LAND & WATER 
August 30, 1917 
principal is tlic San Gabrielo, a strongliold of the Austrians. 
dominating and overlookiue; (at b. range of about 7,000 yards) 
the town" of Gorizia which they have lost. 
Tl)e Austrians elected to make their strong defensive orga- 
nisation of the first line along the positions afforded by nature, 
the escarpment of the Bainsizza plateau, from hill bjb above 
Canale to Knk and thence round from Kuk to the Monte 
banto and so through San (labriele. 
When they had lost Knk and Vodice, the main line still 
lay along this escarpment covering the Monte Santo as shown 
on Map II. Tlieir advanced positions were on the Isonzo 
below where they had lost Canale in the offensive of last May, 
and still held the crossing at .^nhovo. 
The Italians on Sunday the i()th, and Monday the 20th, 
crossed the Isonzo at and below Anhovo on i^ bridges under 
the protection of their new and happily sujX'rior artillery tire, 
carried the escaqiment and broke the main Austrian line, 
sweeping o\er the Bainsizza plateau, thereby outflanking 
Monte Santo from the north and advancing to some second 
Austrian line, the strength of which and the time taken 
in organisation we do not know. We do not yet know 
its exact position either, but it is somewhere on tiie further 
eastern edge of the escarpment. 
It is a very great stroke, and it may lead to more. Unfor- 
tunately, at the moment of writing, we do not know what has 
happened yet to the two higluT points on the plateau. Hill 
CS24, which is wooded and gives cover as well as observation.^ 
and Hill 801 (the hill called " Slemo ") two miles to the south. 
What the occupation of the plateau may lead to depends a 
good deal upon the fate of these two principal points of obser- 
vation. 
One of the characteristics of these Italian successes i.s 
that the enormous anil novel pressure our Allies have been 
able to bring to bear upon all the Isonzo front is due not 
only to the vastly increased artillery (they are said to have 
something like 7,000 guns in line between the Alps and the 
Sea) but to a ver\' remarkable superiority in air work. Ever\- 
observer has noted this superiority in the last few days, and 
the degree in which it has been achieved is said, on the reports 
of eye-witnesses who can compare it with the Northern fronts, 
to be even more remarkable than the superiority established in 
the same arm upon the Allied side dnring the first part of the 
battle of the Somme. It is clear that >ipon this superiority 
the Italian successes have been largely based. 
The prisonei-s counted up to the evening of Sunday 
were a total of 23,600, the guns 75, including two 12 inch 
howitzers, and a great mass of material, and supplies was 
taken as well. 
The Flanders Front 
Two actions Iiave specially marked the British work this 
week in l-'landers. The first lias been the expensive but 
successful effort of the Canadians at Lens. The second,' 
the fighting for the " Southern Pillar " of the German 
position in front of Ypres, described last week, the higher 
ground below Gheluvelt. 
As to Lens, that town, which has been turned into a heavily 
garrisoned stronghold, is now touched upon all the west, 
north and south, and the fighting is taking place in several 
places within the limits of the old municipal boundaries. 
Strategically, the importance of Lens is that it corresponds 
upon the south, or British right, to the Ypres oflensive, 
upon the north or British left. These blows on each wing, 
when combined, are strategically a menace to Lille which, 
in its turn, is at once the pivot upon which the enemy 
necessarily depends in -case he should be compelled to a re- 
tirement, and the main pillar of his resistance between the 
Northern French manufacturing district and the North Sea : 
the bastion upon which depends the curtain to the north 
which covers his maritime bases of Ostend and Zcebrugge. 
In all this week the ultimate object is, of course, the breaking 
up of the defensive line, and the reduction of any one strong 
point upon it, such as Lens, probably has a value in mere 
YPRES' 
Confyurs marJiecf 
TresentF^htUtgLine 
"Main. T/atitmllJefensive Line 
o I 1 J 
numerical losses greater than any other aspect of such a 
success. 
The chief centres of activity in this close struggle for the 
ruins of Lens are the slight summit on the main Lille road 
on the north, called Hill 70, now firmly in British hands (for 
the recovery of winch several attacks have been launched 
by the enenrty from the shattered suburbs to the south and 
east beneath It), and the big slag heap on the other south- 
western side of the town called by the British troops the "Grand 
S^f ""; fh''''J!'\'*T'f ^J?.*^*^ ^^"gl« of r^way lines just 
south of the heart of the City. ' 
ti :(\Sk^%"'T*'"* °^ ''T^*'"S the latest despatches indicate 
tha the dig heap IS still held defensively by the enemv^ 
on the other hand, every effort on his part for the re-Sng 
of Hill 70 on the north, has failed ^ 
t1n?i °?>l' ^f;'"^^P^"ding attack to the north of Lille- 
that IS, the attack from the salient of Yores-was marked 
