On the following day, March 9, 1917, the Germans launched three violent attacks in this sector in an attempt to force the French out of their newly won positions. The Germans did not lack bravery, and pressed forward in the face of a strong barrage and machine-gun fire. The French guns, however, wrought such destruction in their ranks that they were finally forced to retire, their number shattered and depleted. In the two days' fighting in this sector the French took 170 prisoners, of whom four were officers.

The British captured Irles in the morning of March 10, 1917. Previous to the attack their howitzers had deluged the place with shells. The infantry followed closely, one force advancing from the south and another turning north, to head off any attempt of the Germans to retreat. In a sunken ravine the British found a small garrison of old men with machine guns. Here thirty prisoners were taken and the rest killed. The British swept on over the German trenches, meeting with very little opposition. About 150 Germans were taken in this main attack and quite as many more were gathered in by troops working west and north. The prisoners were all Prussians, belonging chiefly to the Second Guards Reserve. The Germans succeeded in withdrawing without very heavy losses, leaving their rear guard to bear the brunt of the British attack. The evacuation of Irles, which had become untenable, had been fixed by the Germans for the 10th at 7.30 a. m., but the British caught them napping by striking two hours earlier, with the result that they captured three officers and 289 men.

In the night of March 10, 1917, the French carried out successful surprise attacks on the German trenches in the Lassigny and Canny-sur-Matz regions, and in the neighborhood of the Woevre north of Jury Wood, destroying defensive works in these operations and taking fifteen prisoners and some machine guns.

In the afternoon of March 12, 1917, the French troops operating on the Champagne front recaptured all the trenches on Hill 185. These lines lay west of the Maisons de Champagne Farm which the Germans had won in the previous month. The attack was made over a front of nearly a mile. During the night of March 11, 1917, French troops had crawled forward and by the use of grenades prepared the way for the general assault on the German positions which were carried on the following day. All the German trenches were taken on the hill and a fortified work on the slopes north of Memelon. In the course of the action the French captured about 100 prisoners and a considerable number of machine guns.

On March 12, 1917, the British advance was resumed on a front of nearly four miles to the west of Bapaume. The Germans, retreating, left only a strong screen of rear guards to oppose, but they avoided contact with British patrols as far as possible. It was evident that the Germans were reserving their strength for some important operation.

The British, pushing onward, advanced their line north of Ancre Valley on a front of over one and a half miles southwest and west of Bapaume. South of Achiet-le-Petit the British made important progress and occupied 1,000 yards of German trenches west of Essarts. On March 13, 1917, Haig's troops had won the coveted ridge overlooking Bapaume from the northwest. For the first time since the struggle began on this front the British had the advantage of the highest ground. Bapaume, which the Germans had been blasting and piling up with the wreckage of stores and the trunks of fallen trees, was now within easy striking distance and the next point to be captured in the British advance.

Grevillers was occupied by the British during the night, their line now stretching along the ridge which runs northwest from that point to the outskirts of Achiet-le-Petit, where the Germans were in possession.

In the course of this latest advance Loupart Wood was occupied. It is situated on the shoulder of a high ridge which overlooks the entire Somme battle front. The British were highly elated over the capture of the wood, where for eight months German batteries had rained shells upon the British positions. It was regarded as one of the strongest artillery posts which the Germans held on the western front.

The Germans had made desperate efforts to hold this strong position, but thirty hours of incessant bombardment by British guns leveled their defenses and crushed in the dugouts, and they withdrew, a shattered remnant.

In the Champagne region the Germans continued their attacks during March 13-14, 1917, on the French positions on Hill 185. The loss of the hill a few days before, and of positions around Maisons de Champagne were regarded as important by the Germans, for they persisted in their attacks though every attempt made was repulsed with appalling losses. They were unable to reach the French line at any point, though concentrating strong artillery fire on the lost positions and attacking with grenades throughout the night. The French continued to hold their own despite these desperate onslaughts and were even able to increase their gains in this sector.

In the region of St. Mihiel the French by a dashing operation captured Romainville Farm with its garrison of thirty Germans. At four different points French detachments penetrated German trenches between the Meuse and Apremont Forest, pushing as far as the second line of defenses and bringing back a number of prisoners.

On March 15, 1917, French forces south of the Somme in the neighborhood of Roye after an intense shelling of the German lines penetrated east of Canny-sur-Matz to a depth of about half a mile. British troops between Peronne and Bapaume made important gains about this date. Pushing forward on a front of two and a half miles they occupied German trenches running from the south of St. Pierre Vaast Wood to the north of the village of Saillisel, a stretch of about 3,000 yards.

On March 17, 1917, the Germans were forced to abandon the whole line of about fifteen miles between the Oise and Andechy, owing to the pressure of French forces. These lines were strongly fortified and had been occupied by the Germans for about two years. The French continued their advance movement on the following day. Their advance guard entered Roye in pursuit of a German contingent that had blown up streets in the interior of the town. About 800 of the civil population which the Germans had not had time to remove received their liberators with a wild enthusiasm that was pathetic to witness.

North and northeast of Lassigny the French made further gains, occupying the town and a number of points beyond, and pushing forward past the road between Roye and Noyon. During the night of March 17, 1917, French air squadrons bombarded German organizations in the region of Arnaville, and the factories and blast furnaces at Voelkingen, where a great fire was seen to break out. Stations and roads in the region of Ham and St. Quentin were also bombarded with good results, and all the French aeroplanes returned undamaged.

On March 18, 1917, the Germans were in retreat over a front of approximately eighty-five miles from south of Arras on the north to Soissons on the Aisne. They evacuated scores of villages, and the important towns of Peronne, Chaulnes, Nesle, and Noyon. Evidently the Germans had been forced to leave somewhat hurriedly, for many of the places evacuated were only slightly damaged as the result of military operations.

British and French troops, keeping in close touch with the German rear guard during the advance, pushed forward to a depth of from ten to twelve miles, and their cavalry entered Nesle about the same time. The occupation of Noyon on the Oise was of special importance, as the nearest point to Paris held by the Germans. The famous Noyon elbow or salient, from which it was expected the Germans would launch an attack on the French capital, now ceased to be a source of anxiety and apprehension to the French fighting forces in this region.

Peronne, for which the French had fought desperately for nearly two years, was entered by the British on March 18, 1917, after a brief action with the German rear guard. East of the place the Germans had fired a number of villages as they retreated. Athies, a town of some importance, was reduced to a smoldering ruin and the smoke of its burning buildings could be seen for miles. The Germans displayed their "thoroughness" as they retired by poisoning the wells with arsenic, and setting high-explosive traps into which they hoped the British advance guards would blunder. Bridges over all the waterways were burned and the crossroads carefully mined.



The capture of Bapaume, that quaint Picardy town which the Germans had transformed into an almost impregnable stronghold and fortress, was a special cause for rejoicing by the British troops. It was a prize they had longed for through many weary months. There was no waving of flags or beating of drums when the British patrols entered the town, for there was stiff fighting ahead, and the place was filled with underground strongholds. Soon the welcome message came over the wire that all the enemy rear guard had been accounted for, and the British were free to survey their new acquisition. Fires were smoldering in many parts and not a house was left intact. Shells had wrought a great deal of the ruin, but it was evident that many of the buildings had been dynamited. The statue of General Louis Faldeherbe, who defended Bapaume against the Germans in 1870, was missing, and had evidently been carried off by the kaiser's troops.

The defensive works around Bapaume were of the most elaborate description, and the highest ingenuity had been employed in making the place impregnable. In addition to a splendid trench system forming a network around the place, there were acres of barbed wire stretched upon iron posts firmly planted in the earth, and intricate systems of wires spread over the ground to hamper an enemy attack. In addition to strong redoubts at different points fitted up with every defensive device, the cellars under the houses had been consolidated in many places, forming great underground galleries that could shelter thousands of German troops.

