October 4, I()I7 
LAND & WATER 
of ground means tlT^ lo^s before tfie end of the year of alltlie 
en»-my is yet tigliting for. Sliort of comparatively rapid 
yielding of ground you have to choose bttween holding the 
iront line densely, with the certain expense in men and in 
guns, and the present method with a fair secvirity for the 
material and a gamble Ix'tween bearable loss and very heavy 
and ultimately unbearable loss, according to the success or 
failure of your counter-attacks. Tlie enemy has chosen the 
latter alternative, and it is pretty well the only course now 
open to him. What we shall see is whether it will enable him 
to save the sea-coast and Lille, and whether it will bring his 
resources in men to the breaking point or no. 
The Action 
Of all this the action fought last week was an example. 
Just before the British blow was delivered the enemy had 
attacked strongly north of the Menin Road as though to 
forestall what was coming, and had somewhat pressed back 
the British line at that point. But when tlie full strength of 
th" blow fell this previous action of his proved useless. Five 
days had sufficed to prepare it — a very short interval, betray- 
ing the greatest activity in arranging the aitair. 
a^J'o« 
77ie?asscli£nc:^i£/e7ii£ijgss/wtfutg present appnuimatsSci^shliM 
It was just after daybreak of Wedr.esday last, September 
2f)tli, that the new stroke was delivered by Sir Douglas 
Haig upon the gradually yielding defensive line of the enemy 
in l-'land^rs. 
Its capital point, as before, was the southern end of that 
crescent defensive position, the general name of which is the 
Passchendaele Ridge- that is, the southern pillar upon which 
the crescent reposes. Far more progress was made in mere 
space, in positions to the north where the advance carried 
Zonnebeke and established itself therefore upon- the first 
slopes of the centre of the crescent. The vital point in all 
this, as in the actions major and minor of many past weeks, 
was still that southern pillar, the heart of which was cut out 
in the victory of the week before when the new defensive 
system was mastered by the new de\ices of the attack. It 
was against the British here that the enemy ma.ssed by far 
the greatest density of troops for his counter-attacks, and it 
is by the tenacity and success of the British pressure here 
that the whole action must be judged. 
Familiar as my readers must be by this time with the details 
of this capital point, "the southern pillar "-of the l^asscjien- 
da'-le Kidge. I must beg lea\ e to reproduce a map with sundr\- 
new features in it which may make the effect of last Wed- 
nesday's action more clear. 
Before the main attack launched in the terrible weather of 
July ;!ist and .August ist last, the German defensive organisa- 
tion in this region consisted of a triple line. 
There was first of all the " pie-cru!;t," the advanced strongly 
enforced line upon which much the most of the enemj^'s 
labour has been spent during the past two years. It followed 
the western slope of the low heights which form what I have 
called the southern pillar and ran in a semicircle from the 
neighbourhood of Hooge round through, and then outside the 
southern portion of, Sanctuarv Wood. 
About a thousand yards behind this came the second line 
which in those days of continuous trenches upon the enemy's 
side was very strong, though not so elaborately organised as 
the front line ; it covered Glencarse Wood, ran through 
Inverness Copse, used the ruins of Herenthage Chateau, and so 
curled round the wood which the British Army calls Shrews- 
bury h'orest. The enemy had already abandoned the con- 
tinuous trench system of defence here and was beginning to 
rely upon the new concrete isolated machine-gun points and 
the organisation of shell craters. 
It was roughly uptm this second line that the attack was held 
up during August and the earlier part of September, and it will 
be remembered what heavy fighting continued throughout all 
those weeks for the retention of the vital point upon the Menin 
Road, which is marked by Inverness Copse. The British forces 
yielded ground at one moment in this shattered wood, but nevei 
left the whole of it. The north-western corner AVas always held. 
Meanwhile, the new system of Gcnnan defences held the 
greater part of the copse, Herenthage Chateau to the south 
of the road, with its sheets of marsh and water called " Dum- 
barton Lake," and th> greater part of Glencarsse Wood to the 
north of the road. The successful action of last week carris^d 
the whole of this old second line. It occupied Inverness Cops? 
in its entirety, parsed Herenthage Chateau, passed the ruins of 
the Kantinje Inn, upon the fall of the road bevond Inverness 
Copse, entered the ruins of \'eldhoek and reached and held 
the slight Tower Hamlets Ridge. In this position the British 
forces stood immediately in front of what used to be the old 
third line. This old third line was no longer, of course, 
a continuously held trench position, because, as we have been 
told, that system had been given up by the enemv. It none 
the less marked the string of defensive positions which the 
enemy had constructed and roughly corresponded to the line 
of resistance which had next to be carried. It ran, as will lie 
seen upon the accompanying map, from the south of Polygon 
Wood, through Carlisle F'arm, just east of X'elhoek, crossed 
the Menin Road about 500 j'ards below or eastward of 
Kantinje Inn and then ran along or just above the 55 metre 
contour which marks the eastern slope or shallow escarpment 
of the Tower Hamlets Ridge. It was this chain of posts which 
was attacked at dawn of last Wednesday, the main weight of 
the attack being developed north of the road in front of 
X'elhoek. 
Details of the Action 
In t];e first thrust the works on the eastern slope of the 
Tower Hamlets Ridge, on the extreni." right of the attacking 
line were seized and held, and a strong counter-attack directed 
from Gheluvelt was defeated. To the north of the road the 
struggle lasted all day and was exceedingly severe, and the full 
result was not known in London until the morning despatch 
of the next day, Thursday the 27th, in which we were informed 
that the counter-attacks in this region had broken down 
and that all the British gains wore held by the English, Scotch, . 
Welsh and Australian troops concerned. This fighting 
between the Polygon Wood and the, Menin Road was 
marked by many striking incidents, the chief of which was 
tlte isolation, some time before the main thrust was delivered/ 
of two companies of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 
who held out until they were relieved by the advance of the 
Wednesday. In the course of Thursday night the enemy 
voluntarily gave up ground which he was trying to hold 
upon the little stream of the Reutelbeck. south-east of Carlisle 
farm, and thus admitted the defeat of his efforts. It was 
remarked that the enemy losses in these very heavily weighted, 
but happilv unsuccessful attempts to recover the lost positions, 
were exceiitionally severe. * 
Such was the story of the fighting which carried the last 
slopes of the " Southern Pillar " and brought the British forces 
to the outskirts of the ruins of Gheluvelt. Meanwhile, the 
battle extended up northwards for another i\\o miles and 
scored considerable territorial results. Immediately to the 
north of the important obstacle Polygon Wood was carried 
by the Australians in its entirety, including the very difficult 
and strongly organised point of the Butte or mound in the 
N.F. corner just beyond the racecourse. The Australian 
