PREPARING FOR THE GREAT OFFENSIVE—THE ATTACK MARCH 21—FIRST PHASE OF THE BATTLE

With the coming of bright, springlike weather on the western front in the first weeks of February, 1918, the contending forces displayed a new activity. The sodden fields were drying out; the snow and mud which made roads impassable had disappeared. If the fine weather continued to hold, the much advertised German offensive could not be long delayed.

The Allies were constantly engaged in trench raids for the main purpose of gaining information from prisoners as to the movements of the enemy. It was learned that the Germans were making intense preparations for a big operation. Fresh troops and many guns were constantly arriving on the front. Certain back areas were being cleared for action. Every day large bodies of troops were practicing attacks under the tutelage of experts.

The Allies meanwhile awaited the promised blow hopefully if not calmly. As far as could be ascertained they had a preponderance of men and guns, and the most elaborate preparations had been made during the winter months for the anticipated offensive.

But the much heralded "great push" did not start in February. The Germans were cautiously "feeling out" the ground, by means of trench raids and bombardments, and gathering information through their aerial observers regarding the disposition of the Allied forces, while the intense activity which prevailed within their own lines foreshadowed the nearness of a mighty attack, and what might prove to be the most sanguinary period of the war.

During the first days of March the Germans were engaged daily in raids all along the French and British fronts, but in every attempt they were repulsed with considerable losses. Determined efforts were made by the enemy to obtain possession of Fort La Pompelle to the southeast of Rheims, which would give them a dominating position from which to complete the destruction of that martyred city. Along a front of nearly ten miles extending from Loivre to Sillery the German infantry advanced from five different points. Some troops succeeded in reaching Alger Farm, a fortified position fronting on Fort La Pompelle, but none was able to enter the fort itself.

The French regiment holding the position in a spirited counterattack drove the Germans back, and regained every inch of ground, though bombarded by thousands of gas shells which filled the air with poisonous fumes. It was during this bombardment that a number of French prisoners escaped their captors and sought refuge in a shell crater where they discovered a large supply of hand grenades. With these they were able to hold off the enemy who tried to capture them and after killing a number succeeded in regaining their own lines.

On March 6, 1918, the Germans made a strong attack on Belgian positions in the flooded zone northwest of Dixmude. At daybreak Beverdyk and Reigersvliet were bombarded by explosives and gas shells and an infantry attack in force followed.

The Belgian artillery replied with a heavy barrage and the fine work of their gunners and riflemen checked the German advance at Beverdyk and eventually drove them back to their own lines. At Reigersvliet the Germans won a footing at several points owing to the fact that the floods in some places had largely subsided, and made an advance comparatively easy.

It was here that a Belgian commander with only nine men and a machine gun, and occupying a bridgehead, held back hundreds of Germans and twelve machine guns until a patrol arrived. With this slight reenforcement the Belgian officer took the offensive and by a dashing attack recaptured the position which the Germans had won in front of the bridgehead. Belgian chasseurs had meanwhile been organizing for a counterattack. To reach the German positions it was necessary to cross the flooded area by a single plank walk which was completely dominated by German artillery and machine-gun fire. But the Belgians went forward as coolly as if on parade amid a tempest of shells, and attacked the invaders with reckless bravery. Close and sanguinary fighting ensued, but by 1 o'clock in the afternoon the Belgians had succeeded in capturing the first of seven posts which lay in a semicircle in front of the bridgehead. For hours the fighting raged back and forth, but the stubborn German resistance broke down before the flaming fury of the Belgian spirit and late in the afternoon the last post was regained from the enemy. The German losses were heavy. Large numbers were found dead on the barbed wire. Belgian gunnery had been remarkably effective. The Germans lost as prisoners five officers, 111 men, and a dozen machine guns.

On March 8, 1918, after a bombardment that lasted all day, the Germans launched an attack on the British lines on a front of nearly a mile from south of the Menin road to north of the Polderhoek ChÂteau. The assault was vigorously pressed, aided by intense artillery fire, but the Germans were driven back at all points except in the neighborhood of Polderhoek, where they penetrated British advanced posts on a front of about 200 yards. Here the fighting continued for the greater part of the night, with the result that the British recaptured all the positions they had lost.

In the first ten days of March the Germans made twenty hard-driven raids along the French front, most of which were repulsed without difficulty. In the region of the Butte-du-Mesnil they regained some trenches which the French had won from them in February.

The British on their front continued to hold the initiative, carrying out successfully minor operations along the Ypres salient as well as at many points south. The Germans continued to make swift dashes into the British lines at a number of points. As subsequently developed, the purpose of these continued raids was to search out the weak spots in the British defense. During two successive nights the Germans undertook no less than ten minor operations along the British front, some of which were of more importance than mere raids.

