The news is gradually coming in of what happened on the front,
submerged by the assault of Monday morning, (May 27.) Its most
northerly part was the low ground beside the Ailette called the Forest
of Pinon, which I described fully last Christmas, when I spent several
days with the outposts by which it was held, in conditions somewhat
reminiscent of Wild West warfare. The nearest trenches were on the
hills a mile or two behind, this ground being too marshy to dig in. In
the forest blockhouses were then being built, and were laid out while
each side raided the other across the frontier on the stream and canal.
Nothing then seemed less likely than an attack across such ground,
but preparations were being pushed forward with the idea that a few
groups of defenders would gather in and around the blockhouses and
fight a delaying action, and then, if possible, escape back to the hill
trenches.
The event turned out otherwise. When the surviving groups and outposts,
amounting in all to three battalions, got together on Monday morning
they decided to intrench themselves and to fight to the death. Carrier
pigeons brought notes from them to this effect. The last note received
was dated 2 P. M. on Tuesday. The best that can be hoped is that some
survive as prisoners.
I think it may be said that there is now no danger of a break through
toward any vital objective.