204 The Great War tected by the marshy valley of the river and by Peronne, once a fortress and still easily defensible, stretched vaguely north, west of Cambrai to the Bel- gian frontier, held by various detachments eche- loned from Peronne north. Moving north and west of Noyon, the Allied flanking force passed through Amiens, crossed the Somme, turned east and struck squarely at von Kluck's flank and rear. By August i8 they had captured Peronne and penetrated to the suburbs of St. Quentin. Their cavalry had crossed the western- most of the railroads on which the German right depended for its supplies. Victory seemed in sight and Paris and London proclaimed the speedy with- drawal of von Kluck. Indeed one wild despatch from Paris announced that the German commander had offered to surrender, but all these hopes were dashed. While the Allies had been collecting reserves, creating a new Western Army for this flanking thrust, commanded by General d'Amade, the con- queror of Fez, the Germans had been equally busy. No sooner had the Allies reached St. Quentin and Le Catelet than the Germans launched a counter- stroke, which drove the French back, out of St. Quentin, west of Peronne, back almost to Amiens. On September i8 they had been on the Liege- Brussels-St. Quentin railroad, by September 21 they were twenty miles west at Albert, beyond Ba- paume. Meantime to the south, near Noyon the