LAr\D & WATER 
.September 27, 1917 
The Battle of the Menin Road 
By Hilaire Belloc 
1^0 appreciate the importance of last Thursday's 
action it is necessary to return to that analysis of the 
Passchendaele I-Jidgc which was printed in tiiese 
columns in the issue of August 23rd, and Map I which 
I here reproduce from that issue. 
It is there pointed out that the defensive position upon 
which the enemy relies since he lost his commanding obscrva- 
liun posts immediately cast and south-east of Ypres in the 
earlier British \ictories of this summer, is the Passchandaele 
Kidge. 
It is further pointed out that this position (a long crescent 
following the gradual declining series of low heights which 
form a hollow curve looking westward towards Ypres) reposes 
upon two pillars, as it were, which are the northern and the 
southern ends of it. The northern pillar is that big forest of 
Houthouest, which is a perfectly secure area and which cannot 
be cleared bydirect attack. Tlie southern pillar on the Menin- 
Ypres road in front of Gheluvelt; though very strong, is more 
Vulnerable, and has therefore been at once the main objective 
of the .\Ilics in their recent si.x weeks- of preparation, and the 
])oint which the en^-my was most determined to maintain. 
It is here that he has attacked again and again in the last hve 
weeks, particularly in his efforts to recapture the whole of 
Inverness Wood (the Herenthage) which lies across the 
niain road and was his chief mainstay. 
That southern pillar consist^ in the high ground upon the 
Ypres-Menin road, just west by north of Gheluvelt. Tlie 
height is indeed insignificant. The highest point at X (on 
Map 1) just beyond the bend in the high road, which the British 
soldiers call " Clapham Junction," overlooks the ruins of 
Gheluvelt by no more than 30 feet, and the plains of 
Flanders beyond by no more than 60 to 70 feet. It is none the 
less the chief observation post of the whole country side 
and it has features of peculiar value to the defensive 
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