THE GERMAN ADVANCE.—­Five great drives, conducted according to the newly devised methods of warfare, were launched by the Germans between March 21 and July 15, 1918.  The first, continuing from March 21 to April 1, called the battle of Picardy, was directed at the point where the British army joined that of the French near the Somme River.  There was at this time no unified command of all the Allied armies, and the blow fell unexpectedly upon the British and won much territory before French assistance could be brought up.  Outnumbered three to one, the British fell back at the point of greatest retreat to a distance of thirty miles from their former line.  But the extreme tenacity of the British and the arrival of French troops prevented the Germans from capturing the important city of Amiens (ah-my[)a]n’), or reaching the main roads to Paris, or separating the British and French armies.  Learning a needed lesson from this disaster, the Allied nations agreed to a unified military command, and appointed as commander-in-chief the French General Foch (fosh), who had distinguished himself in the first battle of the Marne in 1914 and elsewhere.  Before this step had been taken General Pershing had offered his small army of 200,000 Americans to be used wherever needed by the French and the British.

The second German offensive began on April 9 and was again directed against the British, this time farther to the north, in Flanders, between the cities of Ypres and Arras.  In ten days the Germans advanced to a maximum depth of ten miles on a front of thirty miles.  But the British fought most desperately and the German losses were enormous.  At last the advance was checked and the Channel ports were saved.  “Germany on the march had encountered England at bay”—­and had failed to destroy the heroic British army.

And now came a lull of over a month while the Germans were reorganizing their forces and preparing for a still greater blow.  Again the element of surprise was employed.  The Allies expected another attack somewhere in the line from Soissons to the sea, and their reserves were so disposed as to meet such an attack.  But the German blow was directed against the weakest part of the Allied line, the stretch from Rheims to Soissons, where a break might open the road to Paris from the east.  The third drive began on May 27.  For over a week the French were pushed back, fighting valiantly, across land which had not seen the enemy since September, 1914.  The greatest depth of the German advance was thirty miles, that is, to within forty-four miles of Paris.  The enemy had once again reached the Marne River and controlled the main roads from Paris to Verdun and to the eastern parts of the Allied line.

The fourth drive started a few days later, on June 9, in a region where an attack was expected.  It resulted in heavy losses to the Germans, who succeeded in pushing only six miles toward Paris in the region between Soissons and Montdidier (mawn-dee-dy[=a]’).  The advantages of a single command had begun to appear.  General Foch could use all the Allied forces where they were most needed.