at the mercy of the Allies.

But much had to be done before the Hindenburg line could be attacked.
Foch and Haig, with Debeney, Mangin, Gouraud, and Pershing in support,
played a great _arpeggio_--it is Mr. Buchan's word, and a most graphic
one--on the linked line of the Allies. On the British front four great
battles, involving the capture of more than 100,000 prisoners and
hundreds of guns, had to be fought before the Hindenburg line was
reached. They followed each other in quick succession, brilliantly
intercalated or supported by advances on the French and American
fronts, Mangin on the Aisne, Gouraud in Champagne, Pershing at St.
Mihiel.

_The Battle of Amiens_ (August 8th-13th), fought by the Fourth British
Army under General Rawlinson, and the First French Army under General
Debeney, who had been placed by Marshal Foch under the British
command, carried the line of the Allies twelve miles forward in a
vital sector, liberated Amiens and the Paris-Amiens railway, and
resulted in the capture of 22,000 prisoners and 400 guns, together
with the hurried retreat of the enemy from wide districts to the
south, where the French were on his heels. These were great days for
the Canadian and Australian troops. Four Canadian divisions under Sir
Arthur Currie, on the right of an eleven-mile front, four Australian
divisions under Sir John Monash in the centre, with the Third British
Corps under General Butler on the left, led the splendid advance. The
Field Marshal in his dispatch speaks of the "brilliant and
predominating part" played by the two Dominion Corps--the "skill and
determination of the infantry," the "fine performance" of the cavalry.
By this victory the British Army recovered the initiative it had
temporarily lost. All was changed. And even more striking than the
actual gains in ground, prisoners, and guns, was the effect upon the
_morale_ of both German and British troops. The Germans could hardly
believe their defeat; the British exultantly knew that their hour had
come.

In _the Battle of Bapaume_ (August 21st-September 1st) the Third and
Fourth British Armies, twenty-three divisions against thirty-five
German divisions, drove the enemy from one side of the old Somme
battle-field to the other, recovered all the ground lost in the
spring, and took 34,000 prisoners and 270 guns. The enemy's _morale_
was now failing; surrenders became frequent, and there were many signs
of the exhaustion of the German reserves.