Whether or not the enemy meant to make a stand
south of the Vesle, Marshal Foch left him no option. A dashing attack by French and British troops on Thursday week drove the Germans off the Grand Rozoy Ridge, north-east of Oulchy-le-Chateau, which was the western buttress of the line that they might conceivably have held. The immediate results of this victory were the evacuation of Soissons, outflanked from the south, and the hasty retirement of the enemy along the whole front south of the Vesle. Last Saturday the Allies, with the Americans in the centre, advanced on a thirty. mile front and reached the Aisne and the Vesle. The Americans, who, in General Mangin's phrase, "went to the battle as to a feast," took Fismes.by storm last Sunday. Up to that day they had cap- tured eight thousand four hundred prisoners and one hundred and thirty-three guns. The Allies in the last fortnight of July took thirty-three thousand four hundred prisoners, including six hundred and seventy-four, officers. The German losses must have been at least five times that number.
