irected at the point where the
British army joined that of the French near the Somme River. There was
at this time no unified command of all the Allied armies, and the blow
fell unexpectedly upon the British and won much territory before French
assistance could be brought up. Outnumbered three to one, the British
fell back at the point of greatest retreat to a distance of thirty miles
from their former line. But the extreme tenacity of the British and the
arrival of French troops prevented the Germans from capturing the
important city of Amiens (ah-my[)a]n'), or reaching the main roads to
Paris, or separating the British and French armies. Learning a needed
lesson from this disaster, the Allied nations agreed to a unified
military command, and appointed as commander-in-chief the French General
Foch (fosh), who had distinguished himself in the first battle of the
Marne in 1914 and elsewhere. Before this step had been taken General
Pershing had offered his small army of 200,000 Americans to be used
wherever needed by the French and the British.

The second German offensive began on April 9 and was again directed
against the British, this time farther to the north, in Flanders,
between the cities of Ypres and Arras. In ten days the Germans advanced
to a maximum depth of ten miles on a front of thirty miles. But the
British fought most desperately and the German losses were enormous. At
last the advance was checked and the Channel ports were saved. "Germany
on the march had encountered England at bay"--and had failed to destroy
the heroic British army.

And now came a lull of over a month while the Germans were reorganizing
their forces and preparing for a still greater blow. Again the element
of surprise was employed. The Allies expected another attack somewhere
in the line from Soissons to the sea, and their reserves were so
disposed as to meet such an attack. But the German blow was directed
against the weakest part of the Allied line, the stretch from Rheims to
Soissons, where a break might open the road to Paris from the east. The
third drive began on May 27. For over a week the French were pushed
back, fighting valiantly, across land which had not seen the enemy since
September, 1914. The greatest depth of the German advance was thirty
miles, that is, to within forty-four miles of Paris. The enemy had once
again reached the Marne River and controlled the main roads from Paris
to Verdun and to the eastern parts of the