All was now ready for the great move which should break the spine of the whole German resistance. There was still some preliminary struggling for positions {79} of departure and final readjustments of the line, but they were all part of the great decisive operation of September 29 and may best be included in that account. The chronicler can never forget how, late upon the eve of the battle, he drove in a darkened motor along pitch-black roads across the rear of the Army, and saw the whole eastern heaven flickering with war light as far as the eyes could see, as the aurora rises and falls in the northern sky. So terrific was the spectacle that the image of the Day of Judgment rose involuntarily to his mind. It was indeed the day of Judgment for Germany--the day when all those boastful words and wicked thoughts and arrogant actions were to meet their fit reward, and the wrong-doers to be humbled in the dust. On that day Germany's last faint hope was shattered, and every day after was but a nearer approach to that pit which had been dug for her by her diplomatists, her journalists, her professors, her junkers, and all the vile, noisy crew who had brought this supreme cataclysm upon the world. The reader will note then that we leave the Fourth Army, consisting from the right of the Ninth Corps, the Australians, and the Third Corps, in front of the terrific barrier of the main Hindenburg Line. We shall now hark back and follow the advance of Byng's Third Army from its attack on August 21st until, five weeks later, it found itself in front of the same position, carrying on the line of its comrades in the south. [Illustration: Position of British Corps, end of September 1918.] {80} CHAPTER IV THE ATTACK OF BYNG's THIRD ARMY August 21, 1918, to September 29, 1918 Advance of Shute's Fifth Corps--Great feat in crossing the Ancre--Across the old battlefield--Final position of Fifth Corps opposite Hindenburg's Main Line--Advance of Haldane's Sixth Corps--Severe fighting--Arrival of Fifty-second Division--Formation of Fergusson's Seventeenth Corps--Recapture of Havrincourt--Advance of Harper's Fourth Corps--Great tenacity of the troops--The New Zealanders and the Jaeger--Final position before the decisive battle. [Sidenote: August 21.] On August 20 General Mangin had pushed forward the Tenth French Army, which formed the left of his force, and attacked along a sixteen-mile front from the Oise to the Aisne, thus connecting up the original operations with those initiated by Marshal Haig. The movement was very successful, taking some 10,000 prisoners and gaining several miles of ground. We have now to turn to the left of Rawlinson's advance, and to consider the new movement which brought Byng's Third British Army into the fray. [Illustration: Advance of First, Third, and Fourth British Armies from August 21, 1918, to September 2, 1918. Arrows point to the Rupture of the Quéant-Drocourt Line]