Chapter III: Part 3

Sir Hubert Gough's army was sent down in January to take over from the French a sector forty to fifty miles long. Clearly such a line as this could be held only if it were strongly located and cunningly constructed, and there is no doubt that it was. Three lines were designed: First, an outpost line, then a "line of resistance," and then a "battleline." The outpost line was designed with special care. It consisted of a number of separate posts so located as to provide for a cross-fire on any enemy that penetrated them. It was intended to be held until the last gasp, and it was presumed that the Germans might pass through it, but that they would be terribly punished by the garrisons of the isolated posts.

In one way the attack was not a surprise. General Gough had known for days that it was imminent, and had moved his men up to their positions and made every preparation possible. But one thing he could not foresee or guard against--the mist and fog. Under cover of the mist, which prevented sight for more than thirty yards, the Germans crept forward, and the outpost line was overrun before the alarm could be given. It was simply swamped, and the cross-fire on which so much depended was never delivered.

Consequently the fight began at the line of resistance instead, and before many hours had passed by sheer weight of numbers the Germans had forced the British back on the battleline. Then the fewness of numbers began to tell, and, as always at points of junction between divisions, the Germans got through between the 7th and 19th, the 19th and 18th, and the 3d and 18th. The whole line was broken up, and it seemed as if the road was open to Amiens.

Meanwhile it was impossible for the French reinforcements to come up as quickly as was necessary, and the retreat began. Bridges were not blown up for the simple reason that the parties of engineers were all killed. Every kind of soldier that could be collected was hastily thrown into action to fill the gap--including a strong contingent of American engineers.

Close to where the gap occurred was a training school for machine gunners. Of course, the men in training had long since been hurried into action, but a large supply of machine guns remained. It is not every soldier, however, who understands how to use these weapons, and the officer found himself with a large supply of them which at all costs he must prevent from being captured, and very few men able to handle them. Those who could were put in charge of squads, and whenever they had a moment's respite from turning them on the Germans they set to work to give hurried instructions.

Orders came to General Carey at 2 A. M., March 26, to hold the gap. He went to work at once to develop the plans that had been hurriedly laid out. He organized a scratch force by telephone, messengers, and flag signals. Every available man--laborer, raw recruit, sapper, engineer--was rounded up. By the middle of the next morning Carey had found a considerable number of men, and by the early part of the afternoon he had organized them into some sort of force and had selected and marked out the position it must hold.

For a time he had some guns, but these were hurried away to another point that was even more seriously threatened. He had fifty cavalrymen to do a little scouting, but in the main he had to depend entirely on the sheer grit of his scratch force, who lay in their shallow trenches, firing almost point blank at the gray hordes of Germans, and at every moment of respite seized their shovels to improve their shelters.

For nearly six days they stuck to it, and, as Lloyd George said, "they held the German Army and closed that gap on the way to Amiens."

After a time they got some artillery behind them and things were easier, but at first it was just a ding-dong fight, with soldiers taking orders from strange officers, officers learning the ground by having to defend it, and every man from enlisted man to Brigadier jumping at each job as it came along and putting it through with all his might.

During all that six days General Carey was the life and inspiration of the entire force. Careless of danger, he rode along the hastily intrenched line, giving an order here and shouting words of encouragement there to his weary and hard-pressed men.

His staff was as hastily recruited as his men. He had no knowledge of how long he must hold out. He was not even certain of getting supplies of ammunition and provisions.

All he had to do was to hang on, and hang on he did against an almost endless series of formidable attacks. He never lost heart or wavered. The gap to Amiens was closed and held.

Three companies of an engineering regiment were caught in the early bombardment and ordered to fall back. To one of the American companies, which had been consolidated with the British Royal Engineers, was delegated the task of guaranteeing the destruction of an engineers' dump, which it had been decided to abandon. This detachment destroyed all the material, made a rapid retreat, caught up with the larger group, and immediately resumed work, laying out trenches. These operations lasted from March 22 to 27. As the German attack became more intense, the engineers were joined by cooks, orderlies, and railway men as a part of General Carey's forces. The commanding officer of an American regiment took charge of an infantry sub-sector and directed the action of his troops for one week, until the emergency passed at that point. To this officer General Rawlinson, commanding the British Army engaged in that sector, sent the following letter:

The army commander wishes to record officially his appreciation
of the excellent work your regiment has done in assisting the
British Army to resist the enemy's powerful offensive during the
last ten days. I fully realize that it has been largely due to
your assistance that the enemy has been checked, and I rely on
you to assist us still further during the few days which are
still to come before I shall be able to relieve you in the line.

I consider your work in the line to be greatly enhanced by the
fact that, for six weeks previous to taking your place in the
front line, your men had been working at such high pressure
erecting heavy bridges on the Somme. My best congratulations and
warm thanks to all.

RAWLINSON.

Battle Viewed From the French Front

By G. H. Perris

_Special Correspondent with the French Armies_

_George H. Perris was with the French Armies in Picardy
throughout the German offensive. The aim of the Germans was to
drive a wedge between the British and French Armies at the point
of juncture near La Fère, and Mr. Perris was admirably situated
to obtain not only the story of the fighting on the allied
right, but a good general view of the whole great battle and of
the strategic methods adopted by the German command._ CURRENT
HISTORY MAGAZINE, _through its connection with_ THE NEW YORK
TIMES, _has full use of these important dispatches, which are
copyrighted._

[See Map on Page 198.]

