March 27, 1915. 
EAND AND lW.ATER 
Ihe first week in March — that is, for three weeks 
— is contained between the high road running 
from Sommepy to Suippes through Souain, and 
the high road running through Cernay through 
Ville-sur-Tourbe towards Ste. Menehould. That 
front is fed, on its French side, by the railway 
from Rheims to Ste. Menehould, and on the 
German side by the railway from Rheims to 
the Pass of Grandpr^ in the Argonne. The 
distance between the two high roads is an 
average of about twelve miles. Less than nine 
at the north end, and nearly fourteen at the 
south end. This country is a A'ery peculiar 
one, the characteristics of which I have already 
partly described in past numbers. It is a rolling 
land of chalky texture, but not like the chalk of 
our towns — chalk friable and mixed with a very 
thin, poor earth. The crops are insignificant, 
and the whole area is studded with little stunted 
plantations of pines, deliberately introduced by 
Government some fifty to sixty years ago, and very 
regular and ugly in appearance. Just south of 
it is the big camp of Chalons, dedicated, as such 
sterile districts often are (like Salisbury Plain 
and Dartmoor here) to military uses, and especi- 
ally to artillery practice. The few villages, which 
try to nourish themselves by the cultivation of this 
land, are quite small, ranging from one hundred 
to tv>-o hundred inhabitants (thus Massieges has 
less than one hundred and fifty, Minaucourt 
barely two hundred, Perthes itself only one 
hundred and seventy, and Hurlus just over one 
hundred, while Tahure had — it is still in German 
hands — one Inmdred and ninety-nine). Even 
Ville-sur-Tourbe has but just over five hundred. 
It gives some idea of the contours of this bare 
and barren country side when we know that the 
water levels of the Dormoise and of the Tourbe 
are about two hundred feet below the crests of the 
swells between the watercourses. 
The choice of this front for the considerable 
French effort that has been made was due both to 
the fact that the thin chalky soil dries rapidly in 
each interval of windy weather, between the days 
of rain, and to its being the watershed of this 
part of Champagne. All the little streams of the 
district rise round about these villages, the places 
at the head of each stream being distinguished 
by the prefix Sorame, meaning source. The whole 
place has been for ages a natural fighting-ground. 
,Valmy is in the neighbourhood ; the place where 
Attila was defeated is not so far off. 
When the attack began the Fiench line lay 
in and out of the road running from Souain to 
Pertlies. It is a bad little road, kept up out of 
the local rates, and not forming part of the 
national system. I remember it well. But that 
is by the way. The French line on this 15th 
Septejuber ran as the dots run from A to B. It 
also ran, of course, on eastward and westward 
beyond A and B, but the great French effort was 
made just there. 
Now, in all the work of those three weeks 
the French got no further than the line C 
marked with crosses, which gives them possession 
of the crest overlooking the depression through 
which the Dormoise runs. The average 
advance was not, I suppose, more than five 
hundred yards, but was, perhaps, nowhere a full 
thousand. 
And that is typical of the whole business in 
every part of the line. The order is not to break 
through— 3'et : it is to wear down. 
Beaujejour 
Farm 
Perthes 
English Miles 
The 16th and the 17th February were spent 
in fighting for a little field work which the 
Germans had strengthened at the point (1) in 
front of Beausejour Farm. It was taken and 
lost in part for a week ; 23rd February still saw 
that point in front of Beausejour in dispute. The 
27th came, and it was not yet wholly carried. It 
was not until the last day of the month that the 
work was entirely in French hands. Exactly the 
same thing went on with point (2), which is a 
little swell of land, upon the crest from which 
one can see the fall northwards towards the 
Dormoise, except that it was taken two days 
earlier — on the 26th. The most violent efi'orts 
were made during all the succeeding week to 
recapture it, and the Guard, which had been 
borrowed from the La Bass^e district and the 
neighbourhood of Neuve Chapelle, were hurled 
at it day after day. Point (3), which is also 
upon the crest, the Germans retained almost to 
the end. At (4), just in front of the ruins of 
Perthes, it Avas the same story — a very gradual 
advance against German field works, which was 
not successful until the end of February; and 
at (5) a regular little effort was, just like the 
point at (1), half taken in the first days of the 
movement, but only finally held on the 27th 
February. Lastly, at (6), on the extreme west of 
these few five or six miles, a wooded post, held 
with the greatest tenacity by the enemy, was not 
carried until the very end of the movement, upon 
the 7th of March. 
Now, in this effort, something like a quarter 
of a m illion of men were pushed up on the French 
side, first and last, during the three weeks. The 
application of that blister brought up on the 
enemy's side a smaller or larger number. There 
vras no question of breaking through. The task 
was to force the Germans to borrow men from all 
up and down the line (which among other things 
produced Neuve Chapelle) to make them con- 
tinually in these weeks of counter-offensive and 
fruitless assault pour out their strength and 
waste it. No one attempting to gauge an effort 
of that kind by the mere belt gained comprehends 
its purpose. The first violent advance, which is 
expensive, but which is prefaced by a whirlwind 
of heavy gunfire (destructive to the enemy in 
killed, wounded, and prisoners, at least as much 
as to the Allies' side), is expensive, but its object 
is attained. It gets possession of points upon 
which the enemy breaks himself over and over 
again in the succeeding days, and in the balance 
to be struck at the end of these continual efforts 
the weaker in proportion to the Allies every 
time. The very slightness of each advance is 
almost a measure of its great meaning. 
