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.

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.