LAND AND WATEE 
September 2G, 1914 
tliat it is one of the most notable features m the land- 
seape fmm the phxin of Eheims. and has been noticed 
bv every tmvoUer who lias come into Elieims from 
Laon The villa-e of Craonne, from which this head- 
Lmd takes its name, stands up on the southern slope, 
not quite at the top, which top is flat, and forms the 
eastward culmination of the whole plateau. I here 
was directed against this imjjoi-tant knot ot liili 
country about Thm-sday and Friday last the whole 
weight of the French 5th Anny, but what exact 
measure of success it obtained is exceedingly ditticult 
to discover. The fighting reached up to the plateau 
itself, and a number of prisoners from the 11 th and 
12tli German Anny Corps were taken ; but it is hardly 
likely that Craonne village was peraianently held by 
Sunday. If it had been, the fact would have been 
mentioned in the French communique. It seems 
more likely that here, as elsewhere, the effort of the 
Allies swung up to the foot of the slopes and partially 
occupied them, but had not yet carried the heights. 
When, or if, a retu-ement from the plateau begins, 
Craonne wiU go with the rest ; but the position is too 
valuable to be abandoned so long as the last chance of 
piercing through Kheims remains to the Germans. 
SUMMARY OF THE OPERATIONS 
UPON THE WESTERN HALF OF 
THE DEFENSIVE LINE. 
By Sunday, September 20th, then, the general 
position in the Western half of the German geneml 
position — that is, the hilly part between Craonne and 
the River Oise — was as follows : 
The Germans everywhere stUl held the highest 
point of the plateau from Craonne right away to the 
heights behind Nampcel that overlook the Oise. Tlie 
Fi-ench and EngHsh held the ramparts of this plateau, 
that is the first projections which stand out like 
peninsula) from the central ridge and are separated by 
the brook-valleys which run down from that ridge to 
the Aisne. The Gei-man position on the ridge was 
held by heavy artillery against which the AUies were 
bringing an increasing number of heavy guns, which 
heavy artillery had in the first days of the week done 
great execution agiiinst the Allies ; had not compelled 
it anywhere to retire permanently, had gi-avely 
damaged the open towni of Soissons, but was gradually 
relaxing its fire as the heavy guns of the Allies came 
up. Meanwhile, a Fi"ench body of unknown magni- 
tude was working up beyond the Oise to the North, 
round the right wing of the Gemians, but had not 
yet occupied Noyon, nor turned that right wing, 
though it was already beyond Lassigny and had 
occupied the heights to the cast of that village. 
THE SECOND EASTERN, OR 
"RHEIMS," LIMB OF THE GERMAN 
DEFENSIVE POSITION. 
I have said that the backbone of all the eastern 
limb of the Gemian defensive position from where that 
position cros.sed the Aisne at Berry-au-Bac to the 
Argonne was an even swell of land running to the 
north and east of the river Suippe, and this was 
apparently the position taken up and held in the first 
days when the great Gennan retreat across Champagne 
came to a standstill and was brought into line with 
Von Kluck's retreat from Meaux to the Aisne. That 
is, we must regard the main Gennan line as standing 
from Beny-au-Bac and following the Suippe to 
Souain, and thence eastward through Le Mesnil, 
Massiges, and Ville-siu*-Tourbc to the Argonne. 
This first line is most rationally divided at Bazancourt 
because, although such a point cuts it in two very 
unequal portions as to length, yet these two portions 
balance each other in importance, and each has a 
character of its own. 
(1) The portion between Craonne — Berry-au-Bac 
and liazancourt lies directly north of E, and, as it 
were, threatens the great city of Eheims. Ehcims, 
politically from its wealth and size, strategically from 
its accumulated stores and the fact that it is a junction 
of five railway lines and seven main roads, was 
essential to any successful counter-offensive the 
Germans might attempt to push home. 
(2) The second section, on the other hand, from 
Bazancourt to the Argonne runs through very deserted 
country of no political importance, and contains but 
one, though that an important, strategical feature. 
This strategical feature is the side line of railway 
which starts from the junction with the main Eheuns- 
Eethel-Mezicres line at Bazancourt and is prolonged 
to the other side of the Argonne. This railway was 
obviously of the first value to the German Army when 
it undertook the counter-offensive and began to move 
south, for it runs parallel to the line this advance 
would take, and can serve the whole of it with 
ammunition and food. On the other hand, this 
railway is not prolonged eastward across the Meuso, 
and does not help du-ectly to feed the main German 
armies from their depots in Lorraine, or through the 
Belgian lines. 
SECTION IV.— THE FIRST, OR LEFT, 
PORTION OF THE EASTERN LIMB. 
What happened here in the week since the 
Germans took up tlieu' general defensive line on the 
Sunday before last (September 18th) is a strong and 
partially successful counter-offensive undertaken by 
the Germans, with the object of recapturing the city 
of Eheims, and, at the same time, of breaking the 
French line. It is in connection with this partially 
successful counter-offensive that there took place in 
the latter part of the week, upon the Saturday and 
the Sunday, the 19th and the 20th, the bombardment 
of the town of Eheims, in which grievous damage 
to the cathedral was inflicted by shell fire. 
Of aU the five sections of the defensive position, 
this fourth section in the centre is the most critical 
to the Allies, as the first on the western wing is the 
most critical to the Germans. We have seen how, 
when, in the first section, the German right is tiu-ned, 
the whole Gennan defensive position must be lost ; 
but, as against this, the Germans have made a very 
violent effort to break the French in this fom-th, or 
central, section ; that is, in the field round Eheims. 
They have here secured so considerable an advance 
that they actually occupy at the moment of waiting a 
dangerous salient, and not only have they secured this 
advance, but they have established positions upon the 
heights east and north of Eheims, whence they have 
been able (especially from the east) to bombard 
the citj-. 
The original defensive position as I described it 
last week is that swell of laud running from the Aisne 
eastward parallel to and north of the Suippe Eiver, a 
muddy little stream. But more than a week ago 
the Gennans were able to get well to the south of 
this, up to a second defensive position nearer Eheims 
and lying upon the further side of the Suippe and on 
the edge of the plain on the further side of which 
Ehcims stands. They did more. They took the 
heights of Brimont, an isolated hiU to the north of 
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