CHAPTER XXXV HOW THE BATTLE OF THE AISNE BEGAN I "'HE first shots In the Battle of the iIsne were -■■ fired on September 12, when the British Army moving swiftly after von Kluck's retreating Army reached the Aisne south of Soissons. On the following day British and FVcnch troops, under se- vere fire and with heavy losses passed the river at and about Soissons, successfully constructed pontoon bridges and effected a lodgment on the first ridges of the Craonne Plateau north of the city. Further efforts to advance were promptly beaten down by German heavy artillery, now discovered solidly placed on cement platforms and protected by a maze of trenches and earthworks. For the American the next operations In this field must recall the Petersburg campaign. Fifty years before. Grant, striking at Lee's lines south of Rich- mond endeavored to take Petersburg by storm. He failed and in the months that followed there grew up south of the Appomattox those marvellous lines of entrenchments in parallel lines stretching from Petersburg to Five Forks. Always the controlling purpose of Grant was to move west and north, to 197