rifle fire are concentrated on the man crossing that one girder. By the
afternoon, the engineers attached to the First Army Corps had also
established a pontoon bridge, and the whole brigade crossed the river in
the evening and dug itself in.

Late on Sunday afternoon, however, a weak spot showed itself in the
German line and Sir John French threw the First Division of the First
Army Corps across the river near Bourg. Some of the infantry crossed by
a small pontoon bridge and a brigade of cavalry started to follow them.
When they were in mid-stream, however, a terrific storm of fire smote
them. The cavalry pushed on, but could not ride up the hill in the teeth
of the bombardment. The infantry were eager to go, but nothing was to be
gained by the move, so the cavalry returned over the pontoon, by a most
extraordinary occurrence not having lost a single member in the three
hours it had been scouting on the hostile side of the Aisne. The
infantry intrenched themselves solidly to await the morning.

The main forces of the First Division were especially lucky. Using the
canal aqueduct they made their way toward Bourg, and drove the Germans
back toward the main ridge.

More than three-quarters of the summit of the ridge had been won, the
entire Second Infantry Brigade was across, the Twenty-fifth Artillery
Brigade was across, ready to support, and General Bulfin, instead of
tiring his men by making them intrench there, ordered them to rest,
throwing their outposts in front of the hamlet of Moulins.

This ended the first day's fighting on the battle of the Aisne. Of the
Third Army Corps, a small body of men had reached Chipres. There they
had been joined by a small force from the Second Army Corps. In the
First Army a strong detachment dug itself in not far from Pont d'Arcy.
The incomparably superior position of the Germans, their huge numbers,
their possession of innumerable guns, made even this shaky tenure
dangerous, though all held on. Sir John French had tested and found out
the German strength and the result was not encouraging.

Although this repulse of the British army at every point was a decided
victory for the German gunners, Field Marshal von Heeringen had been
impressed by two things: the courage of the British attacking army, and
the destructiveness of the French artillery on the south bank of the
river. The German commander withdrew all his men from the advanced
trenches on between the ridge and the river, k