On May 27 the Germans had reached the Aisne--seven kilometers from
the starting point, across difficult country--in four and one-half
hours after the attack. In the first thirty hours of the present
attack they had barely passed thinly held outposts. Along the whole
thirty-kilometer front, from the Oise to Assainvillers--somewhat
shorter than the area of bombardment--fifteen to twenty assaulting
divisions were met by a galling machine-gun barrage and the terrible
"75" fire curtain from quick-firers and batteries. Irreplaceable
storm troops, whose training had taken months and whose existence was
essential to the continuance of Hindenburg's new strategy, melted like
snow beneath the August sun.
At Plemont--the scene of one of the most gallant actions in the
checking of the March drive by the men of the same army--the Germans
met a stubborn resistance, though their dead lay there thick as
fresh-cut wheat but a few hundred yards beyond the line of outposts.
Even in the centre, where the enemy's progress was deepest, an unbroken
line of defense was constituted by the same troops that had withstood
the attack from the beginning. Their spirit and numbers were still
sufficient, though the Germans opposing them had sent forward fresh
storm troops in wave after wave.