April 19, 1917 
LAND dc WATER 
of the Somme offensive. On Map I. the original salient is 
marked with a dotted line:- ...._, . — 
If time had been given to the enemy to consolidate this 
line thoroughly, it would have saved him some not very great 
numbers of men and would still have left a bad saKcnt marlced , 
by thetownof Laon. But it would have made a fairly straight 
line up northwards and would have afforded him the leisure 
to prepare a counter-stroke. 
There is no doubt at all tliat he inteiKled. sucli. a counter- 
stroke, for the whole German Press was bidden to expect it, 
and to describe the retirement as the restoration of " elbow 
room " for the cnemv's freedom of movement. 
The Allies followed this retirement, however, more rapidly 
than the enemv's command had allowed for. the new line 
was immediately engaged in its central part in front of St, 
Ouentin and was verv soon harassed tiie whole way up, from 
Arras right down to "the Aisne, a distance of 75 miles, and 
what is more, it was being shouldered back piecemeal over 
the whole of this great distance. If ever the famous ' ' Hinden- 
bur" Line " (which the German Press was bidden to exalt 
and^ present to its public as the mainstay of the German 
defence), existed at all, it existed on that trace from Arras 
past St. pucntin to near Laon, and .all German opinion, as 
well as most opinion in the Allied countries, was prc^Hired for 
a gradual stiffening of the resistance as its main positions 
vv6re approached. " ' .' 
Meanwliile, the old very strong defence still stood every; 
where north of that village near Arras, viiich is call«d 
Blangy, and lies just east of the town. 
A great concentration of material had been made for the 
attack opposite this permanent nortliern Arras pivot oMhe 
so-called Hindenburg Hne, and upon Easter Saturday the 
main bombardment of that pivot, which we will call the pivo^ 
of Arra,s, began. ' : ' 
Observe the condition of a successful advance upon this 
sector. Its strong point, the backbone of its . resistance, 
was the ridge of chalk, rising gradually from the Arras side, 
faUing steeply upon the Lens side, called tlio Vimy Ridge. 
This position had rightly been treated as vital by the enemy 
over the whole of the "last two years. He spent first and 
last something like 100,000 men in saving it from Allied 
occupation. It was vital because the possession of it >vould 
