March i, 1917 
LAND & WATER 
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retire unmolested ; Sut he has been compelled to 
that retirement all the same, and what compelled him 
to it was, above all, the occupation of this Hill 127, 
which dominates all the region. 
If the reader will glance at the accompanying Map II. 
upon which little is shown beyond the contours of the 
region and the two fronts as they stood just after the 
occupation of Hill 127 (that is ten days ago), he will see 
why the occupation of this spur made the retirement 
of the enemy inevitable. From the point A, where the 
old ruined mill used to stand on the summit of the spur, 
one overlooks immediately everything to the north 
and west, with the exception of the height just in front 
of Serre (Hill 141) which is marked with shading, and 
with the exception of the slightly higher country also 
marked with shading immediately to the east of it and 
directly to the north of A. One overlooks Miraumont 
and the valleys leading down to it and one looks — 
if I remember rightly — over the lower spur of Beauregard 
farm to the distant depression which holds the brook 
of Miraumont, that is the brook running from near 
Puisieux down to Miraumont, which is one of the sources 
of the Ancre ; one can see (unless I am mistaken in my 
recollection) the trees of little Achiet on their height in 
clear weather, over 5,000 yards away, and I believe, 
though I am not certain, that one can directly watch the 
effect of the guns upon the railway junction, just south of 
Achiet le Grand, at a range of 8,000 yards. The nearest 
emplacements for any artillery fairly close to the present 
lines and directed against this junction lie due south of 
it and at not more than 6,000 yards, but the gun 
positions do not give direct observation, for the high 
ground upon which Loupart Wood stands lies in 
between. Again, from this point A, this isolated spur, 
one looks, as I have frequently pointed out, right 
down in reverse upon the steep bank above Little 
Miraumont and on to the Below trench, which runs 
up the hill behind Pys. All that bank behind Pys 
concealed a rnass of German guns a few weeks ago. It 
was the best place of cover for them. But once Hill 
127 was occupied it could all be seen. In a word the 
occupation of this spur compelled a retirement back 
towards the Bapaume Ridge. 
At the moment of writing we do not know how far the 
retirement has gone, but common sense points to its 
becoming ultimately such a general falling back upon 
the long and fairly even ridge which runs north-west- 
ward from Bapaume— the ridge beyond the valle\- 
of the Miraumont Brook. This rido'e may not form 
the first line of the new defence, but it will form 
the core. We know, in the first place, that the enemy 
had for long been completing a new trench upon 
that height ; that the wiring of it was completed 
and that he was ready some days ago to fall back 
upon it if necessary. The new defensive positions go 
much further northward, but there is for the moment no 
necessity of falling back to the northern portion of it. 
If the enemy falls back on to this " Baoaume Ridge " 
he has evacuated the dangerous Serre salient and 
straightened his line. The retirement has been well 
conducted and is successful. The enemy has lost 
no material to speak of, and only a handful of men, but 
the significance of it lies in his deliberate refusal to defend 
the threatened positions. He has deliijerately chosen 
to economise. His last counter-attack of any strength 
was that undertaken three weeks ago and more, to recover 
the ground lost near Baillescourt— in other words, to 
save that very hill, 127, upon which so much depended. 
This counter-attack was broken with considerable losses 
to himself, and apparently it was from that moment 
that he decided upon the ultimate necessity of evacuating 
the Serre salient. It is worth noting that he has given 
up a good deal of careful work without fighting ; 
there must hax'c been in the interval some question 
of whether he would make his retirement com- 
plete at one step, or fight it bit by bit. The w-eather 
permitted him to make it in one step, but had it been clear 
and fine he might have been compelled to fight it trench 
by trench. He was, unfortunately, spared this necessity. 
The whole of the Below Trench, for instance, covering 
Irles and stretching down to Pys, which he had con- 
structed behind his front lines, appears to have been 
abandoned without a blow. The same is true of the 
Hindenburg Trench in the slight \alley running west 
from Miraumont. He appears also to have abandoned a 
complex strong system which he had thoroughly com-^ 
pleted in the brick fields north of Miraumont. But' 
though he has had to throw away all this labour, he has 
been able to do it without loss because the weather was 
in his favour. It is, in a sense, an advantage to him to" 
have been able to sacrifice so much, for he has shortened 
his hne at hardly any expense. 
The retirement is of this further significance, that it 
challenges the possession of the last dominating heights 
which, if they be finally lost, give observation northward 
and eastward as far as the eye can reach. 
The so-called " Bapaume Ridge," which at the present 
moment formsi as I have said, the core of the defence. 
