LAND AND WATER 
ScptemLer 19, 1914 
MOUNT A/M 
sizAHne 
o 
75 
SO 
ScALf. ofMile:> 
SKPTCH BHOWINO THE GERMAN LIKE OF F.EIIiEVT 
FEOM LA rkRB CHAJll-KNOISK-VlTBr— HEVW.Nr. 
had cntrcncliod a defensive Hue along the Eivcr Saulx, 
and further along the River Oruain (its tributary) as 
far as Eevigny. 
The interest of this great German advance on \ itrj 
had lain in the fact that it passed over the most open 
country of all, had reached further south than the 
rest, and was the front upon A\hich, if anywhere, the 
Allied line was likely to he pierced. 
I have described how an escarpment runs from 
Sezamie northwai-d towards Epernay npon the Marne, 
along and beyond which escarpment went the retreat 
of the second great bod^^ of the Germans, that which 
retreated from Sezanne and Esternay across the 
marshes to Epernay, Rheims, and the defensive 
line beyond. From this escarpment one looks 
down eastward upon a great rolling plain of bare 
land, dotted here and there with regular plantations, 
which plain is the Plain of Champagne. Upon the 
eastern side of this plain rises hilly and Avooded 
country, at the gate of which stands Revigny, and 
the principal groups of woods in which are called the 
Wood of Beluoue, and to the north of it the great 
forest of the Argonne. Between that escarpment of 
Sezanne on the Avest and this wooded country of 
Argonne on the east, you have an open chalky land, not 
vmlike Salisbuiy Plain in many parts of it, but better 
served Avith roads and fairly served with railways, in- 
cluding one great trunk line ; provided also with great 
accumulations of provisions in such towns as Chalons, 
its capital, Yitry, La Fere Champenoisc, Rheims. 
Here, upon the slightly concave line running 
from Sezanne, south of Yitry, to Revigny, lay, as we 
saw last week, the crisis of this first phase of the 
campaign. Here it was that the General commanding 
the German Corps at Yitry urged his troops (in an 
Order which fell into French hands after his precipitate 
retreat) that upon their power to advance in the next 
few days would depend the whole German scheme. 
AVe now know that this advance did not take place, 
that, on the contrary, the Gei-mans retreated from this 
line between La Fere Champenoi.se-Sommesous- 
Yitry-Rovigny, as they retreated from the line Sezanne- 
Esternay, and for the same reasons. AYhen A'on Ivluck 
was so unexpectedly pushed back on the extreme Avcst 
by the advent of the reserve which had been secretly 
accumulated under Paris, the A\hole Gorman line, sec- 
tion by section, had to give way, from Paris (where the 
pressure began) right away to the forest of Argonne. 
As is always the case in such a retirement — as 
■was the case for instance in our own retirement from 
the Sambre nearl}' a month ago — the extreme of 
the line fuiihest from the part that retires first 
receives the last news and is the last to retire. This 
extreme scdiun has always therefore to retire with 
o-reater precipitation and under more difficult circum- 
stances than its neighbours. And the German bodies 
occupying this Champagne country between the escarp- 
ment and the woods, an open gap of roughly 50 miles, 
unavoidably fell back hurriedly and a little late, iheir 
retreat began on September 10th. They aban- 
doned Yitry le Francois in particular under extreme 
pressure, leaving in that headquarters town many of 
their papers ami much of their baggage. AV luit the 
Avholc of tliis body may have lost in the wayof guns 
and Avai,»rons Ave do not know, but they fell back, as 
(lid all the others, to the north, marching across 
Champno-ne through the end of that Thursday, the 
Avhole of the Fridav (llth) ar.d tlie Saturday (I2th) 
until on the Suiidav they also too'; up their place in 
the excellent defensive line which the German com- 
manders had indicated north of inieims. It was a 
hurried but a fine piece of work. There lies, isolated 
on the escarpment of the Plateau that bounds the 
Plain of Champagne upon the Avest, a single hUl called 
" Mont Aime " though Avhy beloved, or if beloved, I 
cannot tell. From that lonely height a man can look 
eastward over all the Champagne like a sea and discover 
its endless rolling fields bare and empty before him 
and its streams of roads. On this height I could 
wish to have stood last Friday in the south- 
westerly gale Avatching the long lines threading nort i- 
AN-ard across the flats and knowing that these A\ero the 
columns of the iuA'aders in retreat. 
So much, then, for the retirement nortliward and 
eastward of the three great German bodies between 
September 9th— 10th and September 13th— 14:th: 
that is, between the night and the early morning of 
AYednesday and Thursday of last Aveek, and the night 
and early morning of Sunday and Monday last.^ 
Ry the time the retreat Avas over, the German 
liiie— the retirement of Avhose three great sections had 
been accomplished with singular success, and Asith 
astonishing rapidity— was drawn>p upon a defensive 
position in which it prepared to give battle, iiiat 
battle is being desperately fought at the moment in 
A\'hich these lines are Avritten, AYednesday afternoon, 
and has already occupied the two preceding days. 
My next task Avill be to describe the defensive 
position Avhich has thus been adopted by the enemy, 
and to conjecture at his motives for standing where he 
does to resist the further advance of the Allied line. 
I Avould beg the reader to folloAV this section 
with particular care, for it concerns a crowning act in 
this Avar. The Germans have studied, and fallen 
back upon one of the best defensive positions in 
AYestern Europe and are there conducting the Battle 
• OF THE AlSNK AND SuiPl'E. 
THE GERMAN DEFENSIVE POSITION. 
:% 
TI.E CEIOIAX DEFENSIVE rOSlTION, FROM LAST MONDAY TO LAST 
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER UTH TO IGTH. THE BKITISH CON- 
TINGENT ATTACKED FBOM SOISSONS ON THE LEFT TO ^EAB 
CRAONNE ON THE RIGHT. TO THE.B LEFT LP TO THE FOREST 
DE L'AIGLE WAS THE FRENCH GtH AUMY ; TO THEIK RIGHT TUB 
FRENCH 5TH army. THli; WHOLE LINK HERE SHOWN IB 
BETWEEN FIFTY AHO SIXTY MILES LOSS. 
6* 
