LAND AND WATEK Scptemljer 2G, 1914 
FIRST OR EXTREME WESTERN SECTION. 
LASSICNY 
) r- on, Souti, .. /\ 
'••• - ^^ •' • y"' Sase or jrcateau. 
iMORSAjN 
tse of Ptjotec 
SiBNOUVRdN , 
CX)MPEICNE 
=....••-* STCHRISTGPHE .; ' ,•••. 
^VIC'—-— -"•-■•.- -'' •' •• 
SOISSONS 
IV 
The first section is that lying between Soissons 
and the line of the Oise between Noyon and Compiogne 
to the west. 
This section is somewhat over twenty miles in 
length. The crossing of the Aisnc and the following 
up of the Oise in llank of the Gennans Avas here 
entrusted, as we have seen, to the 6th French Army. 
Sunday and Monday, September 13th-14th, were 
the two days devoted to the crossing of the river 
which, difficult though it was, could only be the 
prelude to the real struggle beyond. 
The GeiTnan defensive line does not consist in 
the Eiver Aisne, but in the plateau beyond that 
stream to the north. As will be seen from the 
sketch, the general base of that plateau is exceedingly 
irregular, for it is deeply ravined ; but a continuous 
central ridge is its main defensive feature. The 
po lilts at which the river was crossed in foi'ce by the 
6tii Army were Vic and Pontnoy, where pontoons 
were tlu'own across under a heavy fire from the gun 
positions upon the advancing outlines of the plateau, 
which fall in steep slopes down from the north to the 
Aisne. By Tuesday morning the French troops had 
taken these first buttresses of the plateau, that is, 
they had pushed back the German line from the edges 
of the slopes above the river. They marched, fighting, 
through St. Christophe and occupied Nouvron and 
Autrcches and the deejjish valley of Morsain. The 
Gcnnans still maintained a number of guns, pushed 
forward upon the high flats between Autrcches and 
the centre ridge, and it was the intention of the 
French command in this district to push forward 
sufiiciently to cut off these guns. But the attempt 
failed. 
In the night between the Tuesday and the 
Wednesday a determined counter-offensive imdertaken 
by the Gennans from the district round about 
lfam2:)col di-ove the French back nearly to the river, 
and Autrcches in particular Avas abandoned. All that 
Wednesday night the searchlights played upon the 
trenches the French had dug nearer the stream and 
the shelling of these trenches by the Germans was 
continuous. Upon Thursday, however, September 1 7th, 
the value of the considerable reserves which the 
French (in spite of their heavy work and in sj)ite of 
what they were doing further west upon the Oise) 
still keep, was apparent. These forces were brought 
across the river, the German covmter-offensive was 
checked in the forenoon of that Thursday, and the 
whole German line here was pushed right back to 
Nampcel itself and beyond. In other words it was 
jiushed i-ight on to the principal ridge of the plateau. 
But further north it could not for the moment be 
pushed. It stood firm. And from this, the crest of 
the whole defensive position at its western end, the 
heavy guns were still playing on Sunday the 20th 
upon the Valley of the Aisne below. 
In this partially successful operation some six 
hundred prisoners and a number of machine guns were 
taken. 
But meanwhile other Fi-ench forces had been 
slowly working up the valley of the Oise in the west 
and so menacing the flank of the Gennan position. It 
needs no elaboration of description to show that this 
turning movement would, if it were successful, comj^el 
the abandonment of at least all this part of the plateau 
and ridge above the Aisne by the Germans : for they 
would be menaced in rear. News of such a success 
had not reached London by Wednesday night, but a 
steady if slow advance was being made in this direction. 
What has been said above with regard to the 
German communications will sufficiently indicate the 
purpose and value of such an advance. Unfortunately, 
there is nothing to tell us exactly what its extent may 
be up to and including Sunday September SOth. But 
we may take it that those reaches of the Oise above 
6* 
