French estimates of the German losses for the first eleven days of the offensive placed them at between 275,000 and 300,000 men. The Germans claimed that during the same period they had captured 70,000 prisoners and 1,000 field guns.
ANOTHER ATTACK ON AMIENS
Having been foiled in an attempt on March 31 to break through the valley of the Oise, Paris ceased to be the German objective, and another offensive against Amiens was undertaken on April 4. By this time a French army had repaired the ragged line between the French on the south and the remainder of the British army of General Gough, whose enforced retirement had been conducted in good order. Though outnumbered two to one, the British and French repulsed the attack on Amiens with heavy losses to the Germans, who were effectually stopped at a distance of fifteen kilometers (nine miles) from that city. This ended the first phase of the great battle.
BATTLE RENEWED IN THE NORTH
The second phase of the battle which was expected to prove decisive began April 9 with an attack on the British, aided by Portuguese troops, on a front of fifteen miles, from La Bassee to Ypres. The center, held by three Portuguese divisions, was broken through, and on April 12 the situation seemed critical. Determined counterattacks by the British, however, and reinforcements by the French, stopped the Germans in the next few days, and this offensive, like that farther south in the valley of the Somme, gradually died out, leaving the Germans with gains of only a few square miles of devastated territory to show for their continued heavy losses. And the reserve forces of the Allies were still intact, the strategy of General Foch in this respect being universally applauded as correct under the circumstances.
SHELLS FIRED BY THE MILLION
In the beginning of the offensive which thus failed to accomplish its object, the most desperate means were employed by the Germans to break down resistance; In the first six hours of bombardment on March 21, when three great German armies were massed for the attack, under Generals Von Bulow, Von Marwitz, and Von Hutier, commanding from the north to south in the order named, it is estimated that at least 1,500,000 shells were fired by one single army—that opposed to General Gough's forces on the south, while the British 3rd army, under General Byng, to the north, was similarly assailed. Most of the shells contained gas and were designed to destroy the occupants of the trenches about to be stormed. Only the utmost individual valor and persistency of the thin British line, as it retired still fighting, prevented the desperate and over-confident foe from turning the gradual retreat into a decisive defeat. As it was, the Germans paid dearly for every yard of ground they gained, as their successive waves of troops swept over the zone of trenches and then engaged the groups of Allied forces in the open beyond.
All the German units were under orders to advance as far and as fast as possible, being provided with three days' rations and two days' water. After the first few days, the difficulty of bringing up supplies, with the expected objectives far from being gained, aided in slowing up and then halting their advance. Behind the German storm troops great numbers of reserves were assembled, to fill up the gaps torn in the ranks and restore the divisions to their normal strength as fast as they were depleted by the defense. The German tactics took no account of human life, but expended it in the most reckless manner, with appalling results throughout the drive. The Allies, on the other hand, sought at all times to conserve their forces by intrenching as fast as possible at every point during the period of their retirement. Their artillery was constantly in action, and aided greatly in checking the German. advance.
ALLIES CONTROL IN THE AIR
German aeroplanes played no great part in the advance, although they bombed the British and French rear nightly, and the air service of the Allies proved superior throughout the battle. For the first time in a great battle British and French airmen attacked the enemy infantry from low altitudes with their machine guns and bombs, and rendered invaluable assistance in damming the swelling tide of the Hun hordes. Having gained the mastery of the air, as they did prior to the British drive on the Somme in 1916, they retained it until the foe was halted. To a considerable extent they replaced the heavy guns of the Allies by their constant bombing and gun fire.