For a few days after the tide of battle in France turned in favor of the Allies (September 9), the German forces continued to retreat to the north, closely followed by the French and British armies that had fought and won the battle of the Marne, as described in a previous chapter. This northward movement was marked by heavy German losses in men and munitions of war, and lasted until Saturday, September 12, when the Germans were found to be occupying a position of great defensive strength on the River Aisne, north of Soissons. At that time they held both sides of the river and had a formidable line of intrenchments on the hills to the north of eight road bridges and two railway bridges crossing the Aisne. Seven of the road bridges and both the railway bridges had been destroyed. The Allies gained some high ground south of the Aisne, overlooking the Aisne valley, east of Soissons. Then began (on Saturday, September 12) an action along the Aisne which was destined to go down in history as the greatest and most prolonged battle of all time. Two days, three days, a week, two weeks, three, four, five weeks it lasted, with varying fortune to the contending armies, but no decisive result. Germans, French and British, literally by the thousand, fell under the continuous hail of shrapnel, the hurricane of machine-gun and rifle fire, or in the desperate bayonet charges of daily occurrence, but still the battle raged. Minor positions were gained and lost, towns and villages along the far-flung battle line were occupied and evacuated, countless deeds of heroism were wrought, to be sung and celebrated by posterity in a dozen different lands--but the lines on both sides held and victory refused to perch on any banner. Modern scientific strategy exhausted its utmost efforts; flanking and turning movements were planned, attempted and failed; huge masses of men were hurled against each other in every formation known to military skill; myriads of lives and millions of money were sacrificed in historic endeavors to breach the enemy's front--but ever the foeman held his ground and neither side could claim decided advantage. Intrenchments such as the world has never seen before covered the countryside for fifty miles. Teuton, Gaul and Anglo-Saxon, Turco and Hindu, literally "dug themselves in," and refused to budge an inch, though hell itself, in all its horror and its fury, was loosed against them. And thus the battle of the Aisne--also aptly called, from its extent and ramifications, the battle of the Rivers--continued through many weeks while all the world wondered and stood aghast at the slaughter, and the single gleam of brightness that came out of that maelstrom of death and misery was the growing respect of Frenchman, German and Briton for the individual and collective courage of each other and the death-defying devotion that was daily displayed by all. FIGHTING CONTINUOUS DAY AND NIGHT