The success of our soldiers in stemming the German advance is described in detail in another place.
The allied counteroffensive on the Marne. The shaded part shows the gains of the allies.
The allied counteroffensive on the Marne. The shaded part shows the gains of the allies.
In the first day's fighting the Germans employed fifty-six or fifty-seven divisions of their best troops, fourteen on either side of Rheims in the front line, and as many in the second line.General von Einem commanded in Champagne, Fritz von Below around Rheims, and General von Boehm on the Marne.
By noon the Germans had begun to throw bridges across the Marne where the river makes a salient northward with the point at Jaulgonne. Three times the American guns shattered the pontoons that the Germans were trying to throw across the river, but the fourth time they succeeded in bridging the stream and made an advance of about two miles, the Americans falling back to the base of the salient made by the river.
Comparative quiet reigned on the fighting fronts during the night following the offensive. The only explanation of the Germans' failure to push on must be attributed to their fear of failure. They had not achieved the success they hoped for in the first onrush and their losses had been far heavier than they anticipated.
From early dawn until dark on the second day of the German offensive (July 16, 1918) the battle raged with unabated fury from Château-Thierry to the Argonne, Southwest of Rheims the Germans started a heavy drive, which they hoped would enable them to reach Epernay, by pushing forward to St. Agnan, La Chapelle and Monthodon. Here they were attacked in force by French and American troops and driven out of the villages of St. Agnan and La Chapelle and from the heights to the north dominating the Marne Valley at this point.
Where the battle front crossed the Marne south of Chatillon intense fighting took place for the possession of Mareuil-le-Pont on the southern bank of the river. General Pétain's troops were heavily reenforced by Americans at this point, but the Germans were in overwhelming numbers, and the Allies were forced to fall back fighting every foot of the way to positions two miles southeast along the river toward Epernay. Later in the day the Germans occupied Chatillon, which marked some progress in the carrying out of their plan to flank Rheims from the west.
Prunay, about five miles southeast of Rheims, was won by the Germans from the French by a strong thrust. The French intrenched themselves on the southern bank of the Vesle River and the enemy was unable to make any further advance in this sector.
West of Rheims the Germans attacked in very considerable strength at two places, by way of the Marne railway and in the region south of Dormans. In this region they succeeded in throwing six bridges across the Marne, between Reuilly and Dormans, but at no point on this twenty-five-mile front did they succeed in penetrating more than four miles into the French positions.
At the close of the second day of the offensive the Germans according to their official report, claimed to have taken only 13,000 prisoners, a small number indeed considering the large forces they had employed in the advance. In the fighting around Prunay, where the struggle was especially intense, they used up 65 per cent. of their effectives and were forced to bring up reserves into the battle area, which they had been holding back for later attacks.
The third day of the offensive (July 17, 1918) the fighting continued along the whole front and ends, under rainy skies, and occasional showers. The German gains in territory were unimportant except to the southwest of Rheims, where they made an advance of about a mile and a half. East and west of the martyred city most of their attacks were broken up, and the whole Champagne line remained intact.
In the morning, Germans in a determined thrust broke through at Oeuilly on the Marne and captured Montvoisin, seven miles west of Epernay. In the regions west of this they were heavily reenforced by fresh troops, but were unable to make any advance against the magnificent defense of the French forces, who held them firmly on the southern outskirts of Bouquigny and Chataignières. North of St. Agnan the Germans were better favored by fortune, for they succeeded in penetrating La Bourdonnerie. Here the French had the cooperation of American troops and the enemy was held in check.
A decisive blow was struck by the Allies in the morning of July 18, 1918. The mighty counterattack was launched without any preliminary artillery preparation, and proved to be a complete surprise to the enemy. The drive was made on the twenty-eight-mile front from the Aisne to the Marne and in the courseof the advance more than twenty villages were captured and the Allies' lines were pushed to within a mile of Soissons.