The British were not permitted to occupy Bapaume in peace, for while the enemy could no longer be seen, he was heard from constantly and destructively. All day long and during the night the town was shelled and great damage was wrought in such sections which the enemy had registered before leaving.

The German forces were still retiring, hastened on their way by the British troops, who were pressing them closely. From captured Germans it was learned that fresh divisions, including one that had fought in Rumania, had been thrown in as a screen to shield the retiring troops.

The Germans had devised so many traps to catch the Allies and delay the pursuit that the advance was necessarily slow. The French found less opposition than the British, and were able to push forward more rapidly, covering twenty-two miles in the three days since the retirement began. Over 120 towns and villages were recovered by the French alone. The joy of the inhabitants who had been for thirty-two months in the hands of the Germans was a deeply moving spectacle. Every French soldier was embraced amid smiles and tears. Many of the women declared that they owed their own lives as well as the lives of their children to American relief in the occupied territory.

The mayors, assistant mayors, and other officials of Candor and Lagny had been carried off by the Germans, but owing to the rapidity of retirement many women and children had been left behind. All over thirteen were compelled to work without payment. Boys were driven to dig ditches or small trenches for telephone wires under fire. Those who refused for religious reasons to work on Sunday were fined. The Germans had closed all schools during their occupation of the French towns. The destruction of property was carried out in the most thorough fashion and according to systematized plans. Captured orders on the subject directed the blowing up of houses, wells, and cellars except those held by rear-guard outposts. Farm implements were burned and destroyed. Orders were given to collect filth in the neighborhood of wells to contaminate the water. All the fruit trees with rare exception in the evacuated territory were girdled or otherwise killed.

The use of cavalry by the French and British seemed to have taken the Germans by surprise and interfered with their plans. In one village they were forced to hurriedly depart without touching the supper which was laid out on the table. In other places the Allies found newly opened boxes of explosives with which the Germans had planned to destroy the villages before leaving.

The famous castle and stone village of Coucy-le-Chateau on the road from Paris to Namur, and one of the show places of the Laon region, were reduced to ruins. The village and castle date back to the thirteenth century and were regarded by art critics as architectural gems of medieval France. The castle had been spared from destruction during the French Revolution, and millions had been expended since on its preservation. This splendid monument of feudal Europe is no more.

The German retreat was continued more slowly on March 19, 1917, when all northern France was swept by fierce equinoctial gales, and rain squalls were frequent in the battle area. Despite weather conditions, which hampered military operations, the British troops made good progress, and on the 20th held the line of the Somme in strength from Peronne southward to Canizy. British patrols were active as far east as Mons-en-Chaussee, and in several sectors between Bapaume and Arras British cavalry were engaged in skirmishes with the enemy.

In the course of the following week the British forces restored eleven villages to France, and the whole department of the Somme was now cleared of invaders. The capture of Savy, which was held by a garrison of 600 Prussians of the Twenty-ninth Siegfried Division, brought the British within four miles of St. Quentin, and near to the Hindenburg line, where the Germans were strongly concentrated. St. Quentin had in part been destroyed and its picture galleries and museums looted of their contents. The outer bastion of the Hindenburg or Siegfried line was protected by barricades of tree trunks and swathed about with barbed wire. The Siegfried division holding the new German line of defense was busy during the last days of March, 1917, in building concrete emplacements, trenches, and dugouts.

On April 1, 1917, the British troops were within three miles of St. Quentin, while the French threatened the place from the south.

During the month of March, 1917, the British captured 1,239 Germans, of whom sixteen were officers, and large quantities of war material, including twenty-five trench mortars and three field guns. During the first three months of the year they had taken prisoner a total of seventy-nine officers and 4,600 of other ranks.

On April 2, 1917, General Haig's troops drove a wedge into the German line on the ridge protecting St. Quentin on the west, capturing the villages of Holnon, Francilly, and Selency. With the occupation of the last village the British had a footing on the ridge overlooking St. Quentin, which lies in a hollow. If they could maintain their hold on this position the capture of St. Quentin was certain.

At the northern end of the British line of advance their success was no less important. Attacking on a front of about ten miles they captured an important series of German positions defending the Arras-Cambrai highroad. Six villages were occupied by the British after heavy fighting. A town of some importance, Croisilles, was also captured during the course of these operations. This was considered a valuable gain, as a section of the Hindenburg line lies behind it. Longatte and Ecourt St. Mien, two villages below Croisilles also fell to the British. The Germans defended themselves with reckless bravery acting on Hindenburg's orders that the position must be saved at all costs.

The French launched a concerted attack on the following day, April 3, 1917, over a front of eight miles on both sides of the Somme, storming the heights south and southwest of St. Quentin and advancing within two miles of the city, General Nivelle's forces were now in a position to begin the final attack on the place.

Haig's troops on the British front west of St. Quentin had extended their hold on Holnon Ridge and occupied Ronssoy Wood farther to the north, while in the region of Arras they captured after stiff fighting the village of Henin.

South of the Ailette River the French fought their way forward foot by foot. On the 3rd they drove the Germans out of their positions around Laffaux and brought increasing pressure to bear against the enemy's line south of Laffaux Mill.

On this date the Germans threw more than 2,000 shells into the open city of Rheims, killing several of the civilian population.

General Nivelle's troops continued to advance on April 4, 1917, through violent snow squalls and over sodden ground, and the Germans were pushed back along the whole front from the Somme to the Oise.

A dashing attack carried out near La Folie Farm, about a mile and a half north of Urvillers, threw the Germans in such disorder that they fled precipitately, abandoning three lines of strongly fortified trenches, leaving behind the wounded and much war material, including howitzers. The French had now gained the foot of a ridge 393 feet high on the southern outskirts of St. Quentin. By the capture of La Folie they cut the railroad connecting St. Quentin with the Oise, leaving only one line on the north by which the Germans could escape from the doomed city. On the west bank of the Somme French patrols had pressed forward to the outskirts of St. Quentin. On the British front west of the city the Germans made a violent attack, but were driven off with heavy losses. Farther to the north the British succeeded in straightening their line between the Bapaume and Peronne highway converging on Cambrai.

The most important event during April 5, 1917, was a powerful attack made against the French by picked German troops to the northwest of Rheims along a mile and a half front. The purpose was to clear the left bank of the Aisne Canal. They succeeded in gaining a foothold at certain points in the French first-line trenches, but were thrust out later by counterattacks.

The only other important event on this date was the strong bombardment by the Germans of the new French positions south of St. Quentin. The British and French troops, despite occasional checks occasioned by the frantic efforts of the Germans to stay their victorious progress, continued to steadily advance their lines, which now extended in a semicircle two miles from St. Quentin.



CHAPTER LVII

THE BRITISH TROOPS CAPTURE VIMY RIDGE AND MONCHY—FRENCH VICTORIES ON THE AISNE

The steady pressure maintained by the Allied troops on German positions culminated on April 9, 1917, when the British launched a terrific offensive on a twelve-mile front north and south of Arras. German positions were penetrated to a depth of from two to three miles, and many fortified points, including the famous Vimy Ridge, were captured. The line of advance extended from Givenchy, southwest of Lens, to the village of Henin, southwest of Arras. For a week British guns had been bombarding this sector without cessation, and during the night preceding the attack the fire had increased in intensity to a degree that surpassed any previous bombardments. The British literally blasted their way through the German front and rearward positions. Vimy Ridge, dominating the coal fields of Lens, where thousands of French had fallen in the previous year, was captured by the Canadians. The terrific bombardment by British guns during many days had not depressed the Germans' spirit and the advance was hotly contested. The British, however, were in excellent fighting trim, and forced their way onward in spite of the fiercest opposition. They took a famous redoubt known as "The Harp," virtually an entire battalion defending it. Here three battalion commanders were captured. Over 6,000 prisoners were taken by the British, including 119 officers. The majority of these belonged to Bavarian regiments, which since the fighting began in France had suffered the most heavily. Wuerttembergers and Hamburgers were also represented. An enormous quantity of war material fell into British hands, including guns, trench mortars, and machine guns.



