All these operations on the German northern salient, which is gradually coming to be called the Lys salient, have shown no indication of being intended to pave the way for a renewal of the general offensive in Flanders. Their success might, and probably would, have forced the evacuation of Ypres and affected the Picardy salient with its vertex near Amiens, forcing the evacuation of Arras. But, as we have seen, the operations on the Lys salient, meeting with an overwhelming obstruction on April 29, did not achieve these results. Throughout the next three weeks the manoeuvres of the enemy in Picardy afforded excellent opportunities for counterattacks on the part of the Allies, whose object here has been to punish the enemy as much as possible and to consolidate every strategic position on a broad front in anticipation of a renewal of Germany's original scheme to isolate the allied armies north of the Somme by a dash to the mouth of that river via Amiens.
In these circumstances, the enemy on April 30 launched heavy attacks on the French lines in the region of Hangard and Noyon. These fell down, and on May 2 the French made distinct gains in Hangard Wood and near Mailly-Raineval. The next day the French advanced their lines between Hailles and Castel, south of the Avre, and captured Hill 82. On the 6th the British advanced their lines between the Somme and the Ancre, southwest of Morlancourt, and in the neighborhood of Locon and the Lawe River, taking prisoners in both places. On the 11th skirmishes southwest of Mailly-Raineval, between Hangard and Montdidier, developed into a pitched battle, in which the French at first lost ground and then recovered it. On May 14 the Germans, after an intense local bombardment, delivered a spirited attack on a mile front of the British southwest of Morlancourt, gaining a footing in their first trenches. Instantly some Australian troops counterattacked and completely re-established the British positions. On the 16th and 17th the enemy showed impressive and portentous artillery activity along the Avre and at Rollott, on the Abbéville road, south of Montdidier, similar in character to that observed north of Kemmel, on the Lys salient.