(4) Point of extension of similar flanking operations, balked Nov. 12, 1914.
(5) Scene of frustrated efforts to break through French centre, Sept. 26, 1914.
(6) Line of attacks upon Calais and Dunkirk, defeated Oct. 18, 1914.
(7) Ypres, where desperate and fruitless assaults, ending Nov. 15, 1914, were made by the Germans.
(8) Intrenched line of battle, Feb. 1, 1915.
For it was on our centre, made up of Foch's army, which had been constituted on Aug. 20, that the Germans were going to seek revenge for the check of their right wing; if they had succeeded in cutting us off between Sézanne and Mailly, the situation would have been reversed with the advantage on their side.
From Sept. 6 to Sept. 9 Foch's army met with repeated assaults, but on the evening of the 9th the left of his army, shifting from west to east toward Fère-Champenoise, flanked the Prussian Guard and the Saxons who were advancing southeast of this town.
This bold manoeuvre insured success. The Germans withdrew in great haste, and on the 11th in the morning Gen. Foch entered Châlons-sur-Marne.
On his right Langle de Gary's army had also moved forward, and on the 12th, after spirited encounters, it joined, and added to, the line of Gen. Foch's army.
Meanwhile Ruffey's army (now Darrail's) had succeeded in stretching its lines north, and, although meeting with a stubborn resistance, hastened the German retreat, which was accelerated by the offensive taken by Castelnau's and Dubail's armies from Nancy to the Vosges.