The Western Front _Colored Insert_ Advance of the Allies on the Amiens Front, August 8, 1918 14 Battle Lines and Operations on the Western Front in 1918, Including German Territory Held by the Allied Armies of Occupation 61 The "Hindenburg Line," the Line of Farthest German Advance, and the Battle Line When the Armistice Began, November 11, 1918 64 The German Territory Occupied Under the Armistice Terms 77 Italy's Successful Offensive, October, 1918 101 The Conquest of Palestine, Syria, and Mesopotamia by the British Armies 115 The Surrender of the German Fleet 148 PART I--THE WESTERN FRONT CHAPTER I DESTRUCTION MARKS THE GERMAN RETREAT--THE FRENCH CAPTURE SOISSONS, FISMES, AND IMPORTANT POSITIONS--THE BRITISH WIN GREAT VICTORIES NEAR ALBERT The continued advance of the Allies in the first days of August, 1918, along the front from Soissons to Rheims was a decisive blow to the German hopes of gaining Paris; the capital was no longer threatened. The hard-pressed foe was now forced to retreat hurriedly on all sides of the Marne salient, which was rapidly being flattened out by the irresistible pressure of French and British armies. On August 2, 1918, the forces under General Mangin took Soissons. Southwest of Rheims General Berthelot occupied Ville-en-Tardenois, marking an advance for the day of over three miles. Supported by a French contingent, British troops crossed the Crise River, which joins the Aisne at Soissons, and regained a considerable strip of territory southeast of that city. The German retreat was orderly and in no sense a rout. Their hurried retirement was marked by pillage and incendiarism and the usual devastations according to their settled program. North of Fère-en-Tardenois French and American forces advanced simultaneously in the early morning of August 2, 1918, the French occupying Cramaille and Cramoiselle and later Saponay, where forty railroad cars and a number of locomotives fell into their hands. The advance of the Allies was made under heavy barrage; the German artillery replied at times, but it was feeble and ineffective. Their retreat was in a northward direction through the valley from Saponay and was marked by great fires behind the lines as they destroyed many ammunition dumps before retiring. At a few points there was some sharp fighting, but the Germans made no serious attempt to stem the advance of the Allies and seemed only eager to get away and avoid trouble as far as possible.