EPISODES OF THE GREAT WAR [1918

British army which played the greatest part, Foch
and Haig working together in perfect unity.

The Battle of Amiens was a conspicuous success.
It was, in Ludendorff's phrase, " the black day of
the German army in the history of the war." Suc-
cess was due to the brilliant tactical surprise and the
high efficiency of the new tanks which took the place
of the preliminary bombardment. At one point
the British tanks took captive a German regimental
mess while it was breakfasting ; at another the whole
staff of a division was seized; in some villages the
Germans were taken in their billets before they knew
what had happened, and parties of the enemy were
made prisoner when working in the harvest fields.
The battle, the first phase of the Allies' offensive,
closed upon the 12th. For they were in the old battle
area, whose tangled wilderness gave unrivalled oppor-
tunities for defence, and the enemy had been heavily
reinforced. He had a moment of respite ; but it had
been won at the expense of his waning reserves.

The effect of the Battle of Amiens had far greater
importance than the material result. The mental
condition of the enemy has been described by Sir
Douglas Haig : " Buoyed up by the hope of im-
mediate and decisive victory, to be followed by an
early and favourable peace, constantly assured that
the Allied reserves were exhausted, the German
soldiery suddenly found themselves attacked on two
fronts and thrown back with heavy losses from large
and important portions of their earlier gains. The
reaction was inevitable and of a deep and lasting
character." The effect upon their leaders was still
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