line before making
a rush at the German trenches. The operation was rapidly effected. The
German position was at an average distance of 220 yards; at the word
of command the troops broke into a steady trot and covered that ground
without any serious loss. The honor of the first assault was granted
to the dare-devil Colonial Corps, men hardened in the building up of
France's African Empire, and to the Moroccan troops, famous for fierce
and obstinate fighting. The men tore across the ground to the assault,
led by their commander, General Marchand, of Fashoda fame, who left
the army at the age of forty-four but volunteered immediately on the
outbreak of the war, and was given command of the Colonial Brigade.
General Marchand fell in the charge with a dangerous shell wound in
the abdomen. The men dashed on to the German trench line, stirring the
rain-drenched, chalky soil to foam beneath their feet. Under the
leadership of General Baratier, Marchand's right-hand man in his
colonial conquests, the French Colonial Cavalry played an important
part in the charge. This was the first time for many months that
cavalry really came into action on the western front. They lost
heavily, but their activities probably explain the great number of
prisoners captured in so short a time.

At nearly every point the Germans were taken completely by surprise,
for their defensive fire was not opened until after the flowing tide
of the invaders had passed by. This was due neither to lack of courage
nor of vigilance, but to the demoralizing effect on the nerves of the
defenders by the terrific cannonade, which in all such cases induces a
sort of helpless apathy.

The French actually penetrated into the first German trench over the
whole attacking front at one rush; after that their progress met with
fiercer resistance and varying checks. While certain units continued
their advance with remarkable rapidity, others encountered machine
guns still in action and either stopped or advanced with extreme
difficulty. Some centers of the German resistance maintained their
position for several hours; some even for days. A line showing the
different stages of the French advance in Champagne would assume a
curiously winding shape, and would reveal on one hand the defensive
power of an adversary resolved to hold his ground at all costs, and
on the other the mathematically successful continuity of the French
efforts in this hand-to-hand struggle.

The Battle