Both flow in from the south,
the Suippe, which joins the main stream at Neufchatel-sur-Aisne and
the Vesle, on which stands the ancient city of Rheims. This river
joins the Aisne a little over seven miles east of Soissons, which
is itself twenty miles east of Compiegne.
The line taken by the German armies for their stand was not the
river itself, but the northern ridge. At no place more than a mile
and a half from the river, it was always within gunfire of any
crossing. Every place of crossing was commanded by a spur. Every
road on the north bank was in their hands, every road on the south
bank curved upward so as to be a fair mark for their artillery.
As the German drive advanced, a huge body of sappers and miners
had been left behind to fortify this Aisne line, and the system
developed was much the same along its entire distance.
There were two lines of barbed-wire entanglements, one in the bed
of the stream which would prevent fording or swimming, and which,
being under water, could not easily be destroyed by gunfire from
the southern bank. Above this was a heavy chevaux-de-frise and
barbed-wire entanglement, partly sunk and concealed from view; in
many places pitted and covered with brushwood. Above this, following
approximately a thirty-foot contour, came a line of trenches for
infantry, and fifty yards behind a second line of trenches, commanding
a further elevation of fifty feet.
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