In making their retreat in the Somme sector the Germans had announced that they had completely disarranged by so doing the British offensive plans. The smashing blow delivered on April 9, 1917, was the answer.

At other points on the line the British had also made substantial gains, capturing by storm, on the road to Cambrai, Boursies, Demicourt, and Hermies. Progress was also made in the Havrincourt Wood south of the Bapaume-Cambrai railway. To the south, in the neighborhood of St. Quentin, General Haig's troops captured three villages, bringing forward their lines to within two miles of the St. Quentin Canal.

As a result of the first two days' fighting in the Arras region the number of German prisoners captured by the British had increased to over 11,000, including 235 officers, 100 guns of large caliber, 60 mortars, and 163 machine guns.

The British troops did not rest to enjoy their first day's victories, but pushed on along the greater part of the twelve-mile front from Givenchy to Henin. They penetrated as far as the outskirts of Monchy-le-Preux, five miles east of Arras. On the way they captured a high hill which protects Monchy, thus threatening the entire German line south of the Arras-Cambrai highroad.

More to the north the British troops took Fampoux and its defenses on both sides of the Scarpe River. The fiercest fighting on April 10, 1917, was on the northern part of Vimy Ridge, where from isolated positions to which they still clung, the Germans attempted a counterattack. They were driven out of these positions and from the slopes of the ridge which was now strongly held by the British.

Vimy village was one of the vaunted German field fortresses, and was strongly defended. Here the Canadians gathered in over 3,000 prisoners garrisoning the stronghold and 100 officers. The final British bombardment had sent most of the German defenders into the deepest of the dugouts from which they did not venture forth until the British called upon them to surrender. Among the officers captured on the ridge were seven lieutenant colonels and several doctors, who surrendered with all their staffs. They blamed their predicament to the failure of supports to come up as promised.

The British had carried out their successful onward sweep in the face of unfavorable weather conditions. During April 10, 1917, when the last German was being cleared out of the Vimy area, the snow fell heavily.

Throughout the day following the weather continued unfavorable, impeding the operation of troops and making observation impossible. In the morning the Germans attempted two counter attacks on the new British positions in the neighborhood of Monchy-le-Preux, but were beaten off with heavy losses. Prisoners reported that they had been ordered to hold the village at all costs.

To the south bodies of British troops penetrated a German position near Bullecourt, where they gained a number of prisoners and damaged the enemy's defenses. This small success was forfeited at midday when the Germans, attacking with strong forces, drove the British back to their lines.

The village of Monchy was captured by the British in the morning of April 12, 1917. Throughout the previous day this tiny village perched on a hill had been the storm center around which the battle raged.

The attack was made by British and Scottish troops, who fought for three hours to clear the Germans out of the railway triangle. Having dispersed the enemy, they fought on to the Feuchy Redoubt, only to find that the entire German garrison there had been buried by the British bombardment so that not a man escaped alive.

At 5 o'clock in the morning of April 12, 1917, British troops on the right, linking up with the Scots and supported by cavalry on the left, with Hotchkiss and machine guns swept forward to the capture of Monchy.

The cavalry dashed into the village on the north side, meeting with few Germans, for as they pressed forward the enemy was retreating on the southern side, hoping to escape that way. Here they encountered Scots and Midlanders and fierce fighting ensued. The Germans were well provided with machine guns, and from windows and roofs sent a withering fire upon the British as they swarmed into the streets of the village. The Germans made a brave resistance, but the British continued to press them hard, fighting their way into houses and courtyards and capturing or killing the defenders. Some of the garrison of the place succeeded in escaping to a trench in the valley below, where they had a redoubt and machine guns.

By 8 o'clock in the morning the British had a number of guns in position for the defense of the village against counterattacks which were sure to follow. It was found that the Germans had prepared in the village an elaborate system of dugouts that could provide shelter from the heaviest shell fire. Under the chateau there were great rooms luxuriously furnished and provided with electric lights, where British and Scotch officers regaled themselves with German beer.

An hour after the occupation of the village it was heavily shelled by big German guns, German airmen from above directing the fire. The British held on determinedly in spite of heavy losses, and their courage never flagged. In the afternoon the Germans made some determined counterattacks, but their advancing waves were mowed down by the British machine guns and eighteen pounders, and finally they were thrown back in confusion. The British now advanced beyond the village, while the Germans were forced to retreat from the trench below.

In the opinion of the German press the battle of Arras was an event of only local importance which did not affect in any degree the strategic situation. The plan of the Anglo-French command to deliver a shattering blow on the Somme front and roll up the new Hindenburg line by assaults on both flanks at Soissons and Arras, they contended, had been foiled.

With better weather conditions the British were able to push forward more rapidly and to make further breaches in the Hindenburg line. Advancing over a wide front, they were drawing nearer to the coveted line of German communications running north and south through Douai and Cambrai. On the northern horn the British captured Lievin, the southwest suburb of Lens, and Cite St. Pierre, northwest of that place. On the southern horn they advanced within 400 yards of St. Quentin. Some idea of the extent of the British advance within a week may be gained from the fact that the British were now three miles beyond the famous Vimy Ridge.

It was expected that the Germans would stubbornly defend St. Quentin and Lens, which were now the British objectives, and on which the heaviest British gunfire was now concentrated. In the course of the day advances were made south and east of Fayet to within a few hundred yards of St. Quentin. On the way the village of Gricourt was carried at the point of the bayonet and over 400 Germans were captured.

Lens, an important mining center, had been in possession of the Germans since the autumn of 1914. It stretches for several miles and the surrounding district is rich in mineral wealth. Throughout the day of April 14, 1917, the British poured heavy high-explosive shells into the city, using for the first time guns that had been recently captured from the Germans. The continued bombardment caused fires and explosions in the city. It was believed that some of these conflagrations were the work of the enemy, who were preparing to abandon the place.

In the course of the day, April 14, 1917, the British pushed their way through Lieven, a straggling suburb of Lens, meeting with stubborn defense in every street, where the Germans had posted machine guns at points of vantage and rear-guard posts that gave the British considerable trouble. Soon a body of British troops had penetrated Lens itself and were working their way slowly forward. From the western side other troops were advancing through Lievin, slowly and cautiously. The main German forces were in retreat, but the machine-gun redoubts, skillfully manned, were a constant source of danger and wrought considerable destruction.

From prisoners captured the British learned of wild scenes that had taken place in Lens while the Germans were attempting to get away their stores and guns and begin the retreat. Frantic efforts were made to blow up roads and to carry out orders to destroy the mine shafts and flood the galleries, so that property of enormous value should not be left to France. The occasion for this mad hurry was because the Germans believed that the British might be upon them at any moment.

During the evening they had sufficiently recovered from their first panic to send supporting troops back into Lens to hold the line of trenches and machine-gun forts on the western side and check the British advance while they prepared for themselves positions on the Drocourt-Queant line, the Wotan end of the Hindenburg line, from which the British were forcing them to withdraw. It was learned from German prisoners that there were still about 2,000 persons, principally old men, women, and children, still in the Lens district waiting for a chance to break through to the British lines. The condition of these poor creatures can be imagined, surrounded by destruction from all sides and hiding in holes in the ground with death always hovering near.

The British continued to close in around Lens from three directions, their progress being slow owing to the stubborn attacks made by German rear guards and the fierce fire of cunningly placed machine guns.

Field Marshal Haig's chief purpose in advancing on Lens was to turn La Bassee from the south. La Bassee and Lens form the principal outworks of Lille, which is the key to the whole German position in Flanders. If the British succeeded in capturing these two places, Lille would be seriously threatened.

On the 15th the British continued to gain ground in the direction of St. Quentin and east and north of Gricourt, to the north of the city.

