STORY OF THE BATTLE

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 42, 17 August 1918, Page 7

STORY OF THE BATTLE

THE PLAN AND ITS EXECUTION

STATEMENT BY GENERAL

HUMBERT.

(REUTERS mBORAU.)

LONDON, 15th August.

lieu-tor's correspondent at French Headquarters states that General Humbert received the correspondents and summed up Marshal Foch's manoeuvre as follows -.—The Fourth British and First French Armies wero to attack simultaneously in tho general direction of the Amiens-lvoye road. At the right moment the Third French Army would intervene, pushing in the direction of Roye. when tho Germans, menaced with envelopment, would be forced to retreat, our general objective being to drive them back between Amiens and the Cfee.

General Humbert was allotted the attack— After the Germans were reeling under the blow of General de Beny's and General Eawlinson's armies, he moved reinforcements into the sector between Montdidier and the Somme. The operation resulted as Marshal Foeh had foveaeeu.

General Humbert attacked at dawn on lOtii August. The thinly-held German lino was incapable of resistance. The Germans had taken the precaution of evacuating tha Montid'.dier-Assainvillevs salient. General Humbert, finding the rcsiuUince weaker than expected, pressed on in the direction of Eoye. <■

The situation developed rapidly, and' a change of plan was feasible. It was no longer necessary for General Humbert to advance in the direction of Roye, therefore, on 11th August, ho swung round so that the whole line fronted east instead of north-east, and began a battle which resulted in the capture of the koy points of the Thicscourfc massif. On 12th August the enemy received rein-

forcements, and began to offer an obtinate resistance. Further German divisions had been brought into the line on the Thieseourt hills, which will not surrender without hard fighting.