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

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

All that remained now of the important German conquests in France was the somewhat narrow frontier tract between Valenciennes and Metz. Here were two small salients around which there was intense fighting that continued almost without cessation October 17-18, 1918.

The Americans and General Gouraud's troops on the east were hammering at the strong German positions on the Grand PrÉ heights, a northern extension of the Argonne Forest. Here the Germans had some of their best troops stationed, who held on with grim determination, for a break through between the Aisne and the Meuse would cut off their retreat into Luxemburg and force them back to the forest of the Ardennes. The other salient between Le Cateau and Rethel was so fraught with danger to the troops holding it that early in the morning of October 18, 1918, the Germans began to abandon their positions under pressure of the advancing French troops.

On the west of the Oise General von Hutier was fighting desperately to hold back the advance of General Debeney toward Guise. The French stormed Petit Verey and Marchavenne, and continuing to push on captured Mennevret in the morning of October 18, 1918.

The Germans were favored by two important obstacles, the group of hills east of Berneville and the mass of Andigny Forest lying before Wassigny. They might attempt to make a stand on the Oise near Guise and along the Oise-Sambre Canal, but their forces had been so badly cut up by the French that their plight had become increasingly desperate. In less than a day they had lost more than 5,500 men and a vast amount of military supplies.

The British army, operating in conjunction with the Belgians, attacked on October 20, 1918, to the north and advanced past Courtrai. The recovery of Ghent had now become inevitable if the push could be maintained. For the Allied guns were pounding the Germans on all sides, while their cavalry patrols, leading the infantry, pressed on closer and closer to the city.

Meanwhile the British Third Army pushed its way eastward to the south of Valenciennes, endangering all the German forces northward to Flanders and southward to the Oise Canal behind which the enemy had begun to retreat before British and Americans. This thrust upset the German plan of trying to hold the line east of the Scheldt.

The British Third Army encountered the heaviest fighting in carrying out this operation, for the Germans realized the importance of delaying here their advance. Smashing all resistance the British gained the high ground to the east of the line from which they were advancing in the face of a torrential hail of machine-gun bullets. The destructive gun nests were rapidly cleaned up, and the German losses were very heavy. Fighting was especially bloody in the region of St. Python, where the enemy fought behind barricades. South of Le Cateau the British and Americans continued to make steady progress. American patrols pushing out from the Mazinghien area had now reached the banks of the Oise Canal. In this region German guns were constantly active and all villages around were heavily shelled. It was necessary to remove the civilians from some of these towns to places of safety. The Germans entirely disregarded their presence.

Every hour now France and Belgium were recovering precious soil and cities, and thousands of their people were being liberated from German bondage. Especially grateful to the Belgians was the recovery of the ancient city of Bruges which Belgians and British won on October 20, 1918, though German rear guards were in the neighborhood. War had not changed greatly the grand old city built in the middle ages, or injured the beauty of its quaint architecture. The inhabitants massed before the HÔtel de Ville were celebrating their liberation from the Germans' yoke. Everyone had a flag or banner—British, Belgian, or French—and the British troops were received with the wildest enthusiasm and hailed as saviors.

Throughout the night of October 20-21, 1918, and during the day the Allied troops were everywhere driving the Germans eastward. In Belgium they were now within three miles of Eecloo and along the whole forty-mile stretch between Courtrai and the Dutch border British, French, and Belgians were hustling the enemy backward and closing in around Ghent. In the center the British were on the west bank of the Scheldt, north of Tournai, before which the Germans were making a determined stand with countless machine guns. Frontally the British held positions near Valenciennes, and to the northwest had penetrated the great Viccigne-Raismes Forest. Northwest of Lille they were driving on toward Le Quesnoy and fighting every foot of the way.

