LAND A WATER 
Angnst 30, 1917 
principal is the San Gabrielc. a stronghold of the Austrians 
dominating and overlooking (at a range of about 7,000 yards) 
the town of Gorizia which thev have lost. 
The 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 676 above 
Canale to Kuk and thence round from Kuk to the Monte 
Santo and so through San Gabrielc. 
When they had lost Kuk and \'odicc, the mam hne stiU 
lay along this escarpment covering the Monte Santo as shown 
on Map II. Their advanced positions were on the Isonzo 
below where they had lost Canale in the offensive of last May, 
and still held the crossing at Anhovo. 
The Italians on Sunday the iqth, and Monday the 20th, 
crossed the Isonzo at and below .Anhovo on 18 bridges imder 
the protection of their new and happily superior artillery fire, 
carried the escarpment and broke the main Austrian line, 
sweeping over 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 wc do not know. We do not yet know 
its e.xact position either, but it is somewhere on the 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 higher points on the plateau. Hill 
824, which is wooded and gives co\'er as well as observation, 
and Hill 801 (the hill called " Slemo ") two miles to the south. 
Wha't the occupation of the plateau may lead to depends a 
good deal upon the fate of thesis two principal points of obser- 
vation. 
One of the characteristics of these Italian successes is 
that the enormous and 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 arc said to have 
something like 7,000 guns in line between the Alps and the 
Sea) but to a very remarkable superiority in air work. Every 
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 during the first part of the 
battle of the Somme. It is clear that upon this superiority 
the Italian successes have been largely based. 
The prisoners 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 have specially marked the British work this 
week in Flanders. The first has 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 Ghaluvelt. 
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. 
_) Miles 
Strategically, the importance of Lens is that it corresponds 
upon the south, or British right, to the Ypres offensive, 
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 Zeebrugge. 
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 
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 which several attacks have been launched 
by the enemy from the shattered suburbs to the south aftd 
east beneath it), and the big slag heap on the other south- 
western side of the town calltd by the British troops the "Grand 
Crassier," which stands in the tangle of railway fines just 
south of the heart of the City. 
At the moment of writing the latest despatches indicate 
that the tlag heap is still held defensively by the enemy ; 
on the other hand, every effort on his part for the re-taking 
of Hill 70 on the north, has failed. 
The other corresponding attack to the north of Lille— 
that is, the attack from the salient of Ypres — was marked 
