While the enemy could offer no great resistance in the
open country south-west of St. Quentin, though there was sharp fighting near St. Simon last Sunday, he has held stubbornly to the wooded hills between. the Oise and the Aisne, where General Margin has been hotly engaged. On Thursday week the Germans beat a retreat to the north of the Ailette, hut, the French followed them up with great spirit, cleared the whole of the Lower Coney Forest, and on Friday week took by storm Barisis, on one of the spurs of the St. Gobain Hills. Further south the French worked steadily eastwards towards the Chemin des Dames, driving the enemy from the Aisne Valley by combined pressure from the west and the south, in which the Americans took an active part. Nanteuil la Fosse and the fort of Conde fell on Friday week, Celles-sur-Aisne last Saturday. The Germans brought up strong reinforcements and made repeated counter-attacks—there were six of them on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning—on the critical ridge crowned by Laffaux, but they have done no more than delay General Mangin's progress. His design is obviously to take the Chemin des Dames positions in flank, as a preliminary to an attack on the St. Gobain Hills, which cover Laon.