In the morning the Germans delivered a powerful attack over a front of six miles against the new British position, which extended from Hermies to Noreuil. In the face of a terrific fire from British artillery they forged ahead, but lost so many men that they were at last forced to retreat, gaining no advantage except at Lagnicourt village, to one part of which they clung tenaciously. Immediately the British organized a counterattack, which was carried out with dash and spirit. The Germans were driven out of the village and 300 prisoners were taken. Some 1,500 dead were left in front of the British positions.

April 16, 1917, was a day of glory for French arms, when General Nivelle launched a great attack on a front of about twenty-five miles between Soissons and Rheims. The French were everywhere successful, capturing the German first-line positions along the entire front and in some places penetrating and holding second-line positions.

The scene of General Nivelle's great victory was the historic line of the Aisne, to which the Germans had retreated after the battle of the Marne. Ever since that epoch-making event in the history of the Great War the Germans had held the line despite every effort of the Allies to dislodge them. The Germans had ample warning that a great offensive was in preparation, for the French had been bombarding their positions for ten days before. On their part they had made every effort to repel the threatened attack, and had massed a great number of men and guns in that region. In justice to the Germans it must be said that they fought with courage and desperation along the whole front. They realized the importance of holding the line at all costs, for if the French advance proved successful, it would mean the isolation of Laon, upon which the Hindenburg line depended.

North of Berry-au-Bac, where the old line of battle swings to the southeast toward Rheims, the French forces gained their greatest advance. To the south of Juvincourt they succeeded in penetrating the German second-line positions and held on. Every effort made by the Germans during the day failed, the French artillery literally tearing their ranks to pieces. Further advances were made by the French to the banks of the Aisne Canal at the villages of Courcy and Loivre.

General Nivelle reported that over 10,000 prisoners were captured during this offensive together with a vast amount of war material.

Meanwhile the British in the Lens area were constantly engaged with the Germans, who again and again launched counterattacks to recover lost positions, to impede the advance and to gain time to strengthen their defenses on the line of retreat.

During the night of April 15, 1917, the British captured Villeret, southeast of Hargicourt, which served to further widen the second gap in the Hindenburg line north of St. Quentin. The British were successful in all these minor struggles in making prisoners, and owing to the Germans' hurried retreat vast quantities of military stores fell into their hands. Since April 9, 1917, the British had captured over 14,000 prisoners and 194 guns.

In the midst of a driving rain and flurries of snow that hampered military operations the French struck another blow on the 17th, on a new eleven-mile stretch of front east of Rheims from Prunay to Auberive. They carried the entire front-line German positions. From Mt. Carnillet to Vaudesincourt support positions seven miles in extent also were captured. During this push 2,500 German prisoners were taken.

The French advance on both sides of Rheims now left that city in a salient that would prove a great source of danger to the Germans. The French having captured the German second-line position northwest of Rheims, smoothed the way for an advance that might force the enemy out of the forts that held the cathedral city in subjection.

The French continued their offensive with undiminished vigor and dash on April 18, 1917, driving the Germans in disorder from their positions north of the Aisne and securing a firm hold on high ground commanding the river. The number of German prisoners had now increased to 20,730. Great quantities of war material fell to the French, including 175 guns, 412 machine guns, and 119 trench mortars.

On the front from Soissons to Rheims General Nivelle's troops captured four villages, which brought them to the outskirts of Courtecon, an advance of about two miles for the day.

Another successful French attack was delivered to the west, where the old German line stood on the south bank of the Aisne, which resulted in the capture of the important town of Vailly and a strong bridgehead near by. On the western leg of the German salient, whose apex was at Fort Conde on the Aisne, the French struck another decisive blow which gave them the village of Nanteuil-le-Fosse, and endangered the Germans in the fort, who were now in the position of being cut off.

East of Craonne a French contingent surrounded the forest of La Ville-au-Bois and forced the surrender of 1,300 Germans.

In the afternoon of April 18, 1917, the Germans delivered a strong counterattack in which 40,000 men were employed, in an attempt to recover their lost second-line positions to the east of Craonne which had been seized by the French in the first onslaught. Though vastly outnumbered in man power, the French were well supplied with artillery, and the attackers were rolled back in confusion with heavy losses before they could reach the French lines at any point. During the day's fighting in this area the French captured three cannon and twenty-four guns, together with a number of shell depots. Most of the guns were immediately turned against the Germans and proved effective in assisting in their destruction.

Undeterred by heavy losses and constant failure the Germans with stubborn courage continued to press counterattacks south of St. Quentin. One of these was successful in seizing a number of French positions. But the gain was only temporary, when the French came dashing back in force, regained the positions, and captured or killed the occupants to the last man.

The double offensive of the British north of Arras and of the French on the Aisne had disarranged the German plans, according to reliable information that reached the Allied command. Hindenburg was preparing an offensive against Riga and another against Italy; attempts on Paris and on Calais were also projected, but the Allied western offensive forced him to bring back the greater part of his forces intended for these fronts.

For several days the fighting in the Arras region slowed down. The Germans had brought forward new batteries and stationed them around Lens and Loos, replacing those captured by the British during the first day's battle. These guns were now constantly active, sending heavy shells into Lievin, Bois de Riaumont, and into the suburbs of Lens and Monchy. The neighboring ridge and slopes were also subjected to machine-gun fire.

Beyond bombarding German positions, the British made no important advance, though preparations were going forward for the next stage in the great battle of Arras.

The French continued to make gains along the Oise, pressing back the Germans toward the Chemin-des-Dames, which runs along the top of the heights north of the river. On April 20, 1917, General Nivelle's troops occupied Sancy village and gained ground east of Laffaux. The French front in this sector now faced the fort of Malmaison, which crowns a range of high hills protecting the highroad from Soissons to Laon. The Germans launched a heavy attack on April 19, 1917, in which large forces of troops were employed in the region of Ailles and Hurtebise Farm. The French artillery and machine guns delivered such a withering fire against the attackers that they were thrown back in disorder with appalling losses.

In Champagne the French continued to make progress, capturing important points in Moronvilliers Wood.

British troops south of the Bapaume-Cambrai road slowly advanced on Marcoing, a place of considerable importance and an outpost to Cambrai. In this push, begun on April 20, 1917, they captured the southern portion of the village of Trescault, which lies about nine miles from Cambrai. They also surrounded on three sides Havrincourt Wood, which from its high position constitutes a formidable barrier in the way of advance, and which the Germans will eventually be forced to evacuate. Ground was also gained by the British between Loos and Lens, and every attempt made by the Germans to regain lost positions was repulsed.

On the French front in western Champagne the Germans on the 21st made desperate efforts to recapture the positions on the heights which they had lost in the previous week. Mont Haut, the dominating position in this region, was the principal objective against which they launched repeated attacks, all of which came to naught. There were numerous minor operations on the Rheims-Soissons front during the night of the 21st. Rheims was repeatedly bombarded, the Germans paying particular attention to the cathedral, which received further damage from shells.

What might be termed the second phase of the battle of Arras was begun in the morning of April 23, 1917, when the British resumed the offensive. At 5 o'clock in the morning the British advance started east of Arras on a front of about eight miles, capturing strong positions and the villages of Gavrelle and Guemappe. The occupation of these places and of strongholds south of Gavrelle as far as the river Scarpe broke the so-called Oppy line, defending the Hindenburg positions before Douai. The British were successful in clearing the enemy out of the neighborhood of Monchy, which commands the region for forty miles. The Germans appreciating the value of this position had launched twenty counterattacks against it in the ten previous days. It proved to them the bloodiest spot in all this war-ravaged region, and when the British advanced at early dawn on the 23d, thousands of dead in field-gray uniforms littered the approaches to the position. During the day the British took over 1,500 prisoners.