A little before 5 A. M. on March 21, between the Scarpe and the Oise, there began an extremely violent artillery preparation, including barrages largely composed of gas shells, especially near Cambrai, and toward the Oise a strong counterbattery fire and a plentiful bombardment of the allied rear and communications.

At 9:45 A. M. an infantry attack began. Each German division engaged had a front of attack of about a mile and a half, and seems to have been disposed as follows: Two regiments, less a battalion of each, were in the first line, and one regiment was in reserve. Battalions were echeloned in a depth of two companies, each with six light machine guns, constituting the first wave. The second wave of two companies, carrying heavier machine guns, followed at an interval of 100 yards. These were followed at 200 or 300 yards' distance by light bomb-throwers and the battalion staff. Finally there came one-inch and other very light field guns, called "artillery of accompaniment," which deployed as required. The divisional reserves consisted of five infantry battalions. No new gas was used, and although the enemy has tanks they were not brought into action.

FIFTY GERMAN DIVISIONS

The first attack was made by perhaps fifty divisions, or about 750,000 men. Of these at least ten divisions, and perhaps thirteen or fourteen, were thrown into the corner of the field between St. Quentin, La Fère, and Noyon. They were divided into six columns.

The first consisted of a division with three battalions of chasseurs, which, debouching from La Fère, quickly took Tergnier, and on the evening of March 22 came to a stop before Vouel, the next village westward, and a division which came into action on the evening of the 22d passed the first, and on the following day pushed on toward Chauny.

The second column consisted of two divisions. The former advanced from the old line near Moy, on the Oise, through La Fontaine and Remigny and to the southwest. It stopped at Liez, on the Crosat Canal, on the 22d. That night it was passed by the other division, which, on the 23d, captured Villequier-Aumont, on the St. Quentin-Chauny road. To the right of this was the third column, composed of two divisions. The first attacked through Cerizy to Benay and Hinacourt, and was stopped on the evening of the 22d at Lamontagne. It was passed that evening by the other division on the canal, which, after occupying Genlis Wood, closed up to the second column.

The fourth column included the 1st and 10th Divisions, of which the former attacked through Essigny to Jussy, and on the 23d was at the north of Ugny, while the latter on its right passed the canal and reached Ugny and Beaumont.

Of the fifth column, which occupied the region of Villeselve, and the sixth, in the Ham-Noyon sector, my information is slighter, owing to the severity of the trial of the British contingents there before the French took over the front.

One division of the sixth column attacked at Le Plessis, north of Guiscard, on the 24th, and on the following day took Muirancourt, Rimbercourt and Croisilles. Its right was then prolonged by a division at Freniches.

BRITISH FRONT BROKEN

On the evening of the 22d the front of the British Army ran along the Crozat Canal from Tergnier, through Jussy, to the east of St. Simon.

Very well do I remember the bridgehead of Jussy as I saw it after the German retreat a year ago. The town, built almost wholly of brick, was absolutely leveled to the ground, not a single wall standing. I saw it again last Summer, when General X., a fine soldier and an enlightened gentleman, had set up a camp hospital and swimming bath, and the bridge had been decorated to celebrate the entry of America into the war. It was seven miles behind the front, and I confess we never thought to see the boche there again.

At 6 P. M. on the 22d General ----received the news that the British front had been broken between Beauvois and Vaux, nine miles due west of St. Quentin, and that his corps must fall back to Ham and the villages of Sancourt and Matigny, immediately north of it. At 8 or 9 o'clock next morning the news came in that the enemy was just debouching from the south of Ham toward Esmery-Hallon. The British 5th Corps was then in the region of Guiscard-Beaumont-Guivry ready for relief.

On the morning of the 24th two German divisions, the first and second columns, continued their movements in the Oise Valley, while the third and fourth columns took Ugny and Genlis Wood. On the 25th one division reached Croisilles, while another attacked Baroeuf on the north of the Oise, half way between Noyon and Chauny.

On the 26th one division was near Noyon, another at Larbroye, southwest of that town, and a third at Suzoy, two miles west of it. Clemenceau's classic phrase, "Remember that the Germans are at Noyon," had unexpectedly come alive again.

ALLIED TEAMWORK

Noyon, unlike Chauny, Ham, and other neighboring places, was not greatly damaged by the Germans before their retreat last year. South of the town rises a conical hill called Mont Rénaud, which is capped with a wood hiding the château built on the site of an ancient abbey. On Thursday, when the Germans were ensconced on Mont Rénaud, a French General expressed in the presence of the English General commanding a cavalry division his intention of retaking it. The British commander at once asked that his own troops should have the honor of making the attack. This was agreed to, and the British cavalry, dismounted, carried the hill by assault in face of a stubborn defense by the enemy.

I am assured that along the line where the French relieved the British troops, or where they have been acting together, the best relations have prevailed, and that the co-operation of the staffs and field officers has been most cordial.

The French, like the British, aviators, by the boldness of their bombing and their machine-gun work on the line of the German advance, have done much to compensate for the allied losses and the unavoidable delay in getting the French batteries into their new positions. Prisoners say the German 88th Division was nearly wiped out, and that the 206th suffered almost as badly.

