Page:The Great War.djvu/272

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240 The Great War these efforts. French and British advances to Per- onne and the suburbs of St. Quentin had been pushed back. Cavalry raids to Le Catelet and Roisel, towns actually on the westernmost of the German supply lines, had been checked and flung back. Even to the south, beyond Noyon, impertinent drives at Lassigny and the Noyon Hills had been crushed down and ground lost had been retaken. But to do this troops had been collected from the whole extent of the battle line, from the interior garrisons of Germany — attack in Alsace, in Lor- raine had been abandoned. The efforts to break the Allied centre had failed. Army corps in Bel- gium had been drawn down and the garrisoning of this captured kingdom left to the Landsturm, to middle-aged men. Yet all this had not served to relieve the pres- sure. Repulsed at one point, the Allied flanking thrust moved always to the north. It had failed at Peronne and St. Quentin. It was renewed at Albert and Bapaume. Halted here, it was felt again east of Arras and was now mounting up to Douai. The Battle of the Aisne had become the Battle of the Seven Rivers. The German right flank, once resting in the Noyon Hills, was extend- ing hourly towards Belgium. Allied armies were already stretching out a hand to Belgian forces west of the Scheldt. Behind them was the chain of Channel ports, Boulogne, Calais, Dunkirk, equally

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