November i, 1917 
LAND & WATER 
attack here lay in the fact that if this elbow can at last be 
thoroughly smashed a general retirement will be inevitable. 
This elbow relies for its strength upon three features, and 
has for its centre of communication the liill town of Laon. 
The three features of its strength are the difficult high forest 
country of St. Gobain, the Eastern end of the Chemin-des- 
Dames ridge (the continued possession of which by the enemy 
shut off observation oh to Laon with its roads and railways), 
and lastly two heights lying behind, that is, on the Laon side 
of the Chemin-des-Dames ridge : heights marked A and B on 
Map III. A is an isolated high hill called the Hill of Bourgig- 
non ; and B is the ridge parallel to the Chemin-des-Dames, 
lying over against it beyond the valley of the Aillette. 
Full success is this quarter would mean the occupation of 
this ridge, B, and of the isolated Hill, A, with the consequent 
turning of the great obstacle formed by the forest of St. 
Gobain. With these heights in the hands of the French, the 
Plain of Laon (out of which the town rises precipitately and 
isolated) its roads and its railwaj's would be at the mercy of 
the French line, and a general retirement would be necessary. 
What was attempted and achieved last week was lesS than this, 
or perhaps only a preUminary to it. But the completeness 
of the success was none the less remarkable. The French 
started from a Une everywhere to the south of the watershed 
on the Chemin-des-Dames ridge, and nowhere possessing a 
view of the plain towards Laon. After the preliminary bom- 
bardment in which tlie accuracy of the heaviest pieces up to 
16 inches was remarkable, the infantry was launched before 
dawn, at a quarter past five on Tuesday, the 23rd, upon a front 
of rather over five miles. The strongest point in front of them 
was the big ruined lump of Malmaison Fort, an abandoned 
work of 1875, which had been turned into a very strong point 
by the enemy. Furthfer, throughout these limestone hills 
were deep quarries, both cut into the surface and under- 
ground, wloich the enemy had strongly organised. ByTues-' 
day night the number of prisoners counted was 7,500 and 
25 guns, many of them heavy. The extreme French 
advance had reached the village of Chavignon which 
lies on a spur overlooking the valley of the Ardon with a direct 
view of Laon seven miles away, and the remainder of the broken 
German divisions were cooped up between the hills and the 
line of the canal at their base. It was remarkable that no 
attempt to counter-attack followed this considerable success. 
By the evening of the next day, Wednesday, the total number 
of prisoners brought in had reached eight thousand, and the 
number of guns seventy. On the same day a statement was 
issued of the German forces which had been engaged and de- 
feated. There were five full divisions, the 14th, and 13th ; 
the 2nd, 5th and 4th of the Guard, the 4th being held in reserve 
until the end of the action. Portions of two more divisions, 
the 37th and the 47th Reserve, were thrown in on the extreme 
left and right, and it was the Guards who had the task of 
defending Malmaison, and who suffered the heavy losses in 
prisoners consequent upon its capture. 
With the succeeding day the Germans retired behind the 
line of the canal. The number of prisoners collected continued 
to increase. By the Thursday evening, the 25th, there was a 
total of oyer 11,000, and not less than 120 gims. 
The general effect of this success is twofold. First, it 
gives full observation of the main road and railway supplying 
the German front here from Laon, along the valley of the 
Ardon, with a certai.t advantage in distant observation of 
Laon itself, and its approaches seven miles away. But, of 
course, at such ranges modern artillery depends upon air- 
craft much more than on direct observation. Unfortunately, 
also the great nodal point of all communications here, the rail- 
way junction under the lull of Laon, is on the far side of the 
hill and town. 
The second advantage gained is the power from the spur 
of Chavignon, and from the Malmaison Height, of looking right 
up and dominating the Ailette valley. It is possible or pro- 
bable that the present positions of the French will make 
that valley untenable, aud will compel the enemy to retire 
on to the ridge marked B, the last of his defences in this 
region. 
Friday and Saturday passed without any attempt^at re-action 
upon the part of tlie enemy ; the gains were finally consoli- 
dated by the French and the situation settled down 
An interesting point in the details of the fighting was the 
discovery by the French that the cutting off of German supplies 
by the preliminary bombardment had compelled the enemy 
to help re-victual his front lines by the use of aircraft. 
