of Ribécourt.

Albert was still strongly held by the Germans, and British patrols entering the town were fired upon from the cathedral. The steady advance of the Allies, however, so seriously menaced the German positions in and around the town that it was only a question of time when they would be forced to retire from every point of defense.

On August 16, 1918, British and French troops, operating together, made a drive against the strongly held German positions between Chaulnes and Roye. Advancing on an eight-mile front from a point west of Fransart to the neighborhood of Laucourt, they made substantial progress and reduced a number of important German strongholds. Forward movements were also made by the British in the Ancre sector in which the Germans were forced to withdraw their first-line positions, and Haig's men pushed ahead on the three-mile front between Beaucourt on the Ancre and Puisieux-au-Mont.

The capture of Ecouvillon, which made easy the capture of Ribécourt, by General Humbert's indefatigable troops, was followed by the occupation of Monolithe Farm. This gave the Third French Army a strong position from which to threaten the German line of retreat along the road to Noyon. Hardly less important was the capture by the French of "Z" Wood and Demery Wood, two heavily timbered tracts where the Germans had been holding out for days with grim determination, because of the great value of these strong positions. They commanded a wide stretch of ground, and the Allied positions for some miles on either side of the two woods were considerably strengthened by their capture. They were indeed the last of the more important positions on the new front held by the enemy. The Germans made an ineffectual attempt to recover Demery, but were driven back in disorder with heavy losses.

The Allies' plans had now made such favorable progress that a German retreat on a large scale was anticipated. The appointment of General Von Boehm to the command of the German army group in the center of the present battle front strengthened this belief. For this officer was known as a "retreat specialist" who had won a deserved reputation in the art of concealing the movements of great masses of troops. It was he who had concentrated a great army and in absolute secrecy in the forests of the Laon region where he launched the surprise attack over the Chemin-des-Dames. To Von Boehm also belonged the credit of extricating the battered armies of the Crown Prince from the Aisne-Marne salient after Foch's mighty blow of July 18, 1918. Von Boehm's appearance on the Somme-Oise front was almost proof that a great German retirement was soon to begin.

CHAPTER II

THE GERMAN RETREAT CONTINUES—THE FRENCH VICTORIOUS BETWEEN THE OISE AND THE AISNE—THE BRITISH WIN MILES OF TERRITORY DAILY

With almost monotonous regularity the daily record was now of continued Allied advancements and enemy defeats. The Germans at times offered stout resistance and launched desperate counterattacks, but they were unable to delay more than temporarily the mighty forward sweep of the Allies, while their losses in men and material reached enormous figures.

The French forces continued to fight with a dash and ardor that carried everything before them. Day and night with few chances for repose they fought on over the most difficult ground that was constantly flooded with poisonous gases.

On April 16-17, 1918, Foch's men carried out a successful attack northwest of Soissons in the Autrèches region, and operating on a three-mile front smashed through enemy positions to the depth of a mile. They won in this advance the important plateau to the north of the village of Autrèches, which gave them command of the country extending northward, south of the Oise River. Further local actions at other points on the front greatly strengthened the grip of the Allies on the approaches to Roye to the west, north, and south. The Germans in that region maintained an incessant artillery fire, but the only effect it had was to delay for a time the Allies' advance. The French were now within a mile of Roye on two sides. British troops under Marshal Haig meanwhile were not idle. Good progress was made on the 17th to the north of Proyart, just south of the Somme. Farther to the south, troops operating north of Lihons, which lies about two miles to the west of Chaulnes, pushed their line forward to the depth of a mile. More progress was also made in the Amiens-Roye road region and to the north of the Ancre River.

West of Armentières British troops drove the Germans back on a front of four miles between Bailleul and Vieux Berquin in the Lys sector. They also captured the village of Outersteene, a mile east of Merris and took 400 prisoners. The German positions around Roye continued to be threatened by the British pressure, and on August 18, 1918, Marshal Haig's men pushed their line forward to the north of that place between Chilly and Fransart.

To the south of the Avre River the French, as they fought their way forward, captured over 400 Germans, overcoming some important enemy strongholds.

From the positions captured by the French north of the Aisne River the Allies could now dominate the German batteries of big guns at Chavigny and Juvigny, north of Soissons. These batteries were formidable, commanding not only the city of Soissons, but a wide region around. The Allies were now able to exert such pressure on the Germans here that they must soon be forced to retire and the city of Soissons would be relieved of the danger of bombardment.

Allied operations on two widely separated fronts—the British on the north of the Lys salient, and the French between the Aisne and the Oise—had increased the difficulties of the Germans in these areas.

Lassigny was seriously threatened by the capture of Fresmières (on the Roye highroad two and a half miles to the north) by the advance of Foch's troops to the western outskirts of the town, and the occupation of the Thiescourt Wood.

On the night of August 18, 1918, the French launched an attack on a front of about fifteen miles east of Ribécourt and across the Oise to Fontenoy, six miles west of Soissons. The fighting, vigorously pushed on the following day, resulted in notable gains for the Allied arms. The capture of the village of Rimprez, on the west bank of the Oise on the Noyon-Compiègne road, was followed by an advance of two miles northward to the southern edge of Dressincourt. Equally important gains were made at other points in the line of attack. The plateau west of Nampcel and Morsain and several other villages were carried by storm. In the course of the fighting the French captured over 2,000 prisoners, including several battalion commanders.

In the Lys salient the British continued the irresistible drive forward. Marshal Haig's advance was on a front of nearly six miles. His line was carried up to the town of Merville and to the north-and-south road through the town from Les Purebecques on the north to Paradis to the south.

The victories of the French troops between the Oise and the Aisne gave them possession of the Oise Valley as far as Mont Renaud. General Mangin, who carried out these successful operations, was now in a position to force the enemy to resort to desperate measures to escape a serious defeat. His artillery now commanded all roads of importance, and the only exit available for the Germans from the region of Noyon and Lassigny was a narrow-gauge line running north to Ham by way of Guiscard and the highroad running in the same direction. Von Hutier had either to check Mangin's advance, or choose this narrow outlet for extricating his troops and material. Rather than face this alternative, the Germans were offering a desperate resistance in an endeavor to hold on to their present lines, hoping against