The tale of that great achievement—one of the greatest in the history of war—can here only be sketched. The record of a brigade moves for the most part in the mist; its story is of tactical successes, which may be only a minute part in the major purpose. Rarely, indeed, does it appear, like the South Africans at Marrières Wood, in the very centre of the stage, and the work of a small unit become the key to the strategical fortunes of an army. On 8th August Haig struck east of Amiens, followed by Humbert on the 9th, and Mangin on the 18th. On the 21st Byng’s Third Army moved, and next day Rawlinson’s Fourth Army, and on the 26th Horne’s First Army astride the Scarpe. By the end of the month we had carried the Bapaume Ridge, the intermediate position which Ludendorff had hoped to hold till the coming of winter, when he could retire at leisure behind the Siegfried zone. On 2nd September the Canadians broke through the Drocourt-Quéant switch, and turned the Siegfried flank on the north. Steadily during the next week Haig forced the Germans behind the water line of the Canal du Nord, and inside the main Siegfried defences. On 12th September Pershing and the Americans far in the south put an end to the St. Mihiel salient. By the 24th Ludendorff was everywhere back in his last lines—the “granite wall” which the German army chiefs had told their countrymen could never be pierced. There he hoped to stand till such time as winter took the edge from the Allies’ ardour, and disposed them to compromise. [Illustration: THE VICTORIOUS ADVANCE. OPERATIONS OF THE XIII. CORPS UP TO 11TH NOVEMBER 1918.]