The German attack under the personal command of the Crown Prince
launched on the morning of May 27 was mainly directed against the
British 8th, 50th, 25th, and 21st Divisions and the French 6th
Army, which occupied the front from Vauxaillon eastward to the
Brimont region--from north of Soissons to the north and a little
west of Rheims. Certain sectors at once gave way under the strong
pressure--particularly in the Chambrettes. There was no mistaking this
for the main offensive, although in the Lys salient, between Ypres and
Arras in the north, and on both sides of the Somme and the Ardre in
the centre, there were simultaneous artillery preparations of great
violence. Toward the end of the day the weight of the enemy's attacks
carried his troops across both the River Aisne and the Chemin des
Dames. The line, however, remained unbroken, as the Allies retreated
across the Aisne between Vailly and Berry-au-Bac, which are eighteen
miles apart, and then gave way across the Vesle near Fismes.
On the 28th Franco-British troops proved the assault in the north to
be abortive by quickly re-establishing their lines east of Dickebusch
Lake and capturing a few prisoners. On the main field of battle in
the south the Franco-British right deployed to the east covering the
Brouillet-Savigny-Thillois line protecting Rheims. On the west they
did the same, but with more elasticity, while the centre continued to
give. On the 29th the acute angle of the German penetration, with its
vertex covering Fismes, suddenly sprung to the shape of a bow. The line
still held covering the Cathedral City, but on the west the defenders
of Soissons were killing their last Germans, and in the south Savigny
on the Ardre had been reached. At Savigny the line of advance was
diverted westward until it embraced Fère-en-Tardennois and Vezilly. And
still the retreating but unbroken Allies were deploying east and west
as its pressure increased, or were taken prisoner when retreat became
impossible.
On the 30th the enemy attempted to broaden his front northwest of
Rheims and failed, but he succeeded in obliterating the salient south
of Noyon, from the Oise Canal to Soissons, and on the 31st by an
advance from a twenty-five-mile curved front he reached the Marne
between Château-Thierry and Dormans on a contracted six-mile front.
Here he met on the south bank the prepared defenses, and has been kept
on the north bank ever since.