The St. Quentin attack began along the whole sweep of the front with six
hours' bombardment and intense gas shelling of the British batteries,
and afterward an attack was launched by overwhelming numbers of German
storm troops. The British battleline was held by some three divisions,
from a point south of Pontruet to Itancourt, south of the St. Quentin
Canal. Along this sector the enemy line had been held before the attack
by three divisions also, but the night before the battle they were
reinforced until eight German divisions [upward of 100,000 men] were
massed for assault on a front of some 2,000 yards. I believe this is a
greater strength than has ever been brought into battle on such a narrow
front during the whole of this war.
On this sector, the front north and south of St. Quentin, and opposite
the British line further south, the enemy's intention, as is known from
prisoners, was to reach the line of the St. Quentin Canal--or the Crozat
Canal, as it is sometimes called--on the first day, and then advance in
quick stages westward. The rate of progress was to be eight miles on the
first day, twelve on the second, and twenty on the third.
In spite of their intense gunfire of massed batteries, supported by
Austrian howitzers and large numbers of heavy trench mortars, the
Germans' plans were thwarted so far as this rapidity of progress was
concerned.
The heavy fog of the early morning on Thursday threw their assault
troops at some points into wild confusion. The first line of assault,
each division apparently advancing with two regiments in line, with two
battalions in line, with the other strength of the divisions following
in depth, with light machine-gun companies at intervals of 100 yards,
and then heavy machine guns and field artillery, sometimes became
hopelessly mixed up with the third and fourth lines, while right
battalions were confused with left battalions.
This fog and the British machine-gun fire, which caught the German
waves, checked the pace of their onslaught and caused heavy losses.
The German high command relied entirely on weight of guns and man power
to break the British resistance, and the driving power of the whole
monstrous machine was set in movement. The British line was not strong
enough to hold all the old positions against such a tide of brute force.
The men served their guns and rifles, but as attack followed attack and
column followed column, and their own losses increased as the hours
passed, they were ordered at certain points to give ground and fall
back, fighting heroic rearguard actions from one position to another.