The Interlude—The Strategic Situation during the Summer—The Méteren Area—Awaiting the German Attack—The Action of 25th June—The Capture of Méteren on 19th July—The End of the Composite Battalion—The Brigade re-formed—Leaves the 9th Division and joins the 66th. The summer of 1918 may be regarded as an interlude in the history of the South African forces in France. The continuity was not broken, for there was still a titular South African Brigade, commanded by a South African general; but the old regiments had shrunk to companies, and only one battalion was South African in its composition. Again, the summer months were for the northern part of the British line a time of comparative quiet. The great tides of war had flowed southward, and before May was out came Ludendorff’s thrust on the Aisne, which drove the French back upon the Marne and in seventy-two hours advanced the enemy front by more than thirty miles. In that southern area the German tactics of April were repeated, and presently von Hutier pressed forward on the right, and carried the Lassigny hills. Then, after a delay of six weeks, came the last attack on the Marne, which was to open the way to Paris, and with it Ludendorff’s final and irretrievable failure. But in the early summer that consummation could not have been foreseen, and the months of May, June, and July were an anxious season for the Allied Command. When Foch became Commander-in-Chief his first problem was to create reserves, and his second to use just enough of them to hold the enemy. While the American armies were growing in numbers and efficiency he had to be ready, with still scanty resources, to face at any moment a new assault on any one of four sections of his long line. But his defence was not stagnant; it was as vigilant and aggressive as any attack; and there were two facts in the situation which might well seem to him of happy augury. He had devised an answer to the new German tactics, and formed his own scheme against the day of _revanche_. Again, the German strategy was clearly fumbling. The Lys had seen the decadence of the original plan, and the later adventures were blind and irrelevant hammer-blows. Germany, with waning strength, was being forced to stake all on a last throw; if that failed, she might soon be helpless before the waxing might of the Allies. * * * * *