On this date, April 23, 1917, the Germans attacked the French lines in Belgium at several points in the course. Bodies of Germans succeeded in penetrating some French advanced positions, but after spirited hand-to-hand struggles were killed, captured, or driven off. In most cases the Germans never got in touch with the French, but were rolled back by the concentrated fire of the French artillery. Fighting continued in the Champagne, where the Germans renewed again and again their efforts to capture the new French positions on Mont Haut.

On the second day of the offensive the British had made gains east of Monchy, and had pushed on between that village and the river Sensee to within a short distance of Cherisy and Fontaine-les-Croisilles, holding all their newly won positions against attack.

It was noted by the British command that the Germans during this second phase of the battle of Arras had fought with exceptional ferocity, which even the heavy losses they incurred did not weaken. On the front of about eight miles seven German divisions were employed. British guns were effective in shattering massed counterattacks, and there was considerable hand-to-hand fighting in which the British were sometimes badly handled, but at the close of the day the British had recovered all the positions they had been forced out of temporarily. The fighting continued on the 24th, but was less ferocious, the opponents having exhausted themselves in the previous day's efforts. In the second and third day of the offensive the British captured 2,000 prisoners.

During the night of April 23, 1917, the British advancing on a wide front south of the Arras-Cambrai road captured the villages of Villers-Plouich and Beaucamp and pressed forward as far as the St. Quentin Canal in the vicinity of Vendhuille.

The second phase of the offensive in the Arras region was especially notable for the victories won by the British in the air. In one day forty German machines were brought down, while the British lost only two.

The British advance was now necessarily slow, for they were no longer engaged in rear-guard actions as in the first phase of the offensive, but faced strong bodies of troops whose valor was unquestioned. Thus, as in the first days of fighting in the Somme, there was desperate fighting to gain or regain a few hundred yards of trenches. With varying fortunes the opponents fought back and forth over the same ground without either side gaining any distinct advantage, though both were losers in precious lives. By early morning of April 25, 1917, Scottish and British troops had reestablished the line on the Bois Vert and Bois de Sart.

A striking incident in connection with the fighting in this area was the recovery of parties of British soldiers who had been given up as lost. They had been cut off from rejoining their regiments and had come through the most ghastly perils, being swept by a British barrage that preceded an infantry attack and subjected to the deadly and constant shelling of the German guns. They had clung to their isolated positions in the face of all these terrors and not a man was killed.



CHAPTER LVIII

FRENCH VICTORIES IN THE CHAMPAGNE—THE BRITISH CAPTURE BULLECOURT

During the night of April 25, 1917, the Germans renewed their attempts to recover lost positions on the high ground near the Chemin-des-Dames, and especially west of Cerny. West of Craonne they hurled masses of men against Hurtebise Farm with disastrous results. Eastward in the vicinity of Ville-aux-Bois the French artillery dropped shells with mathematical precision on the German lines. The regiment that was detailed to capture the village of Ville-aux-Bois, which formed with Craonne one of the pillars of the German line in this area, carried out the difficult operation with complete success. It was necessary to capture two heavily garrisoned woods before the place could be assaulted. At the end of the first day's fighting the French had taken hundreds of prisoners and several dozen machine guns. The prisoners alone numbered more than the French troops who made the attack.

Fighting continued in this region during the 26th. The French repulsed all attempts made by the Germans to recover lost ground, and extended their gains.

During the desperate fighting along the Aisne in this offensive the French captured about 20,000 prisoners and 130 guns. The German losses in killed, wounded, and prisoners were estimated at over 200,000—one of the most formidable totals of the Great War.

North of the Scarpe River and in the vicinity of Catelet the British continued to improve their positions. Thirteen German aeroplanes and one balloon were brought down on the 26th by British aviators.

On April 28, 1917, the British attacked on a front extending in an easterly direction from Vimy Ridge at its northern hinge and southward to the Scarpe River. Gains were made at all points attacked, and the so-called Oppy-Mericourt line which protects the Drocourt switch to the Hindenburg line was pierced again. An eyewitness stated that he saw no less than five gray waves of Germans blindly facing the British fire in an attempt to regain the lost positions. Torrents of British shells tore gaps in the German ranks, and those who succeeded in forcing their way through the barrage were mowed down by sprays of machine-gun bullets. Under this storm the German attack broke down. There was bayonet fighting at different points, and many Germans were killed by blows from rifle butts.

The Canadians, who had been resting since their brilliant work on Easter day, when they swept the Germans from Vimy Ridge, were in fine fighting trim. By a brilliant assault they captured Arleux-en-Gobelle and held the village securely against all attempts made by the Germans to recapture it.

Southeast of Oppy, the British took Greenland Hill, which overlooks the Scarpe Valley. There was fierce fighting north of the village of Roeux, at the chemical works on the Arras-Douai railway, which changed hands several times. The character of the fighting on the 28th did not result in the taking of many prisoners, for almost everywhere it was a struggle to the death.

The loss to the Germans of Monchy-le-Preux was regarded by them as a serious matter, and they were prepared to sacrifice any number of men to retake it. Late in the night of April 28, 1917, they launched two violent attacks against the British positions east of the town. Two new divisions had been brought up and were hurled into the struggle only to be literally torn to fragments before they could reach even an outpost. On this date also Gavrelle was violently attacked from the north. This was the fourteenth or fifteenth counterattack the Germans had made against the village, which failed as all the previous ones had done.

On the same date there were violent outbursts in the Champagne and Aisne regions on the French front, in which the Germans made no progress. The French gained ground and prisoners near Ostel in the Chemin-des-Dames area. German lines were invaded in the sector of Hill 304 on the left bank of the Meuse and a considerable number of prisoners were taken. At Auberive after a violent bombardment the Germans attacked in force, but were repulsed by the French artillery.

South of the village of Oppy, where the fighting had raged for several days, the British captured a German trench system on a front of about a mile. Here the Germans offered the most stubborn resistance, and after the position was won they launched furious counterattacks in the hope of smashing the British before they had opportunity to organize their gains.

The results of the fighting in this region could not be estimated by the number of prisoners taken or the amount of ground gained. The British had a difficult task to perform in assaulting positions protected by natural defenses, and held in strength with quantities of machine guns. After forcing the enemy out of the positions, and when their strength was well-nigh spent, the British troops were forced to beat off repeated counterattacks preceded by barrage fire and to destroy the enemy again and again. They encountered no more formidable conditions in the course of the war than in this region, for the Germans had machine redoubts on the slopes commanding fields of fire on both sides of the Scarpe River, and each advance made by the British exposed their flanks to enfilading fire. In the face of such deadly opposition the British still continued to press onward, forcing the Germans to pay a fearful price for Hindenburg's strategic plans.

On the last day of the month French troops in the Champagne made a new attack on both sides of Mont Carnillet, a commanding peak southeast of Mauroy. To the west the French captured several fortified lines of trenches from the heights as far south as Beine. East of the mount General Nivelle's men forced their way up the northern slopes of Mont Haut; and northeast of this position to the approaches of the road from Mauroy and Moronvilliers. This advance widened on the west and deepened the salient driven into the German lines between Prunay and Auberive, rendering exceedingly precarious their hold on ground east of Rheims.

There was no important fighting on the British front on April 30, 1917, and General Haig's troops were not ungrateful for the brief respite afforded them. The Germans did not attempt any important attacks owing to a shortage of ammunition and military supplies. From documents found on prisoners the British learned that there was a dearth in all war material and that the supply of new guns to replace those worn out was very limited. During the night General Haig's troops improved their positions between Monchy-le-Preux and the Scarpe River, repulsing a feeble German attack on the new positions.

While comparative quiet reigned in the fighting area on the last day of April, 1917, British airmen were active, and in the course of twenty-four hours a number of highly dramatic battles were fought in which the British brought down twenty German aeroplanes and lost fifteen machines themselves.

During the night of May 1, 1917, the French consolidated their new positions on the wooded hills east of Rheims. In the course of the following day the Germans delivered two strong attacks against French lines northeast of Mont Haut, but were rolled back by the French barrage fire and machine-gun fire which broke the waves of assault and scattered the attackers.

