[Sidenote:  Great difficulties of passage.]

Plateau and valleys, then, differ materially—­the one monotonous and easy of access; the other, no less charming than varied, but presenting great difficulties of passage in the face of opposition.  There is not a village on the plateau:  only a few large farms and scattered sugar-beet refineries.  In the valleys and on the slopes there are everywhere houses, chateaux, parks, orchards, and grottoes.  The slender church-tower barely rises to the level of the plateau, as if to watch for the approach of an enemy.  The conditions then were quite simple:  on the plateau it was possible to gain many kilometres in a single rush; but in the valleys a fierce resistance was to be expected.

[Sidenote:  The Franco-American attack.]

The French and American attack in the Soissonnais was fortunate in its starting-point.  In the course of the hard-fought battles between June 15 and July 15, the French had retaken the entire valley of Ambleny-Coeuvres, and had gained a footing on the plateau to the eastward, which stretches as far as the outskirts of Soissons.  To the south they had completely cleared the verge of the forest of Retz, from which they were thus able to debouch into the plain.

[Sidenote:  In sight of Soissons.]

[Sidenote:  Germans bring up reserves.]

The first onrush was magnificent.  Starting at ten minutes to five in the morning, the Allies were within sight of Soissons at ten o’clock, having overrun the whole plateau on a front of some ten kilometres.  Rarely has a more successful attack been seen in this war.  It was even said that on this first day some French and Americans got as far as the suburbs of Soissons.  But the danger for the Germans was too great, and they brought all their reserves thither.  Moreover, they had the valley of the Crise to support their defense.

[Sidenote:  Artillery can hardly see the villages.]

This valley is the widest and deepest of all those which eat into the plateau of the Soissonnais from the south.  The very considerable depression is more than 100 metres below the surface of the plateau, which it cuts in two, effectively shutting off all progress from west to east; for on the south a narrow isthmus, that of Vierzy, barely separates it from the ravine of the Savieres; and on the southeast it reaches to the foot of the wooded hills of Hartennes.  Clinging to the sides of the valley and of the ravines which open into it, numerous villages—­Vauxbuin, Berzy-le-Sec, Villemontoire, Buzancy—­are the more difficult to capture because the artillery can hardly see them, as they lie close against the hillside.  It was on the Crise, in the latter part of May, that a handful of Frenchmen held up the German avalanche from the Chemin-des-Dames.

[Sidenote:  German guns have revenge.]

[Sidenote:  Allies enter Soissons.]