LAND AND WATER 
SeptemlxT 19, Htl4 
••••.. 
^ O 
venouN 
REVIGNY 
SEZANNE 
o 
i_ 
IS 
SKETCH SHOWING THE tiEmlAX IIXE OF EETREAT 
lUOJt LA lEKK CHAJll'EXOISK — VITKT — UEVIGNT. 
had entronched a defensive Hue aloiio: the River Saulx, 
aud further along the River Oi-nain (its tributar}-) as 
far as RevisruA". 
The interest of this great German advance on Vitry 
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 -which, if anywhere, the 
Allied line was likely to he pierced. 
I have descrii)ed how an escarpment runs from 
Sezanne northward toAvards Eperna}- npon the Marne, 
along and be3-ond -which escarpment -v\ent the I'eti'eat 
of the second great body of the (iennans, tliat which 
retreated from Sezanne and Esternay across the 
marshes to Epernay, Rheims, and the defensive 
line beyond. From thi.s escarpment one looks 
down eastward njion a gi-eat 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 wooded 
countrj', at the gate of A\hich stands Revigny, and 
the principal grou})s of Avoods in which are called the 
Wood of Belnoue, and to the north of it the great 
forest of the Argonne. Between that escarpment of 
Sezanne on the Avest and this Avooded country of 
Ai-gonne on the east, you have an open chalky land, not 
imlike Salisbury Plain in manj" ])arts of it, but better 
serA-ed Avith roads and fairh' served Avith r.iihvays, in- 
cluding one great trunk line ; provided also Avith great 
accumulations of provisions in such towns as Chalons, 
its capital, Vitry, La Fere Champenoise, Rheims. 
Here, upon the .slightly concave lino running 
from Sezanne, south of Vitry, to RcAigny, lay, as Ave 
saAv last Aveek, the crisis of this first phase of the 
campaign. Here it was that the Cieneral commanding 
the German Corps at A'itry urged his troops (in an 
Order Avhich fell into French hands after his precipitate 
retreat) that upon their poAver to ad\ance in the next 
fcAV days Avould depend the Avhole German scheme. 
We now knoAV that this advance did not take place, 
that, on the contrary, the Gennans retreated from this 
line betAveen La Fere Ciiampenoise-Sommcsous- 
Vitry-Rovigny, as they retreated fn>m the line Sezanne- 
Esternay, and for the same reasons. AVhen A^on Kluck 
was .so unexpectedly pushed back on the extreme Avest 
by the adA'cnt of the reserve which had been secretly 
accumidated under Paris, the Avhole German line, sec- 
tion by section, had to give Avay, fron-i Paris (Avhere the 
pressm-e began) right aAvay to "the forest of Argonne. 
As is always the case in such a retirement— as 
Avas the case for instance in our own retirement from 
the Sambre nearly a month ago — the extreme of 
the line furthest from the part that retires first 
receives the last news and is the last to retire. This 
extreme section has always therefore to retire Avith 
greater ])i-eci]>itation and under more difficult circum- 
stances than its neighbours. And the German bodies 
occupying this Champagne country between the escarj)- 
ment and the A\oods, an open gap of roughly 50 miles, 
unaA'oidably fell back hurriedly aud a little late. Thei r 
retreat began on September Kith. 'I'liey aban- 
doned Vitry le Francois in jjarticular under extrenu- 
jiressure, leaving in that headquarters toAvn many of 
tlieir papers and much of tiieir baggage. What tlie 
whole of this body may have lost in the way of guns 
aud waggons we do ]iot kuow, but they fell back, as 
did all tJie others, to the north, marching across 
"Champagne through the end of that Thursday, the 
Avhole of the Friday (lltli) and the Saturday (1 2tli) 
until on the Sunday they also too': up their jilace in 
the excellent defensive line Avhich the German coni- 
mandei-s had indicated noiih oi Rheims. it was a 
hurried but a fine piece ol' work. Thei-e lies, isolated 
on the escarpment of the Plateau that bounds the 
Plain of Champagne iipon the Avest, a single hill called 
" Mont Aime " though Avhy beloscd, or if beloved, i 
cannot tell. From that lonely height a man can look 
eastward overall the Champagne like a sea and discover 
its endless rolling fields hww and emjity before him 
and its streams of roads. On this height I could 
Avish to have stood last Friday in the south - 
Avesterly gale Avatching the long lines threading north- 
ward across the flats and knoAving that these Avere the 
columns of tlie invaders in i-etreat. 
So much, then, for the retirement northward and 
eastward of the three great German lx)dies between 
September Uth— 10th and September 1:3th— 14th : 
that is, bytween the night and the early mormng of 
Wednesday and Thursday of last Aveek, and the night 
and early morning of Sunday and Monday last. 
By the time the retreat Avas OAcr, the (Jennan 
line — the retirement of Avhose three great sections had 
been accomplished with singular success, and Avith 
astonishing ra2)idity — Avas drawn^up npon a d(;fensi\ e 
position in which it prepared to give battle. '^Phat 
battle is being despei*ately fought at the moment in 
Avhich these lines are written, Wednesday afternoon, 
and has already occupied the two preceding days. 
My next task Avill l)e to describe the defensiNc 
])Osition which has thus been adopted by the enemy, 
and to conjecture at his motiA'es for standing AAhere he 
does to resist the further advance of the Allied line. 
I would beg the reader to folloAv this .section 
A\ ith particular care, for it concerns a croAA'ning act in 
this AA-ar. The Germans have studied, and fallen 
back upon one of the best defensive positions in 
Western Europe and are there conducting the Battlk 
OF THE AlSNK AND SuiPl'K. 
THE GERMAN DEFENSIVE POSITION. 
S To«w Of AntiMS "'" 'io^'*^. 
^ 
THE GKllMAN DEFENSIVE TOSITION, FROM LA.ST MOSUAT TO LAST 
VEDXE.SDAT, SEPT'EMBER 14tII TO IGTH. THE BRITISH CON- 
TINQENT ATTACKED FROM SOISSONS ON THE LEFT TO NEAR 
CRAONNE ON THE RIGHT. TO THEIR LEFT ITP TO THE FOREST 
1)E l'aIOI.E was THE FRENCH CtH ARMY ; TO THEIR RIGHT THM 
fi:knch oth armt. the whole line herk shown is 
between fiftv and sixty milks lonu. 
