The XXI Corps, which had moved from Lunéville on 15 September and the I Bavarian Corps, which marched from Namur, arrived during 24 September but were diverted against the French Second Army as soon as they arrived, to extend the front northwards from Chaulnes to Péronne on 24 September, to attack the French bridgehead and drive the French back over the Somme. The French Second Army crossed the Avre on a line from Lassigny northwards to Roye and Chaulnes but met the German II Corps from the 1st Army, which had arrived from the Aisne front, where new entrenchments had enabled fewer men to garrison the front line. The corps moved into line on the night of on the right flank of the IX Reserve Corps. Despite the assistance of four divisions of the II Cavalry Corps (Lieutenant-General Georg von der Marwitz), the Germans were pushed back to a line from Ribécourt to Lassigny and Roye, which menaced German communications through Ham and St. Quentin. On 21 September, the German XVIII Corps had begun a forced march from Reims and reached Ham on the evening of 23 September. On 24 September, the XVIII Corps attacked towards Roye and with the II Corps, forced back the French IV Corps. To the north, the French Second Army reached Péronne and formed a bridgehead on the east bank of the Somme, which exhausted the offensive capacity of the army. Joffre sent the XI Corps, which was the last French reserve, to the Second Army and began to withdraw three more corps as reinforcements. The German XXI and I Bavarian corps recaptured Péronne and forced the Second Army west of the Somme, where the French managed to dig in on good defensive ground, from Lassigny to Roye and Bray. The German II Cavalry Corps moved north to make room for the II Bavarian Corps on the north bank of the Somme, which had marched from Valenciennes. On 25 September, a German attack near Noyon pushed back the Second Army. French reinforcements attacked again and from a general action took place along the Western Front, from the Vosges to Péronne, after which the main effort of both sides took place further north, at the Battle of Albert The German offensive took very little ground and after a lull the Germans renewed the offensive against the Second Army, which was driven back from Lassigny to a line from Ribecourt on the Oise, to Roye west of Chaulnes and the plateau north of the Somme, between Combles and Albert.