The ground regained at its extreme width was about six and a half miles in the region to the south of Soissons. The attacking troops drove forward as far east as the little river Crise, an advance especially important, because it gave the Allies possession of high ground that dominated the German supply lines to the city.
To the west of Soissons, American troops carried out successful operations against the enemy, capturing over 4,000 prisoners, 30 guns, and much war material. Farther south on the same side of the German salient the Americans cooperating with French forces captured the town of Vierzy and made an advance of three miles to the east of it.
North of the River Ourcq the Germans fought with desperate and stubborn energy, but they were more than outmatched by the French, who broke down their resistance and drove forward into the western outskirts of Chouy and Neuilly-St. Front, and on to Belleau Wood, an average depth of advance of about three miles.
The magnitude of the French and American effort will be appreciated when it is understood that they had achieved more in this operation than the Germans had accomplished in their hard drive on both sides of Rheims. In six hours French and Americans working together had advanced double the distance it had taken the Germans three days to cover.
South of the Marne, the French lost some ground, but nowhere else could the Germans make gains, while several of their attacks broke down with appalling losses. Montvoisin, which the enemy had captured on the previous day, was recovered by the French. Chêne-la-Réine was also occupied to the west, and what was even more important, the heights west of these villages overlooking the Marne. Other victories of importance were won by the French north of the Marne, where they captured the forest known as Bois du Rois and the village of Venteuil.
French and American forces continued their advance on July 19 between the Aisne and the Marne, gaining ground of about twomiles at some points. Since the drive of the Allies began 17,000 Germans had been captured and 860 guns.
In a desperate attempt to stem the tide of the advance, the Germans had brought great numbers of fresh troops into the fighting area. The plateau southwest of Soissons in the Crise River region, which the Germans lost on the previous day, was the scene of an intense and bitterly fought struggle. Despite the Germans' determined efforts to regain the plateau, the Allies firmly held their positions, and in the afternoon began a further advance.
To the south the Germans were driven from the plateau northwest of Bonnes, but not before they had fought with determined resistance that was deserving of better fortune. Progress was also made by the Allies southwest of Rheims, where the French and Italians fought together.
The British, who had so far been spared in the recent German offensive, had a small victory to their credit on the same day (July 19, 1918) that the French, Americans, and Italians were pushing back the enemy all along the front. Meteren, a valuable observation point in the Bailleul sector, was captured by Scottish and Australian troops. Four hundred Germans were taken and a number of machine guns.
Heavy fighting was resumed late in the afternoon of July 19, 1918, along the Aisne-Marne front. The French were fighting uphill, but the Germans could not keep them back, and were slowly pushed out of their strongest positions in this region.
The large numbers of fresh troops thrown into the battle to support the crown prince made it necessary for the French to fight every foot of the way. On a twenty-eight-mile front the average advance of the Allies was only one mile, and they fought hard from noon on July 19, 1918, to 9 o'clock on the following morning to accomplish this.
The Germans, violently attacked on their right flank and south of the Marne, were forced to retreat and recross the river. The whole southern bank of the Marne was now in French possession.
In the three days' fighting the Allies had captured over 20,000 prisoners and over 400 guns.
On the following morning the Allies resumed the offensive, forcing the Germans to give way gradually on both sides of the deep pocket of which Rheims and Soissons mark the edges. In this pocket the Germans suffered heavy casualties from the long-range guns and airplane bombers of the Allies.
Château-Thierry was occupied by French and American troops on July 21, 1918, the Germans evacuating the place under strong pressure. In their withdrawal from that pivot point on the Marne salient they were closely followed by the Allies' forces, who, cooperating with troops at Vaux and to the northward, swept the Germans back for miles, and beyond the highway to Soissons.
Farther north and almost reaching to Soissons, French and American forces drove on to the Soissons-Château-Thierry highway at Hartennes, and gaining the railway under the Allied guns, threatened Oulchy. As a result of these operations the entire front was straightened out and a gain was made of over seven miles of territory.
