. Battlefields of the World War, western and southern fronts; a study in military geography . s of passage, the situa-tion was for the moment reassuring on that part of the of the bridges had been destroyed, and attempts of theenemy to cross were repulsed with heavy losses. Throughoutthe night of the 23rd and all day of the 24th the north-south sec-tor of the valley south of Peronne was held by the defenders,except at Pargny, half way between Peronne and Ham, wherethe enemy succeeded in establishing a bridgehead on the westernbank. At Ham, however, the bridges were not completely de
. Battlefields of the World War, western and southern fronts; a study in military geography . s of passage, the situa-tion was for the moment reassuring on that part of the of the bridges had been destroyed, and attempts of theenemy to cross were repulsed with heavy losses. Throughoutthe night of the 23rd and all day of the 24th the north-south sec-tor of the valley south of Peronne was held by the defenders,except at Pargny, half way between Peronne and Ham, wherethe enemy succeeded in establishing a bridgehead on the westernbank. At Ham, however, the bridges were not completely de-molished, and the enemy crossed in force. The two enemy SECOND SOMME BATTLE 175 crossings of the Crozat Canal had been maintained and otherseffected, so that this least formidable portion of the long line ofvalley and canal had to be abandoned. Its defenders, covered ontheir right by the Oise from La Fere to Noyon, fell back west-ward toward the Canal du Nord (Libermont section), which fromthe Oise at Noyon follows up one small marshy valley and downanother to join the Somme west of Fig. 49—The fortified summit of Mont Renaud, showing at the right how effect-ively it commands the valley of the Oise below. (French official photograph.) North of that portion of the Oise valley between La Fere andNoyon, and parallel to it, the long outlying strip of the Parisianplateau which we have called the Noyon massif interposed awedge of wooded, difficult country between the enemy forcesadvancing westward down the valley toward Noyon and thoseoperating north of it, in the country south of Ham. It nowbecame apparent that these northern forces, instead of pushingwestward, were facing south with the intention of attackingthe Lassigny-Noyon massif, constituting the first line of thenorthern defense of Paris, and, by breaking through the Noyongateway, gaining that part of the Oise valley which from hereturns more nearly southward and forms a natural pathway to the 176 BATTLEFIELD OF THE
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectworldwar19141918
