Evening star., 1917-09-30
S|M0NS' WAR REVIEW.
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those two vital positions they limited
their effort to this objective and the
enemy still held all the nearby heights.
The successive drives--that in Decem-
Der of last year and that In recent
weeks-completed the task. But 1t is
well to remember that the French were
merely seeking to dlsengage Verdun
and not preparing any great offensive.
They were satisfied when they had re-
occupied all the important positions
from Hill 304 to Fort de Vaux. which
had been in their hands before the
Germans attack of February. 1916.
Had Ambitious Objective.
About Ypres. on the contrary. the
allies were seeking a far more ambi-
ttous objective. and they regarded the
June and August operations as neces-
sary. but relatively minor. prepara-
tory thrusts. When they were over the
British on the operative front from st.
Julien to Hollebeke looked up the
slopes of the ridge to the positions
which they had held in the opening
days OF the fighting in this region and
had only given up completely In May,
1915. after the gas attack had broken
in the northern end. or re-entrant, as
the soldiers say. of the Ypres salient.
On the large scale map of the German
front In this sector made by the British
STAFF from aeroplane observation, a copy
Of which Gen. Maurice. chief of military
operations. gave me in London in the
winter. there are indicated before the
British line Of last autumn three sys-
TENS Of trench lines. separated by some
think like mile, the first running
along the foot Of the ridge from St
Julien down to Hollebeke. passing
through the hamlets of Grezenberg.
Westhoek and Klein Zillebeke. Prac-
tically all of this line was preached in
the fighting of August. when Lange-
marck was taken. but 1t was not for
many weeks that the British were able
to surmount it. and some of the fiercest
and most deadly fighting of the war
has taken place In this first system.
This is revealed in the weekly British
casualty lists. which show a total loss
of 10000 In three weeks ending August
17-weeks in which there was no great
drive. but merely the 'dingdong" of
local operations.
BY the first of September we may
say the British had surmounted this
first German system from st. julien to
Hollebeke; they had touched the foot of
the ridge, which lay before them from
Gheluvelt, on the Menin road, to Zonne-
beke, on the Ypres-Roulers railway
The British had before them now a
second system of defenses stretched
across some of the most difficult coun-
try on the whole western front, a coun-
try Of small woods and little ponds.
hiding solid farmhouses which lent
themselves to fortiflcation. To these
woods, ponds and farmhouses the Brit
sh Tommy" and his Canadian and
Australian comrades had given familiar
names. although some of the more con-
siderable patches of forest kept their
old names. Polygon wood. the largest
belt of woodland. famous in the first
battle of Ypres. retained its name. as
did Nuns wood: but Glencorse wood.
Inverness copse. Stirling Castle and
Shrewsbury forest. with Duinbarton
lakes near by. sGnaled the presence of
Britons and Scots. while Toronto farm.
Quebec farm. Abraham Heights and
even Kansas Cross testified to America.
as did Anzac, Helles and Gallipoli farms
to Australia.
This second system was an inextrica-
BILE tangle of underbrush, marsh, ruins
it had endured three years OF she'll
ing. and only those who have seen the
battlefields of the Somme or of Nerdun
can even conjecture what such a coun-
try really is like. Roughly speaking,
this line covered Bonnebeke and Ghelu-
welt. which were behind 1t and between
It and the third line, which lay along
the crest of the main ridge. This opera
tive front was approximately seven
miles broad from st Julien TO Tower
Hamlets a redoubt southwest of Ghelu-
welt: II was defended by the old-fash-
Toned redoubts and fortificattons of the
Somme time. now become obsolete but
it was also defended by a deep network k
of little cement forts for machine guns
pill boxes" in the argot of the
"Tommy'-and prepared shell holes. de-
tails in Hindenburgs elastic" defen-
sive.
Through German Second Line.
1t was against this system that the
British launched their last offensive of
September 10 and 20, and in this often
sive they took all the works of impor-
tance in this system on the whole front
attacked. Their advance was nowhere
over mile deep, but it carried them
through the German second line as the
August operations had carried them
over the first. and ii was a much more
clean-cut and Immediately successful
operation than that of the previous
month. comparing favorably with the
recent French offensive operation at
Nerdun. which made an advance of
about the same distance over front
but little broader.
There remains between the British
and the possession of the whole ridge
from Broodseinde down to Messnes a
mile ahead of them, only the third sys-
tenn of German trenches on the sector
from the Menin road to the Roulers-
J pres railway, just north of Zonne-
beke; and this system. too. represents
all OF the ground lost by the British
in the first two battles of Ypres which
mas not yet been recovered. On the
British staff map this German system
is indicated by many trenches and
redoubts, which follow the western
slope of the ridge. Just below the crest
from Broodseinde. just east of Bon
nebeke, through Reutel, west of Bece-
laere to New Kruiseecke. east of
Gheluvelt on the Menin road Zonne-
beke and Gheluvelt are fortified bas-
tions in advance Of this system, which
must be captured before the main po-
sition Is attained and conquered. So
also is the famous Polygon wood, the
western edge of which has already
been passed by the British advance.
Month More for Fighting.
With luck the British will have
something like four weeks more of
fighting weather: the first battle of
Ypres lasted rather longer, up to the
middle of November. in fact. but its
main effort was ended by the first day
of November and only the sensational
charge of the Prussian Guard along the
Menin road from Gheluvelt supplied
really important detail In the fighting
after November began. The problem
that remains then is whether in the
month Of lighting weather they have
reasonably surely to count on the
British VIII he able to get over the
the Menin road. a front Of perhaps FIVE
miles. II they DO. th"n the spriug VIII
see the British holding all the i'm
portant high ground in the sallyport
between I4angemarcll and the Lys, save
perhaps the tip of the ridge about
Passchendaele.
In the same fashion, by the coming of