March 20, 1915. 
E A N D AND WATER. 
from the cover of the Biez wood. But the enemy; 
failed to debouch from Ihis point against the 
shelling of the wood by the British batteries on 
the village of Neuve Chapelle itself. 
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A heavy fire from the Gerraan field batteries 
was directed on the village, but did not result in 
the recovery of any ground. The operation 
resulted in the capture of some 1,700 prisoners, 
and this seems to have been the result of the direc- 
tion of the attacks being both to the north and to 
the south of the village; at least, that is the 
French account. The result of these efforts above 
and below the built-upon area being to surround, 
when they closed upon the east, a considerable 
body of the enemy still fighting among the build- 
ings themselves. 
As to the developments following upon this 
considerable action, they have been, so far as the 
enemy is concerned, slight up to the moment of 
writing. One violent attack delivered at St. 
Eloi put the enemy, for the second time since 
the trench work began, in possession of the houses 
of that village. The attack was made by the 
tWurtembergers, and was carried out in the dense 
masses of that tactical formation which the enemy 
cannot abandon, because it is the strongest thing 
in his tradition. It was upon Sunday night that 
the effort was made. It was preceded, of course, 
by a heavy bombardment, both of the trenches 
themselves and of the town of Ypres, behind or 
near which, presumably, were stored the muni- 
tions which supplied the trenches to the soutJi. 
The retirement from the village in the face 
