Bisbee daily review., 1917-10-09
RAIN ANDMUD SAVE GERMAN FORCESFROM MORETERROR
Flanders Converted Into a Veritahle Lake, Preventing Actions on Any Consider able Scale By the British.
(By Review Leased Wirel.

BRITISH FRONT IN FRANCE AND yesterday, giving an unfOrgetable demonstration of the nature of the difficulties which the British troops have encountered in many of their re- cent operations. Within a few hours the entire country had been turned into mass of deep, clinging mud, through which one made his way with the greatest effort. A stream known as Zonnebeke, which is one of the many little waterways that cover not tie zone, was surrounded by a verita- ble morass. It would be impossible to cross it at many places.
 Fighting In Boes.
 Shell holes had rapidly filled with water and ponds were to be seen in which score Of men might easily drown if they were unfortunate enough to fall down the slippery sides. Often a small pool of water covered a considerable shell hole. It seemed inconceivable that men could work, much less fight, over such ground. Yet the British soldiers and officers were carrying on steadily their opera- tions. And in recent days they have often fought bitterly over just such territory as this
 Front Quagmire.
 Yesterdays rain has turned the bat tie font into a quagmire and there could scarcely be more trying condi- tions for fighting The soldiers en- countered by the correspondent were cheerful, notwithstanding the fact that they were drenched to the skin with the biting cold rain. At one place a number of men were singing Justify away at some popular song. All seemed immensely amused at the muddy condition of the correspond ent and the two officers with him. Often the soldiers looked up with cheerful grins that said plainly:
 How do you like it? Now you know what i've chaps have to goI through with out here"
 country OeNdSlateo
 Nowhere on the western front has the war printed more cruel marks of devastation than in the wide zone east of Ypres where such bitter and sanguinary fighting has been proceed ing at intervals since the British launched their initial attack.
 This whole region, much of which in peace times was prosperous farm ing country, has been turned by the artillery fire into a desolate waste of vast and deep shell craters which are so close together that in innum- erable cases they are inter-locked.
 Farms Desolate.
 Farm houses have been pulverized and ploughed under in the ruthless sweep of the shells and village sites are marked by little portions of walls where churches or other big buildings once stood. Cottages are buried be- meath heaps of turned up earth and there is scarcely a vestige of grass or other green thing to be seen in miles of marching.
 Trees have been smashed into matchwood and their roots turned up in grotesque shapes to add to the sinister aspect of the country Here and tEere where little houses had stood, the hardier trees have chung to their birthright but their limbs have been shorn from their trunks.
 Rain Halts Activities.
 Although the sun shone again Mon- day in Flanders, the rain had render ed the territory east of the Passchen- daele-Gheluvelt ridge a veritable bog. making infantry actions on a large scale impossible for the present.
 There have been. however, num- Der of small actions in the nature of trench raids on reconnaissances, and the big guns of both the British and Germans are keeping up the mighty duel virtually without pause.
 Likewise on the southern line in France and in the Austro-Italian thea tre only the artillery is active. On the northern end of the front in Rus sia several attacks by the Germans on positions in the Riga sector have been repulsed by the Russians who also took prisoners.