Ludendorff, on May 27, with a simultaneous diversion on the Lys salient
and another at the southwest angle of the Picardy salient, northwest
of Montdidier, began, with the most stupendous preparations ever
concentrated, an attack on the southern barriers over a forty-mile
front. He forced the Aisne the next day on an eighteen-mile front, and
on May 31 he brought up at the Marne on a six-mile front, having made a
penetration of thirty miles to the south. There he attempted to deploy
both east and west, and was held.
Meanwhile his baseline had been extended twenty miles to the west--to
near Noyon. He had occupied about 650 square miles of new territory and
had reduced his nearest approach to Paris from sixty-two to forty-four
miles.
Then, on June 9, with even a greater array of men and material,
he attempted to invert the western bow-like side of the salient
already formed by turning it outward. He made a fierce attack from a
twenty-mile front between Montdidier and Noyon in the direction of
Compiègne. With this objective attained, his Picardy front would have
been sufficiently broadened to enable him to resume his journey down
the Somme. Moreover, he would have been within striking distance of
Paris. He gained seven miles, which was later reduced to less than
six by French counterattacks. French counterattacks and a thrust
of American marines on his flanks in the three succeeding days not
only held him in a vise, but revealed his tremendous losses and the
extraordinary means he had expended in preparations. By June 12 his
failure, the ramifications of which actually demonstrated his defeat,
was an established fact. Then, on the following Saturday, June 15,
this failure was acknowledged by the sudden launching of an Austrian
offensive in Italy. How this was an acknowledgment we shall see in the
proper place.
[Illustration: UPPER MAP: WHERE THE GERMAN OFFENSIVE BEGAN ON MAY 27,
1918]
[Illustration: LOWER MAP: WHERE IT WAS STOPPED, MAY 31]