The French tanks did very good service, and fleets of airplanes, British as well as French, swept down upon the battlefield before and behind our infantry, dropping bombs and raining down volleys of bullets wherever a group of enemy soldiers was seen. The numerical inferiority of the French was thus made good. The block of wooded hills was very difficult to defend, even if the enemy had got no further than Mareuil. The woods prevented long views and open fields of fire; the deep ravines invited infiltrations; the Oise Valley at the back left supply and relief columns open to the German guns, and the Matz Valley, on the west, was the plain path of envelopment. These are the reasons why this corner was not held longer. Among the wheat and beet fields of the gently rolling plateau further west, on the other hand, the defense had more advantage. There are folds of ground enough to hide its batteries and reserves, but in every direction there are open lines of fire, room for manoeuvre and numerous railroads. Striking northeast from the Estrées Railway, the French threaten the German centre. To continue the southward march, even if it were possible, before this pressure on the west had been disposed of would be reckless. Hutier has met his match. [Illustration: First parade of United States National Army men in London. The photograph shows them rounding the corner at Hyde Park (© _Central News Photo Service_)] [Illustration: General Philipot of the French Army decorating American officers who distinguished themselves in opposing the German advance in Picardy (_French Pictorial Service_)] THE COMPIEGNE THRUST _On June 13 General von Hutier made a threatening thrust toward Compiègne, which was parried by the French and was practically the termination of further serious efforts in this phase by the Germans. Mr. Perris tells the story of it as follows:_ South of the Aisne the high, bare farmlands extending from Soissons to the borders of the forest of Compiègne are cut by a valley running up from the other great forest of Villers-Cotterets to the river at Ambleny. This valley, with the villages of Laversine, Coeuvre, Cutry, Dommiers, and St. Pierre-Aigle, has constituted the front for the last fortnight, with French outposts on the east side, but the real line of resistance on the west. Von Hutier having met with trouble beyond his expectations on the west of the Oise, his colleague, von Boehm, was sent yesterday morning to create a diversion on this flank of the battlefield. Five divisions, two of them fresh ones, were thrown forward on both sides of Laversine, a front of four miles.