VON HUTIER'S METHODS

Details of the first advance from St. Quentin to Noyon illustrate the new method pursued in this offensive in the particular way in which one large unit passes through another in order to carry the movement forward as rapidly as possible.

Another feature is its readiness to change the direction of march when great difficulty is found by the Germans or a marked weakness on the allied side invites such a change. Of the divisions named above, six disappeared from that front in the course of the concentration toward Noyon. They had been diverted westward when it was recognized that the Oise could not be forced, and Amiens became the chief objective.

It is certain that General von Hutier's plans were based upon his experience in the capture of Riga. * * * Western resistance, whether French or British, is a very different thing from that which the Russians put up at Riga. Enormous as are the forces the enemy put into this blow, though for the last week they outnumbered and generally overwhelmed those hurried up to meet them, they had to pay terribly for their success. German war doctrine recognizes this as inevitable in what is intended for a decisive operation against great antagonists. Against soldiers less experienced, disciplined, and inspired than those of the western Allies Hindenburg would have succeeded.

The adaptability of direction of attack which I have indicated is remarkable, but the same adaptability in the attack upon Verdun, where the right and left banks of the Meuse were alternately tried, gave no result. This time the main direction has been thrice changed. It began with the wings at St. Quentin and Croisilles; it then moved to the right centre from Bapaume to Albert; finally it is concentrated on the left centre on both sides of Montdidier.

Because of its methods and speed the battle thus far has been mainly one of artillery. German cavalry has been met in small numbers, but it has not taken a brilliant part. The enemy's aviation service has been notably inferior to that of the Allies. Only light guns with a few four-inch pieces have been able to keep up with the advance, and trench mortars do not seem to have been brought up quickly. On the other hand, groups of allied machine gunners and machine riflemen, taking advantage of the depressions of the ground, have everywhere taken heavy toll of their adversaries. By the time they can transport their heavier guns the Allies will have their former superiority ready to answer them.

FAILED TO BREAK THROUGH

March 26.--A full third of the German forces on the western front have been engaged on one-eighth of its extent. It is not impossible that a secondary offensive may be declared, but it may be taken that we now know the worst, and that the utmost possible strength has been put into the first blow.

The choice suggests the need of obtaining a rapid decision and the hope of shaking the will of our people. If it resulted in a break-through it would be justified as good strategy; if not, a number of prisoners and miles of ravaged territory have been taken, with no compensation for the costs.

So far there is nothing like a break-through. The French are holding strongly in the Oise Valley, in safe connection with the British on the Somme.

FRENCH SOLDIERS CONFIDENT

March 27.--I have been along the French front today, and the news is that, although the battle broke with extraordinary violence, it found the French prepared, and all is well.

As I watched the sun set in a crimson flood yesterday behind the Noyon hills there seemed to be a pause in the struggle. At least, the bombardment had slackened, and at one of the headquarters of the French Army on the Oise there was no news of an attack then proceeding.

The result of this momentary lull was to enhance the impression of calm order and confidence which is one's usual experience in passing from the rear to the front. One goes up in a state of suppressed agitation over the latest reports and rumors, and finds himself suddenly wrapped around by an atmosphere of businesslike quietude that extends nearly to the front trenches. Even in the firing line the stoical silence of the men and their immobility, except in spasmodic crises, seem to dominate the hellish roar of bursting shells.

From this point backward the machine works with a smoothness that rebukes our anxieties. In a circuit of forty miles, ending on the hills overlooking the left bank of the Oise, between Noyon and Chauny, I did not see a single sign of confusion, and there were many signs of satisfaction that the war had entered upon a decisive stage.

This is not strange. Very few soldiers hear as much of the latest news as one does in Paris or London; but all soldiers know more of the strength of their army than civilians can know. They may rarely see their General and understand little of military science; they may be unable to tell you exactly how the battle line stands, but they have a thousand ways of learning the quality of their chiefs and of knowing far in advance of the official bulletins whether things are going well or ill.

So far as my information goes there is good reason for this equitable state of mind. The German advance is remarkable, but it has been adequately paid for. Along the successive lines of heights southwest of St. Quentin the British, and afterward the French, who took this sector, had excellent firing positions, and retired from one to another in good order. The enemy came on wave upon wave, reckless of losses, as though certain points must be reached at any cost at certain hours. The allied troops fired upon them continuously, often exhausting their ammunition before the moment came for falling back. The Crown Prince's troops were at some points literally mown down. One machine gunner with a good target got through 30,000 cartridges, and could have fired twice that number had they been at hand. A Bavarian regiment lost half of its effectives in this drive toward the Oise.

NEW METHOD OF ASSAULT

The new method of assault by which the Germans obtained their first successes--new in its intensity, though not in its elements combined--seems to be as follows: After a short but heavy bombardment, in which gas shells play a larger part than ever, masses of troops brought up at the last moment are sent forward, wave after wave. The first wave must reach its objective at any cost, and, leaving the still resisting groups to be dealt with by bodies of grenadiers and flame pumpers, at once begins to throw heavy machine-gun and rifle fire upon the rear of the next line to be attacked, so as to prevent reserves from coming up. It is then passed by a second wave, which installs itself in the next position, engages it, and is in turn passed by a third wave, and so on.