On the east side of the salient, between Rheims and the Marne, French and British troops fighting shoulder to shoulder were driving back the Germans, who, opposing a strong resistance, and supported by reserves, were unable to stem the Allies' advance. In the course of the fighting in this sector the French and British occupied the village of Bouilly.
The heavy artillery of the Allies continued on July 21, 1918, to hammer German positions in the districts north of the Marne. Indian scouts who were with Pershing in Mexico were active in gathering information in the river region.
In all sections of the line, from Soissons to Rheims, the hard struggle continued with undiminished intensity. Although the Germans maintained a desperate resistance at the bottom of the Marne salient, it was evident that they would be forced soon to make a wide retreat. This was indicated by the great concentration of German troops at the top of the salient which could only mean that they were making preparations to retire to a new line.
The entire Château-Thierry-Soissons highway from the Ourcq south was now occupied by the Allies. Epieds was captured andterritory gained northeast of Mont St. Père, and east of La Croix, and Griselles. Near the last place named the Germans gained some slight temporary advantage, but it had no effect on the continued advance the Allies were making.
Having cleared the Germans out of the district south of the Marne, the Allies were busy constructing bridges and getting troops and supplies across the river. On July 22, 1918, the enemy were trying to keep a hold on the river bank extending from Mont St. Père to east of Reuilly. In the face of a furious fire the French succeeded in getting two strong bodies of troops across the stream at Mézy and Courcelles, who at once started the construction of footbridges while under the grilling fire of the German guns.
The Allies continued to make progress in the Soissons-Rheims salient on July 23, 1918, although the Germans with the support of fresh troops developed stubborn resistance. The most important operation of the day was the advance of the French forces on both sides of the Ourcq southward toward Fère-en-Tardenois, the great German supply center. North of the river General Pétain's troops occupied Montgru on the bank of the stream and two other towns.
South of the Ourcq the Allies were even more successful in gaining ground. Here the French and Americans, cooperating, drove the Germans back nearly a mile beyond the Château-Thierry-Soissons road. Meanwhile, in the Montdidier sector, Foch struck a hard blow at the enemy and achieved a brilliant success. The French troops, attacking on a four-mile front north of Montdidier, made a forward drive of two miles, capturing Mailly-Raineval, Savillers, and Aulvillers. The heights commanding the Avre River were also won, and over 1,500 Germans were captured.
At other points, notably east and northeast of Château-Thierry, at the bottom of the great salient, the French troops, ably assisted by American forces, gained ground. Along almost the entire line between the Ourcq and the Marne German resistance was broken by the resistless onward sweep of the Franco-American forces.
During the night of July 23-24, 1918, the Germans delivered a terrific counterattack in the neighborhood of Epieds, where they were opposed by American troops. The Germans succeeded after a hard fight in recapturing the village, and another in the neighborhood, but they were unable to hold their gains. On the following day the Americans drove them out of these villages and pushed on beyond Courpoil, more than a mile to the northeast.
North of this fighting area French troops had penetrated as far as Brecy, while to the southeast French and American troops drove forward through the woods on a wide front beyond Preloup on the Marne. The advance of the Allies at several points was about two miles.
The Germans had nearly half a million troops concentrated in the Marne salient. Attacked on three sides by British, French, and American forces, their position was extremely perilous. To continue resistance in a position so threatened might appear to be an act of madness, yet it was a maxim of Napoleon's that, where forces are about equal, the inside fighters have the advantage over an adversary in concentric formation.
The Allies continued to bend in the salient, the French and Americans on the west, and the French and British on the east. The most important point held by the Germans, and the Allies' main objective, was Fère-en-Tardenois, the junction of several roads, and a chief distributing point.
This nerve center of the German front, subjected to constant cross fire from French and American guns, was fast becoming untenable. Indeed there was no corner of the salient where the Germans were not constantly harried by the artillery of the Allies.
