It was the left, and particularly the 50th Division, that had to
bear the heaviest of the shock. The bombardment, which lasted three
hours, was of indescribable intensity, the chill night air being soon
saturated with poison gas, and when at dawn the German infantry,
hideous in their masks, broke like a tidal wave upon the thin British
line it was overwhelmed. The 50th is a territorial division.
A counterattack toward Craonne failed under a flank fire from tanks and
machine guns, and step by step the heroic line was withdrawn through
wooded and marshy ground to the Aisne.
The French on the left were resisting like masses with the same
bravery; contact was lost with them for a short time, as also with the
British 25th and 8th Divisions further east, and as the men fell back a
front could be preserved only by a converging retreat toward the south
by night. When the hills north of Vosle were reached the 50th Division
had lost a number of its officers and other ranks.
The British centre, consisting of part of the 25th and 8th Divisions,
was more fortunate. The 25th had been in reserve, and its support in
the low and difficult ground at the east end of the Aisne Valley was
most important. It and the 8th maintained their second positions till
late in the afternoon.
On the right the 21st Division, together with the neighboring French
division, had to defend the line of the canal from Berry-au-Bac to
Bermericourt against the onset of four German divisions, aided by the
strongest fleet of tanks the enemy has yet put into the field. This
northwestern edge of the great plain of Champagne is very favorable
ground for the use of cars of assault, and it was here that the French
made their first experiments with indifferent results that have since
been greatly bettered.
These two British and French divisions had the advantage of a line of
heights with batteries and perfect observation behind them. They held
out obstinately till the retreat of the left made it necessary to move
southward.