accomplished wonders, striking dismay in the ranks of the enemy as they plunged through the mists, spouting fire and destruction, sweeping on heedless of obstacles and of the concentrated attack of German guns. By noon the Germans were making desperate efforts to escape with their transports.

The quick and complete victory of the Allies on this day, August 8, 1918, proved that Foch's counteroffensive had turned the scale in their favor. From this time on, the Allies attacked and the Germans retreated.

Advance of the Allies on the Amiens Front, August 8, 1918.

Moreuil and the territory adjoining Villers-aux-Érables were taken by the French while the British captured the Dodo and Hamel Woods and Marcelcave after hard fighting and occupied territory to a considerable distance beyond. Four German divisions were badly cut up in course of the struggle, while the Allies' casualties were unimportant. It was only around Morlancourt that the Germans made a determined stand. Here fighting continued throughout the day, and though the enemy launched a number of counterattacks they failed to gain or recover any ground.

Along the French front after an artillery preparation of forty-five minutes the troops made a dashing advance, and by 8 o'clock in the morning had gained their first objectives. Their advance was in the direction of Demuin and Aubercourt, while at the same time the British were thrusting forward toward Cerisy-Gailly on the south side of the Somme.

After the capture of Moreuil, where the French met with stout resistance, they crossed the Avre, a difficult operation, as they were constantly under the fierce fire of enemy guns. Once across the river their difficulties increased, for they had to advance up steep slopes from the river edge in the face of heavy German fire. They had had no help from the tanks to lead the way and break down the enemy's resistance.

Somewhat later when bridges were thrown across the stream the tanks got over, but by that time the French had succeeded in winning the top of the slopes and the enemy had fallen back.

After the Germans had been forced out of the Moreuil region their resistance became steadily weaker. The French captured all the heights together with the villages of Braches and La Neuville on the eastern bank of the Avre. On the northern portion of the battle area, where the German opposition was feebler, the advance was more rapid.

While the French and British were engaged in smashing the German forces in the west, the American and the French (as described elsewhere in these pages) were keeping up an irresistible pressure along the Vesle River.

The Allied advance east of Amiens continued on August 9, 1918, with the Anglo-French forces in possession of a line running through Pierrepont, Arvillers, Rozières, and Morcourt, marking an advance since the previous night of about five miles. Beyond this newly established line Allied cavalry and tanks had succeeded in penetrating within a mile of the important Chaulnes railway junction. In this advance the Allies captured over 17,000 prisoners and 300 guns, including railway guns of the heaviest caliber. In the Lys sector of the Flanders front the British were also successful in carrying their line forward between the Bourre and the Lawe Rivers to a maximum depth of 2,000 yards and taking possession of Locon and four other villages.

It was evident everywhere in the battle areas that the Germans were retiring in great haste, for as the Allies drove forward they found on the battle ground abandoned guns, stores, and even artillery maps and military documents. Allied observers reported streams of enemy transports and men hurrying eastward in full retreat.

A joyous spirit pervaded the ranks of the Allies as they moved victoriously forward, their cavalry rounding up villages, while tanks and armored cars overran the country clearing a way for the advance of the troops, or destroying the enemy transports. The performance of one tank is especially worthy of record, since it shot up a German corps headquarters.

Running into an enemy-held town, where the German corps headquarters staff stationed there was having luncheon, the tank opened fire through the windows, killing a number of Germans and wounding others, while a few managed to make a hurried escape. Inside the German lines a group of armored cars halted a German supply column and destroyed it. At Framerville a train loaded with Germans was attacked by a group of cars and finally set on fire.

All along the line enemy snipers were active, and isolated gun billets were a source of trouble, but these were silenced one by one as the Allies swept on. The Germans tried to destroy all their ammunition dumps and stores in their hasty flight, but had not time to make a complete job of it, and consequently were forced to abandon vast quantities of military supplies, most of which the French and British found immediate use for. The towns captured from the Germans were inhospitable places for the most part.

The enemy had tried to destroy everything before the retirement, but the Allies' advance was so rapid that all the houses could not be dynamited. In and around most of the towns were found small holes covered with curved iron slabs where the German gunners had lived before they were killed or forced to run for their lives.

The result of the Allied advance had an important effect on the strategical situation, for the Germans were now in an uncomfortable salient with only one line of railway to supply them, and that was under fire of the Allied guns. The advance had also freed for the use of the Allies the main Paris-Amiens railway. Previous to the German retirement this line was under easy range of their guns and the Allies were unable to use it freely.

August 10, 1918, was a notable day for the French forces when Marshal Foch threw his First Army against the apex of the German salient southeast of Amiens. Montdidier was captured, and the salient was smashed in to an average depth of six miles on a thirteen-mile front, reaching a line extending from Andechy to the northeast of Montdidier to Elincourt, ten miles to the southeast. From Albert to the southern side of the Montdidier salient the whole Allied line was pushed eastward, reaching a maximum distance in the direction of Chaulnes, the principal railroad center of the Germans west of the Somme River.

The French launched their attack without any artillery preparation in the sector east of Montdidier between Courcelles-Epayelles and the Matz River. The Germans were on the alert, but the dash and suddenness of the French attack overcame their most determined efforts. In one hour after the French went forward their first objective, Ressons-sur-Matz, was won, and in the succeeding two hours they had captured Mortemer, Cuvilly, and Marqueglise. At some points the advance was five miles. By noon on August 10, 1918, the Germans in Montdidier found that they had been caught in the jaws of a trap. Converging French attacks from the north and south had succeeded in practically encircling the town. The French drive had also deprived the Germans from using the Montdidier-Chaulnes railway, which was the only line that supplied food and material to their fighting front at the bottom of the Montdidier pocket.

By the capture of Faverolles, which was stormed by the French in the morning of August 10, 1918, the Germans were hampered in their withdrawal of troops from Montdidier. The day closed with Von Hutier's forces in hurried retreat from the Montdidier-Noyon line.

The