GERMANY PREPARES TO STRIKE
The great German drive had been in course of preparation for months before it began. The Russian situation had been settled, and large bodies of troops were thereby released for service on the Western front. The Kaiser and his general staff then determined upon a final effort to win a decisive victory in the west. Their plan was to vanquish the British and French, if possible, before the United States could transport a sufficient number of men to France to turn the tide of numbers in favor of the Allies, and enable them to take the offensive with good prospects of success.
German troops were therefore concentrated near the points chosen for attack, and this was done with the utmost secrecy, the troop trains running unlighted at night, so as to escape the observation of Allied aviators. Two hundred divisions in all were gathered for the German drive, and fully half of them were assembled near the British front on the Somme. March 21 was set as the date for the attack and every precaution was taken to render it a surprise to the British. The German troops were led to believe that they would be irresistible, and that Paris, their long-looked-for goal, would soon be won.
Meanwhile the Allies had not been idle. Expecting the drive, but not knowing where it would strike first, preparations had been made all along the line, not merely for strenuous defense of the positions held, but also for eventualities in case of enforced retreat. New positions back of the lines were prepared, reserves were distributed at strategic points, and full co-operation between the Allied armies was arranged for. The British took over the section of the French front between St. Quentin and Chauny, in addition to their former front, and by so doing relieved the strain on the far-flung French line.
The Germans counted for victory upon their concentration of vast bodies of troops and the element of surprise, hoping to break through between the British and French armies before Allied reserves could be brought up in sufficient numbers to halt them.
OPENING DATS OF THE BATTLE
On the day set, Thursday, March 21, the great battle opened, after a six-hour bombardment, the British 3rd and 5th armies being attacked simultaneously. The German infantry advanced in waves, of which there seemed no end, and these were followed by batteries of trench mortars, until the front line of German trenches had been reached. Then, wave after wave, the advance was continued, in the face of a furious British fire, until the defenders were compelled to draw back through sheer force and weight of numbers. The German waves moved forward at the calculated rate of 200 yards every four minutes, wherever it was found possible to do so. Each wave, on reaching its objective point, dropped to the ground and opened fire with rifles and machine guns, placing a barrage 2,000 yards ahead of them, under cover of which the succeeding wave advanced. Thus each wave passed over the one ahead of it, and fresh troops were constantly coming to the front. With such tactics, against a spirited and determined foe, the losses of the attackers were naturally enormous. In fact, it was estimated that the casualties suffered by the Germans during the first few days of such fighting amounted to 250, men. But, driven on by ruthless commanders, they continued to advance in masses, though mowed down by the British at every successive step.
"All the German storm troops, including the guards, were in brand-new uniforms," said the correspondent of the New York Times. "They advanced in dense masses and never faltered until shattered by the machine-gun fire. The supporting waves advanced over the bodies of the dead and wounded. The German commanders were ruthless in the sacrifice of life, in the hope of overwhelming the defense by the sheer weight of numbers. * * * Still they came on, with most fanatical courage of sacrifice. When the first lines fell, their places were filled by others, and the British guns and machine-guns could not kill them fast enough." Two batteries of field artillery at Epehy, it is said, "fired steadily with open sights (that is, pointblank) at four hundred yards for four hours, into the German masses swarming over No Man's Land."
On the first day, some field batteries aided the Germans, but these were soon left behind in the advance over difficult and shell-torn ground, and the battle became one of rifle and machine-gun fire and hand-to-hand combat.
On the north the British 3rd army made a splendid resistance and held its ground well, but the 5th army farther south, which bore the principal brunt of the attack, under General Gough, was gradually forced to retreat, though in good order, in a northwesterly direction, towards Amiens. French troops were ordered from the southwest to reinforce the British in the vicinity of Noyon. There the French stemmed the tide of Germans, and the drive was soon turned northward, with Amiens as its evident objective.