tAND AND WATEE 
November 28, 1911. 
jBvxschoote 
• Lancrcmarclu 
Qietttve^lt 
HoUebcke 
yew^eEglise'l ♦M^sstnes 
. Ticrtfisst QitmanMvance 
Present Line. 
1234 
.a — , t ' ■ f 
CMiUs, 
XX 
A week ago the Germans said they were in 
St. Eloi, hinted that they were in Neuve Eglise, 
and said in so many words that they were on the 
"heights dominating Armentieres on the north," 
whiclt, if it does not mean Neuve Eglise, can only 
mean the slight roll of land between Ploegstraete 
and Le Bezet. Further, they were certainly in 
the wood south of Bixschoote, as we know from 
the French official news. There was also a moment 
when they carried Kleine Zillibeke. 
Well, taking all these reports, both verified 
and unverified as true, their position is now upon 
the whole less favourable. They certainly have 
not got Neuve Eglise ; they have not got the heights 
. between Ploegstraete and Le Bezet ; they are no- 
where near them. They have Messines. Wyt- 
schaete is disputed. They are out of St. Eloi. 
They are, I believe, out of Kleine Zillibeke; and 
the Zouaves to the north of all this English work 
have g:ot them out of Bixschoote Wood. All these 
variations are upon a very small belt of give-aad- 
take, but still the position is better and not worse. 
It IS the difference between the dotted line and the 
1^- u"^ "^°^ ^^^® ''^^°^® "^^P' ^°^ *^® full line; 
which 13, approximately and very roughly, to-day's 
front of the Allies, is a trifle better for us than the 
■dotted hne. 
II.— THE NEW ATTACK ON THE 
YSER. 
^ It would seem, then, that the attempt to break 
in the salient at Ypres is abandoned; but, as I 
have said, there is a rumour that the enemy is 
about to renew his old attack upon the line of" the 
Lower Yser between Dixmude and the sea. An 
accximulation of rolling-stqick has been noticed 
round Bruges. Engineers and bridging material 
have been sent forward; and there are further 
reports of the advance of numerous reinforcements 
towards this front. They have been noted con- 
centrating at Ghent and Bruges. It is possible 
that still another effort along that unpromising 
road to Calais may be made, and we shall do well 
to consider its present chances. 
In the first place we are told tliat the Germans 
"command the crossings of the Yser." Now, that 
is one of those pseudo-technical phrases designed 
to cast terror, and in this case it is at once easy to 
explain, and possessed of very little meaning in 
connection Avith the particular obstacle in ques- 
tion. 
How do you " command " a passage over or 
across an obstacle ? 
First of all, what is an obstacle? An 
obstacle is a portion of ground which can only be 
crossed by an army more slowly and with greater 
difficulty than the average of tie country upon 
either side and before and behind it. Thus a 
river, a marsh, a forest, are obstacles; and all 
obstacles obviously offer opportunities for advance. 
What are the " passages " an army can have 
through or over an obstacle ? They are simply the 
exceptional places where you can get past or over 
or through the obstacle more quickly than is pos- 
sible elsewhere, as for instance — a clearing cub 
through a forest, a bridge over a river. 
How may an army be said to " command " 
such passages, as against another army trying to 
prevent its getting through ? 
Obviouslj^ again, only by seizing and holding 
the further end of each passage. 
For instance, I do not " command " a bridge 
across a river unless my troops hold the bridge, 
and also the place where a bridge joins the land 
on the far side of the river. 
When I hold that place, the further end of 
the bridge and the bank where it joins, I am said 
to hold a " bridgehead " or " tete-de-'pont," and it 
is by holding the further end of a passage of what- 
ever kind in similar fashion and only by so hold- 
ing it that the passage is " commanded." As, for 
instance, if you have your men in possession of the 
town on the further side of a pass over mountains, 
or in possession of firm ground at the further end 
of a causeway over a marsh, then you can use at 
will the pass or the causeway to advance your 
troops against the enemy. But unless you have 
that further point in your hands you do not possess 
the passage at all. 
Well, the Germans do not command the cross- 
ings of the obstacle which stands before them 
between Dixmude and the sea in their westward 
advance. That obstacle is not only the canalised 
Yser river, it is the canalised Yser river flus the 
flooded land to the west and some flooded land 
to the east also. 
Even over the Yser the Germans do not " com- 
mand " in any true military sense the five bridge- 
heads, though they do hold here and there very 
precariously a dry patch on the left bank, to which 
dry patch a bridge of pontoons could be thrown. 
But they have no passages over the flood bej^ond. To 
hold a dry patch here and there on the left bank 
of the canal is not to command passages over the 
obstacle, because that obstacle involves the tvhole 
of the inundated district as well as the river^ 
g» 
