August I, 1 91 8 
Land & Water 
A large number of reinforcements appear in the already 
densely' congested pocket. Connter-attacks upon the most 
lavish scale, exceedingly expensive in men, and thrown in 
everywhere east and west, almost maintain the line as it was 
now after the first day of the'retreat. The enemy continues 
to hold miles of the Marne front at the extreme southern, that 
is, most advanced end, of the pocket, where supply is most 
difficult, and where the peril is greatest. He actually recovers 
ground at 'one or two places ; at near Vrigny and at Ville- 
montoire on the west. Why this exceedingly high expendi- 
ture in men, and why this curioiis halt in a movement of 
retirement which had already begun ? 
If it were due to the necessity of keeping off the Allied 
pressure while stores and artillery were remo\'ed from advance 
bases that would have been done before retirement began ; 
nor does our pre\-ious experience show that a whole week 
was necessary for such removals. If the delay was due to 
the time required to prepare a new line upon which to fall 
back, that would not account for the keeping of the most 
advanced units on the extreme south upon the river. The 
most conclusive piece of evidence as to the enemy's policy 
at this moment is the numbers he used to maintain his line. 
How many divisions he borrowed- from elsewhere in his 
attempt to hold we cannot tell ; the identification is net 
complete. But it seems to have been anything between 
12 and 15. Now, he already had something like a division 
to every mile and a half, and this accession of strength by 
anything from 30 to over .40 per cent, can hardly have beftn 
needed for the mere purpose of holding the pocket open while 
his new line was being prepared. 
The general conclusion seems to be that some one in 
authority still thought it possible until the very end of last 
week to hold the line of the salient as it existed after the 
first day's retirement, and especially to keep a firm grip 
upon the extreme southern edge, where for several miles it 
bordered the Marne. 
The importance of the latter position will be sqen if the 
reader will turn to the accompanying map reproduced from 
our issue of last week. It will be remembered that we said 
there that one of the chief objects of the new enemy offensive 
was to get at and cut the onlj' remaining line directly con- 
necting Paris and the Allied centre with Verdun and Nancy 
and the AlUed East. 
Amiens, 
tARIS 
Soisson5 _^ . 
Chafeau 
Thien" 
Sezanne 
Cha&auTIuerty 1 1 1 ^ 1 1 i 1 
Atteriiafii>e Lim 
Tftwcy 
' 2 ' ' ' 3 ' ' 1 ' ' 
There are two lines thus directly serving the Eastern part 
of the Allied line in the West. The first is the great main 
international artery Paris - Chateau - Thierry - Epemay - 
Chalons-Vitry-Nancy-Strasburg, and so on to the Danube 
Valley. From Chalons went a line uniting this to Verdun. 
Upon this railway the material was suited to the strainjof 
