Friday, September 18, 1914, is again a date of moment, not because anything of importance was transacted, but because nothing was transacted.  It was a day of realizations.  It was a day that convinced the Allies that the German positions could not be broken down by frontal attack, just as the battles of the Marne had convinced the Germans that the road to Paris was not yet open.  The six days from September 12 to 18 had revealed beyond preadventure that the German line along the ridge of the Aisne was not merely a convenient halting place for a rear-guard action, but that it was formed of lines of strong fortifications, almost impregnable and absolutely beyond the hope of storming.  The forces were too evenly balanced for any concerted action to produce a desired effect, the possession of air scouts eliminated any question of a surprise.  In other words, the conclusion was borne in upon the Allies with full force that, much as the German plan had failed at Marne, so had the Allies’ plan failed at Aisne.  The crossing of the Aisne, the winning of the heights by Sir Douglas Haig were victories—­not only that, but they were full of that glory which goes with successful daring—­yet they led nowhere.  The plan of the Allies must be abandoned and a new one formed.  This decision of a change of strategical plan, then, closed the Allies’ frontal attack upon the position of the Central Powers on the ridge of the Maise, and marks the end of the first phase of the battle of the Aisne.

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CHAPTER XXII

BOMBARDMENT OF RHEIMS AND SOISSONS

To be considered almost as a part of the advance upon the Aisne were the bombardments of Soissons and of Rheims, the former being a part of the first phase of the Aisne battles, the second belonging to the second phase.  Soissons, it will be remembered, lies at the western end of the high bluffs that form a bank to the River Aisne for over fifty miles.  It is on the high road between Rheims and Compiegne, and on the south side of the Aisne, and consequently returned into French hands on September 13, 1914.  No sooner did the French armies enter the little town, however, than Soissons, dominated by the twin towers of its ancient cathedral, became a target for the concentrated fire of the Germans, whose artillery, it will be remembered, had been supplemented that morning by the huge guns brought on from Maubeuge by the magnificent forced marches of General von Zwehl.  By noon the lower half of that once lovely city was in flames.  On every hand walls collapsed as though they had been made of pasteboard.  Women and children were buried beneath the ruins or blown to pieces as they fled into the streets.  One of the towers of the cathedral was damaged, and there was not a corner of the town that was safe from fire.  The French batteries tried to cover the city and silence the batteries opposing them on the north front of the river, but the odds were too great.