Even when, as in this case, the method has been rehearsed with Teutonic thoroughness, it is one that involves losses which other than German armies could not be asked to bear.

THE GERMAN STRENGTH

March 29.--On the front of fifty miles, where the enemy had had only sixteen divisions, he commenced his great gamble with about thirty-eight divisions. It was already a heavy superiority, but there had been recognized up to last night a total of about eighty-seven divisions engaged, that is to say over a million men have been poured into this space, which forms only about an eighth of the western front, the greater part of these being new reserves, brought up after the operation was launched. They include many of the best imperial troops, the 1st, 2d, and 5th Guard Divisions, for instance, and two crack Bavarian divisions.

Three of the army commanders are reckoned among the most successful of the German Generals--von Below, who directed the Italian offensive; von der Marwitz, who did so much with his cavalry corps in the battle of the Marne to check pursuit and has done so well since in higher positions, and von Hutier, who tried new infantry tactics in the capture of Riga. The last named represents the army and the prestige of the Imperial Crown Prince. The other two serve the Crown Prince of Bavaria, and the enterprise received a special blessing from the Emperor.

Their whole design points to an intention of making this a singly decisive operation. Consider again the figures given above. Before the offensive the enemy had on this front from the sea to the Alps about 109 divisions in line and seventy-six in reserve. By calling the reserves they have been able (and it has been necessary) by the eighth day of the battle to put about eighty-seven divisions, 1,044,000 men, into the combat. Good observers consider that at the most they can hardly bring up more than forty more divisions.

LINE ALMOST BROKEN

March 30.--Immediately west of Noyon, Mont Rénaud and some neighboring hills have been recovered and are strongly held. The bridges over the Oise between Point l'Evêque and Chauny have been broken, and the river there is so well covered by artillery and infantry that there is no danger of a passage being forced.

This was the first fruit of the French northward movement on the evening of March 21. Several divisions of the neighboring French Army were rushed up in motor wagons to the aid of the British right wing, which was thus enabled to draw north along the Crozat Canal. Their guns and supply columns followed. On the next day a further force was placed opposite Chauny, and other French troops were ordered to extend their lines northwestward, keeping in touch with the retiring British right. The constant displacement required in this delicate task and the fact that the French were gradually drawing upon themselves an increasing part of the German onset explain the delay in making considerable counterattacks.

On the 24th the French repelled repeated attempts to cross the Oise, and their lines, which already stretched to Evricourt, more than half way from Noyon to Lassigny, were extended to the neighborhood of the latter town.

The difficulties inevitable in so rapid a movement of reserves were met everywhere with splendid cheerfulness and energy. One of the artillery regiments, brought up by motor wagon, had no horses with it, but got its pieces into action, and, having to retreat, dragged them back three miles by hand.

Meanwhile, definitely checked on the south, and feeling all the time for the line of least resistance, the German host was gravitating rapidly westward between Roye and Chaulnes. Now that the danger has completely passed, it may be said that it came very near breaking through the allied front in this region on the 25th. The 26th and 27th saw an accentuation of pressure at the point of junction, but, while the front was pushed back on the first day to l'Echelle-St. Aurin on the Avre, and on the next to Montdidier, other French troops had been brought up to strengthen the British right, and yesterday, after several hard combats, it seemed that the offensive was definitely contained.

BATTLE FOR MONTDIDIER

April 1.--Montdidier, quaintly seated on a steep hill beside the Amiens-Clermont railway, is an important crossroads. On Friday the enemy had pulled himself together and delivered along twenty-five miles of broken country from Demuin to near Lassigny a new mass attack, supported with a considerable number of field guns. On the French left the British held Demuin, but were driven out of Mézières. The French bore the main shock heroically. Step by step they fell back, leaving masses of German dead and wounded before their lines.

The combat continued throughout Sunday, spreading out a little at both ends, and it is impossible for me to piece together the fragmentary and often incoherent reports from the field so as adequately to represent its wild fluctuations.

Savagely set upon breaking through to Amiens and the Amiens-Paris railway, von Hutier's columns succeeded in reaching the Avre at Moreuil. Between Montdidier and Lassigny, where the front curves to the southeast, the enemy put no less strength into his outward thrust. Hand-to-hand fighting continued for hours in the villages of Orvillers on the west and Plessis de Roye, near Lassigny, and the neighboring hamlet of Plémont, all of which repeatedly changed hands. The German troops which got into Plémont and part of Plessis were driven out by a magnificent charge of the French, some units flying in disorder. The slaughter of yesterday's fighting is said to exceed anything seen in the preceding days of the battle.

On the ninth day a new chapter of the tragic story was opened. The Allies, their lines unbroken, were standing with clenched teeth on good positions and were hourly adding to their strength in men and guns. Amiens appeared to the enemy like a mirage on the western horizon, and the two Crown Princes may have reflected that there would be accounts to pay at home if this time, after sacrifices such as can only be paralleled in rare episodes of military history like the retreat from Moscow, they did not bring back a victorious peace.

BLOW AT JUNCTION POINT

A smashing blow at the Franco-British junction was then to be decisive. It was begun with means believed to be adequate to this aim and was directed westward on both sides of Montdidier toward the Beauvais-Amiens railway, with a supporting thrust from the threatened flank west of Lassigny.

