August 23, 191 7 
LAND & WAIKK 
made with the object of deceiving the Germau, public and 
maintaining the moral of civilians. But we must reij)praber 
that our own despatches are read in Germany fr,eely ii)tcf or 
four days after the e\ent, and that the,descript;jo|i,.givei> of 
the further fighting will show even a superfiQiaJ German 
student of the war how the line actually stands. iPerhaps the 
puzzle cannot be solved, and we can only leave it where it is 
until we have some better information of the method in yvliich 
these bulletins are collated and sent abroad. 
Meanwhile, it is clear the enemy depends for the checking 
of this serious and continued deepening of the breach in his 
lines and of the consequent cumulative effect of such succes- 
sive blows — now far more expensive to him than to his 
assailant — upon the following method: , 
If the reader will turn to Map I, he will see that the nine 
miles of the enemy s present defensive front — in the shape 
of a crescent — have on the extreme south {the enemy's left) 
a body of high land astraddle of the Menin Road and just in 
front of the ruins of Ghehivelt ; while on the enemy's extreme 
right or north, just behind his present line, is the big wood of 
Houthulst. I^unning in a deep curve from one, to the other 
goes the gradually declining ridge of Paaschcndaele. 
The enemy clearly regards the two horns of the crescwit, 
the wood of Houthulst and the heights of Ghcluvelt, as strong 
pillars upon which he can rely to maintain either end of 
his defence, while if his' centre is pressed further back, he: can 
at last repose upon the ridge of Paaschcndaele. 
This is the natural defensive line of the region, and now 
we understand why he has been fighting so desperately to 
retain the southern pillar, the heights near Gheluvelt. If 
the reader will here look at Map II, he will see the nature of 
these heights and the extent of the enemy's success and failure. 
I show on this map in detail the contours of the district. 
The dominating hummock is an oval rather more than a mile 
long, lying, as I have said, astraddle of the Menin Road and- 
marked by the ho metre contour. The best Belgian maps are 
contoured to a metre, that is, every yard of ascent is shovvii, 
and I have within this hummock of land marked the four 
metre contours which lead one to its summit. That summit 
stands just on the road at 64 metres, and is known in the 
military discussions of the ground as " Hill 64." The British 
soldiers have called it " flapham Junction." 
On the north of Map II the reader will see the tiny hamlet 
of VVesthoek, lying just above the 40 metre contour — that is 
some 70 feet or a little less below Hill (14 and distant a mile 
and a half from it. He will further note just to the east of 
Westhoek a little isolated hummock marked 48, the highest 
ground in that neighbourhood. Lastly, he will observe how 
tangled and difficult the country is-made with woods. Xow 
the whole fighting in this region — the southern pillar of the 
German defensive scheme — is to maintain point 48, point 64 
and the highest levels of ground running between the two ; 
and the swaying to and fro of the battle in this district marks 
the great efforts the Germans ha\e made to prevent them- 
selves being dislodged from that defensive line. 
In these efforts the woods have been their mainstay. The 
difficulty of the British advancing through the splintered 
woods supported the Germans during their long struggle to 
