Their artillery was
in enormous numbers, and their columns advanced under cover of it, not
like an army, but rather like a moving nation--I do not think, however,
with equal pressure at all parts of the line. It formed itself into a
battering ram with a pointed end, and this point was thrust at the heart
of the English wing.
It was impossible to resist this onslaught. If the British forces had
stood against it they would have been crushed and broken. Our gunners
were magnificent, and shelled the advancing German columns so that the
dead lay heaped up along the way which was leading down to Paris; but as
one of them told me: "It made no manner of difference; as soon as we had
smashed one lot another followed, column after column, and by sheer
weight of numbers we could do nothing to check them."
After this the British forces fell back, fighting all the time. The line
of the Allies was now in the shape of a V, the Germans thrusting their
main attack deep into the angle.
This position remained the same until Monday, or, rather, had completed
itself by that date, the retirement of the troops being maintained with
masterly skill and without any undue haste.
Meanwhile Gen. Pau was sustaining a terrific attack on the French
centre by the German left centre, which culminated on (date omitted).
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