Further south, toward Montdidier, which they already held, the Germans crossed the river, again suffering very heavy losses, but were arrested on the hills of the western bank. In the evening the struggle, despite the exhaustion of both sides, attained its fiercest intensity. Moreuil was recaptured on Saturday night by a mixed Canadian and French force, lost again during the night, and once more carried by storm in the old-fashioned way yesterday morning. No Stosstruppen, (shock troops,) no expert grenadiers or flame pumpers this time. Mixed in the same ranks, the British colonials in khaki and the French in light blue went forward irresistibly with the bayonet.

"The Canadians," says one of my informants, "performed prodigies of valor, and when the boches fell back they had lost half their effectives."

Full of their success, our troops turned northward and would not be satisfied till they had been firmly set on the wooded heights near the town. Later in the day several violent enemy attacks were made south of the Somme, but they seem to have been of rather a local and scattered kind, as though, at least for the moment, fresh efforts of the dimensions of those of Friday and Saturday were impossible.

The British have made some progress in the valley of the Luce, and two strong German attacks were repulsed between Marcelcave and the Somme, as were others in the British sphere on the north of the river. On the other hand, the British line was beaten back to the village of Hangard, [Hangard was lost and finally retaken and held by the French,] on the north bank of the Luce, nearly opposite Demuin.

Like the actions of the preceding days, this battle has been in the main a conflict of infantry. On neither side has it been possible to get heavy artillery in position in time, but on the allied side French and British guns, freshly detrained, gave support of moral as well as material importance. When the 75 has a target of masses advancing in close, deep waves, its effects are terrible beyond words. In the open country the air squadrons of the Allies have also worked havoc in the enemy's ranks, besides bursting tons of explosives on his camps and lines of communication.

AGAINST ENORMOUS ODDS

April 8.--It is evident that the German onslaught has failed to break through. What the Allies have lost in ground they have saved in men; and, on the other hand, the enemy, who wanted not these miles of desolate territory, but a final decision, has paid inordinately without getting any nearer the desired result.

For five days his advance, though somewhat behind his ambitious program, was not seriously interrupted. On March 25 a certain General reached the region of Montdidier and began to build a human barrier. On March 23 began what may be called a four days' battle of arrest. Three French divisions had to meet and did meet the onset of fifteen German divisions. There were smaller units that fought one against ten.

The main German effort was against the Moreuil-Grivesnes-Montchel line, the object being (with 150,000 men in play there could be no less ambitious aim) to break right through to the south of Amiens and completely separate the French and British Armies. It culminated on the 31st with a suicidal assault by the pick of the Prussian Guards and other chosen divisions at Grivesnes, when a certain gallant Colonel, rifle in hand, directed the barricading of the windows of the château, and with not more than 500 men kept off three or four times as many assailants and had strength enough left at last to sweep those who remained out of the park.

I need not measure again the trivial gain for the enemy of this four days' battle. Perhaps the most significant fact about it is that while, overwhelming as was his original force, the enemy had repeatedly to withdraw and renew his units, not one French unit was relieved in that time. At Mesnil St. Georges one infantry battalion, with some groups of chasseurs, drove off five successive attacks by a whole German division. I might multiply such instances, but space would fail me to make them real with detail.

A pause of four days followed this failure. Then, on April 4, twelve divisions were again launched in the northern part of the same narrow field--10,000 men per mile of front. They won at great cost the ruins of two hamlets and a slice of fields beside them.

FIRST PHASE REVIEWED

April 14.--The first phase or act of the offensive, launched with unprecedented masses of troops, completely failed to reach its aim and entailed losses that no lesser success could warrant. Begun on March 21, with three armies--those of von Below, von der Marwitz, and von Hutier--counting nearly fifty divisions, about forty more had to be brought in before the first week was out.

By that time the French armies had been pushed northwestward with admirable rapidity and characteristically splendid spirit, and by the last day of the month the host of the Prussian Crown Prince, including the Guard and others of the best German units, had been fought to a standstill from Noyon and Lassigny to the Avre and the Somme.

Several hard combats in the last fortnight, the latest ending in the French recovering the village of Hangard on Friday and their useful advance yesterday near Arvillers, do but confirm this result. That the German losses are fully commensurate with the ambition of their aims and the prodigal method pursued is shown by another fact unprecedented in the history of war.

At the end of three weeks of the offensive about 1,500,000 men have been cast into the battle, and seventy-five divisions have become so dislocated as to have to be withdrawn for reorganization. It is therefore probable that the total German casualties up to date approach 500,000.

SECOND PHASE SUMMARIZED

The second phase may be regarded as having opened March 28 with the entry of General von Below's right wing into action east of Arras, and as culminating with the battle of Armentières, involving the army of General von Quest and the left wing of General von Arnim's army at Ypres, while a subsidiary operation by General von Boehm's army threatened the French between the Oise and St. Gobain Forest.

This northern battle began in a much smaller way than the original offensive, with about twenty divisions on a twenty-mile front, and it may have been its initial success that determined its prompt extension.

While it may fairly be said to have constituted a confession of failure in the earlier adventure, its development not only creates a new danger, but strengthens the German position athwart the Somme. The situation, therefore, must be looked at straightforwardly and spoken of without mincing words.

In the middle of March the German armies consisted of 4,000,000 men at the front, 1,300,000 on the lines of communication and in the interior, and others who can be added to the present effectiveness.