The report for the month of April, 1917, issued by the British War Office stated that in the course of the offensive operations in France 19,343 prisoners had been taken, including 393 officers. In the same period the British had captured 257 guns and howitzers, 227 trench mortars, and 470 machine guns. The French during the same period had captured over 20,000 prisoners. It was estimated that the Germans had 143 divisions in France, but only ninety-nine of these were in the actual line, the rest being held in strategic reserve.

During the month of April, 1917, more aeroplanes were lost by the combatants than in any month since the fighting began. A careful compilation from British, French, and German communiques shows a total loss of 717 during this period. The Germans lost 369, the French and Belgians 201, and the British 147.

On May 2, 1917, the French in the Champagne began to push their way slowly through the great forest south of Beine, which covers considerable territory from south of Mont Carnillet to La Pompelle Fort, the most easterly fortification of Rheims.

On May 3, 1917, General Haig's troops struck a fourth blow against the German front east and southeast of Arras, penetrating the Hindenburg line west of Queant. The British push toward Cherisy, Bullecourt, and Queant was at the southern end of the day's major operation, which covered a range of nearly eighteen miles. At the north Fresnoy was the chief objective. It lies just east of Arleux, taken a few days before by the Canadians.

These two villages were strongly organized for defense with complicated trench fortifications, forming one of the strongest points on the Mericourt-Oppy-Gavrelle line. Fresnoy was carried by the Canadians after the most furious fighting, in which the German positions changed hands a number of times, but at last remained securely in possession of the troops from oversea. North and south of Fresnoy a two-mile front was won by the British, who also secured a grip on the German trench system north of Oppy.

While the British were dealing hammer blows on the enemy's lines the French had been preparing another coup, which was carried out on May 4, 1917. By this operation they captured the village of Craonne on the Soissons-Rheims front, several fortified points north and east of the village, and German first-line positions on a front of about two and a half miles.

Craonne was an especially valuable capture, for it stands on a height at the east end of the Chemin-des-Dames, protecting not only the plateau north of the Aisne, but the low ground between it and Neufchatel. The Germans had held the place since the first battle of the Aisne, and against its cliffs many gallant French troops had vainly flung themselves, only to be thrown back with heavy losses. The possession of Craonne gave the French command of an open road through the valley of Miette where a few weeks before they had captured the German second line south of Juvincourt. They could now, advancing through this corridor, outflank the entire German position depending on Laon as its center.



Throughout May 4, 1917, the British were occupied in organizing and strengthening the new positions they had won in and around Fresnoy and in the sectors of the Hindenburg line near Bullecourt. Repeated German counterattacks were repulsed at all points, except in the neighborhood of Cherisy and the Arras-Cambrai road, where the British were forced to abandon some of their new positions. In the day's fighting the British captured over 900 prisoners. During the night General Haig's troops made considerable progress northwest of St. Quentin and northeast of Hargicourt, where the Malakoff Farm was captured.

By May 5, 1917, the French army was in sight of Laon, and had begun to shell the German positions on the steep hill on which the city stands. The position of the French was decidedly favorable for important operations against the enemy. If they moved up the Rheims-Laon road, and pushed north from Cerny with a strong force, it would be possible to outflank from the south the whole German line, which here turns to the northwest in a wide sweep from Laon, through La Fere to St. Quentin and Cambrai. This operation if successful would compel the Germans to retire to the Belgian frontier.

The Germans were not satisfied with the way things were going, so the Allied command learned from prisoners. It was estimated that they had lost thus far in the Anglo-French drive on this front no less than 216,000 men, of whom the British took 30,000 prisoners and the French 23,000; about 47,000 were killed on the field and 160,000 were put out of action. The British and French casualties had also been very heavy—the former numbering about 80,000 and the latter 93,000 including killed, wounded, and prisoners.

On the British front the Germans continued to make the most desperate efforts to regain a section of the Hindenburg line east of Bullecourt, which the Australians had won in the advance of May 3, 1917. From three sides day and night the sturdy defenders were assailed by the Germans, but their attacks by day were killed by the British artillery, and at night were driven off by bomb and bayonet. The Germans had good reason to value this wedge bitten into the Hindenburg line, for its possession by the Australians weakened an otherwise strong position that ran formerly from Arras to Queant. The British were now in touch with the Hindenburg line all the way from Queant south to St. Quentin, and were pressing the Germans toward the Drocourt switch in the north.

On the new lines east of Mont Haut held by the Germans a position garrisoned by 200 men was captured by the French during the night of May 5, 1917.

The French continued to make progress, slowly but firmly pressing the Germans back from many points, and gaining more ground than they lost through counterattacks. By the 6th of May, 1917, they had captured all the unconquered positions on the Chemin-des-Dames and were masters of the crest over which it runs for more than eighteen miles. The moral effect of this victory was to give the French the assurance that they could beat the Germans on their chosen battle ground and force them out of their deepest defenses into the open field. German invincibility had become a shattered myth.

For some days General Haig's troops had been tightening their grip around Bullecourt, which lies in the original Hindenburg line due east of Croisilles. The Australians who held this front had surrounded the village on three sides and its fall was imminent.

On May 8, 1917, Bavarian troops stormed Fresnoy village and wood and wrested some ground from the British on the western side. During the night the Germans had concentrated large forces for an attack north of Fresnoy which were dispersed by British fire. By a strong counterattack the British recovered all the ground on the west that they had lost on the previous day.

Some idea of the intense fighting in northern France may be gained from the fact that since April 1, 1917, over thirty-five German divisions (315,000 men) were withdrawn from this front owing to their exhausted condition. The French and British had lost heavily, but their casualties were from 50 to 75 per cent fewer than they incurred in the Battle of the Somme.

Fresnoy, which was held by the Canadians, and which jutted into the German lines, was subjected to intense fire and showers of high explosives and shrapnel throughout the night of the 7th, and in the morning of the following day the Germans attacked in force. The British were overwhelmed, but served their machine guns to the last, and only fell back from their advanced lines when the village was no longer tenable. The greater part of the ground lost by them was recovered on the following day.

The French captured first-line German trenches over a front of three-quarters of a mile northeast of Chevreux near Craonne, during the night of May 8, 1917, capturing several hundred prisoners. Vigorous counterattacks made about the same time by the Germans to regain lost positions on the plateau of Chemin-des-Dames and on the Californie Plateau were shattered by the French artillery. The Germans here displayed the most intrepid bravery, sending forward successive waves of men again and again until the battle area was strewn with dead. Northwest of Rheims the French carried 400 yards of German trench, taking prisoner 100 men and two officers.

Severe and continuous fighting went on during May 9, 1917, in the neighborhood of Bullecourt, where the Germans tried vainly to shake the British hold on the position. East of Gricourt a portion of the German front and support lines were captured by the British, also a considerable number of prisoners. Counterattacks on the French front along the Chemin-des-Dames and in the region of Chevreux resulted in heavy losses to the Germans in men and guns.

Toward the close of the day, May 11, 1917, the British after the hardest and most sanguinary fighting won two positions at Roeux just north of the Scarpe, and at Cavalry Farm beyond Guemappe. The loss to the Germans was serious, for these were observation posts of the highest value. The British captured about 350 prisoners, mostly of Brandenburg regiments, who were found crouching in tunnels waiting for a pause in the storm of shell fire to rush out and meet the attackers with machine guns. But they waited too long, and Haig's troops were upon them before they could use their weapons. At Roeux the Bavarian garrison in the tunnels fought ferociously, and being unwilling to yield were destroyed.

Around Guemappe, by the Cavalry Farm, which the Scottish troops had been forced to abandon in the previous month, the fighting was less intense. The Scots went about their task in a businesslike way and routed the garrison and took ten guns and a number of prisoners.