The most important gain made by the Franco-American forces on July 25, 1918, was below the Ourcq River. In the course of this advance the Allies captured Hill 141 southeast of Armentières, and the village of Coincy on the south, and pushing ahead in a northeasterly direction they occupied most of Tournelle Wood, which is only three miles from Fère-en-Tardenois. Farther to the south an advance was made as far as the forest of Fère andto the general line of Beuvardes-Charmel. Ground was also gained north of Dormans on the Meuse.
As a result of these advances the Allies had taken about forty miles of territory from the Germans, and had acquired almost a straight line running southeast from Armentières to Vincelles, on the Marne.
In the sector west of Rheims, British and French troops had advanced to Guex and Mery-Premecy, which meant a push of two miles in the direction of Fismes, and the narrowing of the mouth of the salient to that extent.
Ten divisions of reserves had been rushed to the aid of the German crown prince, drawn from the army of Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria in the course of the week's fighting, but the new forces were unable to stay the victorious advance of the Allies.
As the result of the last week's operations the whole situation on the western front was transformed. The Germans had used up sixty-five divisions on the Champagne front and all of the crown prince's reserves. They had only about thirty divisions left belonging to Prince Rupprecht's Army to draw on.
The Germans were certainly in an awkward situation, but it was no worse than that which confronted the British Army in the Ypres salient before the capture of Messines Ridge. The Ypres salient was about five miles wide, and five miles deep, and the German guns commanded it. The German salient was at this time about twenty miles wide by twenty deep, and the artillery of the Allies could sweep every corner of it.
From documents captured from the Germans, it was learned that on the day after the Allies assumed the offensive a retirement was ordered to a line either along the Avre or the Vesle Rivers. These orders were subsequently canceled, because an orderly retreat could not be made in such a pinched salient, so the Germans had been commanded to maintain their positions as long as possible.
Unable to further withstand the tremendous pressure of the Allies' armies, the Germans began a retreat along the whole front north of the Marne late in the morning of July 27, 1918. They relinquished the strong grip they had held on the north bank ofthe river, which extended from Vincelles nearly ten miles east to Reuil, and also fell back on both flanks.
It was the purpose of the Germans to reach the Ourcq, on a line reaching from Fère-en-Tardenois to the northern top of the De Riz forest which lies before Charmel.
In the course of the day the French, British, and American troops, pressing hard on the heels of the German rear guards, had reached the line of Bruyères, Villeneuve-sur-Fère, and Courment, all within a few miles of the great German supply center of Fère-en-Tardenois, which was now so hemmed in that its evacuation must soon follow. The advance of the Allies in a northeasterly direction from Château-Thierry had now reached ten miles. Since the beginning of the counteroffensive 30,000 German prisoners were taken.
The Allies continued their triumphant progress on July 28, 1918. The Germans in the Soissons-Rheims salient were forced to accelerate the speed of their retirement northward, closely followed by tanks, cavalry, and infantry patrols of the Allies.
French cavalry, supported by some infantry elements, had, reached in the morning of July 28, 1918, the district south of Villers-sur-Fère, a little over a mile from Fère-en-Tardenois and Sergy.
The success of the Allies along the whole front was now complete and about half of the pocket in which the enemy had been cornered was retaken.
The Germans were retiring as swiftly as they could, but their losses were tremendous, as French and American troops harried them on the center, and French and British were dealing hammer blows on both of their flanks. While the cavalry were hard at it, the tanks had pushed their way in among the retreating forces, where they did effective work. The Allies' aviators meanwhile, flying a few hundred feet overhead, were machine-gunning columns on the march and bombarding German batteries.
In the Soissons area the Germans had massed a large number of heavy guns on the heights around Juvigny and Chavigny, and from these points they bombarded the western wing as far south as Oulchy-le-Château. Yet the Allies in the Oulchy regioncontinued to make progress, though facing some of the finest German divisions, and the concentrated fire of a vast number of machine guns.