From the village of Hangard to Abbéville is about forty miles; from Merville to Calais is the same distance; to Boulogne a little more; from the Ypres front to Dunkirk is about thirty miles; to Nieuport a little less. These are the limits of the allied power of manoeuvre for the defense of the Channel.

Caring for Thousands of Refugees

Long processions of civilian refugees lined the roadsides in the invaded area during the days of battle--the pitiful hosts of those fleeing from the German guns and the terrors of German occupation. Many thousands of villagers and farmers whose little homes had been devastated by the first German occupation and by the battle of the Somme had been trying bravely to restore their ruined houses and cultivate the tortured soil again. With the aid of American friends hundreds of cottages had been built, heaps of shattered masonry cleared away, shops and schools opened, and French, British, and American committees had formed a nucleus around which new life was gradually growing up. No less than 5,500 acres of the devastated land evacuated by the Germans a year ago were again under cultivation--enough to feed 16,000 persons a year.

All this work of the stricken inhabitants, with their replanted fruit trees and scanty stores of new implements, had to be abandoned almost at a moment's notice. Many of the peasants, stunned by the new catastrophe, had to be aroused to flight by the friendly orders of the retreating British officers. The Red Cross workers, the Dames de France, and a group of courageous American women--the Smith College girls--aided the refugees day and night in their retreat from town to town until the German advance was checked a few miles short of Amiens.

The American Red Cross transported thousands from the towns and villages behind the British lines, working thirty automobiles night and day, and carrying 2,000 to friends in Paris in the first few days. These were mostly women, children, and aged persons who had been awakened by the Red Cross workers on the morning of the 25th, taken to the railroad in trucks, and thence transported by rail in special trains. Most of the refugees were able to save only a few of their belongings, which were wrapped up in shawls and bed sheets, or carried in baskets or handbags. One woman, 81 years old, carried only a basket of live chickens, and cried because she had been unable to save two rabbits. Another woman carried a few cooking utensils under her arm. Many women and children were crying because they had been separated from relatives and friends. Children only a month old and people who had reached the age of 90 were alike numbered among the unfortunates.

TRAGIC SCENES

"I saw the first tide of these poor people when the Germans came near to Ham and Péronne and Roye," wrote Philip Gibbs on March 29. "Some of them had been once in the hands of the Germans, and at this second menace they left their homes and their fields and their shops, and came trekking westward and southward.

"One's heart bleeds to see these refugees, and it is the most tragic aspect of these days. There are many old people among them, old women in black gowns and caps who come hobbling very slowly down the highway of war, and old men with bent backs who lean heavily on their gnarled sticks as the guns go by, and the fighting men.

"I saw one old man near Ham who was trundling along a wheelbarrow, and on this was spread a mattress, and on that was his wife. She looked 90 years of age, with her white, wrinkled face, and she was fast asleep, like a little child. Many children are on the roads, packed tight into farm carts with household furniture and bundles of clothing, and poultry and pigs and new-born lambs. The noise of the gunfire is behind them, and they move faster when it grows louder. They are very brave, these boys and girls and these old people. There is hardly any weeping or any look on their faces of grudge against this unkind turn of fate. They seem to accept it with stoical resignation, with most matter-of-fact courage, and their only answer to pity is a smile and the words, 'C'est la guerre.' Those are words I first heard in the early weeks of the war and hoped never to hear again.

"Many of these people trek in family groups and gatherings of families from one village. Small boys and girls drag tired cows after them. The other day one of these cows leaned against every tree she passed and then sat down, and the girl with her looked around helplessly, not knowing what to do. This morning I saw the girl wearing a veil and dressed in an elegant way, taking the cow with her. She was quite alone on the road. It is queer and touching that most of these fugitives wear their best clothes, as though on a fête day. It is because they are clothes they want to save and can only have by wearing them in their flight.

"In one small town the fear of the German entry came at night, a bright, moonlight night into which there came many German bombing squadrons. The citizens had shut up their shops and stood about talking anxiously. Then fear and rumor spread among them, and all through the night there was an exodus of small families and solitary girls and comrades in misfortune, stealing away like shadows from homes they loved, from little fortunes or their shops, from all their normal life into the open country, where the moonlight lay white and cold on the fields. Behind them bombs were being dropped, and some of their houses were destroyed.

"C'est la guerre!"

WORK OF AMERICAN GIRLS

The heroic work of the Smith College girls was described by a correspondent at the French front under date of March 29:

"Working unceasingly under a constant shellfire, for days without sleep, the girls demonstrated admirable initiative and ability and the extreme coolness of the tried soldier. They are still in the field today, ministering to old men, women, and children. I have talked to the first persons to come in from the front, who saw them last Saturday, when shells were falling at Grecourt, the tiny Somme village where the unit has been quartered for months, aiding the folks of a dozen surrounding villages.

"When it became evident that the Germans were coming the girls worked frantically with auto trucks, gathering together all the people in their territory. In one village they went three times to try to persuade an aged woman to leave, but she refused to move unless the ancestral bedstead on which she lay could be transported with her. In final desperation the girls brought a big supply wagon and loaded the bedstead and the woman into it, leaving the village fifteen minutes before the first of the Uhlans arrived.

