L AND A N D W A T E K 
■October 2, 1915. 
•had 'mastered (he .greater part of the ridge; in all 
'the eastern half it has passed it; on tlie western 
Jialf it was still forcing its way with greater difli- 
culty — the njjrrowest portion of the advance 
being in front of the point called E|)ine de Vede- 
grange, an isolated building on the side road that 
leads from St. Hilaii-e to St. Souplet. the bioadest 
part of the advance being in front of Soua in. whcj-e 
th^ farm of Nayarin was reached, and a point on 
the road from Souain to Tahure, inarked on the 
fiketch with a cross, just beyond the sunniiit 197. 
This breadth was niaiiitained all the w^ay east- 
ward, nearly to the Argonne; the farm Maisons de 
Champagne being held l)y the French right on the 
edge of the ridge above the shallow valley of the 
Dormoise River, which riins just to the north "iind 
below,. ■ . . " ' 
. . On Monday the Frencii advance had at one 
point reached right up to Hill 185, marked upon 
the above sketch with the letter A. just beyond the 
road f rom Sommepy to Tahure. and was not more 
than one EnglisJi iilile from the railway, but, 
according to, the German report, had made no 
•further progress upon the road from Souain 
to Sommepy. Further east it had carried Tahure 
Village and had reached the height 193 inunedi^ 
ately to the north of it. It is probable, by tlie 
way, that' the French report refers to positions 
later than those of the German report, for the 
French report is, if I am not mistaken, that of 
eleven o'clock at night, and the German report_ 
pieces which wilT ha\e becii brought up. furtlier 
north for the second stage of the operation, and 
sliould that ^second line he forced it is dear that 
the railway which runs behind and sn[)plies the 
German front in this section will be attained.. 
It is the bringing up of the heavy artillery— a 
slow job. for it nmst be done by night, it must be 
followed by conceal inent, it involves the advancing 
of masses of supplies— which constitutes the 
stages of lull between the stages of attack in .such 
an o})eration, or, rather, which impo.ses such lulls 
more than any ptlier factor in the movement. 
The importance of this lateral communica- 
tion—the. railway behind the German line — w'as, 
some months ago, insisted upon in these columns 
when the prelimiiiary French work was being 
done in this district. This railway unites the 
Crown Prince's positions, in, the Argonne and 
beyond, with the rest of the German armies and 
supplies the German ffont here w^ith its shells and 
'provisions and reinforcements of men. But we 
must not attach, after so many months, too much 
importance to this line, because the enemy will 
have been able in that delay, if he has seized his 
opportunities, to construct a subsidiary light line 
in such a fashion that the cutting of this prin- 
cipal railway will still leave him wdth oppor- 
tunities of supply. 
How this is possible the subjoined Sketch III. 
will explain. The French line, before the advaiirjg; 
ran as dpfifj^tb^ JMdit %^'^tTfie' " railway' line 'at 
that of the afternoon. Itwwjldseem^theJIfifeW^'AuEe^^ (and that is one of the reasons why the 
that on the MondaiL-U«5tefoV^-sge!ch. , Germans here put up their stoutest fight and why 
on tne MonoaiL-UwyiifeVF^KetcJi. 
pjla4i*'^mxiS!niot allow for any considerable 
'rpD^ch advance on the right or on the left, seeing 
tha,t there is no mention of this in the French 
report, and that the German report emphasises 
the stationary character of the fighting on these 
extremes. 
All this initial business of capturing the first 
group of defences on Saturday and Sunday w^as 
made possible by the work of the heavy guns. The 
second German line, which the French are attack- 
ing all this Tuesday as I write, just covers the 
railw^ay line and the course of the Dormoise 
the advance at this quarter was less pronounced 
than elsewhere). But the enemy has had an oppor- 
tunity of building a railway during all these 
months from Bethenville to the junction of 
Challerange. There is a road following a brook 
valley, that of the Brook Arnes, and from thence 
above the heights to tlie Vouziers railway line. 
By a flat neck over ea'stward on to the sources of 
the Aulin brook is a very easy trace, and it is 
possible that we shall find the enemy to have taken 
advantage of it. In other words, the capture of 
. ,,; - ., ... jw 1 , , ■";• ^^^ ^^^^ railway line Bazancourt— Challerange 
holding the summits immediately above and to the anywhere between Bethenville and Challerange 
south of that depression. It will, at the moment does not necessarily deprive the German front Sf 
ot^ writing this, be under the fire of the heavy its avenue of supply in this region 
IBazaxicowrt 
Junction 
•-wif^ 'iViiri 

