LAND & WATER 
October 4, 1917 
II 
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the action ««♦««. ^to^jf;^ 
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troops reaching the open country to the east of the wood 
were Mibjected to counter-attacks of great violence, the last 
of which was preparing as late as the morning of l<nday the 
28th. when it was caught under Britisli artillery hre and 
broken up. None of these counter-attacks succeeded. 
Further to the north again came the chief advance of the 
day th" capture of the ruins of Zonnebeke, and the establish- 
ment of the British line upon the first slopes of the Passchen- 
daele Ridge proper. At this point, however, the German 
counter-attack somewhat thrust back the line, leaving the 
British troops on the evening of Thursday, the 27th, in posses- 
sion of the ruins of the chateau, of the church and of the 
cemetery ; but, according to the accounts received from the 
newspaper correspondents in the London Press of Friday 
morning, not carrying the ruins of the station which were 
still in German hands. North of Zonnebeke all the objectives 
were reached and held. The defensive here was in the 
hands of Saxon troops. The attack appears to hav«i been 
delivered by British troops from London and from the Mid- 
lands. A violent artillery fire modified the line here for a 
moment, but it was restored by the Londoners before Thursday 
night. 
The Present Line 
The line through Zonnebeke would seem to run, at the 
moment of writing, so far as its position can be gathered from 
the Press correspondents of tiie London papers, somewhat 
as it is marked on the accompanying map. 
It will be seen that Zonnebeke lies at the foot of the 
Patechendaele l^idge, which rises up immediately above it by 
a bank some fifty feet in height. The central point of the 
village is the place where the by-road from the station comes 
into the main road near the church. The main road thence 
goes in eastward up the bank to the summit of the Passchen- 
•iaele Hidge, wiiere there is a lump rather higher than the 
rest and near it the ruins of a windmill. Where tlie main 
road crosses the road to Passchendaele (whidi roughly follows 
the summit of the ridge) you have liroodseynde cross- 
roads with a couple of ruined cottages to mark it, and that 
point commands all tiie flat country beyond. AH the plain 
of F~landers to Brabant lies almost uninterrupted to the view 
from this insignificant elevation at the foot of which the 
British forces now stand in the ruins of Zonnebeke. The 
Germans, so far as one can gather from the newspaper corre- 
spondents, still hold the station and probably the sliglitlv 
higher ground (Hill 40) just beyond. The British hold the 
central point of Zonnebeke and the western half of the 
ruins. They are overlooked from the rising ground beyond 
the eastern half which the Germans retain. 
The total number of jjrisoners counted after thij action was 
somewhat over 1,600, but this is but a slight indication of the 
very heavy losses which the enemy on the unanimous testi- 
mony of our own observers and his examined prisoners suffered. 
The density of the counter-attacks which failed was par- 
ticularly remarkable, and was responsible for the greater part of 
this loss. No less than four divisions, for instance, were identi- 
fied first and last in the heavy work in the shallow Keutelbeck 
depression, between the Polygon Wood and the IVtenin J^oad ; 
while the total number of divisions which have had to be 
withdrawn from action on the German side, from the attack 
Approximate British 
line on 77iursday 
5>roocIseyndf 
'^ cross voios 
of last week to Thursday night last, would seem to be no less 
than ten. The French have remarked in particular how near 
the advance now is to outflanking the great Houtliulst Wood, 
which is the northern pillar of the German defensive position. 
This is true, but that northern pillar will lose its local im- 
portance in any case when or if the main ridge is carried. If 
the enemy has to retire before winter on to the flats beyond, 
and if he is observed by his opponent from the heights of the 
Passchendaele Ridge — the last ridge in this part cjf Flanders 
— his retention of the Houtliulst F^orest will not, so far as one 
can see, have any further advantage for him. It will simply 
form a large awkward salient with no particular \'aliie attach- 
ing to it. 
