Soptombcr 5, 1914 
LAND AND WATER 
*OSTEND 
Dunkirk: 
CALAIS 
' BOULOGNE 
ARRAS 
CAMSRAr 
BAPAUME 
^ABBEVILLE 
^S^ CHARLERQi 
NAMUR 
LE(£ATEAU CHIMAY < 
'ERONNE CUiSt- 
LA FERE 
O 5 10 15 20 15 
1 I t I I f 
SCALE OF MiLES 
m PARIS 
THE WAR BY LAND. 
By HILAIRE BELLOG. 
AT the moment this article was first written — some thii'ty-six hours before it could he iu the 
hands of the public — the situation at the front in the western field of the war was more 
difficult to grasp, and one's judgment upon it was more dependent upon mere conjecture, 
than had been the case in any previous phase of the operations. The ne^\■s was more meagre 
than it had yet been, and, while meagre, was made the more useless by occasional very vivid and 
very ignorant descriptions of warfare, written by correspondents who had iu mind, not our 
iufonnation, but a momentary nervous effect and a corresponding profit for their proprietors. 
Nevertheless, it was possible upon that, Wednesday, evening to arrive at a general judgment 
of the situation, or at any rate of the positions ; and one which did not include too mucli 
doubtful matter. The news of Thursday corroborated those conclusions. 
If the reader will look at the sketch outline which is set at the head of this article he will perceive 
that there is no mark made upon it for the position of the opposing troops or for the frontiers 
existing before the war between the different governments, French, Gcnnan, and Belgian. Both these 
omissions are deliberately made, because I desire to show by a series of reasoned steps what has 
happened — and only then, by diagrams, to show how the Allied line fell back. 
I will therefore beg the reader to follow the very elementary exposition I shall now undertake 
with the aid of the few lines and points marked upon this sketch map. It only concerns the northern 
front between Verdun and Paris, because it is upon this front that the issue of the first phase of our 
westera war will be decided in the next few days. What is happening south of Verdun is of littia 
consequence to the great issue north and west of that fortress — it is of the less consequence since the 
repelling of the Crown Prince's amay, which was attempting to pierce the line of the Meuse north of 
Verdun. 
It will be rememl>ered that from the Friday evening, August 21, to the Sunday evening, 
August 23, the Allied line was massed upon the River Meuse above Naraur, and also along the line 6f 
the Sambre, and .so on to Mons. Tliis long cordon of men from a little west of Mons to Nainiir itself 
passed through Charleroi. It consisted upon the left (that is in the neighbourhood of Mons) of 
somewhat less than 80,000 British troops. The remaining two-thirds of the line running up along 