On the eastern wing the Allies were gradually gaining control of the whole road leading from Dormans to Rheims. The Germans had assembled on this side a strong array of artillery near St. Thierry, which served to protect their left flank, and which delayed, though it could not stop, the Allies' advance.
The German retreat, it should be noted, was conducted in an orderly manner and was in no sense a rout. The method of retirement employed at this time, and which the Germans indeed adopted on other occasions, was as follows: One company withdraws from every two on the first line; the remaining troops redouble their fire to give the impression that the line is still strongly held. Out of each remaining company two sections are then taken out, leaving but one section in the line. When this last section is ordered to withdraw, a few men are left behind to occupy small posts well furnished with machine guns and these keep up a vigorous fire to protect the retreat. The few men left behind for this work seldom escape death or capture, but they are sometimes able to regain their own lines.
The retreat continued on July 29, 1918, with the Allies in close pursuit. The Germans had brought more heavy guns into play and succeeded in slowing up the advance, though they could not stop it. In the course of twenty-four hours the Allies had pushed their lines forward from two to three miles on a twenty-mile front. The Germans had been forced to abandon the line of the Ourcq and proposed to fall back to a line beyond the Vesle between Soissons and Rheims.
One of the most important operations at this time was the French drive east and northeast, from the neighborhood of Oulchy-le-Château, at the salient in the German line, which opened the way for the advance of the Allies to Fère-en-Tardenois and beyond. Grand Rozoy and the heights to the north of it were occupied and also Cugny, which stands one mile east of Oulchy. Farther north of Grand Rozoy the troops of General Pétain were pushing forward to capture the hills that dominated a widearea north and south. In these operations the French captured nearly 500 Germans.
The fighting around Sergy on the north bank of the Ourcq was of a specially violent character, the place changing hands no less than nine times in twenty-four hours. Here, where the Americans had only the assistance from the French of a few armored cars, they fought practically "on their own" with distinction and bravery. (Details of their achievements in this struggle are noted in another place.)
To the east, and just north of the Ourcq, the Allies won possession of the villages of Vallée and Givray. Toward Soissons a hard fight was in progress for the possession of Buzancy. It had twice been won by the Allies and then the Germans captured it. New Scottish troops, aided by a few British columns, attacked the town and it was won for the Allies.
After defeating the Prussian Guards and Bavarians, the American forces made an advance of two miles beyond Sergy on July 30, 1918. The German resistance to the Allies' thrusts now became increasingly vigorous. Along almost the entire front to the east they launched fierce counterattacks, but only succeeded in gaining a little ground near St. Euphraise to the southwest of Rheims.
The main advance of the Allies on the westerly side of the front was near Grand Rozoy, where the French were pushing north to the crest of the plateau between the Vesle and the Ourcq.
The intense struggle which had continued without pause for two weeks on the Marne battle front now showed signs of slackening. The only fighting worthy of note took place in the Fère region, on the front held by American troops around Seringes and Sergy. Here the Germans made a hard fight during the night and morning of July 30-31, 1918, to dislodge the forces of General Pershing, but were badly beaten. (Details of the struggle are described on another page.)
The hope of the Germans that the Allies were in a state of exhaustion, and that the offensive had broken down for the present, was rudely shattered on the first of August, 1918. On this date the Allies attacked on a ten-mile front from Buzancy to Fère-en-Tardenoisand Seringes. They drove forward nearly two miles at one point, and carried important heights, including Hill 205 north of Grand Rozoy, which resulted in wiping out the angle of the battle line east of Oulchy.
Where the Allies marked their greatest advance was in the region northwest of Fère-en-Tardenois. The villages of Cramoiselle and Cramaille were occupied, as well as Bordeux to the north, and Servenay to the northeast. As a result of this thrust the victors captured 600 prisoners. In the course of the operations from July 15 to July 31, 1918, the Allies had taken 34,400 Germans.