"The girls organized themselves into small units and each unit was charged with the evacuation of a single village. Cavalcades of refugees, generaled by the Smith girls, marched or rode from their abandoned homes to Roye, where a special train was waiting to carry them westward. Even cows, chickens, dogs, and cats helped to form the cavalcade which reached Roye on Saturday morning. Here the refugees vainly tried to crowd the animals into the train.

"The girls of the Smith College unit then proceeded to Montdidier. There, with W. B. Jackson of Washington, a former Red Cross delegate at Ham, assisted by a group of American Quakers and Red Cross workers, they organized a canteen and began giving out blankets and other comforts and making a marvelous bean soup and a special food for babies, the basis of which was condensed milk. As the refugee trains, some containing as many as 1,000 men, women, and children, poured into Montdidier the arriving refugees were fed until the supply of food was exhausted.

"Then Montdidier became too hot under the increasing shellfire and the workers were forced to split, some going to Amiens and others to Beauvais, where they continued their work. Since then practically all the Smith College girls and some other workers have gone to Amiens, where they are weathering the enemy bombardment in cellars, but carrying on their work as usual."

FLEEING IN BEST CLOTHES

An Associated Press correspondent added this further bit of eyewitness testimony under date of March 27:

"The French refugees of the better class departing from the zones of actual operations are coming out clad in all their finery, which represents the styles of four or five years ago. Then there are sturdy peasants with wooden shoes and clumsily constructed clothes, riding in vehicles drawn by horses or donkeys or in carts pushed by men, and some are even in wheelbarrows. Upon these queer transports are stacked strange assortments of personal belongings.

"There is deep pathos in all this, but none struck the correspondent more forcibly than the appearance of a tiny girl who trudged in her wooden shoes along a hard, dusty road, her eyes fastened anxiously upon a dirty rag doll perched precariously at the top of household effects which were being pushed along by an old man. This child was perhaps representative of all the refugees--she was coming away with her most cherished possession, her baby doll, and was prepared to guard it at all costs; her aching feet were as nothing, so long as the doll was safe.

"These refugees are from the towns within the Somme battlefield and adjoining it. All these villages have been emptied of their inhabitants. So far as possible everything which might be of use to the Germans has been removed. In particular, large numbers of cattle have been taken away by the owners, who patiently drive the beasts on ahead of them along the roads.

"There are few tears or hysterical outbreaks among the refugees, most of whom are of the peasant class. They know they must go, and they seem to be trusting implicitly in the British, but the misery in their eyes as they turn from all they love to a world they do not know is touching. Aged women clinging to the hands of little grandchildren, men stooped with years, youths and maidens--all fall into a picture such as only a catastrophe can produce."

Fifty members of the American Friends' unit of the Red Cross were in the region of the great battle, at Ham, Liancourt, Esmery-Hallon, Golancourt, and Gruny on the Somme and Aisne. These devoted workers, with the aid of many Red Cross trucks that were rushed to them, helped thousands of refugees to safety.

The French Government had several hundred tractor plows at work on the stricken lands. The American relief units also had a few tractor plows and other agricultural materials, all of which had to be abandoned to the enemy. All members of relief units were reported safe.

Castor Oil for Airplanes

How an important agricultural enterprise was initiated to meet one of the requirements of the Aviation Section of the American Army is disclosed in the minority report of the Senate Military Affairs Committee, presented on April 12, 1918. In the course of a description of the initial difficulties encountered in producing battle planes, the report says:

"Remember again that when these combat planes were contracted for the only known lubricating oil adapted to their delicate parts was an oil made from the castor bean. There were not enough beans in this country to make anywhere near the amount of oil required. Neither were there enough seeds with which to grow the needed quantity of beans. The Signal Corps had to search the globe for seeds, and finally secured a shipload from distant India. Then the corps had to contract for the planting of the seeds in this country, and has succeeded in having about 110,000 acres planted. It is now claimed that a form of petroleum has been developed that will answer the same purpose. This, however, is still in the experimental stage, while the oil from the castor bean is known to be entirely adequate and reliable."

Progress of the War

Recording Campaigns on All Fronts and Collateral Events From March 18, 1918, Up to and Including April 17, 1918

UNITED STATES

The German Government announced on March 18 that American property in Germany would be seized in reprisal for the seizure of German property in the United States.

Drastic restrictions were placed by the War Trade Board upon the importation of many nonessential commodities, the regulations to become effective April 15.

The terms of the Third Liberty Loan were announced by Secretary McAdoo on March 25. The bill authorizing it was completed by Congress and signed by President Wilson on April 4, and on April 6 the drive began.

Secretary Daniels, in a speech in Cleveland on April 6, disclosed the fact that a great fleet of American vessels, including battleships, was operating in the war zone.

Announcement was made in Tokio on March 28 that an agreement had been concluded under which Japan promised to turn over to the United States 450,000 tons of shipping.

President Wilson issued a proclamation on April 11, giving Secretary McAdoo control of the principal coastwise steamship lines.

Charles M. Schwab was appointed Director General of the Emergency Fleet Corporation April 16.

SUBMARINE BLOCKADE

Sir Eric Geddes gave in the House of Commons on March 19 figures of shipping losses which are given in detail elsewhere in this number of CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE, also figures made public by the British Admiralty on March 21 are given elsewhere.

