LAND AND .WATER 
May- 22, 1915.' 
upon it during and after its retirement. During 
the first days ol May he continually attacked 
Hill 60 from the south and south-east (along the 
arrows (2) (2)), and meanwhile prepared his 
principal attack, which he launched upon Satur- 
day, May 8, along the Mcnin road, in the direc- 
tion of the arrow (3). 
For the purpose of thus concentrating all his 
weight against the British salient and attempting 
to crush it in, he had, in spite of his considerable 
reinforcements of winter-trained men, to concen- 
trate large bodies of troops. 
The whole thing was a repetition of what has 
happened over and over again in this trench war- 
fare. Whether the enemy draws men from up the 
line for the purpose of attacking or for the pur- 
pose of defending the second point, he is bound 
to be weakening himself somewhere, and the better 
airwork of the Allies, their more rapid concentra- 
tion, and, recently, their superiority in numbers, 
both of men and of hea^y guns, permits them to 
take advantage of that weakness, and such an 
enemy concentration is always followed by sharp 
counter-attacks upon the weakened point. 
That is exactly what happened after the 
enemy had thus drawn men round Ypres during 
this first week in May. There followed at once, 
with the second week, sharp counter-attacks 
against hiin to the south. The second of these in 
order of time, but the one wiiich we will take first 
because it concerns the British contingent, was the 
British counter offensive against tlie enemy's own 
salient of La Bassee. It began with an attack 
upoQ the ridge of Aubers. This ridge stands just 
in front of that belt of ground at Neuve Chapelle 
which had been occupied in the memorable conflict 
of some weeks ago. The British attack all but car- 
ried the summit, but failed to hold it, on account, 
as it was said, of lack of sufficient munition. 
Had the ridge of Aubers been held a point would 
liave been thrust up north of La Bassee wiiich 
might have endangered the German hold upon 
that important junction. But while the attempt 
to capture the ridge of Aubers upon the whole 
failed, the next British move amply succeeded. 
The original line had lain, as do the crosses in 
the above sketch, in front of La Bassee, forming a 
very pronounced indentation of our line. Attacks 
launched at the end of last week in the direction of 
the arrows (4) (4) from the villages of Richebourg 
I'Avou^, and Festhubert recovered all the belt 
marked with diagonal shading, and gave the line 
the shape it now holds. 
Meanwhile, much further to the south, the 
French were taking action upon a very large scale. 
All the way from near Arras at C to about the 
point £, but with especial vigour in front of Lens, 
they were attacking with the particular object of 
seizing the point marked X, which crowns a spur 
of land 300 feet above the plain, and marked, 
before its ruin, by a chapel of Our Lady of Loretto. 
From this spur of land one looks down upon the 
plain beneath all the way to the important railway 
junction of Lens and beyond, and to hold that 
spur is to dominate the railways of the plain and 
ultimately Lens itself. 
In five days' fighting, from May 8-9 to May 12 
inclusive, the French managed to carry all' the 
shaded portion here between the line of dots repre- 
senting their old position, and the full line, repre- 
senting their present advance trenches. 
Tlieir first effort was directed along the arrow 
(5) towards the village of Loos. It was at first suc- 
cessful, but later it failed. But their group of 
assaults (6) (6) (6), delivered upon and to the south 
of Our Lady of Loretto amply succeeded, not only 
in inflicting very heavy loss upon the enemy (in- 
cluding several thousand prisoners and seventeen 
guns), but what is, as we shall see in a moment, 
equally important, in establishing a future com- 
mand over the German lateral communications in 
the plain below, and their operations here merit a 
particular description. 
The spur of Our Lady of Loretto and its 
neighbourhood may be best understood by such a 
rough sketch map as the following. 
There comes down all the way through the 
Artois from the sea, starting at Cape Gris Nez, 
passing through St. Omer, and ending just north 
of Arras, an irregular line of heights, the last of 
which have their base upon the plain, roughly 
corresponding to the line of dots on the accom- 
panying sketch. 
Everywhere from these lieights one overlooks 
flat country to the east, which flat country holds 
the main communications of the enemy. 
The French line through this ran very much 
as the line of crosses runs on the accompanying 
sketch, leaving a pronounced dent opposite the 
important railway junction of Lens, in which dent 
the most important point w^as that marked N D, 
the chapel of Notre Dame de Lorette upon the 
projecting spur of the hills overlooking the plain. 
The Germans had very heavily fortified this spur, 
2* 