THE BRITISH FRONT 
The third of the actions to be noticed this week was the 
si^th blow delivered by the British Field Marshal for the cap- 
ture of the Passchendaele Kidge. It was undertaken against 
very difficult weather conditions and followed the lines with 
which the last operations on this impossible ground have 
made us familiar. 
These weather conditions must be specially mentioned, be- 
cause in this case they were even worse than had previously 
been known. The limited objectives chosen for the new ad- 
vance were fixed while the weather was still fine, and with a 
good (Jrying wind which had marked Thursday, the 25th, 
but with the night rain began to fall, and fell all during the 
attack of the 26th : " Heavy rain without a break since a 
very early hour of the morning." The French on the left 
wading through the swamps and the water course in front of 
Houthulst Forest up to their shoulders, took the ruins of 
Draibank, entered the Papgoed Woods and accounted for 
about 100 prisoners. The British forces gave their njain 
thrust on either side of the Roulers Railwaj., EngUsh and Cana- 
dian regiments combining here, and the latter establishing 
themselves upon Hill 56, just outside the ruins of Passchen- 
daele. The fighting was heavier and more dilhcult outside 
Poclcapelle where Canadian battalions and an English Naval 
Brigade and certain battalions of the London territorials were 
engaged in exceedingly difficult ground. There was heavy 
fighting also on the extreme right in front of Gheluvelt, re- 
sulting in the cleat ing of Poldcrhoek Chateau. 
The next day, the Saturday, the French advancing again 
at a quarter past 5 in the morning on both sides of the Ypres- 
Dixmude Road, advanced about 2,000 yards and captured 
the ruins of the villages Verdrendesmis, Ashoot, Merckem 
and Kippe. There was no infantry action by the British 
on that day. The total of prisoners captured in the two days ' 
were reported by the Field Marshal at 1,100, of which three 
himdred were accounted for by the French. 
In the same record Sir Douglas Haig mentions two heavy 
counter-attacks made by the enemy on the Ridge itself on 
the Friday afternoon south and west of Passchendaele, and 
the successful repulse of these attacks by Canadian troops 
who took further prisoners. H. Belloc 
Russia the Incomprehensible 
By Charles Edward Russell 
^ This article was written in Pelrograd by an American 
\ I writer a few weeks ago. It gives a good idea of the almost 
■ incomprehensible chaos now prevailing in Russia. At 
the time of writing the author evidently hoped that the 
country and tlte people would have settled down to a 
reasonable and orderly system of Government, but this 
hope has not yet been justified. 
RUSSIA: a vast, dimly lighted stage whereon we 
know some tr2mendous new drama is being enacted, 
but where all the actors seem to be running about 
inconsequentially as in a maze without plan or 
meaning. Something like this, I suppose, if we were to speak 
up with delectable candour, is about the impression most 
of us have had about this wonderful country ever since it 
tumbled the last of the Romanoffs from his ancient seat. Yet 
the keys to the play are, after all, simple, and to be found in 
simple event;, and when we have found them, behold a 
most fascinating and moving drama. 
There is a place on the Trans-Siberian Railroad called Passing 
Point Number 37, a brown little speck on the illimitable 
emptiness of the Siberian plains. On May 23rd there came 
marching up to it a procession of farmers — about forty of 
them, I think — carrying red flags. They tramped solemnly 
alongwhat in Siberia, by a violence of speech, is called a road, 
and is in fact not otherwise than a trail of ruts in black- 
gumbo mud. A passenger-train was coming from the east, 
from Vladivostock. At Passing Point Number 37 it took the 
sidetrack to wait for the train it was to meet. According to 
Russian railroad practice (which you might think a precept 
of religion punctiliously observed) the operation of getting 
these two trains past each other was to take up one half- 
hour, liberally inunaatcd w ith sw ift and cheerful conversation. 
Some of the passengers got out and swelled the verbal freshets. 
They talked with the peasants of the procession ; the peasants 
responded with undiluted pleasure on their brows. It was 
after the Revolution ; more than two men could talk together 
without being prodded by a superactive gcndartnerie ; and the 
springs of speech, frozen for three hundred years in Russian 
breasts, burst forth into grateful and tireless fountains. 
Of a sudden the processionists were seen to line up in front 
of the baggage-car, to fall upon their knees there, to lift their 