Bullecourt, which had been the scene of some of the hottest fighting since the offensive began, and where the Australians had repulsed a dozen strong counterattacks, was in large part occupied by the British on May 12, 1917. North of the Scarpe, British troops established themselves in the western part of the village of Roeux, and improved their positions on the western slopes of Greenland Hill.

Along the Aisne and south of St. Quentin the French continued to bombard enemy lines. A violent attack made by the Germans on the 12th against French positions on the Craonne Plateau north of Rheims broke down under French artillery and machine-gun fire.

The British continued to hold their own in Bullecourt and to improve their position there and at Cavalry Farm and Roeux. In the three days' operations the British had captured 700 prisoners, including eleven officers and a considerable number of guns and war material.

May 14, 1917, was a successful day for the Germans when they captured Fresnoy. Early in the morning they succeeded by strong counterattacks in gaining a foothold in the British trenches northeast of the village. At a later hour the British attacked and regained the lost ground, but were forced to withdraw when the Germans brought forward two fresh divisions. The Germans continued their violent attempts to regain Roeux and that part of Bullecourt which was firmly held by the British. The struggle around these two places which had been raging for four weeks grew daily more intense, and the ground around the British positions was heaped with dead.

All of Roeux was by the 15th in British hands: the chateau with its great dugouts and gun emplacements, the cemetery from which a large tunnel ran westward to Mount Pleasant Wood, and the village itself.

After a terrible shell fire during the night of the 15th the Germans launched a strong assault in dense numbers, and the ruins were strewn with new dead beside the old dead. Despite the intense fire from British machine guns some German troops penetrated advanced posts and barricades and desperate fighting with bomb and bayonet followed. The British fiercely counterattacked, driving the enemy back, and gained more ground than they had held before.

At Bullecourt there was the same story to tell. This place, to use the expression of an eyewitness, "had become a flaming hell." In twelve counterattacks the Germans had only succeeded in destroying a few of the British advanced positions. They had only been able to maintain a hold on the southwest corner of the village owing to the tunnels in which they were protected from the heaviest fire.

A German counterattack of unusual strength was delivered in the morning of May 16, 1917. No bloodier struggle was fought during the Allied offensive in 1917 than here at Bullecourt. From shell crater and from behind bits of broken wall the British with bombs and bayonets hung on until relieved by the arrival of fresh troops. In the orchards and gardens and in shallow trenches the opponents struggled in close combat, springing at each other's throat when the supply of bombs was exhausted. The British obtained a grip on Bullecourt for the time being, but they knew the respite would be brief, when the Germans would return and renew the bloody struggle.

The old Hindenburg line having been breached at Bullecourt and Wancourt, the Germans were now busy strengthening their new line of defense which ran through Montigny, Drocourt, and Queant.

The British had improved their defenses to the east, and had pushed forward a little nearer to Lens. Here the Germans continued to wreck and destroy buildings and machinery, so that the great mining center would prove of little value to the Allies when they occupied it.

Early in the morning of May 20, 1917, a British attack broke into the Hindenburg line between Fontaine-les-Croisilles and Bullecourt, southeast of Arras. The Germans made several violent attempts to recover their lost positions, but were unable to make any gains during the day. The purpose of the British attacks in this sector was to capture the last salient on the front southeast of Arras. With this accomplished the German support line from Drocourt to Queant would be seriously endangered.

The French lines on the Chemin-des-Dames north of the Aisne continued to be subjected to attack, the Germans throwing great masses of troops against the positions on the heights.

After very heavy artillery bombardment that lasted the greater part of the night the Germans in the early morning of the 20th made preparations for a general assault, but the French counterfire was so heavy that over the greater part of the front the attack could not be developed. Northeast of Cerny the Germans succeeded in occupying French trenches on a 216-yard front, but at all other points where they advanced the French counterattacks and barrage fire rolled them back and wrought disaster among their ranks.

During the last week of May, 1917, the French forces along the Chemin-des-Dames only fought on the defensive. The Germans attempted to regain lost positions, but were unsuccessful in obtaining the slightest advantage, while their losses must have been considerable.



CHAPTER LIX

THE BATTLE OF MESSINES RIDGE—BRITISH SMASH THE GERMAN SALIENT SOUTH OF YPRES

After an intense bombardment that lasted all day of June 1, 1917, and part of the night the Germans on the 2d, employing large forces, hurled five attacks on the French Craonne position; three against the eastern face of Californie Plateau and two against Vauclerc Plateau. It seemed as if the Germans hoped to win the coveted position on the heights by sheer weight of numbers. Advancing in dense masses shoulder to shoulder they formed an impressive spectacle. But not for long. Soon great gaps were torn in the solid lines by the famous French artillery.

The ranks quickly closed up and again surged onward in dense gray waves, only to be shattered again and again by the splendidly served French guns. The same process was repeated, the Germans advancing, their ranks depleting, and then as the French fire became even more destructive they fell back, leaving the battle ground littered with dead.

The French rightly called this a victory, for they maintained all their positions and the Germans had not succeeded in gaining a foothold at any point. The German headquarters was silent concerning the fight on this date.

While the French continued to hold their position on the eastern extremity of the Chemin-des-Dames they threatened to turn the right flank of the Laon bastion by an advance over the open ground north of Berry-au-Bac. For this reason the Germans were desperately anxious to recover the Craonne position, which was the key to the whole tactical situation in this part of the front.

For about two weeks the British had been bombarding the strong German salient south of Ypres. On June 7, 1917, they delivered against this position or series of fortifications an overwhelming blow. It was one of the most spectacular military operations carried out during the war and marked a brilliant victory for the Allied arms. By this startling coup the Germans were forced out of one of the strongest positions they held on the western front. As far as human ingenuity and military skill could make it so, the position was impregnable. From its commanding situation the Germans were able to observe with ease all the preparations that were in progress in the British lines and arrange to checkmate them. The value of the position to the Germans in this area was therefore of supreme value.

For two and a half years the Allied armies in this little corner of Belgium had held the Germans in check, and during that time they were almost at the mercy of the German guns on the Messines-Wytschaete Ridge.

The German front defenses of this position consisted of the most elaborate trench systems and fortifications, forming a belt of about a mile deep. Farms and woods around were garrisoned and machine-gun emplacements were set up in every available corner. Concrete dugouts of the strongest description were provided for the protection of garrisons and machine gunners, and nothing that labor and skill could devise was neglected to make the position indestructible. Yet all this laboriously constructed defense work that had taken many months to complete and the strength and skill of thousands were swept away in a few hours' time.

For nearly two years companies of sappers—British, Australians, and New Zealanders—had been busily engaged in tunneling under the low range of hills upon which the German position stood. In these underground passages engineers had planted nineteen great mines, containing more than a million tons of ammonite, a new and enormously destructive explosive. The secret of the mines was so well kept during the time they were preparing that the Germans seemed to have had no suspicion of the great surprise in store for them.

At exactly 3.10 in the morning of June 7, 1917, all the nineteen mines were discharged by electric contact and the hilltops were blown off amid torrents of spouting flames with a roaring sound like many earthquakes that could be heard distinctly farther away than London. Large sections of the German front, supporting trenches, and dugouts went up in debris amid thick clouds of smoke. To add to the terror of the defenders of the position the British guns after the explosions shelled the salient steadily until preparations were completed for attack. Then the British infantry under Field Marshal Haig and General Sir Herbert Plumer advanced with a rush to the assault and the German front line for ten miles was captured in a few minutes.



Less than three hours after the first attack the Messines-Wytschaete Ridge was stormed. The British pushed their advance along the entire sector south of Ypres, from Observation Ridge to Ploegsteert Wood to the north of Armentieres. Later in the day the German rear defenses, which ran across the base of the salient, were assaulted. Here the Germans had concentrated strong forces and the British encountered stiff opposition, but by nightfall the whole rear German position along a five-mile front to a depth of three miles was secure in British hands. The Canadians, who were in the forefront of all the fighting, had an enjoyable day of it, unsurpassed since they swept the Germans from Vimy Ridge.

