The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-04-04
BRETON WRITES OF WAR IN CHAMP ACNE Sustained Operation on the
 German Left Wing LITTLE RIFLE FIRE Is Work of Explosives and Bayonets. French Have Made Steady and Continuous Progress and Have
 Lost Nothing Won

London, March Correspondent of the Associated Press "A British observer with the French forces in the field, who has the permission of Gen eral Joffre to report on the work of the French army, has sent in to the official press bureau an account cov- ering the three weeks since February 15 in Champagne In the district mid way between Rheims and verdun, on he says the French have been attack Ing one point or another every day for three weeks
 Tt is sustained operation of a different kind to those which we have seen during the winter months" he says. Those were local efforts. last ing day or two, designed to keep the enemy busy, and prevent him from Withdrawing troops elsewhere; this is sustained effort, made with the ob- ject of keeping a constant pressure on his front line of defense, of affecting hls use of the railway from Bazaneourt to Challerange, a few miles to the north, and of wearing down his re- serves of men and ammunition. It may be said that the 18th of February marks the opening of the 1915 cam paign, and that this first phase will find an important place when the his tory of the war comes to be written.
 Country Is Vast Plain
 The nature of the country is en- tirely different to that in which the British army is fighting. It is one vast plain, undulating. the hills at most 200 feet higher than the valleys, gentle
 s,A |. s- The only features are the pine woods, which have been planted by hundreds As each rise is topped a new strentch of plain, a new set of small woods appear, just like that which has been left behind. The villages are few and small, most of them are in ruins aft CT the fighting in September; and the troops live almost entirely in colonies of little huts of wood or straw, about four feet high, dotted about in the woods, in the valleys, wherever a lit tie water and shelter is obtainable.
 Lack of villages means lack of roads; this has been one of the great difficulties to be faced; but at the same time the movement of wagons across country is possible to far greater extent than in Flanders all though it is often necessary to use or 10 horses to get a gun or a wagon to the point desired. From the mili- tary point of view the country is em- inently suitable for troops, with it's possibilities of concealment, of pro- ducing sudden surprises with cavalry, and of maneuver generally. It Is, In fact, the training ground of the great military center of the Chalons: and French troops have doubtless been ex- ercised over this ground in every branch of military operations, except that in which they are engaged at the present moment.
 Progress Trench by Trench
 What commander, training his men over this ground, could have imagined that the area from Perthes-lez-H Hurlus to Beausejour farm would become two fortress lines, developed and improved for four months; or that he would have to carry out an attack modelled on the same system as that employed in the last great siege undertaken by French troops, that of Sebastopol in 1855? Yet this is what is being done Every day an attack is made on a trench, on the edge of one of the lit- tie woods, or to gain ground in one of them; every day the ground gained has to be transformed so as to give protection to its new occupants and means of access to their supports; ev- cry night and on many days the
 enemys counter attacks have to be
  pared by a violent and accurate ar tillery fire; 1t may be said that a trench has to be morally captured by gun fire before it can be actually seized by the infantry. Once in the new trench the men have to work with their en- trenching tools, without exposing themselves, and wait for counter at tack, doing what damage they can to the enemy with hand grenades and machine guns. Thus the amount of rifle fire is very small; 1t is a war of explosives and bayonets.
 Up to the present the French have made steady and continuous progress and their success may be best judged from the fact that they have not been forced back on any day behind the line they held in the morning despite in numerable counter attacks. And this ii
 not merely a question of ground. but
 one of increasing moral superiority, for it is in the unsuccessful counter attacks that losses are heavy; and | these and the sense of failure affect | the morale of an army sooner or later. | Will the French push through the line | Will hole be made, or is the enemy | like a badger who digs himself in rather faster than you can dig him out? I cannot tell; it would indeed be | an astonishing measure of success for | a first attempt and the enemy may re- 1 quire a great deal more hammering at many points before he has definitely | had enough at any point But these 1 operations have brought the day closer and turn out thoughts to the time | when we shall be able to move for ward; and one finds the cavalrymen | wondering whether perhaps they toe