The great battle had now entered into the second phase. The first was the wiping out of the Lille salient, when the Germans were driven out of western Belgium. This accomplished, the Allies on the north started a sweeping movement on October 20-21, 1918, pivoting on a point east of Courtrai, the purpose of which was to clear the Germans from their front in northern Belgium and at the same time threaten their right flank. In the center of the fighting area the British were pushing forward toward the west bank of the Scheldt. The Germans took advantage of the width of the stream and its marshy borders, where they found some protection from the Allied pressure. They were hiding in shallow trenches; their artillery in the rear, sadly depleted in numbers, afforded them very little help. In their hurried flight the Germans had little time in which to remove their artillery and vast stores of ammunition. They destroyed some material, but a great deal fell into the hands of the Allies, especially guns. These were promptly turned toward the east, and shells made in Germany were hurled at their former owners as they fled in panicky retreat.

October 21-22, 1918, on the twenty-five-mile front from Pont-À-Chin northwest of Tournai to Thiant, southwest of Valenciennes, British troops engaged along the western bank of the Scheldt won ground at many points. South of Tournai they captured the villages of Hollain and Bruyelle and drove into the western suburbs of Valenciennes.

In northern Belgium troops under King Albert gained the Lys Canal on the whole of their front and had pushed across the stream. The Second British Army, advancing on a front of about a mile between the Lys and the Scheldt under heavy artillery and machine-gun fire established a bridgehead on the river to the east of Pecq.

The Third and Fourth British Armies began a new drive on October 23, 1918, to the south of Valenciennes, smashing through strong German defenses to a depth of three miles and capturing many important villages, several thousand prisoners and numerous guns. This attack resulted in the driving of a wedge into German positions at a point considered the most vital of the lines which the Germans were holding. The enemy fought courageously, the gunners holding out to the last.

The British First Army to the north continued to harass the foe by continued attacks, and gained positions well to the northeast of Valenciennes whose fall was imminent. The British were now only three miles from Le Quesnoy and still forging ahead toward the town. Catillon was carried early in the fighting, and later the British occupied Ors. Before retreating, the Germans destroyed all the bridges over the canal between these places.

The heaviest fighting in this battle was in Leveque Wood, where the Germans had cunningly hidden machine-gun nests that were difficult to overcome. But the wood was cleared after a time and the British pressed on to the great Mormal Forest on the edge of which the Germans were concentrating troops to make a stand.

The British continued to make gains on the following day south of Valenciennes, capturing several villages and strong points. On the north the Germans were cleared from the Raismes Forest. Advances were made along the whole front between the Sambre Canal and the Scheldt (about seventeen miles), and the forward pressure continued without relaxation, though the Germans attempted by counterattacks to gain time. Since the fighting began on the previous day over 7,000 prisoners and 100 guns were captured by the British.

In order to check the advance on Valenciennes the Germans broke down the banks and opened the sluice gates northeast and southwest of the city and flooded vast stretches of country. The British, however, continued to drive ahead, and fighting their way into the city from the west, there were spirited fights in the streets between patrols. During the night of October 23-24, 1918, artillery duels increased on the battle front south of the city.

The British gunners wrought fearful damage in the traffic-crowded roads to the rear of the German line. The advance of the British in the moonlight, protected by flocks of night bombing airplanes, offered a strange and moving dramatic spectacle. At Pomereuil they were held up for a time by a heavy concentration of machine guns. Waiting until the advance had made progress north and south of them, they swept around on both sides of the gun nests. They found the German machine gunners occupying positions around a triangular space that had been cleared. The British, ignoring the invitation to enter the clearing, passed the gunners and captured Pomereuil Wood behind the triangle, and thus surrounded the enemy. Then they stormed and carried the position.

Continuing their attacks upon the German lines south of Valenciennes, the British on October 25, 1918, advancing on a front of between six and seven miles, reached the Le Quesnoy-Valenciennes railway, capturing several villages on the way. Simultaneously with this operation the French armies, striking on the Serre and Aisne Rivers over a front of about forty miles, advanced their lines at all points, capturing villages and positions and taking over 3,000 prisoners. East of Courtrai, in the direction of the Scheldt, the British and French troops made further progress, wresting a number of villages and positions from the enemy.

