_A fourth phase of the German offensive opened June 9 on a front of 20
miles between Noyon and Montdidier, which Mr. Perris describes thus:_
A new phase of the German offensive opened this morning at 4:30 o'clock
on a front of about twenty miles, extending from Montdidier to Noyon.
The artillery preparation, which again was rich in gas shells, began
at midnight, and covered not only the front, but a deep zone behind
it, especially villages and roads where the enemy thought to catch the
French local reserves.
There were evident reasons for the choice of this sector, and in
particular for seeking control of part of it, for a successful push
south along the line of the Roye-Compiègne railway would add another
converging road to the four roads leading toward Paris by the Oise,
Aisne, Ourcq, and Marne Valleys, which had already been tried. On the
other hand, the enemy could not reasonably hope for any such surprise
as was obtained in the first act of the offensive before St. Quentin
and in the third act of that on the Chemin des Dames.
In general, the French are resisting with dogged courage in their
covering positions, which are beyond range of the enemy mine throwers.
Evidence accumulates of the heaviness of the German losses in the
recent fighting and of the disappearance of the shallow enthusiasm with
which the offensive was begun.
_In describing the progress of this assault Mr. Ferris wrote on
June 10:_
The front of the attack was twenty miles in length, as compared with a
front of thirty miles in the attack on the Chemin des Dames and fifty
miles in the first phase of the offensive on March 21, and so far it is
only on the central half of this smaller front that any considerable
impression has been made on the French lines.
Whatever may have been the exact design, there had not been this time
the same extreme scruple to conceal troop movements, and for some days
past the exceptional traffic of convoys, the suspicious activity of the
enemy batteries in the correction of ranges and other signs had given
warning of what was afoot.