sne was different. It
was a magnificent effort boldly carried out, and, as was afterward
learned, it could not have been successful had the onset been delayed
even one day.

General Maunoury's army, encamped in the forest of the Compiegne, was
again the first to give battle, as it had been in the battles of the
Marne. Using some heavy guns that had been sent on from Paris, in
addition to the batteries that had been lent him by the British, he
secured some well-planned artillery positions on the south bank, and
spent the morning in a long-range duel with the German gunners near
Soissons. The Germans had not all taken up their positions on the north
side of the Aisne on the morning of September 12, 1914, and the heavy
battery of the Fourth British Division did good service early in the
morning, dislodging some of these before it wheeled in line beside the
big French guns, in an endeavor to shell the trenches and level the
barbed-wire entanglements, that an opportunity might be made to cross.
But the results were not encouraging of success, for the reply from the
further shore was terrific. General von Kluck's army might be worn out,
but the iron throats of his guns were untiring, and he knew that huge
reenforcements were on the way.

CHAPTER XX

FIRST DAY'S BATTLES

That first day of the battle of the Aisne, September 12, 1914, which was
indeed rather preparatory than actual, was also marked by some unusually
brilliant cavalry work in General Allenby's division. The German line
was on the farther side of the Aisne, but all the hill country between
the Marne and the Aisne had to be cleared of the powerful rear guards of
the retreating German army, or perhaps it would be more correct to say
the advance guards of the new German line. Early in the morning the
cavalry under General Allenby swept out from the town of Braisne on the
Vesle and harried in every direction the strong detachments that had
been sent forward, driving them back to the Aisne. Over the high wooded
ridge between the Vesle and the Aisne the Germans were driven back, and
the Third Division, under General Hamilton, supported the cavalry in
force, so that, by the evening, General Hamilton's division was able to
camp below the hill of Brenelle, and even, before night fell, to get
their guns upon that height, from which they could reply to the German
batteries snugly ensconced upon the frowning ridge on the northern bank
of the Aisne.

The Fifth B