The Royal Mail steamer Amazon and the Norwegian steamship Stolt-Neilson, commandeered by the British, were sunk March 19.

The steamship Conargo was torpedoed in the Irish Sea March 31, and the lifeboats were shelled.

The armed boarding steamer Tithonus was sunk March 28, and the sinking of the steamship Carlisle Castle was reported April 2.

On April 1 the Celtic was torpedoed off the Irish coast, but reached port in safety.

The American steamer Chattahoochee, formerly the German Sachsen, was sunk off the English coast on March 25.

The Spanish steamers Arpillao and Begona were sunk March 25.

The Italian steamer Alessandra was sunk off the Island of Madeira April 2.

The Ministre de Smet de Naeyer, a Belgian relief ship, was sunk in the North Sea on April 6, and twelve members of the crew were lost.

As a result of the commercial agreement between Spain and the United States, German submarines began a blockade of Spanish ports, April 11.

Because a German submarine had captured a Uruguayan military commission bound for France, the Government of Uruguay on April 11 asked Berlin, through Switzerland, whether it considered that a state of war existed with Uruguay.

CAMPAIGN IN WESTERN EUROPE

March 18--Belgians repulse German raids in the region of Nieuport, Dixmude, and Mercken.

March 19--French penetrate German line near Rheims; British carry out successful raids in the neighborhood of Villers-Guislain, La Vacquerie, and Bois Gienier.

March 20--German airplane drops balls of liquefied mustard gas on American lines northwest of Toul; Americans shell Lahayville, causing a heavy explosion and forcing the Germans to retreat; French repulse violent raids in the Souain sector of Champagne.

March 21--Germans open terrific drive on British lines on a fifty-mile front from southeast of Arras as far as La Fère; French lines bombarded north and southeast of Rheims as well as on the Champagne front; Paris bombarded by long-range guns.

March 22--Germans claim 16,000 prisoners in big drive; General Haig reports them gaining at some points and repulsed at others; American artillery fire destroys German first and second line trenches east of Lunéville; violent gun duels in the Aisne and Champagne sectors; French repulse three German raids near Souain.

March 23--Germans smash British front, win victories near Monchy, Cambrai, St. Quentin, and La Fère, and penetrate into second British positions between Fontaine les Croisilles and Moeuvres; British evacuate positions in the bend southwest of Cambrai; Germans penetrate third British position between the Omignon stream and the Somme; Paris again shelled by gun seventy-five miles away; ten persons killed and fifteen or more wounded; fierce artillery fire on the French front from the Oise River to the Vosges Mountains.

March 24--Germans capture Péronne, Chauny, and Ham, and cross the River Somme at certain points south of Péronne; assaults further north repulsed; Paris again bombarded by gun located in the Forest of St. Gobain.

March 25--Germans take Bapaume, Nesle, Guiscard, Biaches, Barleux, and Etalon; French take over sector of British battlefront south of St. Quentin and around Noyon; General Pershing announces that two regiments of American engineers are on the Somme battlefield; long-range bombardment of Paris continues; one long-range gun explodes, killing ten men; American gunners shell St. Bausant and the billets north of Boquetau.

March 26--Germans take Noyon, Roye, and Lihon, and cross the battleline of 1916 at many points; Americans in the Toul sector drive Germans out of Richecourt.

March 27--British, reinforced, beat back German attacks, capture Morlaincourt and Chipilly, north of the Somme, and to the south of the river advance their lines to the village of Proyart; Germans announce the capture of Albert and the crossing of the Ancre north and south of the city; French forced to yield ground east of Montdidier, but check assaults near Lassigny and Noyon.

March 28--British repulse all-day attacks at Arras; Germans capture Montdidier and push their lines as far as Pierrepont, and regain some ground south of the Somme which they lost in 1914; French advance at Noyon for a mile and a quarter on a six-mile front.

March 29--British line south of the Somme pushed back to a line running west of Hamel, Marcelcave, and Demuin; German drive slackens in the north; French in the Oise Valley retake Monchel; seventy-five persons killed and ninety wounded in church near Paris by shell from long-range gun.

March 30--Paris again bombarded by long-range guns; eight killed, thirty-seven wounded; Germans wrest six villages in the Montdidier sector from the French, and Demuin and Mézières from the British, but are repulsed in the Boiry-Boyelles region.

March 31--Germans lose ground near Feuchy; British advance near Serre; French recapture Ayencourt and Monchel and gain considerable ground near Orvillers; American Army starts for the battlefront; Paris again bombarded; one person killed, six injured.

April 1--French repulse German attacks against Grivesnes; Germans mass troops near Albert for renewed drive; bombardment of Paris resumed.

April 2--British carry on successful minor operations between the Avre and the Luce Rivers and in the neighborhood of Hébuterne; French repulse Germans southwest of La Fère and shell enemy concentrations east of Cantigny.

April 3--British occupy Ayette, check Germans near Moreuil; French extend their lines north of Plémont and take over another sector of the line, extending their holdings northward to Thennes; Americans heavily gassed in a sector other than Toul.

April 4--Germans deliver terrific attack against the French along a front of nearly nine miles, from Grivesnes to north of the Amiens-Royes road, and occupy the villages of Mailly-Raineval and Morisel; British lose ground north of Hamel and in the direction of Vaire Wood.