back towards the south.

On the 29th, General Maunoury, in command of a new army (the 6th), made the necessary dispositions to prevent his left from being out-flanked, and to check the enemy, whose advance-guards nearest Amiens had reached Bray-sur-Somme, Chuignolles and Framerville. In the first line were placed:

A brigade of Moroccan chasseurs;

The 14th division of the 7th corps, from Alsace, which had detrained at Villers-Bretonneux on the 27th;

The 45th and 55th battalions of chasseurs.

On the right, in the direction of Nesle, were units of the 55th division.

The French attacked during the morning, inflicting heavy losses on the enemy, and capturing the village of Proyart. At the same time, the four territorial divisions moved up the Somme and established themselves in Amiens.

In the evening, the enemy counter-attacked in superior numbers. The 7th corps lost the positions won that morning, and withdrew to the south. From that moment, the town became exposed; the territorials evacuated it on the 30th, during the day, their rear-guard having several skirmishes with enemy patrols near Cagny.

Occupation of Amiens

The enemy entered the town on August 31st, and immediately made requisitions of all kinds, including food and money. These requisitions, of a total value of about 500,000 frs., had to be complied with the same day.

Retreat of the German Artillery
(PLACE DE LA GARE).

Twelve town councillors and the Attorney-General were taken as hostages, and were only released on September 11th after much anxious suspense and annoyance.

At first, the Imperial army merely passed through Amiens on its forced march “nach Paris.” From the 1st to the 9th of September there were practically no Germans in the town. Occasionally, officers paid hurried visits, exacting further requisitions, and breaking open the safes of the Savings Banks.

On September 9th, a garrison was installed, and a major appointed Kommandant of the town. Injunctions, prohibitions, and requisitions became more severe immediately. It was forbidden to be in the streets after 8 p.m., or to sell newspapers. Motor vehicles were seized, and Frenchmen residing in Amiens who had not been mobilised, were ordered to the Citadel. Two-thirds of them were eventually released, but about a thousand young men were sent away into captivity. They had scarcely left, when the Germans withdrew precipitately from the town.

On September 11th, only a few laggards remained. The effect of the defeat on the Marne was making itself felt.

On the 12th, General d’Amade’s advance-guards, returning from the vicinity of Rouen, re-entered the town and took a few prisoners. The territorial divisions occupied Amiens until the 17th, when they left in a north-easterly direction, taking part at the end of the month in the battles at Péronne and Fricourt, which again fixed the front line positions. Relieved and protected by lines of trenches, Amiens was safe from the enemy until March, 1918.

How Amiens was saved in 1918

In 1918, a new onrush of the German armies brought them almost to the gates of Amiens. On March 21st, Ludendorff opened his great offensive by hurling a million fanatical troops against the 5th British Army. Bapaume, Péronne, and Montdidier fell in a few days; a stretch of territory, sixty kilometres broad, was occupied by the enemy, who captured enormous booty. For a moment, the road to long-coveted Paris seemed open. Thanks, however, to the prodigious resistance of the French troops, who barred the valley of the Oise, the breach was promptly closed. It was then that the enemy returned to his first objective, i.e., the separation of the two Allied armies. On March 27th the Germans hurled themselves at Amiens, which formed the hinge of the Allies’ front.

For several days the struggle continued to be extremely violent; the enemy gained some ground, but was unable to break through. Démuin, Moreuil, Marcelcave, and Hangard were fiercely disputed until March 31st. These villages mark the extreme line reached by the enemy—i.e., 17 kilometres from Amiens.

On April 4th, the Germans attacked again, determined to break through at all costs. Against the French front alone, 15 kilometres in length, eleven divisions were hurled. Crossing to the left bank of the Avre, they took the villages of Morisel and Mailly-Raineval from Debeney’s army, and threatened the railway from Clermont to Amiens, which was their objective. At Hangard, the British, shoulder to shoulder with the French, repulsed all attacks. Further to the north, they withdrew to the west of Hamel, and during the night were forced back to the Villers-Bretonneux plateau. However, vigorous counter-attacks enabled them to win back the lost ground next day.

From the 15th to the 19th of April, local offensives enabled the French to clear the railway. However, the Germans had not given up their plan, and after a violent bombardment during the night, they again attacked, on April 24th at 5 a.m., the Franco-British junction between Villers-Bretonneux, held by the British, and a point west of Moreuil. Villers-Bretonneux fell, but the French troops were able to hold Hailles. Bayonet fighting took place in the streets of Hangard, which was lost during the night.

RAILWAY STATION, ST. ROCH.

On the morning of the 26th, the French and British counter-attacked from Villers-Bretonneux to the valley of the Luce, and drove the enemy back to their starting-point of the 24th.

Once again, Amiens had escaped, but it remained within range of the German heavy guns. The town, which had previously suffered on various occasions from air bombardments, was now continuously and violently bombarded, especially by artillery, from April to June. Ruins accumulated in the town and suburbs, both of which had been evacuated by the inhabitants on April 9th.

Liberation of Amiens

The final liberation of the town began on August 8th, with the great Allied offensive. The 4th British army (Rawlinson) and the 1st French army (Debeney), in liaison on the road from Amiens to Roye, attacked at dawn from Braches to Morlancourt, the respective positions of Von der Marwitz and Von Hutier. The Australian and Canadian