NOTES ON APPLIED FIELD FORTIFICATION. 
365 
tunity may be given to the enemy of penetrating into the position and 
taking in flank some important point, as the Germans in the Spicheren 
woods took in flank the defenders of the Rotherberg. If there is any 
danger of this the edge of the wood should be held in spite of the 
disadvantages, but endeavours should be made to strengthen this, which 
must be a weak point, by cutting a belt further back near the crest and 
making abatis, with openings arranged for the retreat of the forward 
line, or by a retrenchment behind the rear edge, according to circum¬ 
stances. Possibly there may be places further back than the extreme 
edge, where the wood is thin or open spaces narrow its extent. In 
such a case it may be better to take advantage of these thinner or 
narrower parts and make an opening there behind which the defensive 
line can be placed with a good chance of there fighting the enemy at 
an advantage, he being cramped by the conditions of the case and the 
defenders being probably considerably protected from artillery fire by 
the portions of the wood left standing in front. Magazine rifle-fire 
should make such a belt absolutely unassailable. 
As an instance, take the Niederwald at Woerth. Here the edge of 
the wood was at the foot of the slopes, on which the French had their 
position, and exposed to the plunging fire of the German artillery on 
the Gunstett heights, a position tending to injure the steadiness of the 
troops holding it. The consequence was that the edge was only lightly 
held by the French, the Germans got in and, although driven back 
more than once by counter-strokes, yet gradually worked their way 
through and turned the French right. Now, behind the edge some 
way up the slope the wood narrowed very much, and a small amount 
of labour could have cut a belt (c cl ) in Fig. 4. This, in combination with 
the edges of the wood (a c) (cl b) above the narrow part, would have 
provided a strong line which might have been held in force by the 
French with very good prospects of success. 
Fig. 4. 
