On March 21, the German offensive in France was launched and its successes were more rapid and more terrible than could have been expected. After a few days all the territory laboriously conquered at the cost of enormous losses by the Allied forces in the spring and summer of 1917, were lost, and the enemy still advanced irresistibly towards Amiens, to separate the British from the French Armies. Immediately afterwards the offensive in Flanders began, which, although less rapid than the other, achieved menacing successes. In May there was another great German offensive on the Chemin des Dames, and in two days the enemy regained the ground won by the French in the preceding summer, and pushed much further on, crossing the Marne at several points and again threatening Paris. It seemed as though nothing could now hold up the overwhelming advance. At this grave moment the Macedonian front was more neglected than ever, and the Army in the East was indeed made use of to provide reinforcements for the Western front. In the despairing search for effectives to fill up the gaps in the French front it was decided to withdraw certain units from the East. During the winter of 1917–18 the French Army in Macedonia had received sufficient reinforcements to bring the battalions up to a semblance of their organic strength. The total of the French Army which had been reduced to 180,000 men, had been again raised to 210,000. The British, too, received some reinforcements. We continued to maintain our own strength, except for the withdrawal of the 7th battalion in the summer of 1917, which I have already mentioned. But with the German offensive in France, the French and British Commands sent a commission to the East to examine the possibility of withdrawing troops, and it was decided to send to France the equivalent of 12 battalions from each of the two armies. From the British contingent, which comprised 12 brigades of 4 battalions each, one whole battalion per brigade was withdrawn; the French instead withdrew a corresponding number of men from various units, while a few regiments, whose strength had been greatly reduced, were broken up. This gave increasing importance to the Greek Army, which was in a position to supply the Macedonian front with a number of men, not by any means equivalent in fighting quality or training to the French and British battalions withdrawn, but stronger in effectives. This decision was generally deplored, because 24 battalions represented a very negligible increase of strength on the French front where vast armies millions strong were engaged, whereas by withdrawing them from Macedonia they constituted a reduction of force which was anything but indifferent, and could not be compensated by even twice that number of Greek battalions; this made the situation of the Allied troops remaining at that front--our own included--much harder.