The climax of the French attack was General Guillemat's drive east of Laon against the Hunding position, the elaborately prepared line protecting the German center. Here was a quadruple trench system backed by concrete shelters, five lines of barbed wire each twenty feet deep, and the ground between planted with antitank mines, yet the indomitable French soldiers broke through it on a ten-mile front between St. Quentin-le-Petit and Herpy, and held their ground against deluges of gas and high-explosive shells.

On the center of the great offensive General Mangin's army took Mortiers, on the south bank of the Serre, and gained a bridgehead north of the river.

Farther north the British continued to press forward toward Valenciennes, and on their right General Plumer's troops under command of King Albert continued to cooperate in the drive against the German line on the Scheldt.

On the whole forty-mile front of the offensive which the French began on October 25, 1918, great gains of territory were made. The Germans lost Crecy-sur-Serre in the center, and were forced to abandon a good part of the Hunding position. In two days Generals Debeney and Guillemat captured more than 6,000 prisoners, twenty cannon, and hundreds of machine guns. On October 27, 1918, General Debeney had pushed on to the outskirts of Guise. The Germans on this date launched three fierce attacks against three different points on the British front southeast of Valenciennes, all of which ended for them in disaster and heavy losses.

The British forward movement south of Valenciennes slowed down on October 28, 1918, but the French between the Oise and the Serre drove the Germans back two miles at the apex of their attack in the region of Bois-les-Pargny. On the Aisne front west of ChÂteau Porcien they drove forward to the north of Herpy.

In Belgium the Allies' positions became daily more favorable, while the difficulties of the Germans increased proportionately. The Allies were now within five miles of Ghent, and it was only owing to the delay in bringing up artillery that the city had not already fallen. In the hope of destroying the Allies' lines of communication with Bruges the Germans kept Stroobrigge under continuous fire. Maideghem and Aldeghem were also subjected to incessant artillery attacks.

The retirement of General Ludendorff, formerly chief of staff and really generalissimo of the German armies at this time, was an event of the highest importance. As the persistent advocate of war to the bitter end, and which he had never failed to assert would result in the defeat of Germany's enemies, his throwing up the sponge at a time of crisis in his country's destiny could only mean one of two things: he had all the effective power of the empire against him, or he foresaw the triumph of the Allies and was eager to seek cover before the German armies were forced to surrender.

On the last day of the month the Allies wrested from the Germans a big slice of territory in Belgium between Deynze on the north and Avelghem on the south on a battle front of about fifteen miles. The attack in which Belgian, French, British, and American troops were engaged, was launched before 6 o'clock in the morning, and by noon the British had broken their way through to a depth of 400 yards while on their left their allies were encountering strong opposition, but winning high ground between the Lys and Scheldt Rivers. Many towns and hamlets were liberated during this drive, including Pergwyk, Tierghein, Anseghem and Winterken. The front of this attack was about twelve miles, and German positions were penetrated to a depth of three and four miles.

The Allies resumed the offensive on this battle front on the following day and won an advance of more than five miles, which brought them to the Scheldt from Berchem to Gavere, ten miles south of Ghent. South of Valenciennes an advance of two miles resulted in the capture of Alnoy and Preseau. This forward drive carried the British to the southern edge of the flooded territory around Valenciennes. They captured during the advance between 3,000 and 4,000 prisoners.

The city of Valenciennes which the Germans had held so long and so tenaciously was captured by the British in the morning of November 2, 1918. The Canadian troops under General Currie encountered strong resistance from the enemy in the outskirts, and after a hard struggle crushed all resistance and entered the city. Other British contingents pressing on beyond Valenciennes occupied St. Saulve to the northeast on the road to Mons. West of LandrÉcies in the Mormal Forest region the British advanced their lines and took a number of prisoners.