In the midst of this continued activity the great offensive was not forgotten. It was a period of great tension for the Allied forces, and more than once there were rumors that the great push had started, and no-man's-land was deluged with shells and the night was bright with star shells and illuminants, to be followed by comparative calm only broken by raids and minor operations.

As described in another place, the American troops took an active part in many of these minor engagements which tried their courage and served as excellent schooling in the art of active warfare.

At 8 a. m. on March 21, 1918, the Germans launched the great offensive on a front of over fifty miles extending from the river Oise in the neighborhood of La FÈre to the SensÉe River about Croisilles. When the attack was made the position of the Allied armies was as follows: The British Fifth Army under General Sir Hubert Gough held the front from the Oise at La FÈre to a point north of the Omignon River, where the defense line was taken up by the Third Army under General Sir Julian Byng, whose left rested on the Scarpe River, joining here the First Army under General Sir Henry Horne. Sixteen divisions held this line of about 100,000 yards, which gave to each division (9,000 rifles) about 6,000 yards.

Facing the British were three German armies. The Seventh, under General Otto von Below, on the right held the front from north of the Scarpe to the Scheldt at Cambrai where General von der Marwitz with the Second Army prolonged the line down to north of St. Quentin. General von Hutier, commanding the Eighth Army, held the line on Marwitz's left between Omignon River and the Oise, where an army under General BÖhm faced the Third French Army under General Humbert.

The German offensive had been prepared with the greatest care; every division had rehearsed the part it was to play when the hour of attack should come. Before the push the British lines were deluged with shells, and this was followed by showers of projectiles that liberated poisonous gases. The infantry now went forward in waves following each other closely. The first wave of troops would be swept almost away by the British gun and rifle fire, but those that remained alive hung on until joined by more waves of men, when using flame projectors they proceeded to drive the British out of the trenches.

The Germans were prodigal in the waste of man power, counting on weight of numbers to crush their opponents. After they had captured the first British line, the rear lines were deluged with fire from the machine guns, rifles, and every form of small artillery. This overpowering avalanche of death-dealing projectiles prevented the British in the rear from coming to the rescue of their fellow soldiers in the first line. Under the protection of this storm of bullets the Germans advancing in waves penetrated the British second line. After they had gone some distance the first ranks of infantry lay down, and permitted other waves of men to pass through their ranks. Great numbers of three-inch guns and small cannon on low carriages that could be swiftly moved were now brought up behind the infantry and the attack went on.

The German attack was directed against the center of the Allies' position. Their aim was to drive a great salient on a front of fifty or sixty miles through the occupied lines which would divide the French and British, after which they were to be dealt with separately.

The German objective was Amiens, which, situated astride the Somme, is on the main trunk-line railroad from Paris to the Channel ports of Boulogne and Calais, the most important strategical point in northern France.

If the Germans succeeded in gaining their objective, Sir Douglas Haig's troops separated from their French allies would be penned up in a northwestern corner of France with their backs to the sea, or they would be forced to retreat behind the lower Somme in order to cover their communications with Havre.

The Germans began their great offensive by an intense bombardment of both high explosives and gas shells, while a powerful infantry attack was launched on a front extending from Croisilles to La FÈre. The misty weather that prevailed in the morning of March 21, 1918, was favorable for an assault, and the Germans were close to the British lines before they were discovered. In the course of the first onrush they broke through all the British outpost trenches and south of Cambrai penetrated some battle positions.

Forty German divisions were identified by the British as taking part in the first day's attack, but it was believed that at least fifty in all entered the battle before the day closed. At several points the British were heavily outnumbered. Nine German divisions were hurled against three British at one part of the line and eight against two at another.

The German storming troops, including the Guards, made a brave appearance in new uniforms. They advanced in solid ranks until their formation was broken by the intense British machine-gun fire.

Over the dead and wounded the supporting troops swept in countless waves and there was no faltering as the hurricanes of shells swept through their ranks. As hundreds fell others closed in and filled the gaps and the human tide rolled relentlessly on.

The Germans were exceedingly strong in guns. At some points in the line they had one to every twelve or fifteen yards. No less than a thousand confronted three British divisions. With heavy long-range guns they were also well provided and back areas to a distance of twenty-five miles and more were under shell fire.

Among the places against which the Germans first directed their efforts were Bullecourt, Lagnecourt, and Noreuil west of Cambrai, the St. Quentin Ridge on the right of the Cambrai salient, and Ronssoy and Hargicourt south of the Cambrai salient.

The Germans reported that they had captured the British first line between Arras and La FÈre and 16,000 prisoners and 200 guns.

