August 9. 1917 
LAND & WATER 
counter-attacks the expense is worth while because it compels 
the assailant to do his work all over again. , 
The preparation for the Flanders battle was the flattening 
iut of the sahent at Ypres and the capture of the 
Wytschaete or Messinfes Ridge. This was the action of 
ihe first weel-^ of last June. It was the most carefully worked 
out and the most successful of all the offensives, local or 
general, undertaken since the Allies acquired superiority in 
the West. 
The main battle was prepared for during the ensuing 
seven weeks ; the last two of them were taken up with a very 
heavy bombardment upon the sector chosen between the Lys 
River and the beginning" of the marshy country 25 miles to 
the North at Steenstraate (Stone Street) upon the Yser Canal, 
just at the point where the marshes begin to broaden out and 
make any action still further to the north impossible. 
This bombardment was of an efficacy and upon a numerical 
scale hitherto unknown even in the present war. It was aided 
during the long spell of clear weather by the superiority which 
the Flying Corps had established m the air, and its severity 
may be tested by the fact that in a few days before its close 
no less than six divisions had to be withdrawn and relieved 
upon the enemy's side. 
No small part of this bombardment, and not the least 
efficacious part of it, was in the use of gas shells. It has been 
discovered, for instance, from prisoners, that while the 52nd 
Reserve Division was relieving the 6th Bavarian Division 
in the night before the infantry assault, that is, in the night of 
Monday, July 30th, the whole relief fell into confusion through 
the effect of gas, against which it seems, the enemy helmets 
were not a sufficient security, and one battalion of the Bavarians 
remained unrelieved throughout. There is evidence of another 
striking success of the use of gas two days before, upon the 
29th, some surv'ivors of which fell into the hands of the British 
during the battle. Historians will be interested to note that 
these worst effects of gas. delivered from the AlUed side, 
struck the enemy in exactly that region astride of the Poel- 
cappelle Road where the enemy first used this invention in 
April, 1915. suxeeded in breaking the line by the surprise it 
caused, and only failed to get through because he had not the 
initiative to seize the great opportunity offered him. 
The bombardment reached its culminating point of intensity 
after three o'clock in the morning of Tuesday, the 31st. At 
ten minutes to four it lifted and the infantry was launched 
along the whole line, their objectives being in the north 
between the crossings of the brook variously called the 
Steenbeck and the Hannebeck ; in the centre the first Ger- 
man organisation, which is a continuation of this Hannebeck 
line, and in the south the same first line organisations right 
down to the Lys. The order of battle would seem to have 
been, following the very vague indications afforded by the 
despatches, as follows : 
On the first 2,500 yards or so, from just north of what 
used to be the Steenstraate bridge over tne canal to a point 
just north of the niins of Boesinghe, were two French divisions 
under General Anthoine. Immediately on their right would 
seem to have been the Welsh troops opposite Pilkem, and 
upon the sector where the Allied line crosses the Yser Canal, 
and begins the trace of what used to be the Ypres sahent. 
Next, it would seem, Scotch troops ; in the centre English 
troops taking one down the newly-conquered line past Hooge 
to tlie neighbourhood of Oostaverne and somewhat to the 
south of it ; thence afterwards the Anzac troops, the Austra- 
lians to the north and the New Zealanders on the extreme 
right down to the river Lys. We have been told that in the 
very centre near HoUebeke, just south of the canal, troops 
from Middlesex were engaged. 
The morning of Tuesday broke dully, threatening rain, and 
the clouds were lying so low that observation was almost 
impossible. Indeed, as will be described in a moment, this 
was the first great battle fought in the West (since the new 
conditions began), without the power of observation from 
the air. But the aircraft did other service. Not only pre- 
paratory to the action in spotting, but in raiding enemy 
aerodromes and roads and in flying low and attacking enemy 
troops even upon the march. Impossible as were the con- 
ditions for observation, there seepi to have been few occasions 
during the latter stages of the war in which the new arm did 
better in its offensive character. It has become a cavalry 
which has six times the speed of the old cavalry, ten times 
its endurance, and the added power of jumping anything in 
front of it. 
The morning attack by the infantry all along tVie line 
from dawn to about noon on Tuesday the 3Tst, reached all 
the objectives marked out for it, and the first despatch sent 
by Sir Dougla-^ }hi'>" in the early afternoon registered this 
succesf. 
Itum^atvns and 
marslies 
here 
The French crossed the canal in the night, carried the 
ruins of Steenstraate behind it, then took Bixschoote, the 
Kortekeer Inn, close to the Steenbeck, and occupied success- 
fully an advance line about 4,000 yards in length, or a little 
less. The Welsh carried the rudns of Pilkem and came down 
towards the brook on the further side, while the English 
troops in the centre reached to iSt. Julien (which is another 
crossing of the'brook), Frezenb<;rg, Westhoek, the farm mid- 
way from Klein-Zillebeke to Za advoorde, carried HoUebeke, 
and reached the canal beyond v'.this last being the work of 
the Middlesex troops) while to \ the south the Australians 
under the Hill of Messines advanced as far as the windmill 
nearly half-way between Gapajird and Warneton, and the 
New Zealanders on the extreme* right took the Warneton 
suburb of La Basseville. The fi.rat line enemy organisation 
had fallen over the whole distances in- the first attack. 
Among the incidents in this principal part of the action 
we must note the Welsh troops c'lestaoying the 3rd battalion 
of the Prussian Grenadier Guards during their capture of 
Pilkem. The division to which thesie German troops belonged, 
the 4th Guards Division, was caught actually in process of re- 
lieving the 23rd Bavarian Division* during the night between 
Monday and Tuesday, and to this tnuist iii pairt be ascribed 
their very heavy loss. The Frencl lit r oops to tbe north of the 
Welsh pushed on beyond the ob)ecti\ii;s assignee' to them, and 
during the morning got leave to rea ;h the Steenbeck itself. 
Their departure was a difficult one. They had the canal to 
cross and bridge (as had tlie Britisli troops immediately to 
their right) and it is a country in wh icli trenches are almost 
impossible and in which mo'^t works sli ow above i^round. while 
the slight rise immediately in front of, them be^i md the canal 