The Germans by opening the Scheldt sluice gates had flooded the northern side of the city, and their only way of escape was to the southeast, where they had concentrated all their available forces. These fought with stubborn energy, but they failed to more than delay for a time the advance of the Canadians and English, who were supported by an immense concentration of artillery. The enemy's counterattacks were made with the help of tanks, but they all broke down, and the British captured the tanks and thousands of prisoners. Valenciennes, though in British hands on November 2, 1918, was still an uncomfortable place for the inhabitants, who were in a confused state of mind twixt joy and fear. There was joy that they had been liberated and fear because of the shells that were falling around them and passing over the houses. The way from Douai to Valenciennes was a scene of ruin and desolation as the British and Canadians had fought their way through the villages along these roads, and most of the houses were smashed by German shells. An interesting souvenir left by the Germans in Valenciennes was a poster on the walls which the inhabitants of the city could now afford to laugh at. This was an order for the mobilization of all the men between the ages of 15 and 35, who must present themselves to the German commandant in order to be evacuated through the German lines. In case any disregarded this order severe penalties were to be exacted. This order was dated October 31, 1918, and the day of mobilization was to take place on November 1, 1918, the day before the British entered the city. Twenty thousand people were expelled by force on October 3, 1918, and driven in the direction of Mons. Only about 5,000 remained in the city and these were employed by the Germans in city work, such as maintaining the fire and water supplies, cleaning the streets, washing, and in various menial offices. Among those in the city when the British took possession were many who after the expulsion on October 3, 1918, were too feeble to continue the march and had dropped out, encumbering the German line of retreat. There were others who had escaped from their German captors, and also a number of young men who had hidden themselves and lived in cellars for days.

During the last week of the German occupation only one regiment was allowed in the city and this was chiefly to pillage, as the troops defending the place were holding positions outside. Many houses were looted, especially on the night before the British stormed the outskirts.

The German officers were especially eager for souvenirs which took the form of valuable paintings cut from the frames, and which they found in houses of the better class. The German Government had been hard, and there were fines for the slightest infraction of rules, which increased in severity as the enemy needed money. Trivial offenses at first were punished by a hundred marks fine, but in the last days of German occupation it was raised to two thousand marks.

While the British were driving forward on the Valenciennes front the American army was winning laurels north of Verdun, where they smashed the Freya Line and put the Germans to rout. The advance on this difficult front was intended to cut the German line of communications. This was achieved.

On the left of the Americans the French Fourth Army was in hot pursuit of the Germans who were fleeing across the Argonne Forest. The French smashed the enemy's rear guards, who attempted to delay the advance, and made important progress along the whole line of attack. On the left Semuy was taken and the French lines were carried as far as the southern bank of the Ardennes Canal. To the south Bois Vandy and the village of Balay were cleared of Germans, who fought desperately but were unable to delay for more than a few hours the irresistible advance of the French troops. On the right Longwe and Primat were occupied. North of the last-named place the French pushed on past ChÊne PÂtÉ and despite that formidable obstacle, the Argonne Forest, continued to pursue the Germans, whose retreat was so hurried that they left large quantities of material on the field which they had not found time to destroy. In the course of this advance the French captured over 1,400 prisoners.

South and east of Valenciennes, where the Germans had established positions, the British on November 2-3, 1918, were fighting their way forward, driving back the enemy rear guards and taking prisoners.

Field Marshal Haig's troops won another notable victory on November 4, 1918, when attacking on a thirty-mile front between the Scheldt and the Oise-Sambre Canal, with the French cooperating on the right, a drive was made into enemy positions and over 10,000 Germans and 200 guns were captured. The British drive, in which troops of the First, Third, and Fourth Armies participated, resulted in the capture of LandrÉcies south of the Mormal Forest, Catillon, and a considerable number of smaller towns, and advanced the British lines more than three miles to the east of the Oise-Sambre Canal. North of this stream, in the great Mormal Forest, the British won strongly fortified positions and advanced to the center of the wood.

To the south the Fifth French Army under General Debeney, linking up with the British, forced the passage of the canal and made an advance to a depth of two miles beyond it, driving the Germans from a number of villages of great strategic importance. In this advance the French bagged 30,000 prisoners and a large number of cannon.

King Albert's army in Belgium continued to gain victories and to press the German retreat. He had completed the work of forcing the enemy across the Terneuzen Canal, which runs northward from Ghent and is close to the suburbs of the city on two sides. South of Ghent the west bank of the Scheldt was now in the hands of the Allies.