On the following day (March 22, 1918,) the fighting reached the greatest intensity in two sectors—one north of Cambrai and the other southwest. The fighting on the northern front was about Bullecourt, while Hargicourt was the southern center. Before attacking the sector between the Canal du Nord and Croisilles the Germans for four hours deluged the British with every kind of projectile and high explosive that a gun could throw.

The British were compelled to fight for hours with their gas masks on, but despite this drawback they were in high spirits because they were able to create such havoc when the Germans advanced in massed formation.

Around Mory on the northern end of the battle field the Germans attacked with superior numbers and the fighting was especially fierce. The British held on during the day, but toward evening the Germans gained a foothold in the village after close fighting that lasted some hours. The Germans advanced for this attack from Croisilles and for a long time were held back by a company of British gunners who were stationed on high ground, from which point of vantage they mowed down the enemy with a grilling fire.

The most critical period for the Allies since the offensive was launched was in the afternoon and the night of March 22-23, 1918, when the British lost important positions one after another as German divisions in successive masses carried everything before them, regardless of losses. General Gough's Fifth Army especially suffered, being hit by Von der Marwitz on the north, and Von Hutier on the east. Under these sustained hammer blows the entire front gave way and the British were forced to retire across the Somme, pursued by Generals LÜttwitz and Öttingen. Lower down Generals Webern and Von Conta, with troops of the Seventh Army under Von Gayl, captured Ham, and forced the French who had crossed the Oise back to Chauny.

This was the blackest hour for the Allies. Von Hutier had rolled up the British right wing. The road to Paris down the Oise was no longer a doubtful adventure. Unless the broken link between the French and British could be restored the Germans had accomplished what they set out to do.

In this crucial hour for the Allies, when the demoralization of the Fifth British Army was complete, General Carey with a scratch division kept it in touch with General Byng's Third Army on the north over an eight-mile gap, and the French General Fayolle saved it in the south over a thirty-mile gap between it and the Sixth French Army.

As the result of the first two days' fighting the Germans claimed to have captured 25,000 prisoners, 400 guns, and 300 machine guns. It was also claimed that between Fontaine-les-Croisilles and Moeuvers German forces had penetrated into the second British positions and captured Vaulx-Vraucourt and Morches, the former being about three and a half miles, and the latter two and a half miles, behind the former British front. It was further claimed by the Germans that the British after evacuating their positions in the bend southwest of Cambrai were pursued through Demicourt, FlesquiÈres and Ribecourt. Between Gonnelieu and the Omignon stream the first two British positions were penetrated and the heights west of Gouzeaucourt, Heudicourt, and Villers-Faucon were captured.

The German official report stated that the battle of attack against the British front was under command of the kaiser.

The Germans sprung a new form of frightfulness on the Allies when at 8 o'clock in the morning of March 23, 1918, they bombarded Paris with long-range guns. At intervals of about twenty minutes shells of 240 millimeters (about 9.5 inches) reached the capital, killing ten persons and wounding others. The shortest distance from Paris to the front was over sixty-two miles. The first daylight aeroplane raid followed this bombardment, but did little damage. Public interest was centered on the mysterious gun that could drop shells on the city from such a great distance. Pieces of shells examined were found to bear rifling marks showing that they had not been dropped, but were fired from some kind of gun. Later the French located several of these "mystery guns," and some were destroyed. The only purpose they could serve was to terrify the people of Paris, otherwise they were of no military importance.

While the British front was being overrun by the German hordes the French front was subjected to violent artillery fire, especially south of the Oise in the Rheims region, in Lorraine, between Harracourt and the Vosges mountains and the heights of Alsace. The Germans made only one attack on the French lines in the region of Blemeray, where they were dispersed with considerable losses in dead and prisoners.

South and north of PÉronne the Germans renewed their attacks on the British front throughout the day of March 24, 1918. South of the city they succeeded after heavy fighting in crossing the Somme at some points.

North of PÉronne violent attacks were directed against the line of the Tortille River (a tributary of the Somme), where the British were finally forced to withdraw to new positions. Although fighting continued at different points during the night, the situation had not changed. British troops held the line of the Somme River to PÉronne. German troops that attempted to cross the river at Pargny were driven back. The British right was now in touch with the French, and continued to hold their positions to the north of the Somme at PÉronne after beating off a number of attacks made by the Germans on this front during the early hours of the night.

The Allies, despite considerable losses and the yielding of some miles of territory, were undismayed. The Germans had not attained their objectives at any point. Hard fighting was still in progress, but the British were holding strongly the whole front line to which they had withdrawn. The British had used only a few troops besides those that held the front lines. The brave defense maintained by these shock troops enabled the British main body to fall back on the positions they had established a long time before the German offensive was started.

The range of the German 80-mile gun.