202 The Great War pagne Hills which they still held. After several Allied gains at the outset, the situation here, as a re- sult of intrenching on both sides, was now fast ap- proaching a deadlock. Ten days of fast and furious fighting from the Oise to the Argonne were needed to convince the Allies that the German retreat was at an end, that they had defeated, not routed an enemy, who, now reenforced was inexpugnable in his present position. In the same period the Germans also learned that the road to Paris over which they had recently re- treated was now closed to them. All the efforts they made in these days, all the frontal attacks, again costing lives without number, since they per- sisted in their massed formation, were of no avail. On either side positions were taken and lost, but by neither the Allies nor the Germans was any real progress made. It was clear then that some new plan must be adopted, if the existing deadlock were to be broken, either by the Allies or by the Germans. It was the French who made the first venture. Meantime the opening phase of the Battle of the Aisne had ended in a deadlock, both armies stood rooted In their positions, the Germans unable to resume the of- fensive toward Paris; the Allies similarly unsuc- cessful in their attempts to drive the invaders down the slopes of the Champagne Hills and to the Bel- gian frontier.