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General Nivelle, who had taken command at Verdun under Joffre, commenced a series of attacks and a persistent pressure against the German forces on both sides of the Meuse. These thrusts culminated in a sudden sweeping attack which on October 24th, resulted in the recapture by Nivelle's forces of Fort Douaumont and on November 2d, in the recapture of Fort Vaux.
To the west the French captured several fortified lines of trenches from the heights as far south as Beine. East of the mount General Nivelle's men forced their way up the northern slopes of Mont Haut; and northeast of this position to the approaches of the road from Mauroy and Moronvilliers.
But so far was this from being the case that no one appeared; the house rose still and silent in the mellow light of sunset, and, for all that we could see, might have been the fabled palace of enchantment. "'He is Jean de Nivelle's dog; he runs away when you call him," the King quoted. "Get down, Rosny. We have reached the palace of the Sleeping Princess. It remains only to sound the horn, and "
The failure of Nivelle's great blow at the Chemin des Dames on the 16th April with enormous losses, made the French Armies incapable of any offensive operation on a large scale for several months. Hence the Battle of Arras, which had begun so happily, degenerated towards the end of April into a series of furious struggles, each of which showed less promise of decisive importance than the last.
But it seemed to me that in the feeling of France, Champagne came next Champagne, associated first of all with Castelnau's victory in the autumn of 1915, then with General Nivelle's tragic check in 1917, with the serious crisis in the French Army in May and June of that year; and finally with General Gouraud's brilliant successes in the summer and autumn of 1918.
Nivelle's failure in April 1917 combined with the Russian collapse to preclude an Entente repetition of the German invasion of August 1914; and Lord Curzon's mental vision of Gurkhas encamping in Berlin was destined to remain a dream. The breakdown of Russia and of the French campaign paralysed other offensives than those on the Western front, and a sympathetic inertia spread to the Balkans.
On the front from Soissons to Rheims General Nivelle's troops captured four villages, which brought them to the outskirts of Courteçon, an advance of about two miles for the day. Another successful French attack was delivered to the west, where the old German line stood on the south bank of the Aisne, which resulted in the capture of the important town of Vailly and a strong bridgehead near by.
This divergence resulted from the changed view of the military situation imposed upon the Entente by Nivelle's failure. He had believed that the time had come for ambitious objectives; Haig had demurred and clung to the idea of operations limited in their scope like that of the Somme; and Pétain accepted that view when he succeeded Nivelle.
On April 20, 1917, General Nivelle's troops occupied Sancy village and gained ground east of Laffaux. The French front in this sector now faced the fort of Malmaison, which crowns a range of high hills protecting the highroad from Soissons to Laon. The Germans launched a heavy attack on April 19, 1917, in which large forces of troops were employed in the region of Ailles and Hurtebise Farm.
The French launched a concerted attack on the following day, April 3, 1917, over a front of eight miles on both sides of the Somme, storming the heights south and southwest of St. Quentin and advancing within two miles of the city, General Nivelle's forces were now in a position to begin the final attack on the place. Haig's troops on the British front west of St.
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