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PIAZZA ARMERINA 241 PICARDY, BATTLES OF PIAZZA ARMERINA, a town of Sicily, in the province of Caltanissetta. It contains the estates of many nobles and land-holders. It has a cathedral, an old castle, and several schools. It has an extensive trade in corn, oil, fruits, and wine. Pop. about 35,000. PIBROCH (pe-brok), a series of varia- tions or a sort of fantasia, played on a bagpipe, descriptive of some scene or of a poetical thought. In Scotland a martial air on the bagpipes. It can only be learned by personal instruction, as the scale of the bagpipe contains sounds un- represented by any notation. Pibroch is sometimes used figuratively for the bagpipe itself. PICARDY, an ancient province in the N. of France, bounded on the W. by the English Channel, and on the E. by Champagne. The territory now forms the department of Somme, and portions of the departments of Aisne and Pas- de-Calais. It was the scene of intense fighting during the World War (1914- 1918) notably in the Battle of the Somme. Here the Germans on March 21, 1918, began the first of the great drives that ended in disaster. PICARDY, BATTLES OF, a series of bloody battles constituting the great German offensive against the Allied lines on the western front, beginning early in March, 1918, centering toward Amiens, in Picardy, officially known as the De- partment of the Somme. It consti- tuted one of the chief efforts of the Ger- mans to break through the Allied front and gain a decisive victory and was per- haps the most critical moment of the war. Beginning in the first week of March, 1918, the German forces began a num- ber of local attacks and raids in force, obviously with the purpose of feeling out the weakest point in the Allied lines. Here, and at this time, the American troops first took part in the fighting to any significant extent. On March 21 the Germans launched their great offensive, over a front fifty miles in width, extending from the river Oise, in the neighborhood of La Fere, to the Sensee river, near Croisilles. The British, under General Sir Hubert Gough, held the front from the Oise to a point north of the Omignon river, where another British army, under Gen- eral Sir Julian Byng, continued the line on to the Scarpe river, joining here a third British force under (General Sir Henry Thorne. Facing the three Brit- ish armies was an equal number of German armies. Here was the main point of attack, the great aim being to drive a wide salient through the Allied lines and sep- arate the French from the British. The German objective was Amiens, which was then the most important strategical point in northern France. About fifty German divisions entered into the first attack. Among the points against which the Germans first directed their efforts were Bullecourt, and No- reuil, west of Cambrai, the St. Quentin Ridge, on the right of the Cambrai salient, and Rossoy and Hargicourt, south of Cambrai. In the afternoon of March 22, 1918, and later in the evening, the British be- gan to give way before the tremendous German pressure, and next day were forced to retire along the whole front across the Somme, pursued closely by the Germans. This was probably the most critical moment of the campaign. The British and the French had been thrown out of touch with each other, and unless the gap could be filled, the Germans would have accomplished their main immediate object. It was then that General Carney, with General Byng's army on the north, one division of mixed units, got in touch over the eight mile gap, and the French General Fayolle saved the situation in the south over a thirty mile gap between the British and the French. Meanwhile, however, the Germans were announcing a decisive victory at home, and that the Kaiser was in personal command of the operations. Nevertheless, the temporarily dernor- alized British forces held their positions along the Somme, and during the next few days the Germans were unable to make any further advance, though their tremendous attacks in mass continued. On March 26, 1918, the Germans be- gan an attack on the Allied lines south of the Somme and succeeded in capturing Roye. West of this point and Noyon the British, American and French troops held the Germans back. About 840,000 of the latter were pressing the attack. The German losses were tremendous; much heavier than were those of the Allies, who were in defensive positions. By the end of the first week, however, the Germans had won back most of the line they had lost when retreating from the Somme in 1916, on the fifty mile front from the Oise to the Scarpe. The offensive had not achieved the high degree of success that the Germans had expected, but the Allies had nevertheless suffered a defeat of considerable magni- tude. They had lost considerable terri- tory, but, on the other hand, they had lost over half a million men, whereas the