2/10/1918 Western Front: in the north Germany retreats, while in the Argonne the “Lost Battalion” gets lost

Allied forces on the Western Front are pressing the Germans hard. British troops have pierced the Hindenburg Line and in response the Germans are building a new position to its rear, the Hermann Line. As the Germans prepare to retreat there are some shocking incidents of indiscipline. In Cambrai the town is looted by the Germans but then fighting breaks out over the spoils between Prussian and Bavarian troops. Shots are fired and fifteen soldiers killed, including an officer who is thrown from an upstairs window.

On the Allied side British and Commonwealth troops are doing much of the fighting. The French army is exhausted, still in a fragile state after the mutinies last year and the casualties it has suffered since the start of the war. Today nevertheless French units manage to take the town of St. Quentin from the Germans. The French are shocked at the state in…