to the German troops. A fourth phase of the German
offensive took place on June 9th, on a front of twenty miles between
Noyon and Montdidier, which gained a few miles at an enormous cost.

[Illustration: Map: Belgium and Eastern France, show the front from
Ypres south to Rheims.]
THE LAST DESPERATE DRIVES OF THE GERMANS

On July 15th came the last of the great offensives. It was a smash on a
sixty-mile line from Chateau-Thierry up the Marne, around Rheims, and
then east to a few miles west of the Argonne forest. This offensive at
the start made a penetration of from three to five miles, but was held
firmly and much of the gain lost, through the counter-attacks of the
Allies. It was at this point that the American troops first began to be
seriously felt, and it was at this point that General Foch took up the
story, and began the great series of Allied drives which were to crush
the German power. But there had been many days of great anxiety before
the turn of the tide.

The objects of the German drives were doubtless more or less dependent
upon their success. The first drive in Picardy, in the direction of
Amiens had apparently as its object to drive a wedge between the French
and British and the object was so nearly attained that only the heroic
work of General Carey saved the Allies from disaster.

The Fifth British army, which had borne the brunt of the German attack,
had found itself almost crushed by the sheer weight of numbers. The
whole line was broken up and it seemed as if the road was open to
Amiens. French reinforcements could not come up in time; bridges could
not be blown up because the engineers were all killed. Orders came to
General Carey at two o'clock in the morning, March 26th, to hold the
gap. He at once proceeded to gather an extemporized army.

Every available man was rounded up, among others a body of American
engineers. Laborers, sappers, raw recruits as well as soldiers of every
arm. There were plenty of machine guns, but few men knew how to handle
them. With this scratch army in temporary trenches, he lay for six days,
and as Lloyd George said, "They held the German army and closed that gap
on the way to Amiens."

During this fight General Carey rode along the lines shouting
encouraging words to his hard-pressed men. He did not know whether he
would get supplies of ammunition and provisions or not, but he stuck to
it. Later on the regular troops arrived. The American engineers, who