ead rather quickly. The enemy was evidently concentrating on the
Lys to oppose the Allies' main attack in West Belgium.

I remember that our forces to the left of Metz, the left wing of the
southern armies, found an opening in the enemy's line at the Argonne
Forest, and poured through: and being mostly French, Italian and
Australian mounted troops, with artillery; speedily moved ahead, dashed
into the Ardennes; and, being reinforced with our Metz forces joining
them at Longwy, pushed on with a six road front through the Ardennes
Forest. They concentrated in force at the edge of the forest on the left
bank of the Lesse River to wait for the engineers.

Oh, what a mad dash that was! There seemed to be no thought of taking
prisoners. It was a wild rush north, with, of course, every precaution
taken for providing defence on both sides of our advance.

I remember that I wondered, at the time, why the Germans were almost
without horses. Their dash across Belgium in the previous year explained
the mobs of broken-backed, split-heeled and fleshless wrecks we met in
the paddocks along the Meuse.

Within four days we occupied the whole of the country south of the Lesse
River; with two railways, one a double line, feeding us with
reinforcements and supplies.

Then our second dash began, and within a week our front was entrenched
at the junction of the Meuse and Ourthe, with our artillery banging into
the swarms of German infantry pouring into Liege!

What a sacrilege it seems to tell of this wonderful week in plain
matter-of-fact language!

A week of feverish excitement, when one hardly remembered meals, sleep
or rest, when our spirits raced in front of us pulling our responsive
flesh!

I remember that when the French mounted troops, who led the way, lined
the ridge beyond Nandrin and looked down upon the City of Liege between
the hills they fairly screamed in their frenzied delight.

The main attack of the Allies had changed from the west to the south!

In the meantime our forces on our right extended along the Ourthe, with
those on our left along the Meuse, two natural defensive positions, as
the troops kept pouring in from the south to strengthen our attack.

We were as a spear-head at the heart of Germany, and great armies of
French reinforcements were coming up behind us to drive that spear-head
home!

Against that "spear-head" German reinforcements drawn from the eastern
army flung themselves, but their attacks