brilliant action they took three standards, and being
reinforced prepared a new attack for the 10th. At the moment that this
attack was about to begin the enemy was already in retreat toward the
north. The attack became a pursuit, and on the 12th the French
established themselves on the Aisne.

Why did the German forces which were confronting the French, and on the
evening before attacking so furiously, retreat on the morning of the
10th? Because in bringing back on the 6th several army corps from the
south to the north to face the French left, the enemy had exposed his
left to the attacks of the now rested British, who had immediately faced
around toward the north, and to those of the French armies which were
prolonging the English lines to the right. This is what the French
command had sought to bring about. This is what happened on September
8th and allowed the development and rehabilitation which it was to
effect.

On the 6th the British army set out from the line Rozcy-Lagny and that
evening reached the southward bank of the Grand Morin. On the 7th and
8th it continued its march, and on the 9th had debouched to the north of
the Marne below Chauteau-Thierry--the town that was to become famous
for the American stand in 1918--taking in flank the German forces which
on that day were opposing, on the Ourcq, the French left army. Then it
was that these forces began to retreat, while the British army, going in
pursuit and capturing seven guns and many prisoners, reached the Aisne
between Soissons and Longueval.

The role of the French army, which was operating to the right of the
British army, was threefold. It had to support the British attacking on
its left. It had on its right to support the center, which, from
September 7th, had been subjected to a German attack of great violence.
Finally, its mission was to throw back the three active army corps and
the reserve corps which faced it.

On the 7th, it made a leap forward, and on the following days reached
and crossed the Marne, seizing, after desperate fighting, guns,
howitzers, mitrailleuses, and a million cartridges. On the 12th it
established itself on the north edge of the Montagne-de-Reime in contact
with the French center, which for its part had just forced the enemy to
retreat in haste.

The French center consisted of a new army created on August 29th and of
one of those which at the beginning of the campaign had been engaged in
Belgian Luxemburg. The first