Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 10.djvu/507

LEFT WORLD WAR 437 WORLD WAR rose skyward in a burst of smoke and flame. Hardly had the debris settled down when the British leaped into this wide gap in the German lines and within half an hour ten miles of the German first lines had been captured. Large quantities of guns, and 7,000 prisoners were taken. The Germans had now lost their last position which commanded the British lines. Together with their pre- vious successes, by this victory they had now entirely changed the military posi- tion in Belgium. The areas gained amounted to a front of nine miles, five miles deep. During July extremely heavy fighting took place in the Verdun sector. The Germans attacked heavily, but the French were well able to hold them back. Around Lens the British continued hammering away. Their successes here and elsewhere, however, were somewhat ^^li; -ESSEN ,#.e:lberfeld FRANKFURT GERMAN TERRITORY /'ALSACE- A j LORRAINE. ■CEDEDTO Lfrance ^ r NEUTRALIZER STRfsSBOURG Z Z.ONE BASLE SWixZERLANO OCCUPIED GERMANY counterbalanced by the success attend- ing the Germans in their attack on the British lines N. of Nieuport, on the Belgian coast. Here the British were compelled to give ground. This tempo- rary gain, however, terminated three weeks later when, on July 31, the British and French launched an attack on a gigantic scale along a front of twenty miles, from Dixmude on the N. to Warneton on the S. In their turn the Germans were compelled to retire along a front of fifteen miles. During the rest of the summer the Allies continued their offensive tactics, surging ahead for a week or two, then pausing to consolidate their gains. Little by little the Canadians, who were at- tacking Lens, closed their grip on that city and were firing into the very heart of the business section. It was a steady process of eating into the German posi- tions, breaking off a piece here, tearing down a defense there. In the first week of November con- tinuous French attacks compelled the enemy to relinquish that most important position, the Chemin-des-Dames, which they had held since September, 1914. On Nov. 20, 1917, General Haig launched an attack which marked a new offensive of deep significance, the chief result being the breaking of the Hindenburg line. The Third Army, under General Sir Julian Byng, began an advance along a front of thirty-two miles, between the Scarpe river and St. Quentin. German defenses were penetrated for a distance of five miles, extending to a point within three miles of Cambrai. The Germans had been thoroughly surprised, and gave ground with comparatively little resist- ance. Here the British tanks took an important part in the fighting, and con- tributed in an important degree to the success of the stroke. In two days fighting 9,000 Germans were taken prisoners. But if the Germans had been sur- prised, they were equally furious at the blow which they had suffered, and within ten days they were striking back in the Cambrai area with such strength as to stagger the British. Both sides were re- enforced heavily. But the British showed less mobility, and gradually they were forced to retire before the German as- saults. By the middle of December, how- ever, the British had been sufficiently re- enforced to make a firm stand. On Dec. 15, 1917, heavy snow fell and this, too, hampered the Germans. Meanwhile the French had been slowly but effectively nibbling away at the Ger- man positions around Verdun and along the Aisne and the Meuse rivers. The capture of the Chemin-des-Dames had given them command of the strongest positions in that region. Toward the end of the year, however, fighting slack- ened up and down the entire front and comparative quiet reigned during the Christmas holidays. The Dotvnfall of Russia's Autocracy. — The new year opened gloomily in Russia.