advance toward Paris instead of
toward the sea. And at this stage of the war, peace cannot be obtained
by the capture of any city, even the French capital. The price of peace
is the destruction of an army, either that of the British or that of the
French. This can be accomplished only through reaching the sea at some
central point such as Abbeville at the mouth of the Somme.

Therefore, the German problem had of necessity to find its solution
north of Montdidier--between that town and Albert. There is not much
doubt that by concentrating sufficient artillery and by the expenditure
of sufficient men, the German leaders would be able to push their way
farther westward, even beyond Amiens. But as the wedge deepened it would
gradually draw down to a point so that the ultimate situation would be
that the German lines would form an acute angle, the vortex of which
would be on the Somme at or west of Amiens, one side passing through
Albert, or possibly through the village of Bucquoy, the other through
Montdidier. Such a formation would mean positive disaster. It would be
worth a quarter of a million men to the Allies to strike both north and
south across the base of this angle and snuff it out. It would mean to
Germany the loss of a mass of artillery and tens of thousands of men.
And the Allies would not be slow to see this opportunity and strike. The
German High Command, therefore, did not dare to take the chance with
matters as they then were.

[Sidenote: Necessary to advance north of the Somme.]

[Sidenote: The defenses of the British northern wing.]

[Sidenote: The fight for Vimy and Notre Dame de Lorette.]

In order that the German army might continue its march to the sea then,
it was necessary that the line north of the Somme should advance,
synchronizing its movement with the point of the wedge along the river.
Thus only would the wedge be sufficiently wide to avoid disaster. But
the entire northern wing of the British army was guarded by Vimy Ridge
and the heights of Notre Dame de Lorette. It was impossible that the
advance could be made, leaving these positions directly on the flank.
The combination of these two heights forms a huge semicircle concave
toward the south. The British batteries posted on these heights could
continue to rake the German advancing troops in flank and rear with most
destructive effect. Therefore, after the fighting in the south came to a
halt, the Germans undertook to open the way by for