Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 10.djvu/522

"WORLD WAR 452 WORLD WAR reached and from that point of view the Allies might be considered as. being saved from complete disaster. • In May and June the Germans put into action their plans for the forcing of the Aisne and the Marne, striking on a thirty mile front, which was later extended twenty miles farther toward Noyon, When the thrust came to an end it had brought them a distance of thirty miles, though their fighting front had contracted to six miles. The Germans began their offensive on May 27th, after heavy bombardment in the Ypres and Picardy salients, thus rousing fear of at- tack in those quarters. The forcing of the Chemin-des-Dames positions and the Aisne river, an apparent victory for the Germans, was later revealed as a re- markable piece of strategy on the part of Marshal Foch, who had thus put the Germans in a dangerous position. This was made clear in the middle of July when his plan for an attack on the west- ern side of the Marne salient was re- vealed. This the Allies attacked on July 18 on a twenty-eight mile line W. of Soissons. Tanks on this occasion made ar- tillery preparation unnecesary and the sudden counter-attack greatly astonished the Germans, who were driven across the Vesle. The Allies advanced some miles on both sides of the Ourcq, the entire German front from Chateau-Thierry to Soissons retreating, and at the end of a couple of days no German troops re- mained S. of the Marne. Immense strength was given to the Allies in this attack by the American troops who formed the spearhead of the thrust. On the 21st American and French troops traversed the Marne and drove toward Ourcq. On the 23d the road running between Soissons and Chateau-Thierry had almost entirely fallen to the Allies. Following the dis- aster that had overtaken the British in March and April, they had been dis- tributed along different parts of the front and in this attack Italian and British troops attacked the eastern side of the salient, while the Americans and Frenchmen drove forward advancing two miles N. of Chateau-Thierry, the French capturing Oulchy and taking forty square miles of new territory. The Germans began to fall back on the 27th to prepared positions, and on August 2 the French entered Soissons, and by that time the gains of the Allies could be counted up. They could not be compared to the results of the German drives of March and April, but they were a pre- sage of what was to follow. Apart from the gain in territory, 35,000 prisoners and 500 guns had been taken. On August 8 the Allies began a new attack on a front thirty miles long, curving N. from Montdidier. The French forces traversed the Avre river, supported the British on their left, and on the 13th Montdidier was taken, the French advancing a depth of six miles on a thirteen mile front. They struck again between the Matz and Oise rivers and took Canny. On August 20 French and American troops struck along a front between the Oise and the Aisne from Ribecourt to Soissons. The heavy attacks by the French and American troops depleted the Hindenburg line, and permitted the English to advance with small loss. During the last days of August and the first days of September the French advance went on, so that by the middle of September the Ger- mans were fighting behind the Aisne near Vailly. More N. by September 6 French and Americans were once again in the positions held by the British before the German offensive that began on March 21. Lens was evacuated by the Germans on September 4, and the villages around were left to the Allies. Outside of Flanders and along the Aisne, the Germans had fallen back to their positions in March, and something like 200,000 prisoners and 2,300 guns had been taken by the Allies. It was the beginning of the end. Franco-Americans reduced the St. Mihiel salient, and the French railway system through Nancy, Toul and Verdun was liberated. In the last week of September Foch began an offensive on the entire front, making gains at numerous points, the French and Americans in the Argonne-Meuse district cutting the main German line of communication. An attack begun on September 29 brought the Allies toward Cambrai and on October 9 another at- tack resulted in the capture of Cam- brai, one village after another falling till the British took Maubeuge and Mons, and the French took Hirson. November saw the breaking up of the Hinden- burg line, and the armistice of Novem- ber 11 came in due course. It was the fighting in France that brought about the cessation of hostilities on all the other fronts. Elsewhere not- able battles were being fought and im- portant events being recorded. The Aus- trians in Italy had tried in June to re- peat their success of the previous au- tumn and had failed. An Allied offen- sive in Albania in July had met with a counter-offensive by the Austrians which nullified it. An offensive in Sep- tember by Allied forces under the leader- ship of General Franchet d'Esperey brought about the capitulation of Bui-