ric form of their front, which shortened the length
of their transports. In spite of this initial inferiority we arrived in
time. From the middle of September to the last week in October fighting
went on continually to the north of the Oise, but all the time we were
fighting we were slipping northward. On the German side this movement
brought into line more than eighteen new army corps, (twelve active army
corps, six reserve corps, four cavalry corps.) On our side it ended in
the constitution of three fresh armies on our left and in the transport
into the same district of the British Army and the Belgian Army from
Antwerp.

For the conception and realization of this fresh and extended
disposition the French command, in the first place, had to reduce to a
minimum the needs for effectives of our armies to the east of the Oise,
and afterwards to utilize to the utmost our means of transport. It
succeeded in this, and when, at the end of October, the battle of
Flanders opened, when the Germans, having completed the concentration of
their forces, attempted with fierce energy to turn or to pierce our
left, they flung themselves upon a resistance which inflicted upon them
a complete defeat.

DEPLOYMENT OF A FIRST ARMY.

The movement began on our side only with the resources of the army which
had held the left of our front during the battle of the Marne,
reinforced on Sept. 15 by one army corps.

This reinforcement, not being sufficient to hold the enemy's offensive,
(district of Vaudelincourt-Mouchy-Uaugy,) a fresh army was transported
more to the left, with the task "of acting against the German right wing
in order to disengage its neighbor, ... while preserving a flanking
direction in its march in relation to the fresh units that the enemy
might be able to put into line."

To cover the detrainments of this fresh army in the district
Clermont-Beauvais-Boix a cavalry corps and four territorial divisions
were ordered to establish themselves on both banks of the Somme. In the
wooded hills, however, which extend between the Oise and Lassigny the
enemy displayed increasing activity. Nevertheless, the order still
further to broaden the movement toward the left was maintained, while
the territorial divisions were to move toward Bethune and Aubigny. The
march to the sea went on.

From the 21st to the 26th all our forces were engaged in the district
Lassigny-Roye-Peronne, with alternations of reverse and success. It was
the f