On the evening of the 22d the front of the British Army ran along the
Crozat Canal from Tergnier, through Jussy, to the east of St. Simon.
Very well do I remember the bridgehead of Jussy as I saw it after the
German retreat a year ago. The town, built almost wholly of brick, was
absolutely leveled to the ground, not a single wall standing. I saw it
again last Summer, when General X., a fine soldier and an enlightened
gentleman, had set up a camp hospital and swimming bath, and the bridge
had been decorated to celebrate the entry of America into the war. It
was seven miles behind the front, and I confess we never thought to see
the boche there again.
At 6 P. M. on the 22d General ----received the news that the British
front had been broken between Beauvois and Vaux, nine miles due west of
St. Quentin, and that his corps must fall back to Ham and the villages
of Sancourt and Matigny, immediately north of it. At 8 or 9 o'clock next
morning the news came in that the enemy was just debouching from the
south of Ham toward Esmery-Hallon. The British 5th Corps was then in the
region of Guiscard-Beaumont-Guivry ready for relief.
On the morning of the 24th two German divisions, the first and second
columns, continued their movements in the Oise Valley, while the third
and fourth columns took Ugny and Genlis Wood. On the 25th one division
reached Croisilles, while another attacked Baroeuf on the north of the
Oise, half way between Noyon and Chauny.
On the 26th one division was near Noyon, another at Larbroye, southwest
of that town, and a third at Suzoy, two miles west of it. Clemenceau's
classic phrase, "Remember that the Germans are at Noyon," had
unexpectedly come alive again.