LAiND & WATER 
Marc h i, 1917 
The Ancre Retirement 
By Hilaire Belloc 
IF the reader has by liim the issue of this journal 
whidi appeared ui)on Thursday, February 13th 
(No. 2,858), he will lind upon page 4 a map, which 
1 here reproduce, and which emphasizes the 
importance of a certain view-point marked on that 
map with a large A. This view-point is known on the 
J^rench Ordnance Map as " Hill 127," and I had already 
pointed out as late as last November that the possession 
Cantoa/x at fOifetreS 
of its summit would necessarily endanger the whole 
German sklient in this neighbourhood, because from this 
spur, and particularly from the point where a ruined 
mill stands on the cart road following the ridge of it, 
there is direct observation throughout 7/8ths of a circle 
over all the country round. It directly commands 
Miraumont and the slight valley leading down to Mir- 
aumont from the west. It gives a complete view of the 
ravine behind Pys which was for long crowded with Ger- 
man guns, and it looks right up the main ravine of the 
Ancre and the railway line towards the Junction of 
Achiet le Grand. You do not get from it a complete 
view into the valley of Puisieu.x (or Bucquois) that iri, 
the valley of the Brook of Miraumont which lies- 
immediately before the main watershed generally called 
" The Bapaume Ridge," which also concealed a number 
of the enemy's heavy guns, but you comnand a wide 
view over the slopes leading down to that valley ; and, 
in general, it has been frequently premised in these 
pages that the possession of this height would render 
all the German positions immediately to ihi east and 
north-east untenable. Meanwhile that possession would 
also increase "the sharpness and therefore the peril of the 
salient of Serre. The words used in this connection upon 
page 5 of our issue of February 15th, were as follows : 
" A very great deal will depend upon the fate of that 
high ground at A immediately above Baillescourt Farm, 
which is still in the enemy's hands. -If that height be 
taken several things follow as a consequence. 
•' In tlic first place all the complex of trenches which render 
the Serre position so formidable will be made a sharp 
and difiicult salient under fire from three sides. 
" In the second place there will, as I have already said, 
be direct vision over a very great extent of country to the 
north, direct observation thus obtained for the first time 
over those great spaces of rolling land, the heart of which 
is the junction of Achiet le Grand, and the main gun 
positions >vhich are probably hidden in the valley of 
Puisieux. 
" In the third place it will be impossible for the enemy to 
establish concealed positions in the valley of the Upper 
Ancre behind Pys. From the top of this hill one sees 
everything. Not that it is higher than the ground to the 
north and the north-west — it is not ; but that it com- 
mands all the Ancre valley and is up on the Plateau to 
the north where are discovered open sweeps of rolling 
ground. 
"I may be exaggerating the value of direct ob.servation , 
for I say again that only tho.se on the spot and only those 
with recent experience, can give the prop^T extra weight 
to direct observation from the ground as contrasted 
with observation from the air. But is is difficult to believe 
that the possession of such a height as that across which 
the so-called " Swan " trench of the enemy runs, would not 
change all the conditions of this region. It is difficult 
to believe that if this height were held Serre would not be 
in danger on the one hand, and Miraumont within the 
British grasp upon the other." 
Since those lines were written the summit of Hill 127 
was taken, just at the end of the frost : that is, just 
before the ground became impossible with mud and 
just before the long succession of misty weather, 
which has half paralysed the British local olfen.sives 
in all this region. The thaw with its terrible mud 
and continuous mist has permitted the enemy to 
