. The last four months; how the war was won . itish army, having made one of the mostmarvellous recoveries in the history of war, wassure of its superiority, individual and collective,over the enemy. The grim, determined, stolidendurance of the spring had been changed by theseries of victories which began with the battle ofAmiens into eager, irresistible enthusiasm. Thesecond battle of the Marne had taught the Alliedleaders that the untried American troops could fightand win with far less training than they had calcu-lated to be necessary; the victory of St. Mihiel hadshown that an American ar
. The last four months; how the war was won . itish army, having made one of the mostmarvellous recoveries in the history of war, wassure of its superiority, individual and collective,over the enemy. The grim, determined, stolidendurance of the spring had been changed by theseries of victories which began with the battle ofAmiens into eager, irresistible enthusiasm. Thesecond battle of the Marne had taught the Alliedleaders that the untried American troops could fightand win with far less training than they had calcu-lated to be necessary; the victory of St. Mihiel hadshown that an American army could take the field asan entity. Every one of the data upon which Luden-dorfif had based the plan for the Friedensturm hadbeen proved to be false. The spirit of France wasas high as ever; the British army, far from beingexhausted, had struck hard and often and with con-spicuous success; the Americans were not onlypresent in numbers, but had taught the Germans tofear their dash, skill and valour. 124 1^ IT BRUJ • MOl ^Sl Sissor REIM ^^.. !q!ilt^J^ CHAPTER IV ARMAGEDDON The Hindenburg Line — The American Battle of theMeuse-Argonne — Gouraud in Champagne — HaigBreaks the Hindenburg Line — Kingnf^lberf s Advanceinto Belgium — The Result of Armtgeddon FocH, having prepared the way for his decisive thrustby his series of preliminary punches, was about tolaunch the Allied armies against the most formidableof all the German defenses. The name Hinden-burg Line originated with the British soldiers, whoso entitled the great system of German works whichhad been discovered towards the end of 1916 behindthe Somme battlefield. At the end of August, 1916, when Hindenburgand Ludendorff first arrived at Great Headquartersthe German military situation was by no meansrosy. Russia was still formidable, the Austrianarmy required a great deal of support, Roumaniawas about to enter the field, the Verdun offensivehad proved to be a disastrous failure, the Britisharmy had grown to formid
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