These successful operations on the Buzancy-Fère front, carried out by French forces with the support of British units at the north, linked up the gains made by the Americans on the previous day and night in the area east and southeast of Seringes.
Farther to the east in the Ville-en-Tardenois region, on the left flank of the fast decreasing German salient, French forces, after an especially murderous and close struggle, drove the enemy out of the village of Romigny and occupied the place.
Apart from the important gains in territory made by the Allies in the two weeks' offensive operations, the result of the victories was to shake the belief of the German army in their own invincibility. They had failed in their objectives, first in the thrust toward Rheims, and afterward in their efforts to hold out against a counterassault. Twice they had made determined and exhaustive attempts with large forces of men to stem the advance of the Allies, and had failed in each instance. They had employed their best troops, who fought with courage and daring and with reckless disregard for life, but were unable to build a barrier that the Allies could not shatter. It was not believed by the Allied High Command that the morale of the German fighters had been seriously sapped by their forced retreat, but the news would drift back to Germany in soldiers' letters and in other ways, creating a feeling in the Empire that their army was not equal to its task, and a consequent loss of faith in the flamboyant promises of victory proclaimed by Hindenburg and Ludendorff.
FORCE TO THE UTMOST
Only the sword could impose peace. The kaiser said it. His mouthpieces, Count von Hertling and Count Czernin, said it, by way of buttressing much verbal camouflage conveying that their peoples would like peace by gentler means—that is, by the Allies yielding. Lloyd-George said it without camouflage. But it was left to President Wilson to say it with finality. Despairing of drawing from the Central Powers any lucid declaration to show that they were honorable opponents with whom honorable enemies could negotiate, he swept aside German chicanery by leaving no loophole open for the determination of the war by any other means than the sword. Germany had slammed the door of peace in her own face.
Hark the kaiser, accepting an address in Hamburg, in February, 1918, on the conclusion of peace with the Ukraine:
"He who will not accept peace, but on the contrary declines, pouring out the blood of his own and of our people, must be forced to have peace. We desire to live in friendship with neighboring peoples, but the victory of German arms must first be recognized. Our troops under the great Hindenburg will continue to win it. Then peace will come."
The dissembling ministers of Germany and Austria, in essaying public debates with President Wilson, tried to build a fabric of peace on a foundation of sand. In their utterances they"played up" to one another. Their outgivings suggested a vaudeville act in which one player provides cues for the witticisms of the other. Thus, Count Czernin, dense to the Allied scorn of the deceits of his partner, Count von Hertling, announced that Austria, too, agreed that President Wilson's four points provided a suitable basis on which to begin negotiating a general peace. More than that, he complacently viewed President Wilson's address as actually offering an olive branch to Austria:
"He (President Wilson)," he told the Vienna City Council, "thinks, however, that Vienna presents more favorable soil for sowing the seeds of a general peace. He has perhaps said to himself that the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy has the good fortune to have a monarch who genuinely and honorably desires a general peace, but that this monarch will never be guilty of a breach of faith; that he will never make a shameful peace, and that behind this monarch stand 55,000,000 souls.
"I imagine that Mr. Wilson says to himself that this closely knit mass of people represents a force which is not to be disregarded and that this honorable and firm will to peace with which the monarch is imbued and which binds him to the peoples of both states is capable of carrying a great idea in the service of which Mr. Wilson has also placed himself."
No one believed, outside the countries of the Central Powers, that Austria-Hungary was blessed with a monarch who would "never be guilty of a breach of faith," who would "never make a shameful peace," and who ruled over a "closely knit mass of people." In the same breath he said:
"Whatever may happen, we shall not sacrifice German interests any more than Germany will desert us. Loyalty on the Danube is not less than German loyalty."