In the course of the day's fighting the British captured over 7,000 prisoners and a large number of guns of all calibers. The Germans, it was estimated, had about 30,000 casualties, and the British less than a third of that number.

Eyewitnesses to this spectacular and dramatic operation have described the shattering effect the terrific explosions had on the Germans defending the positions, especially on those protecting the ill-famed Hill 60, where so many brave British soldiers had perished in previous fights.

When this hill burst open and a dense mass of fiery clouds and smoking rocks shot skyward, the British troops assigned to take the position and while still some distance away were thrown down by the violence of the concussion. But no one was injured, and finding their footing they dashed on in the direction of the hill. Below Mount Sorrel and in Armagh Wood they encountered groups of Jaegers and Wuerttembergers, who crawled out of holes in the still quivering earth, and, shaking with terror, weakly raised their hands in token of surrender. There was no desire to fight left in these men, but where the dugouts had not been shattered by British fire and were partly intact hundreds crouched in the dark and could only be persuaded to come into the open when bombs were hurled among them.

In other places the explosions had not produced such terrifying effects on the Germans, and the British met with stubborn resistance. This was the case in the neighborhood of the Chateau Matthieu, to the west of Hollebeke, which was strongly held and where the Londoners who engaged the Germans had a strenuous time of it before they gained the upper hand.

The British had looked for stout resistance from the enemy in a street of fortresslike houses built of huge blocks of concrete six feet thick, but their shell fire had done its work so thoroughly that most of the structures were in ruins, while the occupants of those that remained intact were too cowed and panic-stricken to make any but the feeblest defense.

For the first time on anything like a large scale the British leveled woodlands by spraying them with drums of burning oil, thus laying bare hidden trenches and gun emplacements and clearing the way for their infantry to advance.

In Dead Wood some German troops of the Thirty-fifth Division attempted a counterattack on a body of British South Country troops. It was a fierce, close struggle, when bayonets were the favorite weapon. The Germans, who are not generally fond of cold steel and hand-to-hand fighting, on this occasion did their share in the general thrusting and stabbing, and certainly displayed no lack of courage. But the men of Kent, who were eager to be on their way, fought with such wild fury that the Germans, after they had incurred very heavy losses, were eager to drop their rifles and surrender.

The part the armored tanks played in the battle of Messines Ridge was not very important, but they would have been missed if they had not been present in emergencies to help out the infantry. When there was no particular business for the monsters, pilots and crews sallied forth and joined in the fight.

Military critics award the principal honors in the battle of Messines Ridge to the guns and the gunners who served them. For about a fortnight the gunners had worked incessantly with scarcely any sleep in the midst of nerve-racking noises and with death constantly hovering around them. The number of shells used in this battle by the British was incredible. One division alone fired over 180,000 shells with their field batteries and over 46,000 with their heavies.

It was a joyous hour for the British in the course of the day's fighting when they were able to abandon the old gun positions after two and a half years of stationary warfare. They had no longer to fear that any more shells would be fired by the Germans from the commanding position on the ridge. All danger from that quarter had ceased.

The cheering British troops made way for the gunners, as shouting joyously they went up the ridge on a run, the infantry trailing along after them. Arrived near the top, the gunners unlimbered and went into action for the second phase of the fighting.

British aviators, who performed important scout work for the gunners, were deserving of a liberal share in the honors of the day. Some of the Royal Flying Corps seemed to have gone battle-mad in the course of the fighting, for they engaged in such death-defying adventures as no wholly sane person would have attempted.

There was one British aviator in particular whose reckless daring shone conspicuously even above that of his fellows, and who on the occasion showed an utter disregard for life. One of his major operations was to fly over a body of German troops on the march. Hovering at a short distance above them, he sprayed the astonished troops with machine-gun fire until they scattered and fled. Passing joyously on his way, the aviator encountered a convoy and flying low poured volleys into the Germans and was gone before they had time to recover from their astonishment and retaliate. Near Warneton a large force of German troops was massing to attack when down among them dashed the aviator, his machine gun crackling, when they dispersed in all directions, leaving dead and wounded on the field.

Another daring young flyer belonging to the Royal Flying Corps attacked and silenced four machine-gun teams in strong emplacements.

Other British aviators were active in clearing out trenches of their German occupants, and when they ran out of ammunition for their Lewis guns hurled down on the enemy bombs, explosives, and anything that injures or destroys.

By the British capture of Messines Ridge the Germans lost their last natural position that commanded the British lines. The victory came as a fitting climax to the British achievements in France during the preceding three months' campaign. By the capture during that period of Bapaume, Vimy Ridge, Monchy Plateau, and now Messines Ridge, the British had completely changed the military situation on the western front.

The area gained in this vast operation was a front nine miles long to an extreme depth of five miles. Owing to strong German pressure exerted at this point the advance was checked, but the British continued to engage and harass the enemy in minor operations.

During the night of June 8, 1917, the British resumed activities in the neighborhood of the great mining center of Lens. An attack was launched south of the Souchez River on a front of two miles, penetrating to a depth of half a mile.

On the following day the Germans with strong forces delivered a determined assault on British lines on a front of six miles east of Messines. The attack failed. South of Lens the Canadians on the same date pierced the German lines on a front of two miles, destroying defensive works and taking a number of prisoners.

Artillery and heavy guns were busy on both sides during the night of June 10, 1917, east of Epehy. The Germans assembled strong forces of troops in this area to attack, but were scattered by the intense fire of British guns. Southeast of La Bassee the British carried out a dashing raid on enemy lines, during which they destroyed elaborate trench systems and mine galleries and captured eighteen prisoners. Successful raids were also made on German positions east of Vermelles and south of Armentieres on the same night. The British continued these dashing exploits on the following day on both sides of Neuve Chapelle, east of Armentieres, and north of Ypres. In each operation the German defenses were smashed and a considerable number of prisoners were taken.

In the Champagne the French had to defend themselves against persistent German assaults made to regain lost positions at Mont Blond and Mont Carnillet. The Germans had never renounced the hope of recovering these invaluable observation points, and sacrificed thousands of men in the vain hope of wearing down the French resistance. The region of the Californie Plateau was also subjected to furious attacks and violent artillery engagements, and while the French lost heavily the Germans were unable to gain the slightest advantage.

Early in the morning of June 12, 1917, the British won new and valuable positions astride the Souchez River. In the night the Germans in force delivered a counterattack to regain the lost ground, displaying a disregard for safety and stolid bravery as they pushed on in spite of heavy losses. But the British were in a situation where they could rake the German lines with their artillery and machine-gun fire, and made the most of their advantage. The Germans could not make any headway against this storm of fire, and at last when their ranks were shattered they gave up hope and retired.

Owing to the British advance east of Messines, and to the continued pressure of their troops south of the front of attack, the Germans were forced to abandon large and important sections of their first-line defensive system in the region between the river Lys and St. Yves. Following closely the retreating enemy, the British made important advances east of Ploegsteert Wood and also in the neighborhood of Gaspard.

While their allies were gaining ground and hastening the German retreat on their front, the French in the regions of Braye, north of Craonne, northwest of Rheims, and on the left bank of the Meuse, near Cumieres, were being hammered continuously by German guns. It seemed that defenses and defenders must be destroyed by this hurricane of fire and shell. But the soldiers of the Republic had learned many lessons concerning German methods of warfare since the fighting began in this region and knew how to conserve their strength, and were prepared to out-fight the enemy whenever the odds were anything like equal. The concentrated fire of the German guns damaged the French defenses, but were ineffective in crushing French spirit, so that the attacks that followed the bombardments failed in every instance to gain any advantage.

Positions the British had captured earlier in the week south of the Ypres-Commines Canal were attacked by the Germans on June 15, 1917, following heavy artillery preparations. In the first dash a few Germans succeeded in approaching the British front trenches, but they were killed or driven out and the attack collapsed at all points.