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Show I THE WESTERN THEATER OF THE WAR p S-S eBrvgit 9 Antwerp 7 I i7v t?5 Rjrn 5,' Th"m''" 1- m '-rr SvJ. A s Tout v& L ' V irCAi.t or Mux. J I j CAMPAIGNS IN THE WEST The first month and a half of the r vestera campaign was made ' up of f,rtling, swift moves. On September 1 'J, after the defeat on the Marne, the 1 ''rmana took up defensive positions i- ilong the Aisne river. The ten and a s 'slf months since then have seen a e long deadlock. The battle line of the Aisne and the fjlse quickly extended northeast to the "'1 Fighting has been continuous, i'u tremendous losses. The general "tuation has remained unchanged, Ulna of a few miles for one side at point offset by mfnor gains for 3 'e enemy in other sectors, t At the beginning of August the 'aiser took possession of the little J "ate of Luxemburg and demanded passage through Belgium to the Ftan-1 Ftan-1 (0'Belgian f:ontier. ''ermisBlon to pass denied. Von t:itiem attacked Liege (August 4), liile other German armies passed 'round the city and swept over the 1 'eyel Belgian roads at a terrific rate. , 'he little Belgian army yielded Brus-I Brus-I and fell back to Antwerp and 5 ('hent. First Big Engagement. N'ot until the Germans had almost Cached the French border did the J'fst important engagement take place 1 bis is generally known as the battle of Mons-Charleroi (about August 20-28), 20-28), but at the same time there was severe fighting along the whole line through Thionville in Lorraine and along the Vosges in upper Alsace, which the French had invaded with temporary success. This battle resulted In defeat for the French and English. While obtaining some successes in counter-attacks on the advancing Germans Ger-mans at Peronne and at Guise, the French were obliged to fall back rapidly rap-idly to the line of the River Marne. On the left the French had withdrawn with-drawn to below Paris and the westernmost western-most German army, under Von Kluck, followed. The garrison of Paris was put in thousands of motor cars and hurled on Von Kluck's flank. The latter was not taken entirely unawares and met the attack strongly, but at the same time the army of General Foch attacked- the German army on Von Kluck's left and drove it back. Driven Back From Paris. The Germans had begun the battle with live armies in line. The withdrawal with-drawal of the two farthest west now, caused the retreat of the third, fourth and fifth in that order, each in turn finding its flank exposed by the withdrawal with-drawal of the troops on its right. At the same time the movement on the east end of the German line was ac- celcraititl by a strong Hiiat.. e French fortifletw.one of Verdun. The Gorman retreat was as orderly as that of the French and Kngllsh had been. The invaders took up an admirable ad-mirable defensive position. It ran just north of the Aisne river, on a series of bluffs, then just north of Chalons and through the wooded, rough regions of the Argonne and the Woevre, joining hands here with the troops besieging Verdun. The allies have tried this line in vain ever since. Both combatants now tried to turn the west flank. Enormous bodleB of cavalry. On the part of the French Flanders. On the part of the French there was largely the desire to link up with the Belgians, now being attacked In Antwerp. The mighty siege guns of the Germans made short work of the Belgian seaport, however, and It fell on October 9. The remnants of the Belgian army retreated along the sea coast and the Germans in a final rush reached Ostend (October 15). Line Extended to the Sea. The battle line of the Aisne was now extended to the sea, the Germans holding hold-ing the important French city of Lille, while the allies kept Ypres in Belgium and, partly by flooding the lowlands, held the position of the Yser river and canal. From October 16 to November 10 was fought the desperate first battle of Ypres, when the Germans suffered , enormous losses in attempts to break through the line in Flanders and reach Calais. They succeeded in pushing back the allies only a little and the invasion of Silesia by the Cossacks finally induced them to deBist and send re-enforcements to Russia. The Germans in September had performed per-formed the feat pf pushing a salient into the French line south of Verdun, which terminated on the west bank of the Meuse river at St. Mihiel; while the French had taken the offensive with some success in Champagne at about the same time. For the most part throughout the winter' the fighting consisted of regular regu-lar siege warfare, with heavy artillery combats and mine and counter-mine. The flooding of the River Aisne from winter snows gave the Germans a chance to entrap the French troops on the north side of that river in the vicinity of Soissons for a considerable distance and kill or capture most of them (January 14). Take Offensive in Spring. With the spring, the French and English attempted to take the offensive at several points. In the Vosges the dominating height of Hartmann8weilerkopf was taken and retaken several times in sanguinary sanguin-ary charges and finally remained in the hands of the French. The salient of St.. Mihiel was also subjected to tremendous French pressure pres-sure on both "legs." The French succeeded suc-ceeded in gaining a little ground, but the Germans, despite the apparent weakness of the sharp wedge they had driven into the French line, could not be dislodged and later succeeded in regaining re-gaining some of the territory they had lost. The British also reported "victories" at Neuve Chapelle anA Hill No. 60, in Flanders. Whether these should be accounted successes for the allies is doubtful. The British suffered enormous enor-mous losses and at Neuve Chapelle bungled affairs to the extent of shelling shell-ing their own men who had taken German Ger-man trenches. The next development was the unexpected un-expected 'Use of poisonous gas fumes by the Germans in attacks just north of Ypres. With this novel weapon they succeeded in taking several small villages and more than compensating for the British gains south of Ypres. The losses of the French, Canadians and British were severe, but they succeeded suc-ceeded In stemming the German onslaught on-slaught effectively a few miles back from their former position. Begin Series of Attacks. The German line makes a salient at Soissons, though not such a pronounced pro-nounced one as at St. Mihiel. The French now began a series of attacks at-tacks on the upper side of this salient, to the north of Arras. Expending hundreds hun-dreds of thousands of shells, they time and again blasted away the barbed wire entanglements and concrete trenches, held by Crown Prince Rup-precht Rup-precht of Bavaria's men, and then charged across the desolate ground for slight galnB. The fighting centered about the sugar su-gar refinery of Souchez and the great German work called the Labyrinth. Fighting went on in cellars and tunnels tun-nels below the earth and the casualties casual-ties were heavy. The French bent the German line and captured the Labyrinth, Laby-rinth, but whether tha gains justified their sacrifice In human life is questionable. ques-tionable. In July, Crown Prince Frederick William's army attacked in the Argonne Ar-gonne forest, west of Verdun, and succeeded In gaining several hundred yards of shattered woodland and capturing cap-turing several thousand Frenchmen. There were rumors that the Germans Ger-mans were re-enforcing for another great drive toward Calais or Paris, but the Teutonic campaign in the West continued to wait upon the crushing of the much weaker enemy in Poland. |