Here was the real Austria speaking, and her spirit was made more manifest when Count Czernin proceeded to defend the political crime of thrusting peace upon Russia by invasion:
"The first breach in the determination of our enemies to war has been driven by the peace negotiations with Russia. That was a break-through by the idea of peace.
"It is a symptom of childish dilettantism to overlook the close relationship of the various peace signatures with each other. The constellation of enemy powers in the east was like a net. When one mesh was cut through the remaining meshes loosened of their own accord."
Austria plainly wanted peace, but by negotiation, since it was dawning upon the Teutonic powers that they could never effect a peace by force of arms. Wouldn't President Wilson kindly open negotiations without delay? But Germany and Austria must be left with the whole vast east under their control. Apparently Count Czernin was willfully blind to the fact that the terms of peace forced upon Russia and Rumania had closed all avenues of peace in the countries of the Allies.
President Wilson cleared the air. Peace conversations in the world arena with the German chancellor and the Austrian foreign minister had reached a hopeless stage of sterility. They spoke smooth words; their military leaders committed rapacious deeds that made their words an object-lesson in studied irony. On April 6, 1918, the anniversary of America's entrance into the war, the President took occasion to bring about a very decided turning point in the diplomacy of the war. It was a world-stirring declaration, made at Baltimore to inaugurate the campaign for the Third Liberty Loan, and told the Teutonic powers that their arduous and ever-recurrent peace propaganda had killed itself.
"... I have sought to learn from those who spoke for Germany," he said, "whether it was justice or dominion and the execution of their own will upon the other nations of the world that the German leaders were seeking. They have answered—answered in unmistakable terms. They have avowed that it was not justice, but dominion and the unhindered execution of their own will. The avowal has not come from Germany's statesmen. It has come from her military leaders, who are her real rulers....
"We cannot mistake what they have done—in Russia, in Finland, in the Ukraine, in Rumania. The real test of their justice and fair play has come. From this we may judge the rest....
"Their purpose is, undoubtedly, to make all the Slavic peoples, all the free and ambitious nations of the Baltic Peninsula, all the lands that Turkey has dominated and misruled, subject to their will and ambition, and build upon that dominion an empire of force upon which they fancy that they can then erect an empire of gain and commercial supremacy—an empire as hostile to the Americas as to the Europe which it will overawe—an empire which will ultimately master Persia, India, and the peoples of the Far East....
"That program once carried out, America and all who care or dare to stand with her must arm and prepare themselves to contest the mastery of the world—a mastery in which the rights of common men, the rights of women and of all who are weak, must for the time being be trodden underfoot and disregarded and the old, age-long struggle for freedom and right begin again at its beginning. Everything that America has lived for and loved and grown great to vindicate and bring to a glorious realization will have fallen in utter ruin and the gates of mercy once more pitilessly shut upon mankind!
"The thing is preposterous and impossible; and yet is not that what the whole course and action of the German armies has meant wherever they have moved? I do not wish, even in this moment of utter disillusionment, to judge harshly or unrighteously. I judge only what the German arms have accomplished with unpitying thoroughness throughout every fair region they have touched.
"What, then, are we to do? For myself, I am ready, ready still, ready even now, to discuss a fair and just and honest peace at any time that it is sincerely purposed—a peace in which the strong and the weak shall fare alike. But the answer, when I proposed such a peace, came from the German commanders in Russia and I cannot mistake the meaning of the answer.
"I accept the challenge. I know that you accept it. All the world shall know that you can accept it....
"Germany has once more said that force, and force alone, shall decide whether justice and peace shall reign in the affairs of men, whether right as America conceives it or dominion asshe conceives it shall determine the destinies of mankind. There is, therefore, but one response possible from us:
"Force, force to the utmost, force without stint or limit, the righteous and triumphant force which shall make right the law of the world and cast every selfish dominion down in the dust!"
Germany only recognized physical force; no other force counted. President Wilson, in countering, set at its true measure the might of the United States, joined with the might of the other active belligerents, Great Britain, France, and Italy.