After a period of rest and reorganization, the German military's four army corps had recovered to peak fighting condition. Although some units had not yet filled their manpower gaps, the soldiers' exhaustion had been eased, and with large quantities of weapons and ammunition replenished, their combat effectiveness had been restored.
The German military's losses in the Battle of Canterbury had not been great, so the decline in combat effectiveness caused by manpower shortages was not severe either. Whether in morale or fighting strength, they could utterly crush the British forces defending London.
Dartford, Sidcup, Bromley, Croydon, and Epsom, the five small towns south of London, were almost linked in a straight line. This led the British forces defending London to station heavy troops in these towns, using them to build a solid defensive line. They wanted to rely on this line to stop the German military's advance on London, or rather, to use it to further wear down the German military's living strength.
The British knew that with their current strength, defeating the German military would be exceedingly difficult. Their only chance of victory lay in using City Urban Warfare to consume as much of the German military's living strength as possible. Only then could they make the German military pay a grievous price in battle and thereby secure victory. Knowing full well that their fighting strength was far inferior to the German military's, the British could only rely on defensive fortifications.
The British had originally deployed two army corps on the southern defensive line: the 12th Army Corps and the 13th Army Corps. Later, the reorganized 1st Army Corps was added as well. General Haig, who had retreated from the front, was appointed Commander of the southern defensive line and given full authority over the three army corps there.