British and French armies in Belgium continued to crush and overrun the German positions. In the morning of November 5, 1918, the British forced their way through the greater part of the Mormal Forest, the infantry being east of a line through Locquignol and Les Grandes PÂtures. They had overcome the formidable defenses on the western fringe of the forest and had now confronting them only hastily improvised machine-gun posts. The French continued to drive the Germans before them between the Sambre Canal and the Argonne Forest, clearing the enemy out of wide stretches of territory and carrying their line forward more than six miles. The towns of Guise and Marie were captured during this advance and 4,000 Germans and 60 guns.

On November 6, 1918, a German delegation left Berlin for the western front to conclude an armistice with Marshal Foch, representing the Allied armies. The negotiations led to a cessation of hostilities on November 11, 1918.

The victorious sweep of the Allies continued undiminished from the Scheldt to the Meuse, where the Germans were being driven back along the whole front. On November 6, 1918, the British, advancing east of the Mormal Forest, occupied a number of villages and the important railway junction at Aulnoye. The French armies made a bound of from five to seven miles along the whole front. Vervins, Rethel, and Montcornet, all important places, were occupied and the advance continued.

Crossing the Belgian border north and east of Hirson, French cavalry occupied a number of villages and the important fortress of Hirson, advancing their line nine miles at some points. Along the entire thirty-mile front from the junction of the French and British armies to the Meuse east of MÉziÈres, now strongly invested, the French pushed on with irresistible ardor. The water barriers of the Thon and the Aure were forced, and the plateaus to the north occupied. On the British front the same story of victory was repeated. Field Marshal Haig's troops completed the capture of Tournai, and Antoing, to the south of that Belgian city, was occupied. On November 9, 1918, the British had driven forward to the outskirts of Renaix, twelve miles northeast of Tournai. The Second and Fifth Armies meanwhile had gained the east bank of the Scheldt throughout their entire front. These operations took place north of the Mons-CondÉ Canal, along the line of which the British were advancing on Mons. South of the Belgian frontier they took the important town of Maubeuge, and pressed on toward the Belgian frontier on both sides of the Sambre, meeting with only feeble resistance from the disorganized enemy.

The remaining inhabitants of Tournai, which the British entered on November 8, 1918, received their liberators with wild demonstrations of joy such as only a people were capable of who had lived for years under the tyrannic rule of the Germans. For three weeks before the British captured the town the inhabitants had been living in cellars in hourly fear that the furious gunfire would smash the buildings above their heads and that they would be buried in the ruins. There was also the dread that asphyxiating gas would creep into their hiding places and destroy them with its fumes. A month before British occupation the Germans had carried away all the able-bodied men in the place, numbering more than 10,000, leaving their women-folk to weep for them. For a week previous to the British entry Tournai was under bombardment day and night. Then forty-eight hours before the Germans were driven out more terrible sounds were heard by the frightened people hiding in the cellars, explosions that shook every building as by an earthquake. The Germans were blowing up the bridges over the Scheldt Canal, and their retreat from Tournai had begun. Though German delegates were on their way to the French front to arrange for an armistice, the Allies continued to fight and advance with the same irresistible ardor as if there had been no question of a cessation of hostilities. In southern Belgium the British continued to carry their lines forward, reaching on November 10, 1918, the Franco-Belgian frontier south of the Sambre. North of the Mons-CondÉ Canal they pressed on beyond the Scheldt, capturing Leuze, while British cavalry advanced to Ath, which lies sixteen miles east of Tournai.

Farther to the north the British captured Renaix and carried their line to a point four miles to the east of that place.

While the British were sweeping on in southern Belgium the French were engaged in repulsing strong attacks launched against them as they crossed the Meuse. Numerous villages along the whole line were freed from the enemy. Here, as at other places, the haste of the German retreat was emphasized by the abandonment of vast stores of war material, cannon, and even railroad trains, which fell into the hands of the French.

At 2 o'clock in the afternoon of November 10, 1918, General Gouraud made his official entry into Sedan; a thrilling hour for the French as they recalled the German triumph here in the war of 1870.

