SAMBRE 4 Nov 18, was part of the final European Allied offensives of World War I. German resistance was falling away. Unprecedented numbers of prisoners were taken in the Battle of the Selle, and a new attack was quickly prepared. The French First Army and the British First, Third, and Fourth Armies were tasked with advancing along a 30-mile (48 km) front toward Maubeuge-Mons. Together with the American forces breaking out of the forests of Argonne, the attack disrupted German efforts to reform a shortened defensive line along the Meuse.