October 3, 1914 
LAND AND WATER 
I 
the south, have pushed as far as Apremont and 
occupied it. Tliey are confined so far to the use 
of the smaller side road whicli goes romid tlu-ougli 
Spada ami VigneuUos. It is along the line of this 
side road that they have been operating the "whole 
time from their headquarters and rail-head at Thiau- 
court. They took the heights, as we shall see, at 
Hatton Chatel, hut the French troops coming south 
from A^erdun have got past the level of the Fort of 
Troyon, just as those coming up from Toul have got 
j)ast the Fort of LiouviUe and up to Apremont. The 
enemy, therefore, has but a very narrow entr}', 
threatened on both sides, and he cannot use it save 
with very considerable forces protecting his flanks. 
The Fort " Camp des Ivomains," enfilading the 
River Meuse all above St. Mihiel town and bridge, 
fell into the hands of the enemy, so did the work of 
Les Faroehes opposite. It was the fall of these works 
which gave them their bridge head and their crossing 
at St. ^lihiel; but a week has passed, and they have 
not attempted to enlarge the breach either southwards 
towards Toul or northwards towards Yerdun. It is 
very narrow — not eight miles ; while its one line of 
supply, the side road from Spada and Vigneulles, is 
continually thi-eatened from the north. 
It was about eight days ago that the Germans 
began to bombard the permiuient works round 
St. ilihiel. By last week-end they had silenced 
these two pennanent works, Parochcs and the Camp 
des Romains, proving once more the accuracy of the 
German forecast that modem howitzer fire would 
dominate modern fortification. 
The Meuse was cro.ssed bv the Gennans at 
St. Mihiel at the week-end. But after ,this crossing 
there Avas no advance. None (apparently) for days ! 
An action took place upon the left bank which forced 
the invaders back towards the stream. They were 
not compelled to recross the Meuse, but their advance 
was checked. Since then there has been nothing to 
show us whether a great movement were intended 
or no. 
The whole thing is of a piece with what the 
war has shown us elsewhere, to wit, that modem 
permanent works have not the resisting power which 
was expected of them, but that troops in the open 
upon the defensive have a greater resisting power 
than was expected of them. The whole of last 
Sunday the movement still remained hung up, 
perhaps on accoimt of losses, perhaps because the 
( Jerman advance was not in great force after all. The 
whole of the Monday it still remained hung up ; the 
lack of movement being asci'ibed upon that day to a 
dense fog which covered the Woeuvre couutr3^ Tlie 
whole of Tuesday it remained hung up. I write this 
on Wednesday evening, and of AV^ednesday we have 
no news. 
^leanwlule, one indication that the German 
advance was not as yet being conducted in gi-eater 
force was afforded by the news that the garrison of 
'I'oul had been able" to get north against the flank of 
that advance as far as Beaumont. This point had 
been reached by the columns marching north from 
Toul very shortly after the moment when the first 
crossing of the Meuse by the Germans at St. Alihiel 
was effected. If the French have been able to maintain 
those positions at Beaumont they seriously threaten 
the sujjply of the Geraian columns crossing at St. 
Mihiel. There is another indication in the same 
sense : The troops acting from Verdun and marching 
south advanced in the com'se of Sunday and Monday. 
How far they advanced an official French coinmnniqm 
Las told us. They reached the work at Troyon, and 
that work stands. Coupled with the advance of the 
Toul garrison to the north, this corresponding move- 
ment from Verdun southwards points to the presence 
of suiallcr rather than greater numbers in the German 
advance upon St. Mihiel and across the Meuse there. 
On the other hand, we must note that, whether for 
jmrposcs of distraction and of making the French 
command take the thing too seriously, or as a piece of 
real news, the German Government has put into the 
German Press strong statements to the effect that 
this German advance across the Meuse at St. Mihiel 
is being made in force and may prove decisive. 
So much at the moment of writing (Wednesday 
is all we know upon this important and 
jjcrhaps critical development of the campaign. 
The line of forts, hitherto a wall, between Toul 
and Verdun is broken. The enemy may or may not 
intend to use that advantage seriously. They may 
or may not be able. But the hole is there. 
AVith this I conclude the review of o^jerations in 
the western field of war. One very important develop- 
ment in that field, the siege of Antwerp, has opened 
as these lines go to press, but this operation has not 
at the moment of writing proceeded far enough to 
pcnnit of any useful summary of its progi-ess being 
made this week. 
THE OPERATIONS IN THE EAST. 
evening) 
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^U S TR^1^*.>,,. RE 
tiiarcliinq -C* IV i. * 
AVliat has happened in the eastern theatre of 
war this Aveek may be put into two sentences. The 
German invasion of Russia is still at a deadlock ujjon 
the Niemen. The Russian invasion of GaHcia is still 
)uoving westAvard towards CracoAV, and still at the 
pace to which we liaA'e noAV groAvn accustomed dmnng 
the Avhole month of September. It is a slow but a 
regular advance, Avhich it has been said here more 
than once cannot be of effect in exercising " pressure " 
on industriiU Germany before, at earliest, the third 
Aveek of October. 
But the interest of the position in the eastern 
theatre of Avar does not consist in these expected and, 
as it Avero, regular developments.- It consists in this 
much lai-ger question : which of two great and widely 
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