Dijon was emptied of its troops. The road to Châlons was deserted by all but fugitives. The great armed camp at Châlons itself had been cleared out except for a small garrison. The troops at Tours had gone northward to the French center. All our English reserves had been rushed up to the front from Havre and Rouen.
There was only one deduction to be drawn from this great, swift movement—the French and English lines had been supported by every available battalion to save Paris from its menace of destruction, to meet the weight of the enemy’s metal by a force strong enough to resist its mighty mass.
GERMANS BALKED OF THEIR PRIZE
It was still possible that the Germans might be smashed on their left wing, hurled back to the west between Paris and the sea, and cut off from their line of communications. It was undoubtedly this impending peril which scared the enemy’s headquarters staff and upset all its calculations. They had not anticipated the rapidity of the supporting movement of the allied armies, and at the very gates of Paris they saw themselves balked of their prize, the greatest prize of the war, by the necessity of changing front.
The Great German Howitzers.
Hauling a German twenty-one centimeter Howitzer on its firing mat with a purchase on the wheels, which are fitted with caterpillar pads to prevent sinking into soft mud.
Frightful Destruction Caused by German Siege Guns.
Ruins of the Fort Loncin at Liège, Belgium, after the German army had bombarded it with their huge guns and reduced to fragments the strong concrete fortifications. (Copyright by International News Service.)