The Soul of the War

the allied armies was in a crescent from Abbeville by the wooded heights south of Amiens, and thence in an irregular line to the south of

f modern warfare. Their artillery was in enormous numbers, and their columns advanced under the cover of it, not like an army but rather like a moving nation. It did not move, however, with equal pressure at all parts of the line. It formed itself into a battering ram with a pointed end, and this point was thrust at the heart of the English wing with its base at St. Quentin, and advanced divisions at Péronne and Ham. It was impossible to resist t

es from Dieppe. After this precaution the British forces fell back, fighting all the time, as far as Compiègne.

staff at Aumale, holding the extreme left of the allied armies. Some of his reserves held the hills running

ed itself by that date, the retirement of the troops being

ft centre, which culminated at Guise, on the River Oise, to the north-east of St. Quentin, whe

of an infantry regiment-I learned that the German onslaught had been repelled by t

but took the offensive, and, in spite of their overpowering numbers, gave them a tremendous punishment. They had to recoil before our guns, which swept their ranks, and their columns were broken and routed. Hundreds of them were bayoneted, and hundreds more hurled into the river, while the whole front of battle was outlined by the dead and dyi

ound of their field guns greeted my ears in this town, which I shall always remember with unpleasant

ight place to be in order to get into touch with the French army barring the way to th