_Special Correspondent with the British Armies_
[Copyrighted in U. S. A.]
_The first phase of the battle of Picardy, which began March 21,
1918, was a vain attempt of the German forces to drive a wedge
between the French and British Armies at their point of
juncture; the second was an equally unsuccessful attempt to
wrest Arras and Vimy Ridge from the British; the third sought to
annihilate the British armies in Flanders and break through to
the English Channel. The last-named phase was still undecided
when this magazine went to press, (April 19.) All three phases
were vividly described from day to day by Philip Gibbs. The
following narrative is compiled from his dispatches to The New
York Times, which are available for Current History Magazine as
an affiliated publication of the Times:_
Thursday, March 21.--A German offensive against the British front has
begun. At about 5 o'clock this morning the enemy began an intense
bombardment of the lines and batteries on a very wide front--something
like sixty miles, from the country south of the Scarpe and to the west
of Bullecourt in the neighborhood of Croisilles, as far south as the
positions between St. Quentin and the British right flank.
After several hours of this hurricane shelling, in which a great deal of
gas was used, the German infantry advanced and developed attacks against
a number of strategical points on a very wide front.
Among the places against which they have directed their chief efforts
are Bullecourt, Lagnecourt, and Noreuil, both west of Cambrai, where
they once before penetrated the British lines and were slaughtered in
great numbers; the St. Quentin Ridge, which was on the right of the
Cambrai fighting, and the villages of Roussoy and Hargicourt, south of
the Cambrai salient.
_Friday, March 22._--The enemy flung the full weight of his great army
against the British yesterday. Nearly forty divisions are identified,
and it is certain that as many as fifty must be engaged. In proportions
of men, the British are much outnumbered, therefore the obstinacy of
the resistance of the troops is wonderful. Nine German divisions were
hurled against three British at one part of the line, and eight against
two at another. All the storm troops, including the guards, were in
brand-new uniforms. They advanced in dense masses, and never faltered
until shattered by the machine-gun fire.
The enemy introduced no new frightfulness, no tanks and no specially
invented gas, but relied on the power of his artillery and the weight of
the infantry assault. The supporting waves advanced over the bodies of
the dead and wounded. The German commanders were ruthless in the
sacrifice of life, in the hope of overwhelming the defense by the sheer
weight of numbers.
They had exceeding power in guns. Opposite three of the British
divisions they had a thousand, and at most parts of the line one to
every twelve or fifteen yards. They had brought a number of long-range
guns, probably naval, and their shellfire was scattered as far back as
twenty-eight miles behind the lines. During the last hour of the
bombardment they poured out gas shells, and continued to send
concentrated gas about the British batteries and reserve trenches. The
atmosphere was filled with poisonous clouds.
_Saturday, March 23._--The enemy has been continuing his attacks all
day along the whole battlefront and has made further progress at various
points in spite of the heroic resistance of the British troops, greatly
outnumbered owing to the enormous concentration of the enemy divisions,
which are constantly reinforced and passing through one another, so that
fresh regiments may pursue the assaults.