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These engagements developed the illuminating fact that during times of peace German capital had been invested in these quarries and that the foresight of the Germans had led them to fortify these quarries, so that they were veritable fortresses, and indeed, formed a continuation of that line of defense the crowning point of which was the Aisne cliff near the plateau of the Craonne.

Curious conversation between General Reynier and the Emperor Alexander Napoleon repulses the Prussians The Russians at Fontainebleau Battle of Brienne Sketch of the campaign of France Supper after the battle of Champ Aubert Intelligence of the arrival of tho Duc d'Angouleme and the Comte d'Artois in France The battle of the ravens and the eagle Battle of Craonne Departure of the Pope and the Spanish Princes Capture of a convoy Macdonald at the Emperor's headquarters The inverted cipher.

Throughout the day of July 19, 1917, French and German artillery were active along the whole French front, but beyond inflicting some casualties for which they paid heavily the Germans gained no advantage. A general assault was launched by the Germans with important forces during the night of July 19, 1917, on the line along the plateau between Craonne and Vauclerc.

Close by are all the places famous through years of fighting Souain, Navarin Farm, Tahure, the Butte de Tahure, and, to the north-west, Somme-Py, Ste. Marie-Py, and so on to Moronvilliers and Craonne.

Clouds of smoke were rising from Allemant to Craonne, and these were constantly added to by infinitesimal puffs in black and white. I knew that shells of enormous calibre were wrecking trenches, blasting out huge craters; and yet not a sound, not the faintest reverberation of a gun. Here was a sight almost to make one laugh at man's idea of the importance of his pygmy wars.

For this reason the Germans were desperately anxious to recover the Craonne position, which was the key to the whole tactical situation in this part of the front. For about two weeks the British had been bombarding the strong German salient south of Ypres. On June 7, 1917, they delivered against this position or series of fortifications an overwhelming blow.

After about three weeks' training, during which an epidemic of influenza visited the camp, the Battalion marched to billets in Glennes, a small village near the Aisne. Here final preparations were made for the line, and after a few days it moved up to relieve a battalion of the 73rd French Infantry Regiment in the woods immediately east of the Craonne Plateau. The relief was very interesting.

Nivelle swept forward, carrying all of the first line of German positions between Soissons and Craonne. They also took the second line positions, south of Juvincourt, east of Craonne, reached the outskirts of Bermericourt, and advanced up the Aisne canal at Loivre and Courcy. During these operations the French captured 10,000 Germans and a vast amount of war material.

While their allies were gaining ground and hastening the German retreat on their front, the French in the regions of Braye, north of Craonne, northwest of Rheims, and on the left bank of the Meuse, near Cumières, were being hammered continuously by German guns. It seemed that defenses and defenders must be destroyed by this hurricane of fire and shell.

Neither side is able to cross that strip without being crumpled by fire against which no body of men can stand. The Germans have attempted to break through the British and French forces hundreds of times but have been compelled to withdraw, and always with severe losses. "A number of small towns are distributed in this narrow strip, the most important being Craonne.