Slowly, but surely, French territory occupied by the enemy along the Belgian frontier was diminishing in size. The French troops everywhere were now within a short day's march of the border line, and but for the congested roads encumbered with traffic, and by the booty which the Germans left behind, the liberation of French soil could have been completed in less than a day's advance.

Though it was known among the troops of the Allies as well as by the Germans that an armistice might be declared at any moment, there were no changes in the attitude of the combatants. The Germans fought when they had to, sullenly and determinedly, but most of their efforts were concentrated in making all haste they could to reach the border. To the last they showed a savage spirit, and nowhere more so than at MÉziÈres, where throughout the morning of November 10, 1918, their batteries deluged the city with high explosives and poison gas. There 20,000 civilians—men, women, and children—were shut in, with no hope of escape. Incendiary shells fired a hospital, and it was necessary to evacuate the wounded to the cellars near by, where the panic-stricken inhabitants were crouching. There was some protection from shells in the cellars, but none against the heavy fumes of poison gas with which the Germans proceeded to flood the city. There were no gas masks and no chemicals that would enable the people to improvise protective head coverings.

The British captured Mons during the night of November 10-11, 1918, after a stiff fight outside the town. For the British the war ended at Mons as it had begun there. Since early morning their troops knew that the armistice had been signed, and that hostilities would cease at 11 o'clock. All the way to Mons British forces were on the march with bands playing, and nearly every man carried on his rifle a little flag of France or Belgium.

Ghent was the last Belgian town which was rescued from the Germans before the armistice. They held the canal in front of it by machine-gun fire until 2 o'clock in the morning of November 11, 1918, when they made a hurried retreat.

A dozen Belgian soldiers, led by a young lieutenant, were the first to enter the city, and a few minutes later the streets were thronged with people wild with joy, who embraced the troops and each other, shouting and cheering. After four years of oppressive German rule Ghent of historic memories was free.

Hostilities ceased on all the battle fronts at 11 a. m. on November 11, 1918. The machine guns and great cannon that had rattled and thundered for fifty months were silent. On the front lines, when the last shot was fired, the British, Americans, and Belgians gave free vent to their feelings of joy that the war was over, the victory won. The soldiers of France were less demonstrative and seemed unable at first to realize that the long-drawn agony was ended; but though they did not express themselves in wild cheering, every face was aglow with pride and happiness. Back of the lines, among the ruined villages, there were more evidences of the gladness that filled every war-weary heart, and while church bells rung out a joyous peal the songs of victory, which had cheered the poilus through the long conflict, resounded again with a deeper feeling and more triumphant note.

According to the terms of the armistice the Germans yielded over to Allied occupation "the countries on the left bank of the Rhine," together with surrender to Allied control of the crossings of the Rhine at Mayence, Coblenz, and Cologne, including bridgeheads of thirty-kilometer radius on the eastern bank of the river and the establishment of a neutral zone on that bank from thirty to forty kilometers in breadth and running from the frontier of Holland to the Swiss frontier.

On November 17, 1918, the Allied armies of occupation began the march to the Rhine. The American army, consisting of six divisions under General Dickman, was the first to start, moving in a northeasterly direction on a front of fifty miles from Mouzon on the Meuse to beyond Fresnes. At MontmÉdy, the first important place reached by the Americans, they were received with wild acclamation by the inhabitants and the Stars and Stripes waved from the HÔtel de Ville. At Longwy and Briey, the great industrial centers, it was the same story. Lorraine and Luxemburg were crossed and Coblenz was reached on December 12, 1918, where headquarters of the army of occupation were established.

On the same date the British Second and Fourth Army under Generals Plumer and Rawlinson began their advance to Cologne. In conjunction with their allies, a French army under General Mangin set out for Mayence, while General PÉtain, now a marshal of France, entered Metz. Throughout Belgium and France the armies of the Allies received the most enthusiastic reception in which there was no discordant note. It was only when they crossed the border and entered Germany that they met with veiled hostility. There were crowds and bands, but no enthusiasm. But, if this was lacking, there were no aggressive manifestations of hatred toward the invaders of the Fatherland. A sense of joy and relief that the war was over vanquished for the time at least every other feeling.