LAND & WATEF 
July 2y, I9];6 
The British Offensive 
By Hilaire Bclloc 
I PROPOSE this week to discuss in somewhat more 
ditail than has hitherto been admitted upon this 
matter, tl>e j:;round over which the great offensi\e 
is now progressing so far as the British section of 
it is concerned. 
It is only by understanding that ground in its contours 
that we can appreciate the nature of the battle. 
One must begin by taking what is the base level for all 
this district, the \alley floors of the Ancre and the Somme, 
and by referring all heights to that original level. 
Ne.xt we must fix upon three points of territory con- 
venient to a comprehension of the whole ground, which 
])oints are the three towns of Peronne, Albert, and 
Ba])amne. The \'alley floors of the Lower Ancrp and of 
the whole of the Somme in this region, are below the 70 
metre contour, that is they are less than 230 feet ab'o\e 
the sea. They are fl^t, marshy, and broad, and the actual 
water lc\el in the Thalweg of the Somme averages in this 
region no more than about 165 feet abo\'e the sea. The 
\alley floors including the rise out of the marshes up to 
the 70 metre le\el I ha\e marked on the accompanying 
sketch Map I. with horizontal lines in such a fashion 
as to show them separiitely from the mass of the 
rising ground abo\e. Bapaiune, Peronne and Albert 
form the three points of what is very nearly an 
equilateral triangle. It is rather less than 13 miles from 
Albert to Peronne ; almost exactly 12 from Peronne to 
Bapaume and about 11 from Bapaume to Albert. 
The British offensive having started with the ist of 
the month from the line marlccd A — B had reached by 
Monday the 24th of July to about the line A — C — D, the 
points south of I) covering Hardecourt and so down to 
the Somme covering Hem and on southward beyond the 
Somme being in the hands of the French. We see, there- 
fore, that the British line in its advanced position from 
the neighbourhood of Thiepval to just below Guillemont 
stretches across coimtry as the crow flies a matter of 7 
miles, and in its sinuosities from 8 to 9. 
We further see from Map I. that it has continuall}' 
advanced up hill during the course of the last three weeks. 
It started astraddle of (in some places just abo\e, in 
other places Wc-ll below) the hundred metre line. It has 
come to occupy ip every place (save a very short dip 
south-east of Thiepval) ground above the 130 metre line. 
Everything above the 130 metre line is marked with 
shading upon Maji I. and it will be seen from the same 
map that the British advance has thus hitherto co\cred 
rising ground, confused in outline but roughly averaging 
from two to four miles in breadth and gaining in that 
distance from 100 to 130 feet. 
What is the importance of the present position ? \Miy 
ha\e the dermans massed such \ery great forces to pre- 
vent any further advance, and why is the present Unci 
so critical ? 
It is because the line now approaches that ridge, that 
succession of highest points in the whole country side, of 
w-hich I spoke last week and which I woifld like to des- 
cribe to-day in somewhat fuller fashion. 
\\'ithin the 130 metre contour, which is that of the 
almost continuous high land north of the Somnu (bearing 
the villages of Thiepval, Martinpuich, Pozicres, the two 
Bazentins, C.uinchy,.(iuillemont, Morval, Sailly, etc.),Hes 
a series a isolated patches, four in number and higher 
still, marking the lc\cl about 65 feet above the 150 metre 
contour. This, though not continuous, gives you the 
horizon line or ridge separating what may be called the 
Albert and Peronne heart of the ground from the further 
part which may be called the Bapaume portion of the 
ground. I have marked it on Map I. by a darker 
shading. There is also within this 150 metre contour 
a patch of land (marked with the darkest shading of 
all) ^^ feet or 10 metres higher again, which hides 
Martinpuich on the north from Little I^azentin and Pozi- 
cres upon the south, and 1 belie\e the highest point of this 
to be the point marked X upon Map I. just outside 
Pozieres upon the Bapaume road. But the ridge as a 
whole is the important thing, and not one particular 
rather higher point of it. And if the ridge as a whole, 
BAPAUME 
Tbors 
^&x 
Woodsi^^ 
PERONNE 
